Terms of Service

Version 1.0 · Effective June 1, 2026

This is the current Terms of Service. The frozen version that the Red Thread Android app links to is /legal/v1.0/terms.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and Red Thread, operated by kobbo, based in New Jersey, United States ("we", "us"). They govern your use of the Red Thread mobile application and the website at redthread.social (together, the "Service").

By creating an account or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, don't use Red Thread.

1. Eligibility

• You must be at least 18 years old. Red Thread is for adults. We collect your date of birth at signup and reject accounts under 18. Misrepresenting your age is a breach of these Terms.
• You must be legally allowed to enter contracts in your jurisdiction.
• One person, one account. You may not maintain multiple Red Thread accounts. If your account has been suspended or banned, you may not create a new account to evade enforcement.
• You're using the Service for yourself. Not on behalf of an employer, not as part of a service to others, and not as part of an automated agent or bot.

2. Your account

• You're responsible for everything that happens under your account. Keep your credentials secure and don't share them.
• You must give us accurate information at signup. Catfishing, using someone else's photos or impersonating another person, is grounds for immediate termination.
• You can pause matching, delete photos, or delete your account at any time inside the app, or use the web deletion form.
• If you suspect unauthorized use of your account, email safety@redthread.social immediately.

3. The Service and the judge mechanic

Red Thread surfaces candidate pairs to the community, who vote on whether each pairing makes sense. When enough yes votes accumulate and both daters opt in, a chat opens. The full mechanic is documented at redthread.social/how-it-works.

By using the Service you understand that:

• Your profile is visible to other users for voting. Other users see your photos, your match bio, and your judge bio when you appear in a candidate pair. This is core to how Red Thread works. See the privacy policy for the full disclosure.
• Match outcomes are not guaranteed. The Service does not promise that you will receive any specific number of matches, or any matches at all. We don't guarantee the quality, intentions, identity, or safety of any other user.
• We may change the Service. We may add, remove, or change features at any time. We may add or remove paid features. We may pause the Service for maintenance.

4. Your content and license

"Your Content" means anything you submit to Red Thread: photos, profile text, judge bio, messages, votes, reports, anything you send through the contact form, and anything else you post or transmit through the Service.

You retain ownership of Your Content. Red Thread does not claim ownership of your photos, your bio, or your messages.

To run the Service, you grant Red Thread a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable license to host, store, reproduce, display, modify (for formatting and moderation purposes), and distribute Your Content on the Service, for the limited purpose of operating, providing, and improving Red Thread. This license lasts only as long as Your Content is on the Service and ends when you delete that Content or your account, except as needed to comply with law, defend a legal claim, or as preserved in encrypted backups that rotate out within 90 days.

You represent that:

• You own Your Content or have the rights to submit it.
• Your Content does not violate anyone else's rights (copyright, privacy, publicity, or otherwise).
• Your photos depict you. No one else's photos. No AI-generated likenesses passed off as yours. No images of children. No celebrity photos.

5. Acceptable conduct

Use Red Thread the way you'd want others to use it. Be honest in your profile, vote in good faith as a judge, treat conversations with respect, and don't try to break the system. Specific community expectations live in our Community Guidelines.

6. Prohibited behavior

You may not:

• Harass, threaten, or abuse any other user, on the platform or off it.
• Discriminate against users based on race, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected characteristic.
• Send sexual content without explicit, ongoing consent from the recipient. Unsolicited explicit images are an immediate ban.
• Impersonate anyone, real or fictional. No fake profiles. No stolen photos.
• Solicit money, gifts, crypto, or anything of value. No romance scams. No business solicitation. No promoting OnlyFans, escort services, or similar.
• Promote violence or illegal activity, including hate speech, terrorism, weapons sales, or trafficking.
• Endanger minors in any way. This is treated as severely as the law allows.
• Use the Service if you're under 18, or help anyone under 18 access it.
• Use automation to scrape, bot, brute force, vote, message, sign up, or otherwise interact with the Service. No fake votes. No vote rings. No engagement farms.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to derive source code from the Service except where law expressly permits.
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service, or breach security or authentication. Coordinated security disclosures via security@redthread.social are welcomed.
• Use the Service if you are on a U.S. sex offender registry, or if applicable law prohibits you from using a dating service.
• Resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit any part of the Service.
• Evade enforcement. If we ban your account, you may not create a new one. If we ban your IP or device, you may not circumvent that.

