Defcon5 — Terms of Service
Defcon5 — Terms of Service
Last updated: September 12, 2026 Operated by: Unicorn United, 6 rue d'Armaillé, 75017 Paris, France Contact: contact@unicorn-united.com Governing law: French law, subject to the mandatory local-law savings clause in Section 15. Any dispute not resolved amicably will be submitted to the competent courts of Paris, France, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer-protection rules that entitle you to bring proceedings in the courts of your own place of residence if you are a consumer residing in the EU.
⚠️ This draft has real entity/jurisdiction details filled in, and has been substantially strengthened with explicit non-guarantee, cybersecurity, and jurisdiction-savings language. Sections 10-11 (warranty and liability) still need a lawyer's review before relying on them in a dispute — French law does not allow a business to fully exclude liability for gross negligence or intentional misconduct ("faute lourde" or "dol"), and consumer-protection rules under the French Consumer Code (Code de la consommation) apply to any user who is an individual acting outside a trade or profession. See "Open items for your lawyer" at the end.
Summary (plain language — see full text below)
- Defcon5 is NOT an emergency service. In an emergency, always contact local emergency services (112 in France/EU, or the relevant local number) directly.
- Defcon5 is a supplementary safety layer, not a guarantee of safety or of any particular outcome — see Section 3.
- Guardians are ordinary people you've chosen, not professional monitors. There is no guaranteed response time.
- Never link as a "guardian" to watch someone without their full, uncoerced knowledge and consent. Secret surveillance via this app is prohibited and is a criminal offence under French law (see Section 6).
- You're responsible for keeping your passcode and under-pressure code secret and different from each other.
- No computer system is unhackable, including this one — see Section 10.
- We can suspend or terminate accounts used for prohibited purposes.
- As a consumer residing outside France, mandatory protections of your own country's law may override parts of these Terms — see Section 15.
1. Acceptance Of Terms
By creating an account or using Defcon5, you agree to these Terms and to the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the service. These Terms are offered by Unicorn United, a company established in France.
2. Not An Emergency Service — Read This First
Defcon5 is a personal check-in and guardian-notification tool. It is NOT a substitute for calling emergency services, not a professionally monitored security service, and not a guarantee that any guardian will see, respond to, or act on an alert within any particular time, or at all. Guardians are people you have personally chosen — not Defcon5 staff, not professional responders. If you are in immediate danger, call 112 (the EU-wide emergency number, also valid in France) or your local emergency number directly, first, every time.
3. Defcon5 Is A Supplementary Safety Layer, Not A Guarantee
This section exists to be completely unambiguous, in addition to Section 2, because it matters: Defcon5 is designed to add a layer of protection on top of your own judgment and other precautions — it is not, and is not represented to be, a guarantee of your safety, of a guardian's response, of successful delivery of any alert, or of any particular outcome whatsoever.
By using Defcon5, you acknowledge and agree that:
- Defcon5 does not guarantee that any check-in, alert, escalation, location share, or notification will be successfully generated, transmitted, received, seen, or acted upon, for any reason, including but not limited to network failure, server downtime, device issues, operating-system restrictions, battery depletion, a guardian's own device or connectivity problems, or a guardian simply not being available.
- Your safety in any given situation depends on many factors outside Defcon5's control, and uses of the app do not replace ordinary precautions, situational awareness, or contacting emergency services directly when needed.
- To the maximum extent permitted by French law (see Section 11 for the mandatory limits on what can be excluded), Unicorn United disclaims all responsibility for the consequences of relying on Defcon5 as if it were a guaranteed protection system, because it is not one and has never been represented as one.
- Nothing in this section excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded under French law, including for death or personal injury caused by Unicorn United's own gross negligence or intentional misconduct — see Section 11.
4. Your Account And Responsibilities
- Choose a passcode and under-pressure code that are different from each other, kept confidential, and memorable under stress.
- Keep the app correctly configured (permissions, intervals) if you intend to rely on its features.
- Anyone with your username and share code can be invited as your guardian — you are responsible for who you name and for keeping your share code confidential.
- One account per person; do not impersonate another person.
5. Guardian Responsibilities And Limitations
- Guardians are not professional responders and are not obligated by Defcon5 to act in any particular way.
- Notification is best-effort — depending on device/settings, a guardian may only learn of a status change when they next open the app.
- A location trail is view-only in your own app during and shortly after an alert — there is no export/download feature, by design; see the Privacy Policy Section 5.1 for why.
