Sift

Sift Terms of Service

Terms that apply when using Sift, Premium, and optional cloud features.

Effective date: July 15, 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Sift iOS application ("the App") and its optional anonymous sample contribution feature. By downloading or using the App, you agree to these Terms and the Privacy Policy. The public copy of these Terms is served at https://sift.alkinum.io/en/terms.

If you obtained the App through the Apple App Store, Apple's standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement also applies to the extent it does not conflict with these Terms. Apple is a third-party beneficiary entitled to enforce that agreement.

1. The service

Sift provides on-device SMS classification and filtering, user-defined allow/block rules, optional on-device model personalization, and an optional, consent-gated pipeline for contributing anonymized training samples. Local functionality works without an account; sample contribution uses your iCloud session.

2. License

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the App on Apple devices you own or control, as permitted by the App Store usage rules. The App's source code may be available separately under its own open-source license; these Terms govern the distributed App and hosted features, not the source repository.

3. Premium (in-app purchase)

  • Premium is a one-time, non-consumable in-app purchase that permanently unlocks the Sift Signal multilingual model for the Apple ID used for the purchase.
  • Prices are set and displayed by the App Store for your storefront and may change, including temporary discounts or free promotions. The price shown at checkout is the price you pay.
  • Purchases can be restored on any device signed into the same Apple ID through Settings → Restore Purchases.
  • Billing, receipts, and refunds are handled exclusively by Apple under App Store policies; we cannot issue refunds directly.
  • If a purchase is refunded or revoked, Premium features are disabled and the App reverts to the standard model.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

  • submit content you do not have the right to share, unlawful content, or content containing someone else's personal data beyond what the built-in sanitizer removes;
  • attempt to deanonymize other contributors, probe or disrupt the CloudKit containers, or exceed reasonable use of the contribution APIs;
  • circumvent purchase entitlements or redistribute Premium model artifacts;
  • use the App where SMS filtering is prohibited by law or by your carrier.

We may throttle, reject, or remove contributions that violate these Terms.

5. Your content

You retain rights to text you contribute. By submitting a sample, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as provided by data-protection law and the in-App erasure tools), sublicensable license to use, reproduce, process, and create derivative works from the sanitized sample solely to build and improve SMS-classification datasets and models, including models distributed with the App. Erasing your data through Settings → Data & Privacy removes your samples from the live database and all future training runs; models already trained and released are not retrained retroactively.

6. Disclaimers

THE APP IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. SMS CLASSIFICATION IS PROBABILISTIC: messages may be misclassified, important messages may be filtered, and unwanted messages may pass through. Do not rely on Sift as your sole safeguard against fraud; always verify important messages independently. Hosted features may change, pause, or be discontinued; local filtering is designed to keep working regardless.

7. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the App is limited to the greater of the amount you paid for Premium in the twelve months before the claim or USD 10. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, or goodwill. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations; in those jurisdictions, the limitations apply to the fullest extent permitted, and nothing in these Terms affects statutory consumer rights that cannot be waived.

8. Termination

You may stop using the App at any time; deleting the App removes local data. We may suspend hosted features for violations of these Terms. Sections 5–7 survive termination.

9. Changes

We may update these Terms as the product evolves and will adjust the effective date above. Material changes are surfaced in the App or on the website. Continued use after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

10. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the App publisher is established, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except where the consumer-protection law of your country of residence grants you mandatory protections or venue rights, which remain unaffected.

11. Contact

Alkinum — privacy@sift.alkinum.io