Terms of Service

1. Who we are

GuardianBlock (“GuardianBlock,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) provides voluntary adult self-restriction and accountability software. GuardianBlock is based in Saskatchewan, Canada.

You can reach us by email at [email protected] or by phone at +1 (639) 739-3634. The phone line plays a recorded message; email is the way to get a reply.

2. Accepting these terms

These terms apply to the GuardianBlock website, your account, the browser extensions, and the Windows application (together, the “service”). By creating an account, starting a subscription, or installing the software, you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information and forms part of this agreement.

3. Who may use GuardianBlock

• You must be at least 18 years old, and old enough to enter a contract where you live.
• You may install GuardianBlock only on a personal Windows 11 computer that you own or control. It is not for computers managed by an employer, a school, or another organization.
• GuardianBlock is something you choose for yourself. You may not use it to restrict or monitor another person without their knowledge and agreement.
• Supported browsers and system requirements are listed on Browser support and System requirements.

4. What GuardianBlock is, and what it is not

GuardianBlock blocks gambling sites, and other sites you choose, in supported browsers on your enrolled Windows devices, and involves an accountability partner you choose before protection can be turned off early. It works inside Windows and the browsers. It does not alter DNS, VPN, firewall, proxy, or network-drive settings.

GuardianBlock is a tool that supports a commitment you have made. It is not medical care, counselling, treatment for a gambling problem, or a crisis service, and it does not replace any of them.

If you or someone else is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services. Support lines are listed on our Help page.

5. The limits of protection

No blocking software can promise a particular outcome, and we do not. In particular:

• GuardianBlock covers the supported browsers on the Windows devices you enroll. It does not cover phones, tablets, other computers, or devices you have not enrolled.
• The list of blocked gambling sites is large and maintained, but new sites appear constantly and no list is ever complete.
• GuardianBlock does not guarantee that you never gamble, and it is not responsible for gambling losses or other decisions you make.
• The software depends on Windows, the browsers, and the browser stores, which change without notice to us. A change by one of them may interrupt part of the service until we update it.

What is and is not covered is described on Limitations.

6. Your account and your accountability partner

You are responsible for your account and for keeping your sign-in secure. Give us accurate information, and tell us promptly if you believe someone else has accessed your account.

GuardianBlock is built around an accountability partner: an adult you invite, who agrees to the role and uses their own account. By inviting them, you agree that they can see your protection health, alerts about protection, the Custom Blocks you declare, and the requests you send them, and that they decide those requests. They do not see your browsing history, the sites you visit, your searches, your screen, your keystrokes, or your files.

If you act as an accountability partner, these terms apply to you too. You agree to decide requests honestly and in the interest of the person who invited you, and not to use the role to control or harm them. The full description of what each person sees is on Privacy for keyholders and protected adults.

7. Your commitment, and turning protection off

GuardianBlock is deliberately slow to turn off. That is the purpose of the product, and you agree to it when you set protection up.

• During a commitment, ending protection early needs your accountability partner's approval, followed by a cooling-off period of at least 24 hours. Only then is a single-use authorization issued for that device, valid for 48 hours.
• When your commitment has ended, you can end protection yourself through your account.
• Support and safety recovery is always available. If your accountability partner is unreachable or refuses unreasonably, you can replace them, and we review documented safety, abuse, account-loss, and wrong-person cases.

The steps and timings are set out on Keyholder approval. You agree not to hold GuardianBlock responsible for delay that results from this process working as described.

8. Subscription, price, and renewal

GuardianBlock is a paid subscription: USD $8 per month, or USD $80 per year. Prices are in US dollars everywhere. That is the total we charge; if your card is in another currency, your card issuer sets the exchange rate and may add its own fee. Any sales tax that applies is shown before you pay.

• One subscription covers one protected adult, one accountability partner, and up to three of your own Windows 11 devices.
• Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each month or year, at the price then in effect, and your payment method is charged at each renewal until you cancel.
• Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not receive or store your full card number.
• If we change the price, we tell you by email at least 30 days before the new price applies to you. It applies from your next renewal after that, and you can cancel before then.

9. Cancellation and refunds

You can cancel whenever you want from the Billing page in your account, which opens the Stripe customer portal. You do not need to contact us or give a reason.

