Terms of Use

Last modified: Jan 21, 2022

The OpusChat System (herein “OpusChat”, “System”, “Our System”) provided by yyResearch Limited (herein “our”, “we”, or “us”), is an information sharing system in the form of text messages, photos, videos, documents, voice calls, video calls, etc. Please read our Terms of Service so you understand our policies and guidelines. You agree to our Terms of Service (“Terms”) by installing, accessing, or using our apps, services, features, software, or website (together, “Services”).

NO ACCESS TO EMERGENCY SERVICES: There are important differences between OpusChat and your mobile and fixed-line telephone and SMS services. Our Services do not provide access to emergency services or emergency services providers, including the police, fire departments, or hospitals, or otherwise connect to public safety answering points. You should ensure you can contact your relevant emergency services providers through a mobile, fixed-line telephone, or other service.

About our services

Registration. You must register for our Services using accurate data.

Age. You must be at least 13 years old to use our Services (or such greater age required in your country for you to be authorized to use our Services without parental approval). In addition to being of the minimum required age to use our Services under applicable law, if you are not old enough to have authority to agree to our Terms in your country, your parent or guardian must agree to our Terms on your behalf.

Devices and Software. You must provide certain devices, software, and data connections to use our Services, which we otherwise do not supply. For as long as you use our Services, you consent to downloading and installing updates to our Services, including automatically.

Fees and Taxes. You are responsible for all carrier data plan and other fees and taxes associated with your use of our Services. We may charge you for our Services, including applicable taxes. We may refuse or cancel orders. We do not provide refunds for our Services, except as required by law.

Privacy policy and user data

We care about your privacy. OpusChat’s Privacy Policy describes our information (including message) practices, including the types of information we receive and collect from you and how we use and share this information. You agree to our data practices, including the collection, use, processing, and sharing of your information as described in our Privacy Policy, as well as the transfer and processing of your information to countries globally where we have or use facilities, service providers, or partners, regardless of where you use our Services. You acknowledge that the laws, regulations, and standards of the country in which your information is stored or processed may be different from those of your own country.

Acceptable use of our services

Our Terms and Policies. You must use our Services according to our Terms and posted policies. If we disable your account for a violation of our Terms, you will not create another account without our permission.

Legal and Acceptable Use. You must access and use our Services only for legal, authorized, and acceptable purposes. You will not use (or assist others in using) our Services in ways that: (a) violate, misappropriate, or infringe the rights of OpusChat or yyResearch, our users, or others, including privacy, publicity, intellectual property, or other proprietary rights; (b) are illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, intimidating, harassing, hateful, racially, or ethnically offensive, or instigate or encourage conduct that would be illegal, or otherwise inappropriate, including promoting violent crimes; (c) involve publishing falsehoods, misrepresentations, or misleading statements; (d) impersonate someone; (e) involve sending illegal or impermissible communications such as bulk messaging, auto-messaging, auto-dialing, and the like; or (f) involve any non-personal use of our Services unless otherwise authorized by us.

Harm to OpusChat or Our Users. You must not (or assist others to) access, use, copy, adapt, modify, prepare derivative works based upon, distribute, license, sublicense, transfer, display, perform, or otherwise exploit our Services in impermissible or unauthorized manners, or in ways that burden, impair, or harm us, our Services, systems, our users, or others, including that you must not directly or through automated means: (a) reverse engineer, alter, modify, create derivative works from, decompile, or extract code from our Services; (b) send, store, or transmit viruses or other harmful computer code through or onto our Services; (c) gain or attempt to gain unauthorized access to our Services or systems; (d) interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of our Services; (e) create accounts for our Services through unauthorized or automated means; (f) collect the information of or about our users in any impermissible or unauthorized manner; (g) sell, resell, rent, or charge for our Services; or (h) distribute or make our Services available over a network where they could be used by multiple devices at the same time.

Keeping Your Account Secure. You are responsible for keeping your device and your OpusChat account safe and secure, and you must notify us promptly of any unauthorized use or security breach of your account or our Services.

Third-party services

Our Services may allow you to access, use, or interact with third-party websites, apps, content, and other products and services. For example, you may choose to use third-party data backup services (such as iCloud or Google Drive) that are integrated with our Services or interact with a share button on a third party’s website that enables you to send information to your OpusChat contacts. Please note that when you use third-party services, their own terms and privacy policies will govern your use of those services.

Licenses

Your Rights. yyResearch does not claim ownership of the information that you submit for your OpusChat account or through our Services. You must have the necessary rights to such information that you submit for your OpusChat account or through our Services and the right to grant the rights and licenses in our Terms.

yyResearch’s Rights. We own all copyrights, trademarks, domains, logos, trade dress, trade secrets, patents, and other intellectual property rights associated with our Services. You may not use our copyrights, trademarks, domains, logos, trade dress, patents, and other intellectual property rights unless you have our express permission.

