Terms of service for NFC.cool Tools and nfc.cool

Who we are and what these terms cover

These terms are an agreement between you and Nicolo Stanciu, trading as NFC.cool, Rua Carminé Nobre 6, 3040-193 Coimbra, Portugal, NIF PT315901934, phone +351 925 378 989, email info (at) nfc (dot) cool (“NFC.cool”, “we”, “us”). They cover:

• the NFC.cool Tools app for iPhone and iPad, from the App Store, and for Android, from Google Play ("the app");
• the website at nfc.cool, including its guides, its blog and the tools that work in your browser, such as the online NFC reader ("the website").

In these terms, “the service” means both. NFC.cool Business Card has its own terms, and so do business card accounts you use in the app: see Business card accounts.

These terms apply when you use the app or the website, and to every purchase you make in the app. If you got the app from the App Store or Google Play, the store’s terms apply as well: see Your content and our software. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not use the service.

You must be at least 16 to use the app. If you are under 18, you need a parent’s or guardian’s permission to buy Platinum.

What the app does

NFC.cool Tools is a toolkit for NFC tags, codes and scans. With it you can:

• read and write NFC tags, including tags protected by a password or by keys;
• scan QR codes and barcodes, and make QR codes;
• scan documents;
• read the chip in a passport or an ID card;
• make 3D scans of objects and rooms;
• send the data of a tag you scan to a web address you choose (a webhook);
• make a link that takes people to the page where they can review a business on Google;
• earn Game Center achievements, on iPhone and iPad.

Text recognition in scanned documents, the titles the app suggests for them, and the reading of passports and ID cards all happen on your device.

The app shows which features are free and which need Platinum. Not every feature is available on every platform, and some work only on devices that support them, for example tag reading and writing on a phone with NFC.

The website and the newsletter

You can read the website and use its browser tools for free, without an account.

• Guides. Our guides explain how NFC and the app work in general. Your device or your tags may behave differently, so test a setup before you rely on it, for example before you write a large batch of tags.
• Links to other sites. The website links to other websites and shops. Their owners are responsible for them. Some links to shops, such as Amazon, are affiliate links: if you buy something after following one, we may earn a commission. You pay the same price.
• Newsletter. You can sign up for our newsletter on the website or in the app. We then email you news about NFC.cool, such as new features and guides. You can unsubscribe at any time with the link in each email. The privacy policy explains how we handle your email address.

Ads in the free version

The free version of the app can show ads, served by Google AdMob. The app requests ads only after Google’s consent tool has checked whether it needs your choice, and asks you where it does. The privacy policy explains what that choice covers. Platinum removes the ads.

An ad leads to the advertiser’s own offer. If you buy something from an advertiser, that is a contract between you and them. If you see an ad that looks illegal or misleading, tell us at info (at) nfc (dot) cool and we will look into it.

Platinum and other purchases

Platinum unlocks the app’s premium features and removes the ads. What it includes, its price and its billing period are shown in the app and in the store before you buy.

Buying through the App Store or Google Play

You buy Platinum in the app, through the App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google takes the payment, and their terms govern billing, renewal, cancellation and refunds:

• the price and the billing period are shown in the store before you buy;
• a subscription, weekly, monthly or yearly, renews automatically at the end of each period until you cancel it in your App Store or Google Play account settings;
• deleting the app does not cancel a subscription;
• refunds, including any right of withdrawal, are handled by Apple or Google under their own rules. To ask for one, use Apple's Report a Problem page or Google Play's refund page.

This does not affect your rights under consumer law, including the legal guarantee that the app works as described. If something is wrong with the app, contact us and we will put it right.

Free trials

Some subscriptions start with a free trial of 3 or 7 days. The store shows the length of the trial, and the price you pay after it, before you start. When the trial ends, the subscription starts and you are charged, unless you cancelled it before then. Apple asks you to cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends.

Lifetime purchases

A lifetime purchase is paid once and does not renew. It gives you Platinum for as long as we offer the app.

Purchases we no longer sell

If you bought an earlier one-off unlock that we no longer sell, it keeps what it was sold with.

Restoring your purchases

A purchase belongs to the Apple ID or Google account you bought it with. If you reinstall the app, or use it on another device with the same account, you can restore your purchases in the app.

Offers and promotions

We sometimes offer Platinum at a lower price, or free for a limited time, for example through an offer code you redeem in the app or in the store, or through a promotion in the app. What an offer gives you, and for how long, is shown in the app or in the store. If an offer leads into a paid subscription, the store shows the price and when it starts, and the subscription then renews like any other until you cancel it.

Price changes

We may change the price of Platinum for a valid reason, such as a change in our costs, in taxes or in what Platinum includes. A new price applies to a running subscription only from a later renewal. Apple or Google tell you before it applies, and ask for your consent where their rules require it. You can cancel before the new price applies. A price change never affects a purchase you have already paid for.

Business card accounts

If you already have an NFC.cool business card account, you can sign in to it in the app and use it there. New business card accounts are made in the NFC.cool Business Card app.

Your business card account, the cards you make with it, and the contacts people leave on them through a card’s contact form, are covered by the Business Card terms and the Business Card privacy policy, not by these terms.

Writing to NFC tags

Some changes you can make to a tag cannot be undone:

• Locking. Locking a tag makes it read-only for good. Nobody can change it after that, including you.
• Passwords and keys. If you protect a tag with a password, or set or change its keys, only that password or those keys can change it again. If you lose them, the tag may become unusable. We cannot recover them for you.

Before you lock a tag or set a password or a key, check what you wrote, and keep the password or key somewhere safe. Write only to tags you own or are allowed to change.

