APF Technologies

1. Introduction

This User Agreement, the mobile devices terms, and all policies and additional terms posted on and in our application, website, tools and services (collectively “Services”) set out the terms on which APF Technologies LLC (referred as APF) offer you access to and use of our Services. You agree to comply with all of the terms of this User Agreement when accessing or using our Services.

The entity you are contracting with is: APF Technologies, LLC, 1871 Chicago, 222 West Merchandise Mart Plaza, Suite1212, Chicago, IL 60654. It is referred to as “APF”, “we”, or “us.

Please be advised that this User Agreement contains provisions that govern how claims you and we have against each other are resolved (see Disclaimer of Warranties; Limitation of Liability and Legal Disputes provisions below). It also contains an Agreement to Arbitrate, which will, with limited exception, require you to submit claims you have against us or our agents to binding and final arbitration. With this agreement, (1) you will only be permitted to pursue claims against us or our agents on an individual basis, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class or representative action or proceeding and (2) you will only be permitted to seek relief (including monetary, injunctive, and declaratory relief) on an individual basis.

2. About APF

APF is a Software as A Service provider that allows user to protect their digital file through creating a protected version of the file they own. The APF protected files are encrypted, and can restrict other users to access the content of the protected files when they were accessed through APF applications. The actual files, in its original format and/or in encrypted format through APF application, are in sole control of the user and are not in the possession of APF. APF manages only the right to access to the protected file through permission policies defined by the user who owns the protected file when it was created. APF does not and will not access to the users files and its content.

3. Using APF

In connection with using or accessing the Services you will not:

• breach or circumvent any laws, third-party rights or our systems, policies, or determinations of your account status;
• use our Services if you are not able to form legally binding contracts (for example, if you are under 18 years old), or are temporarily or indefinitely suspended from using our sites, services, applications or tools;
• transfer your APF account and user ID to another party without our consent;
• use any robot, spider, scraper, data mining tools, data gathering and extraction tools, or other automated means to access our Services for any purpose, except with the prior express permission of APF;
• interfere with the working of our Services, or impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
• infringe the copyright, trademark, patent, publicity, moral, database, and/or other intellectual property rights (collectively, “Intellectual Property Rights”) that belong to or are licensed to APF. Some, but not all, actions that may constitute infringement are reproducing, performing, displaying, distributing, copying, reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, or preparing derivative works from content that belongs to APF or someone else;
• infringe any Intellectual Property Rights that belong to third parties affected by your use of the Services ;
• commercialize any APF application or any information or software associated with such application, except with the prior express permission of APF;
• harvest or otherwise collect information about users without their consent; or
• circumvent any technical measures we use to provide the Services.

You agree to: (1) try to choose a strong and secure password; (2) keep your password secure and confidential; you are responsible for anything that happens through your account unless you close.

If we believe you are abusing APF and/or our Services in any way, we may, in our sole discretion and without limiting other remedies, limit, suspend, or terminate your user account(s) and access to our Services, delay or remove hosted content, remove any special status associated with your account(s), remove, not display, and/or demote listings, reduce or eliminate any discounts, and take technical and/or legal steps to prevent you from using our Services.

We may cancel unconfirmed accounts or accounts that have been inactive for 6 months or longer, or modify or discontinue our Services. Additionally, we reserve the right to refuse or terminate all or part of our Services to anyone for any reason at our discretion.

4. Payment

If you buy any of our paid Services (“APF Plus”), you agree to pay us the applicable fees and taxes and to additional terms specific to the paid Services. Failure to pay these fees will result in the termination of your paid Services. Also, you agree that:

Your purchase may be subject to foreign exchange fees or differences in prices based on location (e.g. exchange rates).

• We may store and continue billing your payment method (e.g. credit card) even after it has expired, to avoid interruptions in your Services and to use to pay other Services you may buy.
• If you purchase a subscription, your payment method automatically will be charged at the start of each subscription period for the fees and taxes applicable to that period. To avoid future charges, cancel before the renewal date.
• All of your purchases of Services are subject to APF’s refund policy.
• We may calculate taxes payable by you based on the billing information that you provide us at the time of purchase.

5. Notification

You agree that we will provide notices and messages to you in the following ways: (1) within the Service, or (2) sent to the contact information you provided us (e.g., email, mobile number, physical address). You agree to keep your contact information up to date.

