Pre-Launch & Test Stage Baseline
Terms & Conditions
Version: 1.0.0-test | Last Updated: September 24, 2026
1. Introduction & Agreement
These Terms & Conditions (“Terms”) constitute a legally binding agreement between you (“User,” “you,” or “your”) and the operator of the Ambinet smart-home project (“Ambinet,” “we,” “us,” or “our”).
These Terms govern your access to and use of our website (https://ambinet.org), mobile applications (“App”), cloud services, APIs, network message brokers, embedded firmware, and any pre-launch evaluation hardware (collectively, the “Ecosystem”).
By accessing the website, creating an Account, downloading the App, or connecting any Ambinet hardware, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you must not access or use the Ecosystem.
2. Pre-Launch & Evaluation Status
2.1 Test-Stage Nature: Ambinet is currently in active pre-launch development, validation, and testing. There is no generally available commercial product. Any hardware, firmware, or cloud features provided to testers are for evaluation, validation, and feedback purposes (“Test Products”).
2.2 As-Is Provision: Test Products and Cloud Services are provided strictly on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis. Features, cloud endpoints, and device capabilities may be modified, reset, suspended, or discontinued at any time without notice or liability.
2.3 No Commercial Guarantee: Participation in testing creates no obligation for Ambinet to release commercial products or maintain backward compatibility with test-edition hardware.
3. Eligibility & Account Security
3.1 Age Requirement: You must be at least 18 years of age (or the legal age of majority in your jurisdiction) and possess full legal capacity to enter into these Terms.
3.2 Account Credentials: You agree to provide accurate registration information (email address and username) and to maintain the security of your password. You are responsible for all activities occurring under your Account. Notify us immediately at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorized access.
3.3 Premises Authority: You represent that you own the premises where Hardware is installed, or have obtained explicit authorization from the property owner before performing any electrical installation.
Critical Electrical Safety Warning
Improper installation, faulty wiring, or tampering with high-voltage mains electricity (100–240 VAC) carries severe risks of electric shock, electrocution, electrical fire, personal injury, property damage, or death.
4. Electrical Safety & Mains Voltage Warnings
4.1 Licensed Electrician Required: In-wall Devices (such as Smart Dimmers and Smart Switches) connect directly to building electrical wiring. If you are not a fully qualified, licensed, and insured electrician, or if local building codes require licensed installation, YOU MUST HIRE A LICENSED ELECTRICIAN to install in-wall Hardware.
4.2 Code Compliance: All installations must strictly conform to applicable national, regional, and local electrical codes (e.g., National Electrical Code [NEC], Canadian Electrical Code [CEC], BS 7671, IEC 60364, AS/NZS 3000).
4.3 De-Energize Circuits: ALWAYS switch off power at the main electrical distribution panel (circuit breaker or fuse box) and verify with an appropriately rated voltage tester that the circuit is completely de-energized before installing, inspecting, or servicing Hardware.
4.4 Load Limits: Never exceed the voltage, current, and wattage ratings specified on the Device and its documentation. Do not connect high-current industrial appliances, space heaters, or incompatible motor loads to devices not rated for such loads.
4.5 Enclosures & Environment: In-wall Devices must always be enclosed inside a code-compliant, non-flammable junction box. Devices are rated for indoor residential use in dry environments unless explicitly marked with an outdoor Ingress Protection (IP) rating.
5. Prohibition of Life-Safety & Critical Use
Ambinet is designed solely for residential convenience and ambiance. YOU MUST NEVER USE AMBINET HARDWARE OR SERVICES TO OPERATE, POWER, MONITOR, OR CONTROL:
- Medical devices or life-support equipment (e.g., oxygen concentrators, ventilators, medical monitors);
- Emergency, fire, or life-safety systems (e.g., smoke alarms, fire suppression systems, emergency lighting);
- Any system or appliance where an outage, command failure, transmission delay, or unexpected state change could cause death, personal injury, environmental damage, or severe physical property damage.