You are responsible for the changes you choose to make to a tag. If the app writes something other than what you chose, or does not work as described, the legal guarantee applies: see Warranty and liability.

How you may use the app and the website

Use the service lawfully and in a way that does not harm other people. In particular, do not:

• use it for anything illegal, or to harm, deceive or spy on other people;
• read, copy or change tags or cards you are not allowed to, such as other people's access cards, tickets or payment cards;
• read someone else's passport or ID card without their permission;
• write tags or make QR codes that lead people to phishing, malware or scams, or that infringe other people's rights;
• use webhooks to send data you have no right to send, to send it to systems you are not allowed to use, or to flood a server with requests;
• use the review link to get fake reviews, or in any way that breaks Google's rules for reviews;
• get around the checks that unlock Platinum, or use a modified copy of the app;
• try to get into our systems or into data that is not yours, or probe or get around our security;
• copy, decompile or reverse engineer the app, except as far as the law allows you to;
• copy the website in bulk by automated means to republish it, or put an unreasonable load on it. Search engines and other crawlers that follow our robots.txt are welcome.

If someone seriously breaks these rules, or the law requires it, we may block their access to the website, or to the features of the app that run on our servers, as far as that is needed to stop it.

You can stop using the service at any time. To stop paying, cancel your subscription in your store account settings.

Your content and our software

• Your content stays yours. We claim no rights in what you scan, write or make with the app.
• Our software stays ours. The app, the website and their design and texts are ours or our licensors'. We give you a personal, non-transferable right to use the app under these terms and the store's licence. You may quote the website as the law allows, with a link to the source.
• App stores. If you got the app from the App Store, Apple's standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement also applies to the app. It is the licence that the app's "Terms of use" link opens on iPhone and iPad. If you got the app from Google Play, Google Play's terms apply to the download and to purchases. The store's terms cover your right to use the app and the purchase itself, and these terms add the rest. Apple and Google are not parties to these terms and are not responsible for the app or its support. Questions and claims about the app come to us.
• Feedback. If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them without owing you anything.

Availability and changes to the service

We work to keep the app and the website running well, but we cannot promise they will always be available or free of errors. We sometimes need to interrupt the website for maintenance or to fix problems. Features that use the internet, such as webhooks and business card accounts, need a connection.

Parts of the service depend on others: Apple and Google for the app, purchases and system features such as NFC, Google for ads, and the services you connect, such as the address a webhook sends to. We choose our providers with care. If you use the service for your business, we are not liable for their outages or decisions that we could not reasonably prevent or work around.

We improve the app and may change or remove features for a valid reason, such as a change in technology, in the law or in what Apple, Google or our other providers offer, at no extra cost to you. If a change takes away more than a minor part of what Platinum includes, we say so on this website and in the app’s update notes in the store before it applies. You can then cancel your subscription, and you keep the rights consumer law gives you.

If we stop offering the app, we announce it on this website at least 60 days before. Subscriptions then stop renewing, and Apple or Google handle any refund. Your rights under consumer law are not affected.

Warranty and liability

If you are a consumer, you keep every right that mandatory consumer law gives you, including the legal guarantee that the service conforms to the contract (Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2021). Nothing in these terms limits those rights or our liability to you under the law.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for damage we cause intentionally or through gross negligence, whether ourselves or through the people and providers we work with, for death, personal injury or damage to health, for damage to property outside the contract, or for anything else the law does not allow us to exclude or limit.

If you use the service for your business, then, apart from that and as far as the law allows:

• we are not liable for indirect loss, such as lost profits or lost business, or for loss of data you could have kept with a backup or an export;
• our total liability in any 12 months is limited to the higher of what you paid for the service in those 12 months and EUR 100.

If you use the service for your business and someone makes a claim against us because of how you used it, for example what you wrote to tags or sent through a webhook, you cover our reasonable costs of that claim, as far as you are responsible for it.

Changes to these terms

We may change these terms for a valid reason: a change to the service, to the law or to a decision of a court or authority, or to protect users or the service. We publish the new version on this page, with the date it applies from at the top.

A change never takes away anything you have already paid for, such as the rest of a subscription period or a lifetime purchase, and never raises a price you have already paid. If a change reduces your rights, it applies to a running subscription only from its next renewal, so you can cancel before then. Other changes apply from the date at the top of this page.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by Portuguese law. If you are a consumer living in another country, you also keep the protection of the mandatory laws of that country.

If a dispute arises, write to us first: most problems can be solved that way. Courts in Coimbra, Portugal, decide disputes with business customers. If you are a consumer, you can also go to the courts where you live.

If you are a consumer, you can also bring a dispute with us to a consumer arbitration centre. For disputes up to EUR 5,000, we must take part if you choose this path. The centres competent for us are:

• Centro de Arbitragem de Conflitos de Consumo do Distrito de Coimbra (CACCDC), www.centrodearbitragemdecoimbra.com;
• Centro Nacional de Informação e Arbitragem de Conflitos de Consumo (CNIACC), www.cniacc.pt.

The Direção-Geral do Consumidor lists all consumer arbitration centres at consumidor.gov.pt. You can also file a complaint in the electronic complaints book, the Livro de Reclamações.

Other terms

• If a court finds part of these terms invalid, the rest stays in force.
• If we do not enforce a right straight away, we do not give it up.
• We transfer this agreement to someone else only as the law allows.
• For business customers, these terms and the store's terms are the whole agreement about the service. Our privacy policy explains how we handle personal data. It is information, not part of this agreement.

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