CipherOS Legal

"CipherOS" and "the Software" mean the CipherOS operating system, its system applications, its build tooling, and the compiled images distributed by the CipherOS Project. "The Project" means The CipherOS Project and the individuals who maintain it. "Directors" means the directors of The CipherOS Project, being Aryan Sinha and Alibei, as listed on our public About page. "Project Code" means source code authored by or on behalf of The CipherOS Project. It does not include code inherited from the Android Open Source Project or from other upstream projects, which remains governed by the licence under which that code was received. "You" means the individual or legal entity exercising the permissions described in this document.

All information, source code, and compiled files distributed as part of CipherOS are provided on an "as is" basis, without warranty of any kind. The Project makes no guarantees, express or implied, regarding fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, or non-infringement. By installing, flashing, building, or otherwise using CipherOS, you accept all associated risks. These include, without limitation, data loss, hardware damage, rendering a device inoperable, loss of business profits, and loss of warranty coverage. Modifying system software or hardware may void warranties extended by your device manufacturer. Back up your data before flashing.

The complete CipherOS source tree is published at https://github.com/CipherOS and may be read by anyone. 3.1 Permitted without prior permission You may clone, copy, fork, compile, modify, and study the Project Code for your own personal use, for evaluation, for testing, for security research, and for academic purposes. You may build CipherOS for your own devices and share your findings. 3.2 Requires prior written permission You may not incorporate the Project Code, in whole or in part, into a commercial product, a commercial service, or any other distributed project without prior written permission. Permission must be granted in writing by no fewer than two Directors of The CipherOS Project. This applies whether or not a fee is charged for the resulting product. Activities that require written permission include, without limitation: shipping CipherOS or any derivative as the factory operating system on hardware you sell; redistributing CipherOS or any derivative under a different name; bundling the Project Code into another distribution, ROM, or software product; and offering paid services built on the Project Code. 3.3 Requesting permission Requests should be sent to [email protected] and should identify the requesting party, the Project Code involved, and the intended use. Commercial licensing enquiries are welcome and are handled through our enterprise programme. 3.4 Relationship to upstream licences Code inherited from the Android Open Source Project and from other upstream projects remains licensed under its own terms, including the Apache Licence 2.0 and the GNU General Public Licence version 2. Nothing in this section restricts, or purports to restrict, any right you hold under those upstream licences. Section 3.2 applies only to Project Code and to the CipherOS name, marks, and official builds.

The CipherOS name, the CipherOS logo, the Cipher application names, and the Seamless Aqua Design identity are marks of The CipherOS Project. Your rights to the Project Code do not grant you any right to use these marks. You may state accurately that your work is based on or derived from CipherOS. You may not name your distribution CipherOS, present it as an official CipherOS build, or use our marks in a way that suggests endorsement, affiliation, or origin, without prior written permission from two Directors.

Certain images, logos, trademarks, and creative works referenced in CipherOS communications belong to organisations other than The CipherOS Project. These remain the property of their respective owners and are protected under the laws of their registered jurisdictions. Our use of such materials constitutes fair use under section 107 of the United States Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. section 107) and equivalent provisions in other jurisdictions. Any use beyond fair use requires permission from the respective rights holder. Requests for removal of copyrighted material may be sent to [email protected] and will be honoured promptly. Android is a trademark of Google LLC. The CipherOS Project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google LLC.

6.1 Our position CipherOS does not process personal data. There is no account system, no profile, no identifier assigned to you, and no mechanism in the operating system by which your activity can be reported to us or to anyone else. We hold no personal data about you because we never receive any. 6.2 What the operating system does not do The operating system does not collect, transmit, store, or process personal data, telemetry, diagnostics, crash reports, usage statistics, location data, advertising identifiers, behavioural data, or device identifiers such as IMEI numbers, serial numbers, or MAC addresses. No analytics software development kit is linked into any CipherOS system application. No advertising framework is present in the operating system. No component of CipherOS reports to a CipherOS server during normal use. 6.3 What we never do We do not sell, licence, rent, share, or otherwise monetise personal data, because we do not hold any. We do not place advertisements anywhere in the operating system. We do not bundle tracking libraries with our system applications. We do not require an account, a sign in, or a registration to install or use CipherOS. We do not build profiles of users, devices, or installations. We do not operate any process that would allow us to identify an individual user. 6.4 Update checks When your device checks for an over the air update, it contacts our update service to determine whether a newer build exists for your device model. That request carries only the device codename and the currently installed build version. It carries no account, no persistent identifier, and no personal data, and it cannot be linked by us to an individual or to a specific device. Aggregate request counts may be retained for capacity planning. Update checks can be disabled in Settings, and CipherOS remains fully functional with them disabled. 6.5 Data processed by third parties CipherOS is an aftermarket operating system. Once it is installed, you may choose to use third party applications and services, including Google Mobile Services on builds that include them. Any data those parties collect is governed by their own policies and not by this one. We have no control over, and accept no responsibility for, third party data practices. 6.6 Your rights Data protection law gives you rights of access, rectification, portability, erasure, restriction, and objection in respect of personal data held about you. Because we hold no personal data about you, there is nothing for us to disclose, correct, export, restrict, or delete. Your data remains on your device, under your control. 6.7 Changes and contact Material changes to this policy will be published on this page with a revised date. Privacy enquiries may be sent to [email protected].

CipherOS is, and will remain, a free and open source operating system. The complete source tree is published at https://github.com/CipherOS and every change we make is auditable through our public commit history. We commit to the following: CipherOS will always be free of charge to end users. There are no paid tiers, premium features, subscriptions, or hidden costs. CipherOS will never contain advertisements, in system applications, in the launcher, in Settings, or anywhere else in the operating system. CipherOS will never include telemetry, analytics, or data collection mechanisms. Our source will remain public and readable by anyone, subject to the terms in section 3.

This document, together with the Software Licence Agreement below, sets out the terms on which CipherOS is made available. If any provision is held to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect. For any legal question, contact [email protected].

This Software Licence Agreement (the "Agreement") is a legal agreement between you, whether an individual or a single entity, and The CipherOS Project. By installing, copying, flashing, building, or otherwise using the Software, you agree to be bound by this Agreement. If you do not agree to these terms, do not install or use the Software.

Subject to section 2, The CipherOS Project grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty free licence to install, run, study, modify, and build the Software for your own personal use, for evaluation, for testing, for security research, and for academic purposes. Code inherited from the Android Open Source Project and other upstream projects is licensed to you under its own terms, including the Apache Licence 2.0 and the GNU General Public Licence version 2. This Agreement does not reduce any right granted to you under those licences.

You may not use the Project Code, as defined in section 1 of the legal terms above, in a commercial product, a commercial service, or any other distributed project without prior written permission signed by no fewer than two Directors of The CipherOS Project. Permission is granted in writing, is specific to the use described in the request, and may be made subject to conditions. Requests should be sent to [email protected].

This Agreement grants no right to use the CipherOS name, logo, application names, or design identity. Use of those marks requires separate written permission as set out in section 4 of the legal terms above.

This Agreement is effective until terminated. You may terminate it at any time by destroying all copies of the Software in your possession. It terminates automatically if you fail to comply with any of its terms. On termination you must cease use of, and destroy all copies of, the Software, save for any rights that continue under an applicable upstream open source licence.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE CIPHEROS PROJECT DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE CIPHEROS PROJECT SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, WHETHER DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

This Agreement, together with the legal terms set out above, constitutes the entire agreement between you and The CipherOS Project relating to the Software, and supersedes any prior agreement, whether oral or written.

No waiver of any term or condition shall be deemed a continuing waiver. A failure to enforce any provision does not constitute a waiver of future enforcement of that provision or of any other provision.

If any provision of this Agreement is found to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.