CanaryBell Terms of Service

Last updated: 14 October 2026

These Terms are an agreement between you and Cerebra Enterprises, LLC, a Maryland limited liability company ("we" or "us"). They cover canarybell.com, the CanaryBell web app and the CanaryBell iPhone app (together, "CanaryBell").

• Part A is for everyone who uses CanaryBell: staff, customers, owners and managers.
• Part B adds terms for businesses that sign up.
• Part C has general terms that apply to everyone.

Our Privacy Policy explains what we keep and what we never collect. By using CanaryBell, you agree to these Terms, including zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive users (section 6). The app asks you to agree before you join a workplace or sign in. If you don't agree, please don't use it.

Part A: For everyone

1. What CanaryBell does

CanaryBell lets a business's staff and customers send private messages to its owner or manager, and see their replies. Staff join with their workplace's join code, from a QR code or link. Customers write from a QR sign at one of the business's locations, like "Lobby". Neither needs an account, and nobody has to download anything. Only a business's owner, and the managers they add, sign in. CanaryBell isn't meant for children under 13.

2. The business reads and answers, not us

Your message goes to the business, and the business decides what to do with it. We don't answer messages or speak for any business. We automatically star out slurs and strong profanity as messages are sent, and we read a message only when someone reports or blocks it (section 6), or as our Privacy Policy describes. Replies come from the business's owner or manager. We can't make a business reply or act.

3. Not a way to get urgent help

Messages may arrive in a batch at set times and may not be read right away, so CanaryBell isn't the way to get urgent help. If something needs attention right now, tell someone in person or contact the right service directly.

4. Anonymous by default, and its limits

Every message starts out anonymous. We don't ask staff or customers who they are, and we never collect IP addresses, device details, location or the time of day a message was sent. The keys that connect you to your messages stay on your phone or browser. If a workplace has managers, staff choose for each tip whether the owner and managers can read it, or the owner only.

Anonymity has limits we can't remove. The words you write can give you away, and so can details only you would know or, on a small team, when a message arrives. Please write with that in mind.

5. Always your choice

Using CanaryBell is optional. It doesn't replace or limit any other way you can raise a concern, inside or outside your workplace, and nothing in these Terms stops you from doing so.

6. Zero tolerance for objectionable content and abuse

CanaryBell has zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive users. That applies to everyone: staff, customers, owners and managers. When you use CanaryBell, don't:

• threaten, harass, bully or abuse anyone;
• send hateful, discriminatory, sexually explicit, violent or otherwise objectionable content, including slurs;
• share other people's private details, like their health, home address or account numbers;
• send anything illegal, or anything that infringes someone else's rights;
• send spam, or use bots, scripts or other automated tools;
• pretend to be someone else;
• try to find out who sent a message, or help anyone else do so;
• guess join codes, or get around the human check on the join screen or our spam limits;
• try to break, overload or probe CanaryBell, or reach parts of it you aren't meant to.

Every customer message form shows this notice, and it's good advice for everyone:

Please don't include personal information, like names, birth dates, account numbers or health details.

How we keep CanaryBell safe:

• Filtering. Slurs and strong profanity are starred out automatically as messages are sent.
• Report. Owners and managers can report any tip or customer message, and staff and customers can report any reply. Reports come straight to us.
• Block. Owners and managers can block the sender of a tip or customer message: it disappears from the business at once, and the phone or browser it came from can't send that business anything again. Staff and customers can block the replies in a conversation: it's closed, and no more replies reach them. Blocking also sends us a report. Nobody is told who the sender was.
• We act within 24 hours. We review every report and block within 24 hours. If something breaks these rules, we remove it, and we remove the person who sent it: we ban the phone or browser it came from, remove a manager, or suspend a business (section 20).

7. Your content

You own what you write. You let us store, process, send and display it, only as needed to run CanaryBell: to deliver your message, show replies and keep the service working. You also let the business that receives it use it to run and improve its business.

The CanaryBell name, logo, Pip the canary, our apps and our designs belong to us. If you send us ideas about CanaryBell, we may use them without owing you anything.

Part B: For businesses

In Part B, "you" means the business and the person who signs it up.

8. Accounts and managers

• To sign up, you must be at least 18 and have the authority to agree to these Terms for your business. The business is bound by them.
• You sign in with a 6-digit code we email to you. Keep your email account secure, because you're responsible for everything done with your sign-in.
• Owners can add managers in Settings → People. Managers must be at least 18. They can read and answer customer messages and the tips shared with them; only owners can change settings like delivery, the join code and People.
• Your business is responsible for the managers it adds and for everything they do in CanaryBell. The responsibilities in section 17 apply to them too. Remove a manager when they no longer need access.
• Keep your email address current, so our emails reach you.

