These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of Ella, the AI companion web application operated by Protogrove LLC (“Protogrove,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service. During account registration, you will be required to provide your date of birth, which we use solely to verify that you meet the minimum age requirement. We do not store your date of birth after verification is complete.
If we discover or have reason to believe that a user is under 18, we will suspend that account and delete its associated data promptly. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has created an account, please contact us immediately at protogrove@yahoo.com and we will delete the account and all associated data within 5 business days.
By creating an account, you represent and warrant that you are 18 years of age or older and that all information you provide during registration is accurate.
Ella is powered by large language models and other AI services. Her responses are generated by software and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent. We make no guarantee that Ella’s responses are factually correct or appropriate for any particular purpose.
You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials. You must notify us immediately at protogrove@yahoo.com if you suspect unauthorized access to your account. We are not liable for losses resulting from unauthorized use of your account due to your failure to maintain credential security.
You may not create more than one account or create an account on behalf of another person without their consent.
You agree not to use the Service to:
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules, at our sole discretion.
You retain ownership of the messages, photos, and other content you submit to the Service (“Your Content”). By submitting content, you grant Protogrove a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, store, process, and display Your Content solely as necessary to provide the Service and to make technical improvements to the Service’s infrastructure, reliability, and performance. For the avoidance of doubt, this license does not permit Protogrove to use Your Content to train, fine-tune, or otherwise develop machine learning or AI models, and we will not do so without your explicit consent.
You represent and warrant that Your Content does not infringe the intellectual property, privacy, or other rights of any third party, and that you have all necessary rights to grant the license above.
Images, responses, and other content generated by Ella (“Generated Content”) are produced by AI models. We do not guarantee the originality, accuracy, or fitness for any purpose of Generated Content. You may use Generated Content for personal, non-commercial purposes. You acknowledge that Generated Content may be similar to content generated for other users.
Our collection and use of your personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.
The Service relies on third-party providers including Anthropic (Claude API), Google (Gemini API, Firebase), Hyperspell, and Render. Your use of the Service is subject to the terms and privacy policies of these providers where applicable. We are not responsible for the practices of third-party services.
Anthropic and Google process your messages through their commercial APIs to generate responses. Per their respective commercial API terms, they do not use API inputs to train their AI models.
We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time, with or without notice. We will not be liable to you for any modification, suspension, or discontinuation of the Service.
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, PROTOGROVE LLC AND ITS MEMBERS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIMS ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU HAVE PAID TO US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS PRIOR TO THE CLAIM OR (B) ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100).
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Protogrove LLC and its members, officers, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with your use of the Service, Your Content, or your violation of these Terms.
The Service is intended for use by residents of the United States. These Terms are governed by the laws of the state of Oregon, United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms or the Service shall be resolved by binding arbitration administered by JAMS (Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services) under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules, or if JAMS is unavailable, in the state or federal courts located in Oregon. You waive any right to a jury trial or to participate in a class action lawsuit.
We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by posting the updated Terms on this page with a new “Last updated” date and, where appropriate, by email. Continued use of the Service after changes become effective constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.
You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time for any reason, including if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms. Upon termination, the provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive will survive, including Sections 5, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
We prohibit unauthorized security testing of the Service. If you discover a potential security vulnerability, please report it responsibly to us at protogrove@yahoo.com with subject line “Security Disclosure” before any public disclosure. We will acknowledge receipt within 3 business days and work to address confirmed vulnerabilities promptly.