Terms of Service

Terms and conditions for using Miniowl

1. Agreement to Terms

By using Miniowl ("Service"), a product of Journely operated from Tokyo, Japan, you ("User," "you") agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you disagree with any part of these Terms, you must not use our Service.

These Terms govern both the Miniowl macOS application and the miniowl.me web dashboard. They are governed by Japanese law and read together with our Privacy Policy.

2. Eligibility

To use Miniowl, you must:

  • Be at least 20 years old (the age of majority in Japan)
  • Have the legal capacity to enter into binding contracts
  • Not be prohibited from using the Service under applicable laws
  • Provide accurate registration information when signing in via Google OAuth

3. Nature of Service

3.1 What Miniowl IS:

  • A privacy-first macOS activity tracking application
  • A tool that records which application has focus, your idle state, and (optionally) your active browser tab's URL
  • An optional cloud categorization service that groups your activity into strategic buckets via an LLM (when you enable cloud sync)
  • A web dashboard at miniowl.me where you can view your daily and weekly summaries

3.2 What Miniowl IS NOT:

  • A keylogger, screenshot tool, or screen recorder
  • A productivity-coaching service or financial tool
  • An employee-monitoring product (it is single-user-only by design)
  • A medical, legal, or psychological diagnostic tool

4. Free Tier and Paid Plans

Miniowl offers both free and paid tiers:

  • Free tier (forever): local activity tracking on your Mac, no cloud features, no account required
  • Paid plan: $5/month for cloud sync, web dashboard, and history (currently free during private beta)

We are currently in private beta and do not charge users. When we open paid plans to the public, we will give existing beta users at least 30 days' notice and a founding-user perk as described on the website. Pricing may change with at least 30 days' notice to existing subscribers.

5. Acceptable Use

5.1 Permitted uses:

  • Personal time-tracking on your own Mac
  • Viewing your own activity summaries on the web dashboard
  • Editing your context file to personalize categorization
  • Reading the open-source code and using it for personal review or audit

5.2 Prohibited uses:

  • Using the Service for any unlawful purpose
  • Attempting to gain unauthorized access to our systems or another user's data
  • Reverse-engineering the proprietary cloud APIs to bypass authentication or rate limits
  • Sharing your account credentials or device tokens with anyone else
  • Installing Miniowl on a Mac you do not own or control
  • Using the Service to monitor anyone other than yourself
  • Stripping or obscuring the Service's privacy disclosures
  • Violating any applicable laws or regulations

6. Intellectual Property

The Miniowl Mac application source code is published on GitHub under the MIT license and may be used, copied, and modified subject to that license. The Miniowl name, logo, brand assets, dashboard UI, marketing materials, and the proprietary backend services (categorize API, gateway, dashboard) remain the intellectual property of Journely.

You retain ownership of your activity data. By using the optional cloud features, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive license to process that data solely to provide the Service to you, as described in our Privacy Policy.

7. Payment and Refunds

For paid plans (when activated):

  • Payments are processed monthly in advance
  • You may cancel your subscription at any time
  • Refunds are available within 7 days of payment for any reason
  • No refunds for partial months after the 7-day period
  • All prices are in USD unless otherwise stated

8. Privacy and Data

Your privacy is core to the product. Miniowl is local-first by default — see our Privacy Policy for the full disclosure of what we collect, what we never collect, and how cloud sync (off by default) works. By using Miniowl, you consent to the collection and use of information as described there.

9. Service Availability

We strive to provide reliable service but do not guarantee:

  • 100% uptime or uninterrupted access to the cloud features
  • Error-free operation on every Mac configuration
  • Specific response times from the categorize API

We may perform maintenance that temporarily affects service availability. Local tracking on your Mac continues to function regardless of cloud availability.

10. Termination

We may terminate or suspend your account at any time for:

  • Material violation of these Terms
  • Fraudulent or illegal activity
  • Non-payment of fees (when paid plans are active)

You may terminate your account at any time by contacting us at hello@journely.me, revoking your devices from the dashboard, or simply deleting the Mac application. On termination, your server-side data is purged according to our Privacy Policy.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

Miniowl is provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by Japanese law, we disclaim all warranties, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy of categorization, and non-infringement. We make no warranty that the Service will meet your requirements or that AI-generated categorizations will be accurate or useful for any specific decision.

12. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by Japanese law, Journely (and its officers, directors, employees, and agents) shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages — including but not limited to loss of data, lost productivity, lost profits, or business interruption — arising from or in any way connected with your use of Miniowl.

In no event will our aggregate liability exceed the greater of (a) the fees you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or (b) USD 100.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Journely from any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from:

  • Your use of the Service in violation of these Terms or applicable law
  • Content you supply via your context file or dashboard configuration
  • Your violation of any third-party rights, including privacy or intellectual property rights

14. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of Japan, without regard to its conflict-of-laws provisions. Any disputes arising from or relating to these Terms or your use of Miniowl will be resolved exclusively in the courts of Tokyo, Japan.

15. Modifications to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified via email at least 30 days before taking effect, and the updated Terms will be posted at miniowl.me/legal/terms with a new "Last updated" date. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

16. Contact Information

If you have questions about these Terms, contact us:

Journely
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Email: hello@journely.me

17. Acknowledgment

By installing or using Miniowl, you acknowledge that you have read these Terms, understood them, and agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree, do not install or use the Service.

Last updated: April 28, 2026