Terms of Service
These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding legal agreement between you ("you," "your") and Kismet ("Kismet," "we," "us," "our") — operator of the Kismet mobile application, the kismet website, and related services (the "Service"). Read them carefully.
1. Eligibility
To use Kismet, you must:
- Be at least 18 years of age. There are no exceptions. We collect date of birth at signup and bar minors at the client and server.
- Have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract in your jurisdiction.
- Not have been previously removed from Kismet for a violation of these Terms.
- Not be a registered sex offender, nor be on any government list of barred parties (e.g., U.S. OFAC SDN list).
The same 18+ requirement applies to anyone who joins the waitlist and to anyone who agrees to answer questions by text through an invite link (Section 5), even though neither of those creates an account. We ask for date of birth on each of those surfaces and enforce the gate on our servers.
Creating an account that misrepresents your age is fraud and grounds for immediate termination and, where appropriate, referral to law enforcement.
2. Your account
Account creation requires a working phone number that you control. You are responsible for:
- Maintaining the confidentiality of access to your phone and the device on which Kismet is installed.
- All activity that occurs under your account.
- Notifying us immediately if you believe your account has been accessed without your authorization.
One person, one account. Operating multiple accounts is a violation of these Terms.
3. The AI matchmaker (kismet)
Kismet uses an artificial-intelligence agent — referred to in the app as "kismet", the same name as the Service itself — that converses on your behalf with the AI agents of other users. By using the Service you understand and agree that:
- The kismet agent is not a human matchmaker. Its outputs are generated by a large language model and may occasionally be inaccurate, surprising, or imperfect.
- The kismet agent constructs and updates a structured profile of you, derived from your onboarding answers, your conversations with it, and — if you invite friends — what those friends tell us about you (Section 5). This profile is used to facilitate matches and is not shared in raw form with other users.
- The agent-to-agent conversation is shared with the other person. When your kismet talks to another user's kismet, both of you can read that entire transcript — including any question your kismet asks you inside that conversation and the answer you give it there. Treat anything you write into a match conversation as visible to the other person. Your private one-to-one thread with your own kismet is not shared with anyone.
- Matching is automatic. Once each evening, kismet decides whether any of the conversations it has been having for you should become a match. There is no step at which you accept or decline a match: when one is made, the conversation becomes a direct chat with that person and both of you are notified.
- The Service limits how many conversations kismet starts for you and how many matches it makes in a given day. These limits are part of the product and may change at any time.
- The kismet agent's responses do not constitute legal, medical, financial, mental-health, or relationship advice.
- You remain solely responsible for the relationships you form and the decisions you make as a result of using Kismet.
4. Location
Kismet only considers people you have physically crossed paths with. To do that, the app collects your device's location while it is open and, if you grant the permission, while it is in the background. That location is used to detect that you were near another user at approximately the same time, and for the purposes described in our Privacy Policy.
You can withdraw location permission at any time in your device settings. Kismet cannot find crossings for you without it, so the Service will not work as intended.
5. Waitlist, invites, and text messages
Waitlist. Before Kismet is available to you, you may give us your phone number, postal code, and date of birth to join the waitlist. We may use that number to contact you about Kismet becoming available. You must be 18 or older to join.
Invite links. Each account gets one reusable invite link, offered in two forms: one asks a friend to join Kismet, and one asks a friend to answer occasional questions about you by text, without installing anything.
Texts to people you invite. A person who opts in through the second kind of link is agreeing to receive recurring text messages from Kismet — a question every few days about the person who invited them, and nothing else. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to stop and HELP for help. Opting out stops Kismet's questions about every person who has invited that number, not only the most recent one, and can be done at any time.
What those answers are used for. If an invited friend answers, we store the question and their reply and give it to the inviter's kismet, where it becomes part of what kismet knows about that person and helps it find matches for them. Answers are never published, never shown to other users, and are not recorded as facts stated by the inviter themselves. We may show an inviter what their friends have said about them.
If you invite someone. You are responsible for who you invite. By sharing an invite link you confirm that you are sending it to someone you actually know and who would want to hear from you, and that they are 18 or older. You must not use invite links for bulk, commercial, or unsolicited messaging. We may disable an invite link, and the account behind it, if it is used to send unwanted messages.
No account is created. Answering questions by text does not create a Kismet account, a profile, or a match, and does not make that person discoverable to anyone. These Terms apply to that person to the extent they use the Service, including these text messages.
Invite benefits. We may offer benefits inside the app for inviting people who go on to verify their number — for example, a larger daily allowance of conversations. Any such benefit has no cash value, is not property, and may be changed, limited, or withdrawn at any time, including where we believe invites are being used to game the Service or to send unwanted messages.
6. Acceptable use
You agree that you will not, and will not attempt to:
- Impersonate any person, misrepresent your age, identity, photograph, marital status, or affiliation.
- Harass, threaten, stalk, intimidate, or send unwanted explicit content to any other user.
- Invite, or keep texting through Kismet, anyone who has not agreed to hear from you, or use invite links for bulk or unsolicited messaging.