6. Device Ownership & Cryptographic Pairing
6.1 Ownership Verification: Ambinet Devices utilize hardware-anchored cryptographic Proof-of-Possession challenge-response protocols during setup to confirm physical ownership before binding a Device to an Account.
6.2 Single Primary Owner: A Device can be claimed by only one Primary Account at a time. Transferring a Device requires unclaiming the Device in the App or performing a physical hardware factory reset.
7. Software & Firmware Licensing
7.1 Limited License: Ambinet grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to download the App and execute embedded Firmware solely on the physical Hardware unit on which it was provided.
7.2 Restrictions: Except to the extent permitted by mandatory law, you agree not to reverse engineer, decompile, or modify compiled binaries, or flash unauthorized firmware that could compromise electrical safety or system integrity.
7.3 Open Source: Open-source components are governed by their respective open-source licenses (e.g., Apache 2.0, MIT, BSD).
8. Automations, Schedules & Network Availability
8.1 Unattended Operation: Smart-home automations and timed schedules operate without human intervention. You are responsible for ensuring that automated switching does not create hazards (e.g., ensuring heat-generating appliances are never left plugged into automated outlets).
8.2 Network Dependency: The Ecosystem requires stable 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, internet connectivity, and power. Ambinet does not guarantee continuous uptime or uninterrupted cloud service.
8.3 Offline Operation: In the event of an internet or cloud outage, manual physical buttons on Hardware continue to operate locally where supported by hardware design.
9. Acceptable Use & Prohibited Activities
You agree not to use the Ecosystem for any unlawful purpose, probe or disrupt backend APIs or message brokers, attempt to forge cryptographic Proof-of-Possession tokens, alter physical hardware safety fuses, or use the Services to harass or surveil others.
10. Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability
10.1 Disclaimer of Warranties: EXCEPT AS REQUIRED BY MANDATORY CONSUMER PROTECTION LAW, ALL AMBINET HARDWARE, FIRMWARE, CLOUD SERVICES, APP, AND WEB PAGES ARE PROVIDED STRICTLY ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.
10.2 Limitation of Liability: TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL AMBINET, ITS MAINTAINERS, OPERATORS, OR EMPLOYEES BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PROPERTY DAMAGES ARISING FROM USE OF THE ECOSYSTEM. TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT ACTUALLY PAID BY YOU FOR THE SPECIFIC TEST PRODUCT OR SERVICE GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.
10.3 Statutory Rights: Non-excludable statutory rights under local consumer protection laws remain fully unaffected.
11. Governing Law & Contact
These Terms are governed by general commercial principles and the laws of the designated operating jurisdiction upon commercial launch, preserving all mandatory local consumer protection rights. For questions or notices, contact [email protected].
Pre-Launch & Test Stage Baseline
Privacy Policy
Version: 1.0.0-test | Last Updated: September 24, 2026
1. Privacy Philosophy & Overview
Ambinet (https://ambinet.org) develops smart-home hardware, mobile applications, and cloud systems designed for secure, private residential automation.
Our architecture is built on strict data minimization and hardware-anchored privacy:
- We do NOT collect, record, or store your physical GPS location.
- We do NOT sell, rent, or trade your personal information or household energy telemetry.
- We do NOT deploy third-party advertising tracking cookies across the web.
- We collect only the minimum data required to authenticate your account, secure your devices, and execute your smart-home commands.
2. Scope & Operator
This Privacy Policy applies to personal data processed through our website, mobile application, cloud services, APIs, network message brokers, and connected smart-home devices. For all privacy inquiries, contact [email protected].
3. Information We Process
3.1 Account Information: When you register, we collect your email address, username, full name, and password credentials. Passwords are saved exclusively as a salted, one-way cryptographic hash (Argon2id). We never receive, log, or store your plaintext password.
