Terms of use
Plain terms for an early-access network.
Using SparkUp means accepting what follows. It is written to be read; if something here is unclear, ask us before you rely on it.
Early access
SparkUp is not a finished product. Connections can fail, features can change, and there is no uptime commitment. Do not use it for anything where an interruption would cause harm.
The connection you may share
- Share only a connection you are entitled to share: the internet service in your own home, on an account held by you or your household.
- Not an employer’s or a school’s network. Not a hotel, café, airport or coworking network. Not a neighbour’s, and not any network whose owner has not agreed to it. Sharing one of those can cost you your job or your place, and the owner never consented.
- The relay rung is the exception to the household rule. A relay forwards encrypted packets and nothing leaves the internet from your address, so a server or a VPS is a fine place to run one.
- Check what your internet provider allows. Some contracts forbid sharing the service outside the household; that agreement is between you and them.
Credit is not money
- Credit is an allowance to use the network. It cannot be bought, sold, transferred between accounts or cashed out.
- Rates are published and change gradually, not overnight.
- Nothing inside a Circle is charged or earned.
- Credit may be adjusted or removed where it came from a fault or from an attempt to game the accounting.
Metering and credit
- Usage is metered at both ends and both ends sign their reports. Do not interfere with that: no modified clients, no forged or replayed reports, no agreement with the other end to under-report or over-report, and no interfering with the checks that verify a node’s numbers.
- We may freeze, adjust or revoke credit — including credit already earned — where it came from a fault, from tampering with the metering, or from an account that broke these terms.
- When we do, we tell you which term was broken, and you can contest it by writing to contact@sparkupco.net. The decision stands while we look at it.
How you may use the network
- Not for anything illegal where you are, where the exit is, or where the traffic lands.
- Not to attack, scan, overload or interfere with other people’s systems.
- Not to resell access, and not to route someone else’s commercial traffic through the network.
- Not to work around another member’s limits, or to misrepresent who you are.
- In particular, none of these: attacks, scanning or overload of other people’s systems; spam or bulk unsolicited messaging; credential stuffing, account takeover or mass automated account creation; payment fraud; distributing malware or hosting phishing; and anything involving child sexual abuse material.
- Community exits block peer-to-peer file sharing by default, and the person sharing can narrow what is allowed further. What their rules refuse, you cannot reach.
If you share a connection
- You decide what your device allows, and you can lower or pause it at any time.
- On an exit rung, your IP address is what destinations see, and complaints reach your internet provider first. See Report abuse.
- Check your provider’s terms: some forbid sharing service outside the household. The law on operating an exit also differs by country.
- You are responsible for keeping your device and account secure.
Suspension
We can suspend or revoke a device or account that breaks these terms, that interferes with the metering, or that is the subject of a credible abuse report, and we can freeze or reverse credit that came from it. We tell you which term was broken unless telling you would get in the way of an investigation or the law forbids it, and you can contest a decision at contact@sparkupco.net.
Changes to these terms
We announce material changes to these terms and to the credit rates at least 14 days before they take effect, with the date on this page. Wording fixes, and changes we have to make to stop abuse or to follow the law, can take effect sooner — we will still say what changed.
What we do not promise
SparkUp is not an anonymity network. Rules and limits reduce the risk of sharing but do not eliminate it. The software is provided as it is, and to the extent the law allows we are not liable for loss arising from its use.
The operating entity and the governing law for these terms will be named here before general availability. Questions in the meantime: contact@sparkupco.net.