These Terms
These Terms are the agreement between you and Toii Social LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Company ("Gao", "we", "us"), for your use of Gao — on the web at gao.social and in the Gao app.
Gao on the web and the Gao app are one product with one identity model and one set of capabilities. What is available to you at a given moment can still differ — by platform, by how far a feature has been rolled out, by whether you are online, by permissions you have granted, by any subscription you have connected, and by whether a capability is ready. Where availability differs, the parts of this document that depend on that feature do not yet apply to you.
Section 3.2 and section 13 cover the differences that come from being an app rather than a website.
One product, staged availability
We describe Gao as one product and tell you plainly that availability varies, rather than publish something that implies more than you can reach today.
What Gao is
Gao has five places and one attention surface:
- Home — what needs your attention now.
- World — what exists around you: places, people, businesses, events and communities. **My World** is your own private version of it: the people, memories and events in your life.
- Work — what you are doing, deciding and responsible for.
- Studio — intelligence: search, reasoning over your own records, and a conversation with an AI provider you connect.
- Me — your identity, account, security, settings and wallet.
- Activity runs across Gao and shows what is addressed to you.
Some of this lives on your device and some on our servers, and the difference matters. The (/privacy) sets it out; sections 6 and 7 below give the parts that affect your rights.
Your account
Your wallet is your identity
Gao has no passwords, no email or username sign-in, no Google or Apple sign-in, and no guest access. You sign in by signing a short plain-text message with a cryptocurrency wallet you control. That message is a login statement — it moves nothing and gives us no power over your wallet.
Your identity — your Gao ID — is issued by the Gao ID service, which we operate separately from the rest of Gao.
On the web you connect a wallet; in the app you can create one
On the web, you connect a wallet you already have.
In the app, you can create a new wallet or import an existing one, and the app protects it using your device's secure storage. Where you enable it, using the wallet can require a device check such as a fingerprint or face check.
Creating a wallet in the app is not creating a second Gao account. Both routes lead to the same Gao ID and the same Gao account:
`` Web connect a wallet → sign in → Gao ID → your Gao account App create or import a wallet → sign in → Gao ID → your Gao account ``
If you create a wallet in the app, that wallet is yours. We do not hold it, cannot use it, and cannot recover it. The (/wallet) is part of these Terms and explains this fully — please read it before you rely on it.
What that means for you
- Your wallet: Gao is non-custodial and does not recover or restore your wallet for you. If you created one in the app, the recovery material you were given is what restores it — keep it safe.
- Your Gao account: separately, the Gao ID service does not currently offer a way to attach a different wallet to an existing Gao ID, and no password or email reset exists. In practice this means your wallet is your route in, and restoring your wallet restores your access.
- Anyone who can sign with your wallet can sign in as you.
- You are responsible for what happens under your account.
Tell us at security@gao.global if you think someone else has used your account.
Eligibility
You must be at least 13 years old to use Gao. If the laws where you live require a higher minimum age for use of an online service without parental or guardian consent, that higher age applies. You must not be barred from using Gao under any law that applies to you.
Sessions
Signing in creates a session, and we record the IP address and a description of the device you signed in from. Signing out ends every session on every device. The Privacy Policy explains this.
What you create
It stays yours
You keep ownership of everything you create in Gao. These Terms give us no ownership of it.
The permission we need
To run Gao, you give us permission to host, store, copy, transmit, adapt for display and show what you create to the people your own visibility settings allow, for as long as you keep it in Gao, and for the purpose of operating, maintaining and securing the service. This permission is worldwide and royalty-free.
That is all it covers. It does not let us sell what you create, license it to anyone else, or use it to advertise Gao outside the product unless you separately agree. It does not apply to your Work or My World, because those stay on your device.
Public by default
Several things are public by default: your profile, your work profile, posts, businesses, events, communities, signals and reviews. Time capsules are the exception — private by default.
You can change the visibility of posts, events, communities and signals, and set your profile to public, communities-only or private. If you do nothing, the default applies.
Editing and deleting — the honest position
- You can delete posts, comments, reactions, events, signals and follows, and you can truly delete a My World record.
