Impulse Terms of Use

Contents

• 1. Who provides the service
• 2. What these Terms cover
• 3. Minimum age
• 4. What Impulse is and isn’t
• 5. Your account
• 6. Other people’s email addresses
• 7. Challenges
• 8. Content and conduct rules
• 9. Moderation
• 10. Your data
• 11. Intellectual property
• 12. Third-party services
• 13. Availability and changes
• 14. Warranties and liability
• 15. Termination
• 16. Governing law and courts
• 17. Other terms
• 18. Contact

1. Who provides the service

Impulse (the “app” or the “service”) is provided by:

• Provider: Pablo Granados, operating as “Impulse”
• Tax ID (NIF): 76659189M
• Address: Calle Profesor Sainz Cantero, 2, Granada (Spain)
• Contact email: hello@impulsecontrolapp.com
• Website: https://impulsecontrolapp.com

In these Terms, “we” means the provider and “you” means the person using Impulse.

2. What these Terms cover

2.1 Scope. These Terms govern your use of the Impulse app for iPhone and Android, your account and challenges.

2.2 Privacy. How we handle your personal data is explained in the Privacy Policy, which is a separate document.

2.3 Acceptance. You accept these Terms when you create an account. If you use Impulse without an account, they apply from the moment you start using it. Before you create or join a challenge, the app will ask you to accept them if you haven’t yet, or if the version has changed.

2.4 Changes. We may change these Terms, for example when we add features or the law changes. If a change is significant, we’ll let you know in the app or by email at least 15 days before it applies and, where the law requires it, we’ll ask you to accept it. If you don’t agree, you can stop using Impulse and delete your account. The date of the current version is at the top, and we keep earlier versions on our website.

2.5 Languages. These Terms are available in Spanish and English. If the two ever differ, the Spanish version prevails, unless the law of your country says otherwise.

3. Minimum age

You must be at least 13 to use Impulse. To create an account you must also have reached the age your country sets for consenting to the processing of your data (14 in Spain; up to 16 in other European Union countries). If you haven’t, you need permission from a parent or legal guardian, who accepts these Terms on your behalf.

If we learn that an account belongs to someone who doesn’t meet these requirements, we may close it.

4. What Impulse is and isn’t

4.1 What it does. Impulse helps you use your phone less with rules you choose: routines that block apps and websites at set times, usage limits and focus modes. Each rule has a difficulty (Basic, Medium, Hard or NFC card) that sets how hard it is to turn it off early.

4.2 It’s voluntary. You decide what to block, when, and with what difficulty. Only use Impulse on your own devices, or on someone else’s with their explicit permission. Impulse is not a parental-control or monitoring app.

4.3 It’s not a health service. Impulse doesn’t diagnose or treat any addiction or disorder, and nothing in the app is medical or psychological advice. If you think your relationship with your phone is harming you, talk to a health professional.

4.4 It depends on the operating system. Blocking works through Apple’s Screen Time on iPhone and through Android’s app-usage and accessibility permissions. This means:

• a rule may not start, may start late or may stop working because of a system update, a restart, battery saving, a system fault or a permission being removed;
• the system itself lets you get around a block, for example by removing the Screen Time permission in Settings or by deleting the app;
• we can’t guarantee that a rule will always block, or that it will do so at the exact time.

4.5 Choose carefully what you block. A Hard or card rule may stop you from opening an app right when you need it. Don’t block apps you might need in an emergency or for your health, safety or work.

4.6 It’s free. Impulse is free and has no in-app purchases. NFC cards and other physical products are sold separately, on our website or in third-party shops, under their own terms of sale. If we ever add paid features, we’ll explain their terms before you pay.

5. Your account

5.1 Without an account. When you first open Impulse, an anonymous identifier with no email is created, which lets you browse and report public challenges. Your rules live on your phone.

5.2 With an account. To create or join a challenge, and for some other features, you need an account: your email, which you confirm with a code, and a password. When you create it, your anonymous identifier becomes your account and you keep what you already had.

5.3 Your responsibilities. Use an email address that is yours. Keep your password safe and don’t share it. You are responsible for what is done with your account; if you think someone is using it without your permission, write to us. Each account belongs to one person, and you may not create accounts to get around a suspension.

5.4 Signing out. If you sign out, that phone starts again with a new anonymous identifier. Your account and your challenges are still there, and you get them back when you sign in.

5.5 Deleting your account. You can delete it in Settings › Account › Delete my account, or by asking us by email. When you delete it:

• we delete your account and its associated data from our servers (your email, your challenge memberships, your streak, your missed days, your reports and everything else described in the Privacy Policy), except what the law requires us to keep;
• the challenges you created are deleted for everyone who joined them;
• you no longer appear on leaderboards.

Your personal rules are stored on your phone: if you want them gone, delete them in the app. Before you delete your account, the app explains what happens to the rules of your challenges.

6. Other people’s email addresses

Some features send a code to an email address you choose, so that turning a rule off early, or changing your rules and your protection settings, depends on someone else. This is the case for the trusted person (called “Turn-off code” in earlier versions of the app) and for the Hard difficulty. If you enter someone else’s email address:

• they must know about it and agree beforehand;
• they will get an email from us each time you ask for a code; the trusted person’s emails show your account’s email address, so they know who is asking;
• we are not responsible for whether or when they reply.