Your License to yyResearch. In order to operate and provide our Services, you grant yyResearch a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works of, display, and perform the information (including the content) that you upload, submit, store, send, or receive on or through our Services. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating and providing our Services (such as to allow us to display your profile picture and introduction message, transmit your messages, store your undelivered messages on our servers for up to 30 days as we try to deliver them, and otherwise as described in our Privacy Policy).

yyResearch’s License to You. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, and non-transferable license to use our Services, subject to and in accordance with our Terms. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling you to use our Services, in the manner permitted by our Terms. No licenses or rights are granted to you by implication or otherwise, except for the licenses and rights expressly granted to you.

Reporting third-party copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property infringement

To report claims of third-party copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property infringement, please contact us at legal@yyresearch.com. We may terminate your OpusChat account if you repeatedly infringe the intellectual property rights of others.

Disclaimers

YOU USE OUR SERVICES AT YOUR OWN RISK AND SUBJECT TO THE FOLLOWING DISCLAIMERS. WE ARE PROVIDING OUR SERVICES ON AN “AS IS” BASIS WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND FREEDOM FROM COMPUTER VIRUS OR OTHER HARMFUL CODE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED BY US IS ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR USEFUL, THAT OUR SERVICES WILL BE OPERATIONAL, ERROR FREE, SECURE, OR SAFE, OR THAT OUR SERVICES WILL FUNCTION WITHOUT DISRUPTIONS, DELAYS, OR IMPERFECTIONS. WE DO NOT CONTROL, AND ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR, CONTROLLING HOW OR WHEN OUR USERS USE OUR SERVICES OR THE FEATURES, SERVICES, AND INTERFACES OUR SERVICES PROVIDE. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR AND ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO CONTROL THE ACTIONS OR INFORMATION (INCLUDING CONTENT) OF OUR USERS OR OTHER THIRD PARTIES. YOU RELEASE US, OUR SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, AND OUR AND THEIR DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, PARTNERS, AND AGENTS (TOGETHER, THE “YYRESEARCH PARTIES”) FROM ANY CLAIM, COMPLAINT, CAUSE OF ACTION, CONTROVERSY, OR DISPUTE (TOGETHER, “CLAIM”) AND DAMAGES, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN, RELATING TO, ARISING OUT OF, OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH ANY SUCH CLAIM YOU HAVE AGAINST ANY THIRD PARTIES.

Limitation of liability

THE YYRESEARCH PARTIES WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, INDIRECT, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES RELATING TO, ARISING OUT OF, OR IN ANY WAY IN CONNECTION WITH OUR TERMS, US, OR OUR SERVICES, EVEN IF THE YYRESEARCH PARTIES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY RELATING TO, ARISING OUT OF, OR IN ANY WAY IN CONNECTION WITH OUR TERMS, US, OR OUR SERVICES WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100) OR THE AMOUNT YOU HAVE PAID US IN THE PAST TWELVE MONTHS. THE FOREGOING DISCLAIMER OF CERTAIN DAMAGES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY WILL APPLY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. THE LAWS OF SOME STATES OR JURISDICTIONS MAY NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES, SO SOME OR ALL OF THE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS SET FORTH ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY IN OUR TERMS, IN SUCH CASES, THE LIABILITY OF THE YYRESEARCH PARTIES WILL BE LIMITED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the yyResearch Parties from and against all liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses of any kind (including reasonable legal fees and costs) relating to, arising out of, or in any way in connection with any of the following: (a) your access to or use of our Services, including information provided in connection therewith; (b) your breach or alleged breach of our Terms; or (c) any misrepresentation made by you. You will cooperate as fully as required by us in the defense or settlement of any Claim.

Governing Law and Dispute resolution

Except to the extent that: (i) any applicable additional terms incorporated into these Terms provide differently, or (ii) the applicable laws and regulations of your jurisdiction mandate otherwise (for example, you may have statutory rights in your jurisdiction in relation to bringing or defending claims in a local court (including small claims court)):

  • these Terms and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms will be governed by the law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; and
  • any dispute, controversy or claim (whether in contract, tort or otherwise) arising out of, relating to, or in connection with these Terms, including their existence, validity, interpretation, performance, breach or termination, will be referred to and finally resolved by arbitration administered by the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre under the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre Administered Arbitration Rules in force when the Notice of Arbitration is submitted. The seat of the arbitration will be Hong Kong. There will be one arbitrator only. The arbitration proceedings will be conducted in English.

