1. Agreeing to these terms
These terms are an agreement between you and Avera Vault ("we", "us") about your use of the Avera Vault app and this website. By installing or using Avera Vault you accept them. If you do not accept them, do not use the app.
The Privacy Policy is part of this agreement and explains what information is involved.
2. What Avera Vault is
Avera Vault is an app that keeps photos, videos, files, contacts and notes in encrypted storage on your own phone, unlocked by a passcode you choose. Optionally, it can hold one encrypted backup of that vault so you can restore it on another phone.
Avera Vault is a privacy tool, not a storage service. Its purpose is to keep private things private on the device you already own. It is not a cloud drive, it is not a file-sharing service, and it is not a system of record for anything you cannot afford to lose.
To add things from your phone, Avera Vault may ask for access to your photos, videos, files or contacts. Granting any of these is your choice and none is a condition of using the app: if you decline, the vault still works and only the feature that needs that access is unavailable until you allow it. Avera Vault asks again when you use such a feature, and you can change your answer at any time in your phone's settings. The Privacy Policy explains exactly how each permission is used.
3. Who may use Avera Vault
You must be at least 13, or older if your country requires it, and able to enter into a binding agreement. If you are using Avera Vault on behalf of an organisation, you confirm you are allowed to accept these terms for it.
You are responsible for using Avera Vault lawfully where you are. Some countries restrict the use of encryption tools; checking that is your responsibility, not ours.
4. Your passcode, and the no-recovery rule
Your passcode is not a password we check. It is the thing that produces the key to your data. We do not store it, we cannot look it up, and we cannot reset it.
If you forget your passcode, your data is gone
This applies to the vault on your phone and to any backup you have made. There is no recovery email, no security question, no support override and no technical workaround. Nobody — including us — can open your vault without your passcode.
By using Avera Vault you accept that responsibility. Keep your passcode somewhere you will still have access to if your phone is lost. Also keep it to yourself: anyone who has both your unlocked phone and your passcode has your vault.
Biometric unlock, if you turn it on, is a convenience layered on top of your passcode. It never replaces it, and turning it off never locks you out.
5. Your account
An account is optional. Avera Vault works fully without one; the vault simply stays on the single device.
If you create one, you sign in with Apple or Google and give a phone number so the backup can be identified. The phone number is not verified and is not used to contact you. You are responsible for keeping the Apple or Google account you signed in with secure, since whoever controls it can find your backup — although, as section 4 explains, they still cannot open it without your passcode.
One account holds one backup. Uploading a new one replaces the previous one.
You can delete your account from inside the app at any time. What happens then is set out on the Delete Account page and in section 12.
6. Your content
What you put in your vault is yours. We claim no ownership of it and no licence to use it — which would be meaningless in any case, since we cannot read it.
You are responsible for having the right to store what you store. Do not put anything in Avera Vault that it is illegal for you to possess. In particular, Avera Vault must not be used to store material that sexually exploits children, or content that is unlawful to hold in your jurisdiction.
We cannot inspect vault contents and therefore cannot police them. That is deliberate, and it makes this obligation yours rather than ours. It does not make illegal content acceptable, and it does not shield you from the law.
7. What we promise about backups
When you back up, we store the sealed container your phone produced and give it back when you ask. We will make reasonable efforts to keep it safe and available.
What we cannot promise:
- That a backup will always be available, or will complete on any particular network.
- That a backup will survive events outside our control.
- That we can recover a backup you deleted after the retention period described in section 12 has passed.
- That we can help you open a backup you no longer have the passcode for. We cannot, at all, under any circumstances.
Treat the backup as insurance against losing your phone — not as the only copy of anything that matters to you.
8. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- Use Avera Vault to store or distribute content that is unlawful for you to possess.
- Use another person's account, or try to access a backup that is not yours.
- Attack, overload, or interfere with the service, or attempt to gain access to parts of it you have not been given.
- Upload data that is not a genuine Avera Vault backup, or use the backup feature as general-purpose file hosting.
- Reverse engineer the app except where the law expressly allows it, or remove security features from it.
- Resell, sublicense or redistribute the app.
Independent security research carried out in good faith is welcome. Tell us what you find at support@averavault.app before disclosing it publicly, and do not access or damage other people's data while doing it.
9. Price
Avera Vault is currently provided free of charge. If paid features are introduced later, you will be told clearly what costs money before anything is charged, and the features you already have will not be taken away without notice. Purchases made through an app store are also governed by that store's own payment and refund rules.
10. App stores
If you installed Avera Vault from the App Store or Google Play, that store's terms apply to the download alongside these terms. Apple and Google are not parties to this agreement and are not responsible for Avera Vault, its content, or supporting it. Apple is, however, entitled to enforce these terms against you as a third-party beneficiary where its rules require that.
11. Availability and changes
We may update the app, change how features work, or stop offering a feature. Where a change would meaningfully reduce what you can do with Avera Vault, we will give reasonable notice in the app so you can back up or export first.
If we ever discontinue the service entirely, we will give notice and a reasonable period to retrieve any backup you hold with us. Your vault is on your phone and keeps working regardless.
12. Ending the agreement
By you
Stop using Avera Vault whenever you like. Deleting your account removes your account record and backup from our side; deleting the app removes the vault from your phone. Both are final in the way section 4 describes.
When you delete your account, it and its backup are kept for 30 days and then permanently erased. During that window you can restore the account by signing in again; after it, nothing remains to restore. Details.
By us
We may suspend or close an account that is being used to attack the service, to store material that is unlawful to possess, or in serious breach of section 8. Where it is possible and lawful to do so, we will tell you first and give you a chance to respond.
Closing your account never touches the vault on your phone. We have no way to reach it.
13. Disclaimers
Avera Vault is provided as it is. To the extent the law allows, we make no warranties that the app will be uninterrupted, error-free, or fit for a particular purpose, and no warranty that it will prevent every possible form of access to your device by someone else.
Encryption protects data at rest on your phone. It cannot protect you from a compromised device, malware, a phone you have already unlocked and handed over, or someone who knows your passcode. Nor can it protect the copies of your photos and files that still exist outside Avera Vault.
Nothing here removes rights you have as a consumer under the law of your country that cannot be excluded by agreement.
14. Limitation of liability
To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of data, profit or opportunity arising from your use of Avera Vault — including data made unreadable by a forgotten passcode, which we have described as plainly as we can in section 4.
Where liability cannot be excluded, it is limited to the amount you paid us for Avera Vault in the twelve months before the claim, or, where you paid nothing, to a nominal amount.
We do not exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded.
15. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. The date at the top of this page shows when they last changed, and material changes will be announced in the app before they take effect. Continuing to use Avera Vault after that means you accept the updated terms; if you do not, you can delete your account and stop using the app.
16. Governing law and disputes
These terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which Avera Vault is established, and disputes will be handled by the courts there. If you are a consumer, this does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory laws of the country you live in, and you may also be entitled to bring proceedings in your own local courts.
Before starting a formal dispute, please write to legal@averavault.app so we can try to sort it out directly.
If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.
17. Contact
Legal notices: legal@averavault.app.
Everything else: support@averavault.app, or the
Support page.