Terms of Service, Acceptable Use, Privacy policy

Updated February, 2012

Introduction

Iris Couch provides simple, intelligent service with a simple, transparent policy.

This document serves as Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Policy for Iris Couch, all services it provides, and all interactions it enters into. This document describes the services offered, what actions are prohibited, and what interactions we will and will not have with your data.

We reserve the right to change this document at any time. When we change it, we will post a notice on our blog, display a notice on our web site for 30 days, and append to the end of this document a changelog enumerating changes made to this document.

Company

Iris Couch provides a simple, reliable online database functionality to individuals and organizations. Our service allows those parties to store and access their data. Additionally, we will provide a highly competent quality of customer support to help customers store and access the data they store on Iris Couch’s computer systems.

Iris Couch provides Internet connectivity and data storage, which Iris Couch makes remotely accessible for a certain amount of money per unit time. The specific product and service, the amount of money charged per unit time, and the unit time itself are agreed upon during commencement of the service.

Service

You will be provided with an Apache CouchDB-compatible database service of a certain capacity for a certain monthly fee, both of which are determined when you become a customer of Iris Couch. You may cancel at any time for any reason with no penalties or future obligation. Existing payments will not be refunded to you.

In return for these payments, your database service will have a 99% or better period of connectivity to the public Internet measured in one-minute intervals. You will furthermore receive technical support for technical issues related to your database service and its use.

Technical support will be provided on a same-day basis by a highly qualified Apache CouchDB expert.

You agree that the computer system that houses your database will require rare downtime for maintenance, for which you will typically be given four days notice. You agree that in some cases you will be given less notice. You agree with the policy of Iris Couch to always choose data integrity instead of service availability if the two conflict. You agree that rare periods of extended downtime, being necessary to ensure data integrity, are acceptable, and will not be computed into the monthly system uptime percentage.

Privacy

Iris Couch does not examine the private contents of customer databases. If an anonymous person on the Internet cannot access it, then we will not access it.

However, during normal operation and maintenance, we may observe certain meta-data such as database names, configuration settings, and Internet traffic statistics.

You agree that Iris Couch may examine the contents of your database as necessary during customer support interactions initiated by you.

Iris Couch does not permanently store logs of customer activity. We destroy logs every week. We store only meta-data related to usage of our service.

We will not divulge data or meta-data concerning the behavior of our customers, the private contents of their databases, or their records for billing, to any law enforcement officer or agency without order served directly by a US court having jurisdiction. We will give immediate notice to any customer named in such a court order, and access to their service will not be interrupted unless specifically barred by the court order.

Iris Couch was founded by former Couchbase engineers, with Couchbase technology. When Iris Couch was founded, we agreed to provide Couchbase Inc. our customers' first name, last name, and email address only, on a regular basis.

Except for this agreement, we will not divulge consumer or personal information of any kind about our customers to any party for any reason.

Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy complies with all federal, state, and local laws, and protects the security and continuity of the computer systems Iris Couch runs and the services Iris Couch offers.

Iris Couch customers agree not to store data on Iris Couch computer systems that violates U.S. law, the state laws of any state in which Iris Couch does business, or the local laws of any localities in which Iris Couch does business.

Iris Couch customers also agree not to participate in, or aid others in, accessing any Iris Couch computer system in a manner that it is not already being made accessible in, or accessing any private customer data that is not their own.

Iris Couch is not subject to the laws of any nation other than the United States of America.

Lack of Guarantees

Iris Couch provides the services listed above, and any other services provided in the future on a BEST EFFORTS BASIS. NO GUARANTEES ARE EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED related to data retention, integrity, continuance, or availability. Your data may become unavailable, or be destroyed by any events, not limited to fire, floods, or natural disasters.

Iris Couch describes and refers to, in its communications and in documentation and by other means, numerous Iris Couch and third-party software applications, methods and practices. You agree that Iris Couch makes no representation, claim or promise that these pieces of software provide any level of function, are safe, are secure, or are fit for any purpose whatsoever.

Notice of Termination

In the unlikely event that Iris Couch ceases to operate this product and service, we will notify our customers 30 days before any service termination.

Reservation of Rights

Iris Couch reserves the right to revoke or alter this Terms of Service at any time. Iris Couch reserves the right to refuse service to any person or organization for any reason, and reserves the right to terminate the service of any existing client for any reason.

Summary

Customers may question why our policies are so. Technical and legal realities compel us to have them this way. In fact, most companies have similar policies. The best we can do is to make it simple and transparent.