USA-SPECIFIC TERMS

If you are a user of OpusChat in the United States of America, the below terms are incorporated into these Terms, and override these Terms to the extent of any inconsistency.

If you are a California resident, you agree to waive California Civil Code Section 1542, and any similar provision in any other jurisdiction (if you are a resident of such other jurisdiction), which states: "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favour at the time of executing the release, which, if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."

EACH OF THE PARTIES HERETO IRREVOCABLY WAIVES ANY AND ALL RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY OR TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION IN ANY LEGAL PROCEEDING ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE TRANSACTIONS CONTEMPLATED HEREBY.

 

AUSTRALIA-SPECIFIC TERMS

If you are a user of OpusChat in Australia, the below terms are incorporated into these Terms, and override these Terms to the extent of any inconsistency.

All express or implied guarantees, warranties, representations, or other terms and conditions relating to these Terms or their subject matter, not contained in these Terms, are excluded from these Terms to the maximum extent permitted by applicable laws and regulations.

Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, warranty, term or condition, right or remedy implied or imposed by any applicable laws and regulations which cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified.

If any guarantee, condition, warranty or term is implied or imposed by any applicable laws and regulations and cannot be excluded (a _"_ Non-Excludable Provision _"_), and we are able to limit your remedy for a breach of the Non-Excludable Provision, then our liability for breach of the Non-Excludable Provision is limited to one or more of the following at our option:

  • in the case of goods, the replacement of the goods or the supply of equivalent goods, the repair of the goods, the payment of the cost of replacing the goods or of acquiring equivalent goods, or the payment of the cost of having the goods repaired; or
  • in the case of services, the supplying of the services again, or the payment of the cost of having the services supplied again.

 

Availability and termination of our services

Availability of Our Services. Our Services may be interrupted, including for maintenance, repairs, upgrades, or network or equipment failures. We may discontinue some or all of our Services, including certain features and the support for certain devices and platforms, at any time. Events beyond our control may affect our Services, such as events in nature and other force majeure events.

Termination. We may modify, suspend, or terminate your access to or use of our Services anytime for any reason, such as if you violate the letter or spirit of our Terms or create harm, risk, or possible legal exposure for us, our users, or others. The following provisions will survive any termination of your relationship with yyResearch: “Licenses,” “Disclaimers,” “Limitation of Liability,” “Indemnification,” “Governing Law and Dispute Resolution,” “Availability and Termination of our Services,” and “Other”

Other

  • Unless a mutually executed agreement between you and us states otherwise, our Terms make up the entire agreement between you and us regarding yyResearch and our Services, and supersede any prior agreements.
  • We may ask you to agree to additional terms for certain of our Services in the future, which will govern to the extent there is a conflict between our Terms and such additional terms.
  • Our Services are not intended for distribution to or use in any country where such distribution or use would violate local law or would subject us to any regulations in another country. We reserve the right to limit our Services in any country.
  • Our Terms are written in English (U.S.). Any translated version is provided solely for your convenience. To the extent any translated version of our Terms conflicts with the English version, the English version controls.
  • Any amendment to or waiver of our Terms requires our express consent.
  • We may amend or update these Terms. We will provide you notice of amendments to our Terms, as appropriate, and update the “Last Modified” date at the top of our Terms. Your continued use of our Services confirms your acceptance of our Terms, as amended. If you do not agree to our Terms, as amended, you must stop using our Services. Please review our Terms from time to time.
  • All of our rights and obligations under our Terms are freely assignable by us to any of our affiliates or in connection with a merger, acquisition, restructuring, or sale of assets, or by operation of law or otherwise, and we may transfer your information to any of our affiliates, successor entities, or new owner.
  • You will not transfer any of your rights or obligations under our Terms to anyone else without our prior written consent.
  • Nothing in our Terms will prevent us from complying with the law.
  • Except as contemplated herein, our Terms do not give any third-party beneficiary rights.
  • If we fail to enforce any of our Terms, it will not be considered a waiver.
  • If any provision of these Terms is deemed unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from our Terms and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.
  • We reserve all rights not expressly granted by us to you. In certain jurisdictions, you may have legal rights as a consumer, and our Terms are not intended to limit such consumer legal rights that may not be waived by contract.
  • We always appreciate your feedback or other suggestions about yyResearch and our Services, but you understand that we may use your feedback or suggestions without any obligation to compensate you for them (just as you have no obligation to offer them).

 

Accessing OpusChat’s terms in different languages

Our Terms are currently only available in English.

Privacy Policy

Last modified: April 15, 2021

Privacy Policy of the OpusChat System by yyResearch Limited

The OpusChat System (herein the “System”, or “Our System”), provided by yyResearch Limited, is an information sharing system in the form of text messages, photos, videos, documents, voice calls, video calls, etc. When a user uses our service, he/she will share certain information with us. This document highlights our policies and guidelines on how we handle these information, especially regarding the safeguard of user privacy.

