Terms of Service & Forfeit Consent
By creating an account or setting up a stake, you agree to these terms. Please read the forfeit mechanics carefully — real money can be charged.
1. What CaughtShipping is
CaughtShipping is a voluntary commitment device. You declare your own downtime hours. If you use a watched app during your downtime and don't stop within the grace period, that counts as a "violation." CaughtShipping is designed to help you keep a promise to yourself — it never forces, blocks, or controls your device. We watch and judge; we do not control.
2. Stakes, holds, and charges (read this)
- Stakes are optional and you set the amount, including $0 (Honor mode). Honor mode never involves payment.
- There is no wallet, deposit, or stored balance. We never hold your money in an account.
- If you opt into a monetary stake, you authorize a payment method through our payment processor (Stripe). At the start of a downtime window we may place a temporary pre-authorization hold (an authorization, not a charge) on that payment method.
- On a clean night, the hold is released and you are not charged.
- On a violation, the hold is captured — i.e., you are charged — up to your configured stake and the caps below.
- Caps (maximums we will ever charge): default stake $5 per violation, $20 per night maximum, $60 per month maximum. You may set your stake lower. We will never capture more than these caps.
- By setting up a stake, you expressly consent to these pre-authorization holds and to the capture of your stake amount (up to the caps) when a violation is detected, without further confirmation at the time of capture.
3. Fairness guardrails
Because our revenue comes from forfeited stakes, we make fairness a built-in feature, not a promise:
- You set your own stake (including $0).
- Full detection transparency — you can see exactly what triggered a violation.
- Two free emergency overrides per month — cancel a countdown with no charge, no roast, no record.
- Per-night and per-month caps (above).
- Lenient by default; strict mode is opt-in.
4. How a violation is detected (and your privacy)
We detect violations from lightweight event metadata only: which watched app came to the foreground, timestamps, and durations, during your declared downtime, after your grace period. We never collect window titles, file names, URLs, keystrokes, screenshots, or any continuous activity stream. Screen-locked and sleeping time counts as clean. This privacy promise is core to the product.
5. Refunds, first-offense grace, and disputes
- First-ever capture: your first-ever forfeit is eligible for a one-click, no-questions refund via the link in your receipt email.
- You may dispute any capture by contacting [email protected]; we aim to resolve fairly and quickly.
- Receipts include the evidence (app category, time, grace given) for every capture.
6. No pooled or peer stakes
Stakes are solo. Forfeited amounts are paid to the service only. There are no pooled stakes, no bets against other users, and no payouts to users.
7. Public walls (opt-in)
The Wall of Rest (streak leaderboard) and the Caught Shipping blotter (broken promises) are strictly opt-in, per wall. You choose whether to appear. Roast copy targets the broken promise, never your competence or worth, and contains no profanity. You can opt out at any time; opting out removes you going forward.
8. Your data and account deletion
We store only event metadata, your account email, your chosen public handle (if any), and payment-processor identifiers (never your card details). You may request account deletion at any time; we purge your public history, falls, cards, and personal data within 24 hours.
9. Changes, governing law, and disclaimers
- We may update these terms; material changes will be communicated before they affect you.
- Governing law and venue: England and Wales.
- The service is provided "as is," without warranties. To the maximum extent permitted by English law, our aggregate liability is limited to the amounts you were charged in the prior 12 months.
- Nothing here requires you to do anything unlawful; CaughtShipping simply observes your self-declared schedule.