Terms of Service

Drafted 2026-09-20. Effective date: 22 September 2026.

1. What Backstop is

Backstop is a Chrome browser extension that saves and restores browser tab sessions as local, versioned snapshots. A free tier ("Backstop Free") is available at no cost through the Chrome Web Store. An optional paid upgrade ("Backstop Pro") unlocks additional retained snapshot history, encrypted export, and search across snapshot history, and is sold separately as described below. These Terms apply to both.

2. Licence to use the software

Subject to these Terms, you are granted a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to install and use Backstop for your own purposes. Backstop Pro is unlocked by a licence key tied to your purchase (typically your order email); the licence is for your own use and should not be shared or redistributed.

Licence keys are verified entirely offline by the extension itself — we do not operate a licence server and have no technical means to detect whether a key is being used beyond its intended scope. The absence of a technical enforcement mechanism is a deliberate design choice, not a grant of permission: using a licence key you did not purchase, or sharing one beyond personal use, is still a violation of these Terms even though we cannot detect it.

3. Fees, payment, and refunds

Backstop Free costs nothing. Backstop Pro is sold as a one-time or recurring purchase (as shown at checkout) through Paddle.com, Inc., who acts as the Merchant of Record and authorized reseller for this transaction. Paddle handles payment processing, invoicing, and applicable sales tax or VAT. Your contract for the purchase transaction itself is with Paddle; refund requests are handled under Paddle's refund policy (TODO: link).

The price shown at the time of your purchase is the price you pay for that purchase. We may change pricing for future purchases at any time; changes do not apply retroactively to a licence you've already bought.

4. What Backstop does and does not guarantee

Backstop is written defensively: it writes snapshots append-only, verifies each one after writing by re-checking its checksum, rebuilds its own index from the underlying snapshots if that index is ever lost or corrupted, and reports storage-quota failures instead of deleting your history to make room. That describes how the software behaves; it is not an unconditional guarantee against every possible way data can be lost. In particular:

• Uninstalling the extension, or resetting/removing your Chrome profile, deletes Backstop's local storage — this is standard Chrome behavior, not a Backstop malfunction, and Backstop cannot prevent it.
• Backstop protects against corruption and accidental loss within its own storage; it is not a substitute for keeping your own exported copies of anything you cannot afford to lose.
• If you encrypt an export and lose the passphrase, neither Backstop nor we can recover that file's contents.

Except as expressly stated above, Backstop is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind, to the maximum extent permitted by law. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from use of the software, including loss of data; nothing in this section limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

5. Your responsibilities

You're responsible for the tabs and sessions you choose to save (for example, avoiding saving sessions containing sensitive one-time links you wouldn't want retained), and for keeping your own passphrases and export files secure. Backstop cannot see or moderate what you save, because it never receives that data.

6. Termination

You may stop using Backstop at any time by uninstalling it. We may discontinue distribution of Backstop through the Chrome Web Store at our discretion; a Pro licence you've already purchased continues to unlock Pro features in any copy of the extension you retain, since licence verification is offline and does not depend on us continuing to operate any service.

7. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we do, we'll update the "drafted" date at the top of this page. Continued use of Backstop after a change means you accept the updated Terms.

8. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute arising from these Terms or from Backstop will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Massachusetts, and you consent to their jurisdiction. Nothing in this section limits any consumer-protection rights you have under the mandatory law of the place where you live, and nothing in it affects Paddle's own terms, which govern the purchase transaction itself.

9. Contact

Backstop is offered under these Terms by kouzmitch.net. For support and legal notices, email hello@kouzmitch.net. Contact is by email; there is no postal correspondence address for this service.

Pro licences are sold by Paddle as Merchant of Record. Paddle is the seller of record for the transaction, issues your invoice, and handles refunds under its own terms.