- You cannot currently delete businesses, communities, reviews, direct messages, kisses, time capsules, check-ins, bookings or gift-card records from within Gao. Work items are archived rather than deleted, and uploaded files stay on our servers even after the post that used them is removed.
- You can delete your Gao App account from within Gao — in the app, Me › Delete Gao App account — or by request to privacy@gao.global. It deletes the account and the information Gao holds for you, keeps records other people depend on with your identity removed, and does not delete your Gao ID, your wallet or your recovery phrase; the account-deletion page sets out exactly what it deletes and keeps. Deleting your Gao ID is not offered: it is your permanent identity across Gao products.
We would rather tell you this than imply controls we have not built. To have other content removed, write to privacy@gao.global and we will handle it by hand.
Your responsibilities
You must have the right to post what you post, and it must follow the (/community), which are part of these Terms.
World, location and public information
Location
Parts of Gao work better with your location, and some — the map, nearby search, check-ins — need it.
Two things to know before you decide. When you share your location, we store your exact coordinates; what other people see is controlled by your sharing setting, which by default shows them only an approximate area of about a kilometre. And the World map asks for permission as soon as you open it — you can refuse, and Gao still works.
Information about businesses, events and places
Some is entered by the people who own or host them; some is imported from public sources.
We do not verify it. We do not endorse any business, event, community or person in Gao, and we do not guarantee that a listing is accurate, current, available or safe. Meeting people, attending events and dealing with businesses you find through Gao is your decision and your risk.
Trust levels and badges
These come from activity within Gao. They are a rough signal about behaviour here — not a background check, not identity verification, and not a safety guarantee.
Work and My World
They live on your device
Your Work and your My World are stored on your device. Creating, editing, archiving and searching them needs no connection to us, and we hold no copy of what you make there — we cannot read it, restore it, produce it or delete it. Work you created before Gao moved Work onto the device is the exception: a copy of those earlier records is still on our servers. The Privacy Policy, section 2.2, says what happens to it.
They are kept separately for each Gao ID, so signing in with a different account opens that identity's own store on this device — empty, if that identity has nothing stored here yet.
You are the only backup
- Clearing Gao's data, switching device or losing the device means that data is gone, and we cannot bring it back.
- Anyone who can unlock your device can reach it.
- Please export regularly — export works without a connection.
Gao needs a connection to sign you in. Once you are signed in, the local parts keep working without one.
Deleting
Archiving a Work item hides it and keeps the record. Forgetting a My World record genuinely destroys its content and every earlier version, along with files only that record used. You can also delete the whole local store.
Getting your data out
You can export your Work and your My World to a file at any time, without a connection. My World can also import a file back. Work currently has no import — an export is a copy you keep, not a way to move Work between devices.
When they leave your device
One route: you ask Studio to use them. Section 7 says exactly what is sent.
Studio and intelligence
The (/ai) is the full version and part of these Terms.
Not all of Studio uses AI
Searching your Work and My World, and structured questions about your own records, run entirely on your device — no model, no connection, and what you type is not sent anywhere.
Ask Gao helps you find public things. Your question goes to an AI model we operate, along with candidate public listings. It never receives your Work or My World.
The Studio conversation uses an AI provider you connect, signing in with that provider directly, in that provider's own software on your own computer through the Gao Local Companion.
What is sent
A bounded slice of your Work — at most 10 objectives, 25 work items and 5 notes, including note text up to 1,200 characters — travels with your message, and is sent once when you open the conversation so we can show you exactly what would go.
You may also choose, one message at a time, to include specific people, memories and events from My World. That is off unless you choose it, and a record you have marked as staying on your device is never included.
What we keep
For an ordinary request we store your message and the model's answer, with no automatic expiry. A request that includes My World content stores neither. Your provider's own terms govern what *they* keep.
Where your provider sign-in lives
Your provider's own software runs on your own computer, through the Gao Local Companion — a small program you install and pair with your Gao ID — and signs in to your provider there. Gao never holds your provider sign-in: it is not sent to us, our own code does not read, copy or export it, and our records have no place to put a provider password, key or session. What we record is the request you started and the boundary it may run under; your computer asks us for that work over a connection it opens itself, and we never connect to your computer. The Privacy Policy and the AI notice set out exactly how this works.