6. Prohibited Uses
You may not use Defcon5 to: watch or track another person without their full, informed, uncoerced consent; obtain or use a share code without the account holder's knowing consent; harass, stalk, intimidate, or control another person; impersonate another person; or access another user's account or data without authorization.
Under French law, non-consensual tracking of a person via a geolocation device or application is a specific criminal offence (Article 226-4-1 and related provisions of the Code pénal concerning the collection of personal data and geolocation without consent), independent of and in addition to any action Unicorn United may take under these Terms. We may suspend or terminate accounts reasonably believed to violate this section, and may report conduct to French judicial authorities where required or appropriate.
7. The Under-Pressure ("Duress") Feature
Defcon5 includes a feature that outwardly displays a calm "all is well" screen on your own device while genuinely escalating your alert status to your real guardians in the background — see the Privacy Policy Section 6. You use this feature at your own judgment; Defcon5 cannot guarantee any outcome from its use — see Section 3.
8. Service Availability
We aim to keep the backend available but do not guarantee uninterrupted operation. Planned maintenance and unplanned outages can occur; given that this service is explicitly not an emergency service (Section 2) and not a guarantee of any outcome (Section 3), we do not offer an uptime service-level agreement.
9. Security And Hacking — No System Is Unhackable
We take security seriously and have implemented reasonable, industry-standard measures appropriate to the data we handle, including: passcodes and duress codes stored only as salted cryptographic hashes, never in plaintext; all communication encrypted in transit over HTTPS/TLS; restricted database access; and prompt patching of known vulnerabilities as we become aware of them.
However, no computer system connected to the internet is or can be made unhackable, and Defcon5 is no exception. You acknowledge and agree that:
- Unicorn United does not guarantee that Defcon5, its backend, or any data it holds will never be accessed, breached, or compromised by an unauthorized third party, however unlikely we work to make that.
- In the event of a security incident affecting personal data, we will follow our obligations under GDPR (including notifying the CNIL within 72 hours where required, per Article 33, and notifying affected users without undue delay where required, per Article 34) — see Privacy Policy Section 7.
- This disclaimer does not affect any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded under French law, including for a breach directly caused by Unicorn United's own gross negligence or intentional misconduct in failing to implement reasonable security measures — see Section 11.
10. Disclaimer Of Warranties
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY FRENCH LAW, WE DISCLAIM WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND REGARDING THE SERVICE'S FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE OPERATION, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY THAT THE SERVICE WILL PREVENT ANY PARTICULAR HARM OR OUTCOME (SEE SECTION 3). THIS DISCLAIMER DOES NOT AFFECT ANY STATUTORY WARRANTY OR GUARANTEE THAT CANNOT LAWFULLY BE EXCLUDED UNDER FRENCH CONSUMER LAW (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE STATUTORY GUARANTEE OF CONFORMITY UNDER ARTICLES L.217-3 ET SEQ. OF THE FRENCH CONSUMER CODE, WHERE APPLICABLE TO DIGITAL SERVICES), NOR ANY PROTECTION MANDATED BY THE LOCAL LAW OF A CONSUMER RESIDING OUTSIDE FRANCE UNDER SECTION 15.
11. Limitation Of Liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY FRENCH LAW, UNICORN UNITED SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: A GUARDIAN'S FAILURE TO RECEIVE, SEE, OR ACT ON AN ALERT; ANY OUTCOME RESULTING FROM RELIANCE ON DEFCON5 AS DESCRIBED IN SECTION 3; OR ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR BREACH OF DATA AS DESCRIBED IN SECTION 9, EXCEPT WHERE CAUSED BY UNICORN UNITED'S OWN GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR INTENTIONAL MISCONDUCT.
BY USING DEFCON5, YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND ACCEPT THAT THE SERVICE DOES NOT GUARANTEE YOUR SAFETY OR ANY PARTICULAR OUTCOME, AND THAT UNICORN UNITED'S LIABILITY FOR ANY FAILURE OF THE SERVICE TO PREVENT, DETECT, OR RESPOND TO AN ACTUAL EMERGENCY IS LIMITED AS SET OUT IN THIS SECTION AND SECTION 3.
NOTHING IN THESE TERMS EXCLUDES OR LIMITS UNICORN UNITED'S LIABILITY FOR: (A) DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY GROSS NEGLIGENCE ("FAUTE LOURDE") OR INTENTIONAL MISCONDUCT ("DOL"); OR (B) ANY OTHER LIABILITY THAT CANNOT LAWFULLY BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED UNDER FRENCH LAW, OR UNDER THE MANDATORY LOCAL LAW OF A CONSUMER RESIDING OUTSIDE FRANCE UNDER SECTION 15. French law does not permit a business to fully disclaim liability toward a consumer for gross negligence or intentional misconduct, and this clause is drafted to comply with that rule rather than override it.