6. Rights and Limits

Between you and APF, you own the files, in both original format and protected format, and you are only allowing APF to manage the access to the protected file you created based on the policies you set up.

In any cases without your written or electronic consent, APF will not try to access the content of any files that are belongs to you, even when you are using storage space provided by APF.

You and APF agree that we may access, store, process and use information about your usage of our services in aggregated data and personal data that you provide in accordance with the terms of the Privacy Policy and your choices.

7. Service Availability

We may change or discontinue any of our Services. In the case we decided to change or discontinue our services, we will provide reasonable time and tools for you to convert protected files back to its original format.

You agree that we have no obligation to provide you a copy of Meta data about the files you protected with APF including encryption keys, except to the extent required by applicable law and as noted in our Privacy Policy.

8. Disclaimer and Limit of Liability

1. No Warranty

TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED UNDER LAW, APF AND ITS AFFILIATES (AND THOSE THAT APF WORKS WITH TO PROVIDE THE SERVICES) (A) DISCLAIM ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND REPRESENTATIONS (E.G. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY OF DATA, AND NONINFRINGEMENT); (B) DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT THE SERVICES WILL FUNCTION WITHOUT INTERRUPTION OR ERRORS, AND (C) PROVIDE THE SERVICE (INCLUDING CONTENT AND INFORMATION) ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS.

SOME LAWS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN DISCLAIMERS, SO SOME OR ALL OF THESE DISCLAIMERS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

2. Exclusion of Liability

TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER LAW (AND UNLESS APF HAS ENTERED INTO A SEPARATE WRITTEN AGREEMENT THAT OVERRIDES THIS CONTRACT), APF AND ITS AFFILIATES (AND THOSE THAT APF WORKS WITH TO PROVIDE THE SERVICES) SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR OTHERS FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, OPPORTUNITIES, REPUTATION, PROFITS OR REVENUES, RELATED TO THE SERVICES (E.G. OFFENSIVE OR DEFAMATORY STATEMENTS, DOWN TIME OR LOSS, USE OF, OR CHANGES TO, YOUR INFORMATION OR CONTENT).

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE LIABILITY OF APF AND ITS AFFILIATES (AND THOSE THAT APF WORKS WITH TO PROVIDE THE SERVICES) EXCEED, IN THE AGGREGATE FOR ALL CLAIMS, AN AMOUNT THAT IS THE LESSER OF (A) FIVE TIMES THE MOST RECENT MONTHLY OR YEARLY FEE THAT YOU PAID FOR A PREMIUM SERVICE, IF ANY, OR (B) US $100.

THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY IS PART OF THE BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN YOU AND APF AND SHALL APPLY TO ALL CLAIMS OF LIABILITY (E.G. WARRANTY, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, CONTRACT, LAW) AND EVEN IF APF OR ITS AFFILIATES HAS BEEN TOLD OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY SUCH DAMAGE, AND EVEN IF THESE REMEDIES FAIL THEIR ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

SOME LAWS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY, SO THESE LIMITS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

9. Termination

Both you and APF may terminate this Contract at any time with notice to the other.

On termination, you may have the right to limited access or use the Services to only revert the protected file back to its original format.

10. Legal Disputes

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS YOUR RIGHTS AND WILL HAVE A SUBSTANTIAL IMPACT ON HOW CLAIMS YOU AND HAVE AGAINST EACH OTHER ARE RESOLVED.

You and APF agree that any claim or dispute at law or equity that has arisen, or may arise, between you and APF (including any claim or dispute between you and third-parties that APF works with to bring Services) that relates in any way to or arises out of this User Agreement, your use of or access to the Services, the actions of APF or its agents, or any products or services sold or purchased through the Services, will be resolved in accordance with the provisions set forth in this Legal Disputes Section.

A. Applicable Law

You agree that, except to the extent inconsistent with or preempted by federal law, the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to principles of conflict of laws, will govern this User Agreement and any claim or dispute that has arisen or may arise between you and APF, except as otherwise stated in this User Agreement.

B. Agreement to Arbitrate

1. Prohibition of Class and Representative Actions and Non-Individualized Relief

YOU AND APF AGREE THAT EACH OF US MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, OR REPRESENTATIVE OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION OR PROCEEDING. UNLESS BOTH YOU AND APF AGREE OTHERWISE, THE ARBITRATOR MAY NOT CONSOLIDATE OR JOIN MORE THAN ONE PERSON’S OR PARTY’S CLAIMS, AND MAY NOT OTHERWISE PRESIDE OVER ANY FORM OF A CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE, CLASS, OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION OR PROCEEDING. ALSO, THE ARBITRATOR MAY AWARD RELIEF (INCLUDING MONETARY, INJUNCTIVE, AND DECLARATORY RELIEF) ONLY IN FAVOR OF THE INDIVIDUAL PARTY SEEKING RELIEF AND ONLY TO THE EXTENT NECESSARY TO PROVIDE RELIEF NECESSITATED BY THAT PARTY’S INDIVIDUAL CLAIM(S). ANY RELIEF AWARDED CANNOT AFFECT OTHER USERS. If a court decides that applicable law precludes enforcement of any of this paragraph’s limitations as to a particular claim for relief, then that claim (and only that claim) must be severed from the arbitration and may be brought in court, subject to your and APF’s right to appeal the court’s decision. All other claims will be arbitrated.

2. Arbitration Procedure

You and APF each agree that any and all claims and disputes arising under or relating to this Agreement between you and APF (including the third parties APF works with to bring Services), you use of or access to the Services, the action by APF and its agents shall be resolved exclusively through final and binding arbitration in the state of Illinois or another location mutually agreeable to the parties.

The arbitration will be conducted by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under its rules and procedures, including the AAA’s Consumer Arbitration Rules (as applicable), as modified by this Agreement to Arbitrate. The AAA’s rules are available at www.adr.org or by calling the AAA at 1-800-778-7879. The use of the word “arbitrator” in this provision shall not be construed to prohibit more than one arbitrator from presiding over an arbitration; rather, the AAA’s rules will govern the number of arbitrators that may preside over an arbitration conducted under this Agreement to Arbitrate. The parties reserve the right to object to any individual who shall be employed by or affiliated with a competing organization or entity.

The arbitrator will decide the substance of all claims in accordance with applicable law, including recognized principles of equity, and will honor all claims of privilege recognized by law. The arbitrator shall not be bound by rulings in prior arbitrations involving different users, but is bound by rulings in prior arbitrations involving the same APF user to the extent required by applicable law. The arbitrator’s award shall be final and binding and judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof.

3. Severability

With the exception of any of the provisions in Section 1 of this Agreement to Arbitrate (“Prohibition of Class and Representative Actions and Non-Individualized Relief”), if an arbitrator or court decides that any part of this Agreement to Arbitrate is invalid or unenforceable, the other parts of this Agreement to Arbitrate shall still apply.

4. Future Amendments to the Agreement to Arbitration

Notwithstanding any provision in the User Agreement to the contrary, you and we agree that if we make any amendment to this Agreement to Arbitrate (other than an amendment to any notice address or site link provided herein) in the future, that amendment shall not apply to any claim that was filed in a legal proceeding against APF prior to the effective date of the amendment. The amendment shall apply to all other disputes or claims governed by this Agreement to Arbitrate that have arisen or may arise between you and APF. We will notify you of amendments to this Agreement to Arbitrate by posting the amended terms on www.apftechnology.com at least 30 days before the effective date of the amendments and by providing notice through the APF application and/or by email. If you do not agree to these amended terms, you may close your account within the 30-day period and you will not be bound by the amended terms.

11. General

Except as otherwise provided in this User Agreement, if any provision of this User Agreement is held to be invalid, void or for any reason unenforceable, such provision shall be struck out and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions. In our sole discretion, we may assign this User Agreement, and in such event, we will post notice on www.apftechnology.com

We may amend this User Agreement at any time by posting the amended terms on www.apftechnology.com. Our right to amend the User Agreement includes the right to modify, add to, or remove terms in the User Agreement. We will provide you 30 days’ notice by posting the amended terms. Additionally, we will notify you through the APF application and/or by email. Your continued access or use of our Services constitutes your acceptance of the amended terms. We may also ask you to acknowledge your acceptance of the User Agreement through an electronic click-through. This User Agreement may not otherwise be amended except through mutual agreement by you and a representative from APF who intends to amend this User Agreement and is duly authorized to agree to such an amendment.