Terms of Service

Draft · Last updated: July 20, 2026

Welcome to Duckling. These terms are a contract between you and Duckling, Inc. ("Duckling," "we") covering the Duckling apps and services (the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to them. We've kept the legalese as light as we responsibly can.

1. The most important term: Duckling is not medical advice

Duckling is a tracking and journaling tool for parents. It is not a medical device, does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and is not a substitute for professional care. Information in the Service — including anything you log, any summary or display we compute from it, and any reference content we link to — is for your family's record-keeping and information only. Always consult your pediatrician or qualified health provider with questions about your child's health, and call emergency services in an emergency. Never disregard or delay professional advice because of something in Duckling.

You are responsible for the accuracy of what you log and for all care decisions. Duckling displays what your care team recorded; it does not verify doses, schedules, or symptoms, and reminder features (where offered) repeat what a guardian entered — they are not a safety system.

2. Who can use Duckling

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract.
Accounts are personal — one human per account, no shared logins. Caregivers you invite create their own accounts.
You may only add information about a child if you're their parent or legal guardian, or have been authorized by one through the Service's invitation system.

3. Your family's data

You own your content. Entries, photos, and notes your family logs belong to your family.
You grant us the limited license needed to operate the Service: to store, process, sync, display, and back up your content for you and the caregivers you've authorized, per our Privacy Policy.
Export is always available. Deletion works the way the Privacy Policy describes — immediately unreadable, fully purged on the published clock.
Guardians control access: inviting, changing, or revoking a caregiver's access is effective per the in-app authorization rules, and access changes are recorded in the account activity trail.

4. Acceptable use

Don't misuse the Service. That includes: accessing another family's data or attempting to; adding a child you aren't authorized for; abusing, probing, or disrupting our systems; reverse-engineering non-open components; scraping; reselling the Service; or using it for any unlawful purpose. We may throttle or suspend accounts that threaten the Service or other families — with notice where practicable, and with your export rights preserved wherever lawful.

5. Voice and AI features

AI parsing is probabilistic. Duckling shows you what it understood and keeps undo and edit history available precisely because no parser is perfect. Review entries that matter — especially anything health-related, which always requires your confirmation before saving.
Voice features process audio as described in the Privacy Policy (transcribe-and-discard).
AI features may be adjusted, improved, or temporarily degraded (e.g., provider outages fall back to typed or tap input). Manual logging always works.

6. The Service is free (right now)

Duckling is currently provided free of charge. If we introduce paid features someday, we'll say so clearly in advance; core logging of your own data and export of your own data will not be held hostage.

7. Our content

The Service — its design, software, name, mascot, and content we authored — is ours or our licensors', protected by IP laws. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the apps as intended. Reference content in the app (like feeding-safety links) belongs to its authors and is provided for information only (see §1).

8. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR THAT ANY ENTRY, SUMMARY, OR PARSE WILL BE ACCURATE OR COMPLETE.

9. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, DUCKLING WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF $50 OR THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS. Some jurisdictions don't allow certain limitations; where they don't, these apply to the extent permitted.

10. Ending things

You can stop using Duckling and delete your account anytime (see §3 and the Privacy Policy). We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms. If we ever discontinue the Service, we'll give reasonable notice and a window to export your data.

11. Changes to these terms

If we make material changes, we'll notify you in the app before they take effect. Continuing to use the Service after the effective date means you accept the updated terms.

12. Governing law & disputes

[Placeholder: governing law, venue, and dispute-resolution provisions to be completed with counsel — including any arbitration and class-waiver decisions, which we have deliberately not drafted here.]

13. Contact

legal@happyduckling.app (placeholder address for this draft).