[YOUR LAWYER SHOULD STILL REVIEW: the precise scope of "indirect damages" as drafted, and whether a liability cap (a maximum monetary amount) should be added — common practice, but the appropriate number and structure is a business decision requiring legal input specific to your risk tolerance and insurance coverage, which we cannot set for you.]
12. Termination
You may delete your account at any time through the app or via the web-based account deletion page. We may suspend or terminate accounts for violations of Section 6, or as otherwise permitted by law.
13. Changes To These Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified in-app and via the "Last updated" date above.
14. Governing Law And Jurisdiction — General Rule
These Terms are governed by French law. Any dispute will be submitted to the competent courts of Paris, France. This general rule is subject to the mandatory local-law savings clause in Section 15 for consumers residing outside France.
15. Mandatory Local Law Savings Clause
If you are a consumer residing outside France, nothing in these Terms is intended to deprive you of any mandatory protection you are entitled to under the law of your own country of residence, to the extent such law applies to Unicorn United's provision of the service to you and cannot be waived by agreement. Where a provision of these Terms conflicts with such a mandatory protection, the mandatory local protection prevails for that specific consumer, to that specific extent — the remainder of these Terms continues to apply.
Without limiting the general rule above, and by way of illustration only (this is not a complete list, and does not itself determine whether any given regime actually applies to you):
- European Union / EEA consumers (outside France): mandatory consumer-protection rules of your own EU/EEA member state of residence may apply in addition to French law, and you may be entitled to bring proceedings before the courts of your own country of residence instead of Paris, per Section 12's general acknowledgment and applicable EU consumer-protection and jurisdiction rules.
- United Kingdom consumers: UK consumer-protection law and UK GDPR may apply to our processing of your data and to these Terms as they affect you, to the extent required by UK law.
- California, United States consumers: if and to the extent the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA) applies to Unicorn United's processing of your data (which depends on statutory thresholds we do not currently meet, but may in the future), its requirements apply to that processing regardless of the choice of French law above.
- Canadian consumers: if and to the extent Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) or applicable provincial equivalent applies to Unicorn United's processing of your data, its requirements apply to that processing regardless of the choice of French law above.
[YOUR LAWYER SHOULD STILL REVIEW: this savings clause is drafted to be protective by default (deferring to mandatory local law rather than asserting French law overrides it), which is the safer posture for a small company without dedicated local counsel in each market — but the specific mechanics of how a French company complies with, e.g., CCPA or UK GDPR obligations in practice go beyond what a Terms clause alone can resolve, and should be confirmed against your actual user base as it grows.]
16. Contact
Unicorn United 6 rue d'Armaillé, 75017 Paris, France contact@unicorn-united.com
Open items for your lawyer before launch
- Section 11's liability clause states the mandatory French-law floor (cannot exclude liability for gross negligence/intentional misconduct) but does NOT yet include a liability cap (maximum monetary amount) — decide whether to add one, and at what level, based on your insurance and risk tolerance; this is a business decision needing legal drafting, not something to template.
- Confirm whether Unicorn United carries (or should obtain) professional/product liability insurance appropriate for a personal-safety application before launch — this matters more now that Sections 3 and 9 explicitly frame the app's limitations, since insurers will want to see consistent, accurate representations.
- Section 6's reference to Article 226-4-1 and related Code pénal provisions should be checked against the current text of the law at time of launch (French criminal law numbering and scope can be amended).
- If minors use the service via Parent Mode, confirm this Terms document (aimed at the account holder) should also reference or incorporate parental consent obligations consistent with Privacy Policy Section 8.
- Section 15 (mandatory local law savings clause) is drafted protectively but generically — confirm its specific mechanics against your actual and expected user base as it grows, particularly if you begin deliberately marketing into the UK, California, or Canada specifically.
- Consider adding an explicit "Emergency Services Disclaimer" acknowledgment checkbox during setup, not just text in the Terms — stronger evidence of informed consent for Sections 2 and 3.
- Sections 3 and 9 are drafted to be as protective as possible while staying within what French law allows a business to disclaim toward a consumer — have a lawyer confirm the exact wording holds up, since overly broad disclaimers can sometimes be read as void in their entirety under French consumer law rather than narrowed to what's lawful, which would be the opposite of the intended effect.