9. Plans

What each plan includes is on our pricing page at canarybell.com/pricing. Managers are included in your plan, and any limit on how many you can add is on the pricing page too.

We don't count or track your staff. That's part of how CanaryBell protects them. So it's up to you to choose the plan that matches your headcount, and to move up if you grow. Count everyone who works for your business, including part-time staff.

Enterprise plans are priced by written agreement. If that agreement conflicts with these Terms, the agreement wins.

10. No free trial

There's no free trial. Your business chooses a plan and pays before staff and customers can send messages to it.

11. Billing, through Stripe and Link

• Stripe handles payments through Link, its checkout service. Link (Sold through Link, LLC) is the merchant of record. That means it resells your CanaryBell plan to you and is the seller for the payment, while we stay responsible for CanaryBell itself.
• Link charges your payment method. It calculates, collects, files and pays sales tax, sends your receipts and invoices, and handles billing questions, refunds and chargebacks. Receipts come from Link, and the charge on your card statement starts with "LINK.COM*".
• Link's own terms (link.com/terms) also apply to your purchase, and Link handles your payment details under its privacy policy. Full card numbers never reach us.
• Prices are in US dollars, plus any sales tax. If Link shows your price in another currency at checkout, that's the amount you'll be charged.
• Your plan renews automatically every month, and Link charges your payment method each month, until you cancel. You can manage or cancel your plan at link.com or in CanaryBell's Settings.

12. Changing plans

You can switch plans in Settings, on Stripe's billing page. Either way, the change takes effect right away. Moving to a bigger plan charges the difference for the rest of your current month. Moving to a smaller plan credits what's left of your month toward your next payments. If your new plan includes less (for example, no customer QR signs or fewer managers), those features stop when you switch.

13. Price changes

We'll email you at least 30 days before any price change. The new price starts at your first renewal after that notice. If you don't want to pay it, you can cancel before then.

14. Cancelling and refunds

• You can cancel any time, in Settings or at link.com. Your plan keeps running until the end of the month you've paid for.
• We don't refund partial months, except where the law requires it.
• Link may also issue refunds in some cases, for example within 60 days of a charge, under its own policies. To ask about a refund, contact Link support at support.link.com or email us at hello@canarybell.com.

15. Failed payments and pausing

If a payment fails and isn't fixed after Stripe's retries, or when a cancelled plan ends, your business is paused:

• Your staff and customer pages stop accepting new messages. They say your business isn't using CanaryBell right now, and never mention payment.
• You and your managers can still sign in, read, and finish existing conversations, including safety follow-ups, for 90 days.
• Choosing a plan again during those 90 days reopens your business.
• After 90 days, your business and its messages are deleted.

16. Deleting your business

An owner can delete the business at any time, in Settings → Delete business, or by emailing us from the owner's email address. Deleting cancels your plan and deletes your business's information, including its messages, locations, settings, and owner and manager accounts. It can't be undone. Our database backups age out within 30 days after that. Billing records are kept as tax law requires.

17. Your responsibilities

Staff and customers need to be able to trust CanaryBell. So you agree, and you'll make sure your managers agree, to:

• Be honest about CanaryBell. Describe it accurately to staff and customers, and don't change, cover or add to its privacy wording on our signs and pages.
• Never retaliate against anyone for using CanaryBell or for anything they said in it.
• Never try to find out who sent an anonymous message, and never pressure anyone to reveal themselves. That includes comparing writing styles, checking who was working when a message arrived, or asking people whether they sent it. You can, of course, look into the issue a message raises.
• Keep messages private. Share what someone said only as needed to act on it, and never in a way that could identify them.
• Act on safety messages. A message can put your business on notice of a problem, like a hazard or harassment. You're responsible for responding, and for any legal duties that come from knowing about it. CanaryBell reminds you, but it doesn't investigate or give legal advice.
• Keep health information out. CanaryBell isn't built for protected health information (PHI) under HIPAA or similar laws. Don't use it to collect, send or store PHI. We don't sign business associate agreements.
• Respect public reviews. Don't use CanaryBell to discourage anyone from posting a public review, and don't offer anything in return for keeping feedback private.
• Look after your join code. Share it only with people who work for your business, and change it in Settings if it spreads further.
• Keep updates free of personal information. Updates you post to a location's page can be seen by anyone who opens it.
• Follow the law, including employment, labor and privacy laws, and give any notices those laws require.

