Terms & Privacy
1. Terms of Service
Welcome to PodCats ("we," "us," "our"), an AI-powered podcast creation and social platform operated as a personal project. By downloading, accessing, or using the PodCats mobile app or the website at podcats.me (together, the "Service"), you agree to these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.
1.1 Eligibility
You must be at least 13 years old (or the minimum age of digital consent in your country) to use PodCats. By using the Service you represent that you meet this requirement and that you have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms.
1.2 Your Account
You are responsible for keeping your login credentials secure and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us immediately if you suspect unauthorized access. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.
1.3 The Service
PodCats lets you generate podcast episodes using AI ("AI Episodes"), publish them to your profile, follow other creators, and listen to and interact with episodes from the community. Some features rely on third-party AI models (e.g. OpenAI, ElevenLabs) and audio infrastructure providers; their availability and behavior are outside our control.
1.4 Your Content
"Your Content" means the prompts, titles, descriptions, audio, scripts, comments, and other material you submit to the Service.
- Ownership. You retain ownership of Your Content.
- License to us. You grant PodCats a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, transmit, transcode, and display Your Content solely to operate, provide, and improve the Service.
- Public content. Episodes you publish to your public profile may be viewed, played, shared, liked, and saved by any user of the Service.
- Responsibility. You are solely responsible for Your Content and represent that you have all necessary rights to submit it and that it does not violate any law or third-party right.
1.5 AI-Generated Content
Episodes generated through PodCats are produced by large language models and text-to-speech systems. AI output may be inaccurate, outdated, biased, or fabricated. You are responsible for reviewing any AI Episode before publishing or sharing it. Do not rely on AI Episodes for medical, legal, financial, or other professional advice.
1.6 Acceptable Use
You agree not to use the Service to:
- generate or publish content that is illegal, hateful, harassing, defamatory, sexually explicit involving minors, or that incites violence;
- impersonate another person or misrepresent your affiliation;
- infringe intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights;
- distribute malware, spam, or attempt to disrupt the Service;
- scrape, reverse-engineer, or build a competing service from our content or APIs;
- generate or distribute content that violates the policies of our underlying AI providers.
We may remove content and suspend accounts that violate this section, with or without notice.
1.7 Reporting and Moderation
If you encounter content that violates these Terms, you can report it inside the app or by emailing meow@podcats.me. We aim to review reports promptly but make no guarantee about response time. We reserve the right to remove any content at our discretion.
1.8 Subscriptions and Generation Limits
PodCats may include free generation quotas, paid plans, or in-app purchases. Pricing, limits, and features may change at any time. Apple App Store purchases are governed by Apple's standard subscription terms, and Google Play purchases are governed by Google's standard subscription terms — including their respective refund and renewal policies.
1.9 Termination
You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time from the in-app settings. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service if you violate these Terms or if continued operation becomes impractical.
1.10 Disclaimers
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ACCURACY OF AI-GENERATED OUTPUT. WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE.
1.11 Limitation of Liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL PODCATS, ITS OPERATORS, OR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATED TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM, OR (B) US$50.
1.12 Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless PodCats and its operators from any claims, losses, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of (a) Your Content, (b) your use of the Service, or (c) your violation of these Terms or any law or third-party right.
1.13 Changes to the Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by an updated date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, by an in-app notice. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.
1.14 Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any disputes will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in California, and you consent to their exclusive jurisdiction and venue, except where local consumer-protection law prohibits such a clause.
2. Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains what information PodCats collects, how we use it, and the choices you have. We try to collect only what we need to run the Service.
2.1 Information You Provide
- Account information — your email address, username, display name, optional profile photo and bio. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive only the identifiers that provider shares (email, name) per your choice.
- Content — the prompts, titles, descriptions, audio, scripts, comments, likes, follows, saves, and other material you create or submit.
- Communications — messages you send us (e.g. support emails, feedback, bug reports).
2.2 Information Collected Automatically
- Device & technical data — device model, OS version, app version, locale, timezone, crash logs, basic performance metrics, and an anonymized installation/session identifier.
- Usage data — actions taken in the app such as plays, generations, follows, and time-on-screen, used to improve the Service. We record this both before and after you sign in. Before sign-in, plays are attributed only to the anonymized installation identifier described above. When you create an account or sign in on the same device, prior anonymous plays from that device are linked to your account so your listening history is consistent.
- IP address — collected by our hosting and database providers as part of standard request logging, for security and abuse prevention.
- Web analytics — pages on podcats.me use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and understand which content is popular. Google Analytics may set cookies and process IP addresses on our behalf; we do not use it for cross-site advertising.
PodCats does not use third-party advertising SDKs, does not sell your personal information, and does not use your data to train AI models we don't operate.
2.3 How We Use Information
- To operate, maintain, and improve the Service.
- To generate AI Episodes — prompts and metadata are sent to our AI providers (OpenAI, ElevenLabs) to produce the requested content.
- To authenticate you and secure your account.
- To enable social features (followers, feeds, public episodes).
- To respond to your support requests and communicate important updates.
- To detect, prevent, and address fraud, abuse, and security incidents.
- To comply with legal obligations.
2.4 Sharing of Information
We share information only with the following categories of recipients:
- Service providers who help us operate the Service, including:
- Supabase — database, authentication, and file storage hosting.
- OpenAI — AI models for script generation and evaluation.
- ElevenLabs — text-to-speech voice generation.
- Apple — App Store distribution, Sign in with Apple, and (if used) push notifications.
- Google — Google Play distribution, Sign in with Google, and Google Analytics 4 (web only).
- Vercel — hosting of the marketing website.
- Other users — content you publish publicly (episodes, profile, follows, likes) is visible to other users of the Service.
- Legal & safety — when required by law, valid legal process, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of PodCats, our users, or the public.
- Business transfers — if PodCats is acquired or merges with another entity, your information may be transferred subject to this Policy.
2.5 Data Retention
We keep account information for as long as your account is active. Episodes you publish remain available until you delete them or your account. Server logs and crash reports are typically retained for a short rolling window (e.g. 30–90 days). When you delete your account we delete or anonymize associated personal data within a reasonable time, except where we are required to retain it for legal, security, or accounting purposes.
2.6 Your Choices and Rights
- Access & update — you can view and update your profile information from within the app.
- Delete content — you can delete individual episodes, likes, saves, or follows from the app.
- Delete your account — use the "Delete account" option in app settings, or email meow@podcats.me with the subject "Delete account."
- Regional rights — depending on where you live (e.g. EEA/UK under GDPR, California under CCPA/CPRA), you may have additional rights such as access, correction, portability, deletion, or to object to certain processing. Contact us to exercise these rights.
- Push notifications — you can disable them at any time in your device settings.
2.7 Children
PodCats is not directed to children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your country). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, please contact us so we can delete it.
2.8 International Data Transfers
PodCats is operated from the United States and uses service providers that may process data in the United States and other countries. By using the Service you understand that your information may be transferred to and processed in jurisdictions whose data-protection laws may differ from your own. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards (such as standard contractual clauses) for such transfers.
2.9 Security
We use reasonable technical and organizational measures (encryption in transit, access controls, isolated service-role keys, audit logs) to protect personal information. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
2.10 Apple App Tracking Transparency
PodCats does not track you across apps and websites owned by other companies, and does not use the IDFA. We therefore do not currently present the App Tracking Transparency prompt.
2.11 Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the latest revision. Material changes will be communicated through the Service where appropriate.
3. Contact
Questions, requests, or reports? Email meow@podcats.me.