- Post or transmit hate speech, content sexualizing minors, depictions of non-consensual sexual acts, or content that is illegal in your jurisdiction or ours.
- Use Kismet for commercial solicitation, recruiting, multi-level marketing, or to advertise any product or service.
- Solicit money, gifts, financial information, login credentials, or anything of value from another user.
- Engage in scams, including but not limited to romance scams, phishing, sextortion, or fraudulent investment pitches.
- Use bots, scripts, scrapers, or any automated means to interact with the Service.
- Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code from any part of the Service.
- Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of our systems, or breach security or authentication measures.
- Resell, sublicense, or otherwise commercialize any portion of the Service.
- Use the Service in violation of any applicable law, including consumer-protection, anti-discrimination, export-control, and data-protection laws.
Violations may result in immediate, permanent account termination without notice. Serious violations — including those involving minors, threats of violence, or fraud — will be reported to law enforcement.
7. Reporting and moderation
Every conversation with another person in Kismet has a block-and-report menu. (Your private thread with your own kismet has neither, because there is no other person in it.) Reporting someone blocks them at the same time, in both directions: neither of you can message the other again, and the two of you will not be paired by a future crossing.
We review reports and act on them as quickly as we reasonably can. Confirmed violations result in removal of the offending account and, where applicable, referral to law enforcement.
We reserve the right — but not the obligation — to remove content, suspend accounts, or take any action we deem necessary to protect the safety and integrity of the Service.
8. Your content
You retain all ownership rights in the content you submit to Kismet — including profile text, photos, and messages ("User Content").
By submitting User Content, you grant Kismet a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, copy, transmit, display, and otherwise use that content solely as needed to operate, provide, and improve the Service. This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except for (a) backups retained for a reasonable period and (b) content already shared with another user, which we cannot retract from their device.
You represent and warrant that:
- You own or have the necessary rights to submit your User Content.
- Your User Content does not violate the rights of any third party (including privacy, publicity, intellectual-property, or contract rights).
- Your User Content does not violate any law.
9. Privacy
Our handling of your personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Terms. By using Kismet you acknowledge that you have read and agree to the Privacy Policy.
10. Intellectual property
The Service, including its software, interfaces, brand, trademarks, and all content other than User Content, is the property of Kismet or its licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-transferable, non-exclusive license to use the Service for its intended purpose, subject to these Terms. All other rights are reserved.
11. Termination
You may terminate your account at any time from Settings → Delete Account. Deletion is irreversible. It removes, from our active databases, your profile, your photo, your conversations and the messages in them, your match reports, your compatibility results, and your location and crossing history.
Some records outlive the account where we need them to run the Service or to meet a legal obligation — for example blocks and safety reports you were involved in, notes your matchmaker had recorded, questions and answers exchanged with people you invited, delivery logs for messages already sent, and backups retained for a reasonable period. Our Privacy Policy describes retention.
We may suspend or terminate your account at our discretion, without prior notice, if we believe you have violated these Terms or pose a risk to other users. Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including Sections 8 (license you granted), 12 (disclaimer), 13 (limitation of liability), 14 (indemnity), and 15 (dispute resolution) — will continue to apply.
12. Disclaimer of warranties
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR ACCURACY.
KISMET DOES NOT WARRANT THAT (A) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE; (B) ANY PARTICULAR USER IS WHO THEY CLAIM TO BE; (C) ANY MATCH WILL LEAD TO A RELATIONSHIP OR PHYSICAL MEETING; OR (D) ANY USER WILL BEHAVE LAWFULLY OR HONESTLY. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER USERS, ONLINE AND IN PERSON.
13. Limitation of liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, KISMET, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES — INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, DATA, OR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS — ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, EVEN IF KISMET HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO KISMET IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) USD $100.
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
14. Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Kismet and its affiliates, officers, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or in any way connected with (a) your access to or use of the Service, (b) your User Content, (c) people you invite to the Service, (d) your violation of these Terms, or (e) your violation of any rights of a third party.
15. Dispute resolution and governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, USA, excluding its conflict-of-laws principles.
Any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will first be addressed through good-faith informal negotiation. If the dispute is not resolved within thirty (30) days, either party may pursue resolution in the state or federal courts located in San Francisco County, California, and each party consents to personal jurisdiction in those courts.
16. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you in the app, by email, or through another reasonable means before the changes take effect. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of an updated version constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree, you must stop using the Service and delete your account.
17. Miscellaneous
- Entire agreement. These Terms (together with the Privacy Policy) are the entire agreement between you and Kismet regarding the Service.
- Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
- No waiver. Our failure to enforce any right or provision is not a waiver of that right or provision.
- Assignment. You may not assign these Terms. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
- Notices. We may send notices to you in the app, by email, or by SMS to the phone number on your account. You may send legal notices to us at contact@yourkismet.app.
- Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delays or failures caused by circumstances beyond its reasonable control.
Contact
Questions about these Terms:
contact@yourkismet.app
General support:
contact@yourkismet.app
Safety concerns:
contact@yourkismet.app