18. How we handle your business's messages

For the messages staff and customers send to your business, we act as your service provider (or "processor"). We will:

• use them only to provide CanaryBell to you, as these Terms and your settings describe;
• never sell or share them (as US privacy laws define those words), use them for advertising, combine them with other information, or use them to train AI, and never keep, use or disclose them outside our relationship with you, except as the law allows;
• keep them confidential, and make sure anyone who works on CanaryBell does too;
• protect them with the security measures in our Privacy Policy;
• use only the service providers listed in our Privacy Policy, and update that list before adding one;
• tell you without undue delay if we learn of a breach that affects them;
• delete them when your business is deleted, as sections 15 and 16 describe;
• help you answer privacy requests and questions from regulators, as far as we reasonably can (remembering that we can't identify senders); and
• sign a data processing agreement with you if you ask.

Part C: General terms

19. Features change

We keep improving CanaryBell, so features may change. Anything marked "Soon" isn't available yet, and we don't promise when, or whether, it will be. If we ever stop offering CanaryBell, we'll give businesses at least 30 days' notice and arrange a refund of any fees paid for time after it ends.

20. Suspension

We may suspend or end anyone's access to CanaryBell if they break these Terms, if we need to protect CanaryBell or the people who use it, or if the law requires it. When we reasonably can, we'll tell a business first and give it a chance to fix the problem, except for objectionable content and abuse, which we act on within 24 hours of a report (section 6).

21. Disclaimers

We work hard to keep CanaryBell reliable, but it's provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We can't guarantee that:

• every message will be delivered, or delivered at a particular time;
• a business will read, answer or act on a message;
• a message's words won't identify the person who sent it; or
• CanaryBell will always be available or free of errors.

Nothing in CanaryBell is legal, HR or other professional advice.

22. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows:

• We aren't liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data or goodwill.
• Our total liability for all claims relating to CanaryBell is limited to the greater of (a) the fees your business paid for CanaryBell in the 12 months before the claim arose, or (b) $100.

These limits apply to every kind of claim, even if we knew the harm was possible. Some places don't allow some of these limits, so they may not all apply to you.

23. Indemnity

Your business will defend and indemnify Cerebra Enterprises, LLC, and its members, employees and contractors, against any claims, losses and costs (including reasonable legal fees) that arise from its use of CanaryBell, what it and its managers post or do, its employment decisions, or its breach of these Terms or the law.

24. Disputes

• Maryland law governs these Terms, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules.
• Before starting a court case, please email us at hello@canarybell.com and give us 30 days to try to sort it out informally. We'll do the same for you (for a business, at the owner's email address).
• If it isn't resolved in 30 days, either of us may bring the claim in the state or federal courts located in Maryland, and we both agree to those courts' jurisdiction.
• If you're a consumer, nothing here takes away any right your local law gives you to bring a claim where you live.

25. The iPhone app and Apple

If you use the CanaryBell iPhone app:

• These Terms are between you and us, not Apple. We, not Apple, are responsible for the app, its support and its content.
• You may use the app on Apple devices you own or control, as the App Store's rules allow.
• Apple has no duty to maintain or support the app. If the app fails to meet a warranty that applies, you can tell Apple, and Apple will refund what you paid for it (the app is free). Apple has no other warranty duty for it.
• We, not Apple, handle any claims about the app, including product liability, legal or regulatory claims, consumer protection claims and intellectual property claims.
• You confirm you're not in a country under a US government embargo, and not on any US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you as they relate to the app.

26. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. We'll post the new version here with a new "Last updated" date. For material changes, we'll email business owners at least 30 days before they take effect. If you keep using CanaryBell after a change takes effect, you accept the updated Terms. A business that doesn't accept them can cancel before they take effect.

27. General

• Whole agreement. These Terms, our Privacy Policy and any written agreement we sign with you (like an Enterprise agreement or a data processing agreement) are the whole agreement between you and us about CanaryBell.
• If part doesn't hold. If a court finds part of these Terms unenforceable, the rest still applies.
• No waiver. If we don't enforce something right away, we can still enforce it later.
• Transfers. You can't transfer these Terms without our written consent. We may transfer them as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of CanaryBell.
• Things outside our control. We aren't responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, like outages at our service providers, natural disasters or internet failures.
• Notices. We send notices to businesses by email, to the owner's email address. You can send notices to us by email or to our mailing address below.
• Independent parties. These Terms don't create a partnership, joint venture, employment or agency relationship between you and us.
• No other beneficiaries. Apart from Apple (section 25), nobody else has rights under these Terms.
• What continues. Sections 7, 15, 16, 18 and 21 to 27, and any fees owed, continue after these Terms end.

Contact us

Questions about these Terms? We'd like to hear from you.

• Email: hello@canarybell.com
• Mail: Cerebra Enterprises, LLC, 5000 Thayer Center, Ste C, Oakland, MD 21550, USA
• Website: canarybell.com