7. Enforcement, suspension, and termination

We may issue warnings, temporarily suspend, or permanently terminate any account that violates these Terms or the Community Guidelines, with or without prior notice. We may also remove Content that violates the rules. For severe violations, especially anything endangering minors, threats of violence, or coordinated abuse, we will act immediately and may cooperate with law enforcement.

You may terminate your account at any time by deleting it from inside the app or by using the web deletion form. After deletion we keep the limited records described in the privacy policy retention section.

8. Safety, off-platform meetings, and your responsibility

Red Thread is a service for meeting people. Once you start talking to a match, and especially if you decide to meet in person, you are responsible for your own safety. We do not conduct background checks on users.

You agree:

• You take all reasonable precautions when communicating with other users.
• You are solely responsible for your interactions and any in-person meetings.
• You will report behavior that violates these Terms using the in-app reporting flow or by emailing safety@redthread.social.
• If you are the victim of a crime committed by someone you met through Red Thread, you should contact law enforcement.

9. Purchases (when offered)

The Service is currently free to use. If we introduce paid features in the future, additional terms specific to those features will be presented and accepted at purchase. Refunds for purchases made through the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store are handled by those platforms under their respective policies.

10. Third-party services

Red Thread runs on top of services from Google (Firebase, Cloud Storage, Cloud Vision, Cloud Functions, FCM, Play Integrity) and relies on FormSubmit for our website forms. Your interaction with those services through Red Thread is also governed by their respective terms. We are not responsible for third-party services we link to or that other users link to from inside the Service.

11. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR FREE, SECURE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. WE DO NOT WARRANT THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR QUALITY OF ANY CONTENT OR INFORMATION AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICE, INCLUDING ANYTHING POSTED OR SAID BY OTHER USERS. MATCH OUTCOMES ARE NOT GUARANTEED.

12. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL RED THREAD, KOBBO, OR THEIR OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, OR DATA, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS OR YOUR USE OF (OR INABILITY TO USE) THE SERVICE.

IN NO EVENT WILL OUR TOTAL LIABILITY EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU HAVE PAID US IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE LIABILITY, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100). SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES; IN THOSE JURISDICTIONS, OUR LIABILITY WILL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Red Thread, kobbo, and their officers, employees, and affiliates from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to your use of the Service, Your Content, or your breach of these Terms.

14. Dispute resolution and arbitration

14.1 Informal resolution

Before filing a formal claim, you agree to first contact us at legal@redthread.social and try to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days.

14.2 Binding arbitration

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service that cannot be resolved informally will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The arbitration will be held in the state of New Jersey, United States, or such other location as the parties agree. Judgment on the arbitrator's award may be entered in any court having jurisdiction.

14.3 Class action waiver

You and Red Thread each agree that any dispute will be resolved only on an individual basis and not on a class, consolidated, or representative basis. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of representative or class proceeding.

14.4 Opt-out

You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice to legal@redthread.social within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. The notice must include your account email and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration.

14.5 Exceptions

Either party may bring claims of intellectual property infringement, or seek injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction for misuse of the Service, outside of arbitration. Either party may also bring qualifying claims in small-claims court.

15. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey, United States, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. Subject to Section 14 (Arbitration), any judicial action arising under these Terms will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in New Jersey, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

16. Changes to the Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes are accompanied by a version bump and a frozen snapshot at /legal/v{version}/terms. When a material change happens, we will notify you in-app and give you a chance to review and re-accept before the new version takes effect.

Continued use of the Service after the effective date of a new version constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

17. General terms

• Entire agreement. These Terms and the documents linked from them (Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines, any feature-specific terms) make up the entire agreement between you and Red Thread.
• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, the rest remain in effect.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce a right or provision is not a waiver of that right or provision.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms. We may assign them to an affiliate, successor, or acquirer.
• Force majeure. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

18. Contact

• Email: legal@redthread.social
• Safety: safety@redthread.social
• Support: redthread.social/support
• Postal: kobbo, New Jersey, United States (full mailing address available on request)