3.2 Hardware Identifiers: To authenticate and route commands to Devices, our database stores device MAC addresses, serial numbers, hardware models, firmware version strings, and factory NIST P-256 public keys used for Proof-of-Possession claiming.
3.3 Relational Configuration: User-defined labels for homes and rooms (e.g., “Living Room”) and device assignments to specific zones.
3.4 Operational Device Telemetry: Real-time operational states (relay on/off, dimmer brightness, fault codes), network signal metrics (RSSI), and electrical measurements (voltage, current, active power, line frequency, power factor, energy). Operational telemetry is routed ephemerally through our secure message broker in real time and is not stored in permanent historical time-series databases unless explicit logging features are enabled by you.
3.5 Technical Connection Logs: Web servers temporarily record standard technical logs: client IP address, request endpoint, User-Agent header, timestamps, and server response status.
4. Location & Device Permissions
4.1 OS Bluetooth Discovery Requirement: When setting up an Ambinet device via our mobile app, the mobile operating system (Android or iOS) may display a prompt requesting access to Location or Nearby Devices. Modern mobile platforms require this permission purely for local Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) scanning and Wi-Fi handoff.
4.2 Zero GPS Storage Invariant: The App uses Bluetooth strictly locally on your mobile device during pairing. Ambinet does NOT read, record, track, transmit, or store your physical GPS coordinates, latitude/longitude, or location history.
4.3 On-Device Biometrics & Camera: Biometric authentication (Fingerprint / Face ID) and QR-code camera scanning occur strictly locally on your mobile device. Biometric templates and camera feeds are never transmitted to Ambinet servers.
5. Information We Do NOT Collect
- No Audio or Video Recording: Ambinet smart plugs, dimmers, and switches contain no microphones or cameras.
- No Biometric Storage: We do not collect or store fingerprint or facial recognition data.
- No Mandatory Street Address: Operating Ambinet devices does not require providing your residential street address.
- No Data Brokering: We never sell user data to third-party data brokers or marketing networks.
6. Website Cookies & Analytics Status
6.1 Website Cookies: Our website uses only strictly necessary session tokens and local theme preferences. We do not deploy third-party advertising cookies.
6.2 Analytics Status: Ambinet does not currently run active third-party analytics trackers. If privacy-respecting client analytics are introduced in future releases to improve software stability, they will operate on aggregated or pseudonymous identifiers and will provide an in-app opt-out mechanism.
7. Purposes & Legal Bases
Where data protection laws (such as the EU GDPR or UK GDPR) apply, we process data under Contractual Necessity (Art. 6(1)(b)) for account management and device control; Legitimate Interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) for infrastructure security and abuse prevention; and Legal Obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) for statutory compliance.
8. Data Retention & Immediate Account Deletion
8.1 Retention: Account credentials and device bindings are retained for as long as your Account remains active.
8.2 Immediate Account Deletion: When you delete your Account in the App (via Settings -> Delete Account) or email [email protected], our backend executes an immediate hard cascading deletion in our production database: your user record is permanently purged, all claimed devices are automatically unlinked and reset, and active authentication tokens are revoked.
8.3 Server Logs & Backups: Technical server access logs containing IP addresses are rotated and deleted within 30 to 90 days. Static database disaster-recovery backups overwrite data over standard rotation cycles.
9. Security Safeguards
We implement technical security controls including Transport Layer Security (TLS 1.2/1.3) encryption in transit for HTTPS and MQTTS (port 8883), hardware-anchored NIST P-256 cryptographic identity verification, Argon2id salted password hashing, and role-based backend access controls.
10. Your Privacy Rights
Depending on your jurisdiction of residence (including the European Union, United Kingdom, and California), you may have statutory rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict processing of your personal data, or lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. To exercise any privacy right, email [email protected] with the subject line “Privacy Request.”
11. Contact Information
For privacy inquiries, data subject requests, or security notices, please contact: