Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using hydronode ("the Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use the Service. These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Felix Knoll ("we", "us", "our"), the operator of hydronode.

We reserve the right to update these Terms at any time. Continued use of the Service after changes are published constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.

2. Service Description

hydronode is an IoT environmental monitoring platform that allows users to:

• Connect and manage physical sensors and monitoring stations (temperature, humidity, CO₂, pH, soil moisture, LoRaWAN devices, and more)
• View real-time and historical sensor data through an interactive dashboard
• Configure alert thresholds, data visualisations, and reporting
• Optionally publish station data to a public map visible to all users
• Receive AI-assisted anomaly detection notifications

The Service is provided as-is and is intended for personal, research, and small-scale commercial use. Features and availability may change at any time.

3. Account Registration

Access to hydronode requires account registration via Auth0, a third-party identity provider. By registering, you agree to Auth0's terms of service and privacy policy in addition to these Terms.

You are solely responsible for all activity that occurs under your account. You must keep your login credentials confidential and must not share them with any third party. You agree to notify us immediately at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorised access to your account. We are not liable for any loss resulting from unauthorised use of your account.

You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. By registering, you represent and warrant that you meet this requirement.

You may permanently delete your account and all associated data at any time, without contacting us, via Settings → Danger Zone (web) or Profile → Delete Account (iOS app). Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone.

4. Sensor Creation

Connecting sensors and stations to the Service is free of charge, up to a fair-use limit of 20 sensors per account. No activation code, payment, or subscription is required. The Service does not process payments or store any billing or card information.

We reserve the right to introduce a fee-based tier in the future. Any such change will be announced in advance and will not retroactively affect sensors you have already created under the free tier.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• Transmit malicious code, viruses, or otherwise interfere with the Service's infrastructure
• Flood or stress-test the API, or send requests at a rate that unreasonably burdens our servers
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to other users' accounts or data
• Share your account credentials with third parties or allow others to use your account
• Scrape, mirror, or redistribute data from the public map without prior written permission
• Use the Service for any illegal purpose or in violation of applicable law
• Impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules, without prior notice.

6. Data & Privacy

Your use of the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using hydronode, you consent to the collection and processing of your data as described in the Privacy Policy.

Sensor data you publish to the public map is visible to all visitors of the Service. You are responsible for ensuring that any data you make public does not violate applicable privacy laws or third-party rights.

We process personal data in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For data protection enquiries, contact [email protected].

7. Service Availability

We aim to keep hydronode available and performant, but we make no guarantees of uptime or availability. The Service is provided on a best-effort basis. There is no Service Level Agreement (SLA) for any tier of the Service.

We may perform maintenance, updates, or emergency changes at any time that may temporarily interrupt access. We will make reasonable efforts to communicate planned downtime in advance where possible.

We are not responsible for data loss caused by hardware failure, network issues, or circumstances beyond our reasonable control. We recommend you export and back up critical sensor data regularly.

8. Intellectual Property

The hydronode name, logo, software, and all associated content are the intellectual property of Felix Knoll and are protected by applicable copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.

You retain ownership of the sensor data you upload or generate through the Service. By using the Service, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive licence to store, process, and display your data solely for the purpose of operating the Service for you.

You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of the Service or its underlying software without our express written permission.

9. Limitation of Liability

The Service is provided free of charge, on an as-is and as-available basis, without any warranty of accuracy, uninterrupted availability, or fitness for a particular purpose. Sensor readings, anomaly detections, and AI-generated analyses are provided for informational purposes only and must not be relied upon as the sole basis for decisions affecting health, safety, property, crops, livestock, or equipment. You are responsible for independently verifying any reading before acting on it.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Felix Knoll shall not be liable for any damages of any kind — including indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, loss of data, loss of revenue, business interruption, or damage to plants, crops, or equipment caused by inaccurate readings, missed or delayed anomaly alerts, or Service downtime — arising out of or related to your use of the Service.

Because the Service is provided free of charge, our total liability to you for all claims arising out of or related to the Service is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law. This limitation does not apply to liability for intent (Vorsatz) or gross negligence (grobe Fahrlässigkeit), for injury to life, body, or health, or for claims under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz), which remain unaffected by this clause.

10. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

Any disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany, unless mandatory consumer protection law in your country of residence requires otherwise.

If you are a consumer resident in the European Union, you may also have the right to submit disputes for online resolution via the EU Online Dispute Resolution platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

11. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in the Service, legal requirements, or for other reasons. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify registered users by email.

Your continued use of the Service after any change to these Terms constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service.

12. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms or the Service, please contact: