Terms of Service

1. Accepting these terms

By using a CarePyre-issued email account, SIP phone extension, or the CarePyre console, you agree to these terms. If a provider created your account on your behalf, these terms apply to your use of the account regardless of who set it up — and the provider is responsible for making sure you understand that an account was created for you and by whom.

2. What CarePyre provides

CarePyre provides community-owned digital identity infrastructure: an email account that survives whatever crisis brought you to us, and (where available) a SIP phone extension. This is real, currently-operating infrastructure, provided by a community trust, not a commercial product — see our mission for the full context.

3. Accounts created by a provider on your behalf

A provider (case worker, clinician, or other vetted support staff) may create and manage a CarePyre email account for a participant they work with. By creating an account for a participant, a provider represents that:

• The participant has been informed that an account is being created for them and by whom.
• The account is being created to serve the participant's own interests, not the provider's or any third party's.
• If the provider is a HIPAA covered entity using the account to communicate protected health information, the provider understands that responsibility rests with them — see our Privacy Policy's note on health information for more.

A provider can only see and manage the accounts they themselves created — never every participant in the system (see "Access controls" in the Privacy Policy).

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to use your CarePyre account to:

• Send spam, phishing attempts, or malware.
• Harass, threaten, or defraud another person.
• Violate any applicable law.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to another account or to CarePyre's own systems.

We may suspend or terminate an account that violates these terms, with notice where reasonably possible.

5. Encryption and legal process

We do not read the contents of your email as a matter of course. We forcefully encourage — but do not currently require — enabling PGP or S/MIME encryption on your mailbox, because an unencrypted mailbox is one we can be legally compelled to produce in readable form under a valid subpoena or court order, while an encrypted one is not. See our Privacy Policy for the full explanation.

6. Your data

Our Privacy Policy describes what we collect, who can access it, and your rights to access or delete it. It's incorporated into these terms by reference.

7. Termination

You may stop using your account at any time and request deletion (see the Privacy Policy). We may suspend or terminate an account for a violation of these terms, extended inactivity, or if we discontinue the service — we'll make a reasonable effort to give notice first except where legal or security concerns require immediate action.

8. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, CarePyre and its staff and volunteers are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the service. This is a community trust operating in good faith, not an insurer against every possible harm.

9. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Michigan, without regard to conflict of law principles.

10. Changes to these terms

We'll update the date at the top of this page when we make changes, and make a reasonable effort to notify active account holders of any material change.

11. Contact

Questions about these terms? Reach us through the contact form on carepyre.org.