If you create a challenge with a Hard rule, the email address you enter will also receive the codes requested by people who join the challenge to turn that rule off early.

Don’t use these features to send emails to people who don’t want them.

7. Challenges

7.1 What a challenge is. A challenge is a shared commitment: a group of people who set out to keep the same rules. You join of your own free will, you set the rules up on your own phone, and you can leave the challenge whenever you want from the app. The person who creates a challenge has no access to your phone and can’t see which apps you use.

7.2 Public and private. A public challenge appears in Discover. Anyone with an account can join it without a code, and anyone who opens it, even without an account, can see its name, description, rules and leaderboard. Only people with the code or link can join a private challenge, and only its members can see its leaderboard.

7.3 What others see. The other people in a challenge see your leaderboard name, your streak, the percentage of days you kept to the rules over the last 30 days, and whether the rules are set up on your phone (for example, “setup incomplete”). They never see which apps you use or how much time you spend on them. If you don’t want to be recognised, pick a name that doesn’t identify you.

7.4 How your progress is counted. Your streak and the days you kept to the rules come from what your phone records. Pausing or skipping a challenge rule counts as a missed day. Impulse can’t check that you kept to the rules: the leaderboard works on trust, and manipulating it breaks these rules (section 8.3).

7.5 If you create a challenge. You are responsible for its name, its description, the names of its rules and the apps or websites you list, and for all of it following the rules in section 8. You can add or remove rules: the changes reach the people who joined when they open the app, and if a new rule needs them to pick apps, they set it up themselves. If you delete the challenge, it closes for everyone. Anyone can report a public challenge.

7.6 Official and featured challenges. We create some challenges ourselves. We may also mark a challenge as “Featured” in Discover. Featuring someone else’s challenge doesn’t mean we endorse it or have reviewed its content.

7.7 Leaving a challenge. You can leave a challenge whenever you want. When you leave, you disappear from its leaderboard and stop sharing your progress. Before you leave, the app explains what happens to the challenge’s rules on your phone.

8. Content and conduct rules

8.1 What user content is. Everything you write in Impulse that other people can see: a challenge’s name and description, the names of its rules, the apps and websites you list and your leaderboard name. Also anything you write when reporting.

8.2 Zero tolerance. You may not post content that:

• promotes hatred of, or discrimination against, people based on origin, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age or any other characteristic;
• harasses, insults, threatens, humiliates or intimidates anyone, or reveals someone else’s personal information (such as their full name, address, phone number or photos);
• is sexual or pornographic, or sexualises minors in any way;
• shows or encourages violence, self-harm, suicide, eating disorders or dangerous challenges, such as not eating or not sleeping;
• promotes illegal activities, drugs, weapons or gambling;
• is spam, advertising, promotions, commercial links, scams or chain messages;
• impersonates another person, a brand or Impulse, for example by posing as an official challenge;
• infringes copyright, trademarks or other third-party rights;
• gives misleading or dangerous health information;
• is unlawful for any other reason.

8.3 Conduct. You also may not:

• use Impulse on someone else’s device without their permission, or to watch over or control them;
• report content you know follows the rules, or coordinate with others to get a challenge taken down;
• manipulate leaderboards or streaks, for example with fake accounts or by modifying the app;
• create accounts in bulk or automatically, or scrape data from the app or our servers;
• access our systems without permission, test their security without authorisation, overload them, or copy, decompile or modify the app beyond what the law allows;
• use the email features to bother anyone;
• create a new account to get around a suspension.

9. Moderation

9.1 How to report.

• In the app: open the challenge, tap ⋯ › “Hide or report” and choose the reason (inappropriate content, spam or advertising, harassment, or other reason). You can report even without an account.
• By email: anyone, whether or not they use Impulse, can tell us about content that is unlawful or breaks these rules at hello@impulsecontrolapp.com. Tell us the challenge (its name or link), which content and why you are reporting it. This is also how to report a leaderboard name.

9.2 What happens when you report.

• The challenge disappears from your Discover straight away.
• If three different people report it, it is automatically hidden for everyone while we review it.
• We review every report within 24 hours of receiving it.
• If the content breaks these rules or the law, we remove it and act against the person who posted it (section 9.4). If it doesn’t, we show it again.

9.3 Hiding a challenge or blocking the person who created it. “Hide this challenge” removes it from your Discover on all your devices. “Block the person who created it” means you stop seeing all their public challenges and their name on leaderboards; you can undo it in Settings › Blocked people. In both cases, nobody else is told.

9.4 What we can do. If content or conduct breaks these Terms or the law, depending on how serious it is and whether it is repeated, we can:

• remove or hide the content;
• replace your leaderboard name with a generic one;
• remove you from a challenge;
• suspend your account temporarily or permanently and stop you from creating another.

We can do this without notice when the content is clearly unlawful or puts someone at risk. We don’t review all content before it is published, but an automatic filter stops certain words from being posted in a challenge’s name and description and in leaderboard names.

9.5 We tell you why. If we remove your content or suspend your account, we’ll tell you by email at your account address, with the reason, unless the law prevents it or it is mass spam. If you disagree, reply to that email or write to us within 6 months and a person will review it.

9.6 Serious unlawful content. If we suspect that a crime threatening someone’s life or safety has been or will be committed, we may inform the authorities and keep the data needed to do so.

9.7 Responsibility for content. Each person is responsible for the content they post. When we learn that something is unlawful or breaks these rules, we act promptly to remove it.

10. Your data

• Your usage data stays on your phone. On iPhone, Screen Time data cannot leave the device because Apple designed it that way. On Android, app-usage data is processed on your phone and we don’t upload it to our servers.
• What reaches our servers is what your account and challenges need: your email, your leaderboard name, your streak, your missed days, whether a challenge’s rules are set up on your phone, the content of the challenges you create, your reports and the email address you choose for receiving codes (section 6). Never which apps you use or how much time you spend on them.
• Providers. We use providers to host data, send emails and measure app usage statistically. The details, your rights and how to exercise them are in the Privacy Policy.

11. Intellectual property

11.1 Ours. The app, its design, text, logos and the Impulse brand belong to us or to those who have licensed them to us. We give you a personal, free, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable licence to use the app on devices you control, for personal and non-commercial use, in line with these Terms and the rules of the store you downloaded it from.

11.2 Yours. The content you post remains yours. So that challenges can work, you give us a free, non-exclusive, worldwide permission to host, copy, display it within Impulse (including as “Featured”), adapt it to the app’s format, translate and moderate it. The permission lasts while the content is published and for as long afterwards as backups and legal obligations require. You confirm that you have the right to post what you post.

11.3 Ideas and suggestions. If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them without any obligation to you.

12. Third-party services

Impulse relies on Apple and Google features and is downloaded from their stores. Their terms apply to those services and we are not responsible for them. The app also links to third-party websites, such as the Chrome Web Store or shops that sell cards, which have their own terms.

12.1 If you downloaded Impulse from the App Store.

• These Terms are an agreement between you and us, not Apple. We, not Apple, are responsible for the app and its content.
• The licence in section 11.1 lets you use the app on Apple-branded products that you own or control, as permitted by the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions. Other accounts associated with the purchaser through Family Sharing may also use it.
• Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app.
• If the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price you paid for it, if any. To the extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation for the app.
• We, not Apple, handle any claims relating to the app: product liability, failure to meet legal or regulatory requirements, consumer protection or privacy claims, or claims that the app infringes third-party intellectual property rights.
• You confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a US Government embargo, and that you are not on any US Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• For questions or complaints about the app, contact us (section 18).
• You must comply with any applicable third-party terms when using the app, such as your wireless data provider’s.
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and, once you accept them, may enforce them against you.

12.2 If you downloaded Impulse from Google Play. These Terms are an agreement between you and us, not Google, and we are not responsible for Google’s services.

13. Availability and changes to the service

We try to keep Impulse running at all times, but we may interrupt it for maintenance, because of faults or for reasons outside our control. We may change, add or remove features (including public challenges), and we may stop offering Impulse. If we close the service or a feature that depends on your account, we’ll give you reasonable notice, of at least 30 days where possible.

Unless the app offers you a backup, your personal rules exist only on your phone: if you change phones or delete the app, they can’t be recovered.

14. Warranties and liability

14.1 Impulse is free and provided as is and as available, with no warranties beyond those required by law.

14.2 To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for:

• a rule not blocking, blocking late or stopping working for system reasons (section 4.4);
• anything you miss or lose because a rule you set up stopped you from opening an app;
• content posted by other people, or their conduct;
• emails that don’t arrive or arrive late;
• loss of data that was only stored on your phone;
• indirect damages, such as loss of profit.

14.3 Nothing in these Terms limits our liability for wilful misconduct or gross negligence, or for death or personal injury, or the rights you have under the consumer law of your country.

15. Termination

• You can stop using Impulse and delete your account at any time (section 5.5).
• We may suspend or close your account in the cases in section 9.4, when the law requires us to, or if we close the service (section 13).
• When the agreement ends, your licence to use the app ends and we may delete your content. Sections that by their nature should survive remain in force: 11.2 for the period it states, 14 and 16.

16. Governing law and courts

16.1 These Terms are governed by Spanish law. If you are a consumer living in another European Union country, you keep the protection of the mandatory rules of your country’s law.

16.2 If you are a consumer, you can bring proceedings in the courts where you live. If you are not, the courts of Granada (Spain) have jurisdiction.

16.3 Before going to court, write to us and we’ll try to sort it out.

17. Other terms

• If any part of these Terms is invalid, the rest remains in force.
• If we don’t enforce a term at some point, that doesn’t mean we waive it.
• We may transfer this agreement to another entity that takes over Impulse, after notifying you. You may not transfer your account.
• These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and us about Impulse.

18. Contact

• Email: hello@impulsecontrolapp.com
• In the app: Settings › Write to the team
• Post: Pablo Granados, Calle Profesor Sainz Cantero, 2, Granada (Spain)