Terms of Service

About these terms

Last updated: October 1, 2026. Effective when published.

These terms govern your use of reading-lite at readinglite.ai and readinglite.app, a personal reading archive operated by Brian Bell ("we", "us"). By creating an account or using the service, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the service. Contact us at operator@readinglite.app.

Your account

You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into this agreement. Use an email address you control, protect your sign-in links and API tokens, and tell us promptly if you believe someone has accessed your account without permission. You are responsible for the activity you authorize through your account.

You can manage your sessions, API tokens, email address, and notification preferences on the Security page. Access may be subject to invitations, usage limits, or other restrictions shown in the service.

What the service does

The service saves copies of articles and documents you submit, creates AI-generated summaries and search information, and helps you find related material in your archive. Your archive is not published as a public website. Our Privacy policy explains how we process and share information to provide these features.

AI-generated summaries, labels, and connections may be incomplete or wrong. Check important information against the original source. Outputs are not professional advice, and the service is not a substitute for your own backup. Some websites cannot be imported, and access to third-party sources may change.

Your content and permission to process it

You retain any rights you hold in the material you submit. Third-party material remains the property of its respective rights holders. Saving or summarizing a work does not give you ownership of it or permission to redistribute it.

You grant us a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free permission to retrieve, copy, store, process, and display your submissions, and to create summaries and search representations, solely to operate and maintain the service for you. This permission extends to service providers performing those tasks for us and lasts only as needed for those purposes, including the retention and deletion process described in Privacy.

You must have the rights or other lawful authority needed for that processing. Do not submit material that infringes copyright or privacy rights, bypass access restrictions, compromise another account, interfere with the service, or evade usage limits. Private storage does not by itself make copying lawful.

Your own AI provider key

Some accounts process readings with an OpenAI API key you connect on the Provider page. When yours does, the requests that summarize and index your readings are made with your key and charged to your OpenAI account under your own agreement with OpenAI. We do not pay for those requests or refund them, and we never fall back to another key when yours is missing or refused.

You are responsible for keeping your key valid and funded and for the charges made through it, including requests already sent when you remove or replace it, which may still finish and be charged. We use your key only to process your own readings. The daily spending limit on the Provider page is our own estimate, checked before we send requests; it is not a limit OpenAI enforces, and you can set limits in your OpenAI account as well. Usage limits we set for hosting apply whoever pays.

Suspension and ending use

You may stop using the service at any time and request deletion as described in Privacy. We may restrict access or remove material to address violations of these terms, security risks, unlawful activity, or legal requirements. We terminate accounts of repeat copyright infringers in appropriate circumstances.

We may change or discontinue this beta service. Where reasonably practicable, we will give advance notice of a discontinuation or a material restriction on your account; urgent security or legal concerns may require immediate action.

Availability and responsibility

To the extent permitted by law, the service is provided as is and as available, without warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement. We do not guarantee uninterrupted operation, accurate outputs, or preservation of every saved item.

To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential losses arising from use of the service. Nothing in these terms excludes liability for fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, or any liability or consumer right that applicable law does not allow us to exclude or limit.

Changes and questions

We may revise these terms as the service changes. We will update the date above and give notice through the service or email before material changes take effect. Your continued use after the effective date means you accept the revised terms, subject to any consent required by law.

If you have a concern or dispute, contact operator@readinglite.app so we can try to resolve it. These terms do not require arbitration or waive your right to bring a claim in a court with jurisdiction. If a provision cannot be enforced, the remaining provisions continue to apply.