• Cancelling stops the next renewal. You keep access until the end of the month or year you already paid for.
• We do not refund the current period when you cancel early, on either the monthly or the yearly plan.
• If you were charged in error or charged twice, email us and we correct it.
• Cancelling does not turn protection off at the moment you cancel. Section 10 explains what happens when your paid period ends.

If consumer law where you live gives you a right to cancel or to a refund that these terms do not, you keep that right.

10. If a payment fails or your subscription ends

GuardianBlock is a subscription, so the service ends if it is not paid for. It never ends silently or suddenly, and a change in billing never reaches into a device and quietly drops protection.

• If a renewal payment fails, the charge is retried and you are reminded during a short grace period, with full protection in place, so you can update your payment method.
• If it stays unpaid, or your paid period ends after you cancel, a time-limited wind-down period follows. Your existing protection and its last rules stay in place, and you and your accountability partner are told the service is ending. Paying restores the subscription.
• If the subscription has not been restored when the wind-down period ends, the service ends and protection on your devices ends with it.
• Until then, ending protection on a device follows section 7, whatever your billing status.

More detail is on Billing and protection.

11. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• use GuardianBlock to restrict, track, or control another person without their knowledge and agreement;
• interfere with another customer's account or protection, or attempt to access data that is not yours;
• copy, resell, sublicense, or rent the service, or use it to build a competing product;
• reverse engineer, decompile, or modify the software, except where the law gives you that right regardless of this agreement;
• probe, overload, or disrupt our systems, or use the service to break the law.

12. Licence and ownership

While your subscription is active, and during any period section 10 describes, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to install and use the GuardianBlock software on up to three of your own devices. We and our licensors own the software, the site, the block lists, and the GuardianBlock name and marks. These terms give you no other rights in them.

If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them without owing you anything.

13. Other companies' services

GuardianBlock relies on services run by other companies, including Stripe for payments, Google for sign-in, and the Chrome, Edge, and Firefox extension stores. Your use of those services is also subject to their own terms. We are not responsible for their availability or their decisions.

14. Changes to the service and to these terms

We improve GuardianBlock continually, and features may be added, changed, or removed. We do not remove the core of what you are paying for during a period you have already paid for without offering a proportionate refund.

We may update these terms. For a change that materially affects your rights or what you pay, we email you at least 30 days before it takes effect and post the new date at the top of this page. If you do not agree, you can cancel before the change takes effect. Continuing to use the service after that date means you accept the updated terms.

15. Suspension and ending this agreement

• You can stop using GuardianBlock and cancel under section 9 whenever you want.
• We may suspend or close an account that seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms, that is used to harm another person, or where the law requires it. Where we reasonably can, we tell you first and give you a chance to fix the problem.
• If we close your account for a reason other than your breach, we refund the unused part of any period you have paid for.
• Closing an account does not silently switch protection off on a device or erase the accountability records we are required to keep; the Privacy Policy explains what is retained.
• Sections 5, 12, 16, 17, and 18 continue to apply after this agreement ends.

16. Disclaimers and limits on liability

We provide GuardianBlock with reasonable care and skill. Beyond that, and to the extent the law allows, the service is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service is uninterrupted or error-free, or that it blocks every site.

To the extent the law allows, GuardianBlock is not liable for gambling losses, for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential losses, or for lost profits, data, or opportunity, and our total liability for all claims relating to the service is limited to the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose.

These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for gross negligence or wilful misconduct. They also do not reduce any warranty or right that consumer protection law where you live gives you and does not allow to be waived.

17. Governing law and disputes

Please email [email protected] first. Most problems are solved faster that way.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Saskatchewan and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, and the courts of Saskatchewan have jurisdiction over disputes. If you are a consumer, this does not take away the protection of mandatory consumer laws in the place where you live, or any right you have to bring a claim in your local courts.

18. General

• These terms, the Privacy Policy, and the prices shown when you subscribe are the whole agreement between you and GuardianBlock about the service.
• If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.
• If we do not enforce a term, that is not a waiver of it.
• You may not transfer this agreement to someone else. We may transfer it to a successor of the GuardianBlock business that agrees to honour it.
• We send notices to the email address on your account. Keep it current.