Terms of use

Using Verus

Verus is for people aged 18 and over. You may use it if you are 18 or over and doing so is lawful where you are. Creating an address creates an account. You are responsible for your device and for the keys on it, because they are the only thing that opens your messages.

What you may not do

There is no tolerance for any of the following, and an account doing them will be removed:

• Sexual content involving children, in any form. Grooming, sextortion or any sexualisation of a minor. This is removed and reported to the authorities as set out in our child safety standards.
• Threats of violence, harassment, stalking, or targeting a person or group with abuse.
• Content that promotes terrorism or violent extremism.
• Fraud, impersonation, phishing, or using verification to make a deception more convincing.
• Sending bulk unsolicited messages, or automating the service to do it.
• Attacking the service or the people on it: overwhelming it, probing it for others' data, or trying to attach a claim to an address that is not yours.

You are responsible for what you send. Verus cannot read it, which is the point, and that makes what you do with it entirely your own.

Reporting and blocking

Every conversation in the app has Block and Report. Blocking is immediate, happens on your device and needs nobody's permission. Reporting sends us the address you are reporting and what you tell us about it. It blocks that address too, so you do not have to take a second step. If you turn it on, the report carries up to twenty of the most recent messages that person sent you, decrypted on your device and sent with it. Nothing you wrote is included. Nothing from the conversation is sent unless you choose to attach it, because we cannot see it otherwise.

Reports go to hello@verusapp.co.uk and are looked at within 24 hours. What we can do is limited by design, and we would rather say so than pretend: we can burn an address, refuse it verification, and remove any claim attached to it. We cannot read a conversation to adjudicate it, and we will not build the ability to.

Verification

A verified badge means Confrmo told us that an account holder approved it, and, where Confrmo asserts it, that their live face was matched against an identity document. It does not mean we vouch for the person, and it is not a recommendation to trust them. Attaching a claim you obtained by deceiving somebody, or attaching one to an address that is not yours, ends the account.

Availability

Verus is provided as it is. We aim to keep it running and we do not promise it always will be. We may change or withdraw features, and if a change removes something you rely on we will say so in the app before it happens.

Ending it

You can delete your account at any time from the You tab in the app. It takes effect immediately. We may suspend or remove an account that breaks the rules above, or where we are required to by law.

Liability

To the extent the law allows, Verus Communications Ltd is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, for messages that do not arrive, or for data lost when keys are lost. Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

Law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.

Contact

Verus Communications Ltd, company number 17429651, C/O Usque Ltd, 97 Alderley Road, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 1PT, United Kingdom. hello@verusapp.co.uk.