The System is divided into two main parts, namely the System Servers which is a centralized group of servers that we host on the Internet, and the User Device Applications which consist of various forms of handheld devices and computers of the users that connect through the Internet to the System Servers.

There are four categories of information that the System will collect and process:

  • User account details
  • User messages
  • Device technical data
  • Usage information

The following explains how these information are defined and processed by the System.

  1. User account details

To become a user of our service, a person must register a user account in our system. He/she will be asked to provide information such as a unique user name, password, email addresses, external account names, for the purpose of, and for the sole purpose of, establishing and authenticating the user’s legitimacy. These information, together with a unique device ID, will be stored on the System Servers. They will not be visible to other users. Information such as profile pictures, names, nick names which will allow other users to search and identify another user, will be shared publicly on the System. Additional information, such as email addresses, phone numbers etc., can be made visible to other users upon the user’s discretionary selection.

External Account Data (E.g. Google, Facebook, Apple)

For account recovery reasons, the user may choose to link one or more external accounts with OpusChat. The System accesses the user ID and access token which are provided by the external provider (e.g. Google, Facebook, Apple) to validate the user. The System, however, only stores the user ID for future account recovery reasons. No other user data is accessed nor stored by the System.

  1. User messages

All information which a user sends through our system to a recipient user(s) will be shared with the recipient user(s).  These information can take the forms of text messages, photos, videos, documents and other formats. Similar to all other kinds of communication, the recipient of such information always has the option to save, record, copy, and redistribute these information within or outside the System. The System Servers will not store any of the messages sent between the users, other than during a temporary storage and forward action when it becomes technically necessary, or on the Occasions defined in Section II, Data Retention Period. After the messages are delivered to the intended recipients or when the messages expire, these messages and data will be permanently deleted from the System Servers through regular system data purging. Data that are stored on the User Devices are considered property of that user and their lifetime are controlled by the user themselves.

  1. Device technical data

In order to enhance our user experience, the System Servers will collect information through the User Device Application on the user hardware. The information include the model of the hardware, the type and version of the operation system, unique application and device identifiers, certain relevant software and capability information such as the web browser, photo display application, video player, storage system and capability, wireless network and mobile network information capability and capacity. These data will be used for the purpose of, and for the sole purpose of, compiling statistical information for us to improve our system and to provide better experiences to our users.

  1. Usage information

The System Servers may collect certain usage information from the user device for the purpose of system monitoring, error detection and tracking, operation and feature improvement.

Examples of such usage information include: IP addresses, date, time, state of the user device connections, network latency, network bandwidth, messages meta data such as date, time, size, type of messages, bandwidth usage, storage usage, etc. Similar to the device technical data, usage information will be used to compile statistical information for us to improve our system. Usage information will not include any actual contents of user messages.

  1. Data Retention Period:

Our system is designed to automatically delete the user account details, messages and usage data when these information become redundant.  There might be occasions (herein, the “Occasions”), however, that we would have to suspend or delay the deletion process or even retain certain information for a prolonged period of time. Such occasions include but are not limited to system maintenance, backup and recovery of the System, law compliance, and legal enforcement requirements.

  • Messages, Media and Attachments

    • OpusChat will store your undelivered messages, media and attachments on our servers for up to 30 days as we try to deliver them. After 30 days, they will be deleted on the System.

  • Account Self-Destruction:

    • If you stop using OpusChat and do not come online for at least 12 months, your account will be deleted on the System.

  • Request Data Deletion:

    • If you would like to delete your account and all associated data, please contact us at support@opuschat.app.

    Accessing OpusChat’s Privacy Policy in different languages

    Our Privacy Policy is currently only available in English.

    Changes to this Privacy Policy

    Changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on this page https://opuschat.app/eula_privacy.php. Please check our website frequently to see any updates or changes to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to our Privacy Policy, you shall stop using our Services.

    Summary of changes:

    January 24, 2020 - Added sections under “Data Retention Period:” to describe OpusChat’s data retention policy on messages and accounts.

    Apr 15, 2021 - Added section named "External Account Data (E.g. Google, Facebook, Apple)" under “User account details” to describe OpusChat’s data usage policy for external accounts.

    Jan 21, 2022 - Added section named "Request Data Deletion" under “Data Retention Period” to describe the process of requesting account and data deletion.

    Contact Us

    For any questions regarding our Terms of Service or Privacy Policy, please contact us.

    yyResearch Limited

    Room 904, C C Wu Building, 302-8 Hennessy Road

    Wan Chai, Hong Kong

    +852 3489 6677

    legal@yyresearch.com