AI output is not advice and is not checked
Anything a model produces may be wrong, incomplete or out of date. It is generated text, not a verified fact, and it is not professional, legal, financial, medical or safety advice. Check anything that matters before acting on it. Decisions you make after reading an AI answer are yours.
Nothing acts for you
No part of Gao books, buys, sends, publishes or changes anything on your behalf, and no permission can be granted to let it. The software that answers you runs on your own computer under a read-only boundary the Gao Local Companion enforces: it can read what you have pointed it at, and it cannot change or create anything, install anything, or reach other services through Gao.
Points, gift cards and value
Gao Points are an internal count of activity. They are not money, a deposit, a security or a cryptocurrency. They have no cash value, cannot be withdrawn, exchanged or transferred outside Gao, and we may adjust, correct or discontinue them.
Gift cards and vouchers are issued by the business that created them, not by Gao. Gao records the card and what remains on it; no money moves through Gao, and we process no card payments. Your rights are against the issuing business.
Bookings are between you and the business or host. Gao records the booking; cancellation, refunds and disputes are between you and them.
Availability and changes
Gao is offered as it is and as available. Features may be switched off, incomplete or limited, and we may add, change, restrict or withdraw them.
Gao depends on services we do not run — the Gao ID service, your wallet, your AI provider and public map data — which can fail independently of us.
We hold no contact details for you, so notice of significant changes is given in Gao itself or at gao.social. Continuing to use Gao after a change takes effect is acceptance of it.
Other services
Using Gao means your device or our servers contact services run by others. The current list is in the Privacy Policy. They have their own terms and privacy practices; we do not control them and are not responsible for them.
Rules of use, and what we can enforce
The full rules are in the (/community).
You should know that our enforcement tools are limited. Where they are available you can block and mute other people, and report someone — a report is recorded. There is no review queue inside Gao, no automated content filtering, no takedown capability and no appeal process. We will not promise you moderation the product cannot perform.
Our intellectual property
Gao — its software, design, text, graphics, name and marks — belongs to us or our licensors. These Terms give you no right to use them beyond using Gao as intended. You may not copy, adapt, decompile or reverse-engineer Gao except where the law allows it despite this clause.
Certain map data made available through Gao is provided under separate open-data licenses, including the Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0. Those materials remain subject to their applicable open-data licenses. Nothing in these Terms limits rights granted to you under those licenses.
The Gao app
These Terms apply to the app as well as the web. In addition:
- Your app store's terms also apply, and your relationship with that store is between you and them.
- You are responsible for your device. Wallet material created or imported in the app is protected by your device's security, which means a compromised, jailbroken or rooted device puts it at risk.
- Permissions. The app asks for permissions such as location, and camera or photo access where a feature needs one. You can refuse or withdraw them in your device settings; some features will then not work.
- Offline. Local parts of Gao keep working without a connection once you are signed in; parts that depend on our services do not.
- Updates. We may release updates, and older versions may stop working with our services.
Copyright complaints
Contact legal@gao.global with enough detail to identify the work and the material you are complaining about. Gao does not currently have a takedown or counter-notice system built in; complaints are handled by hand.
Suspension and termination
By you: stop using Gao, or delete your Gao App account — in the app, or by request to privacy@gao.global (section 4.4).
By us: we may suspend or restrict your access, or remove content, where we reasonably believe you have broken these Terms or the Acceptable Use rules, or where the law requires it — to the extent Gao allows. Where it is reasonable and lawful we will tell you why and give you a way to respond.
Afterwards: your sessions end. If we suspended or terminated your access, anything you posted publicly may remain visible, because a suspension deletes no content; if you deleted your Gao App account, section 4.4 says what is deleted and what is kept. In both cases what is on your device is unaffected, and you can still export or delete it; and your Gao ID is issued by a separate service and is not ended by this. Sections 4.1, 4.2, 12, 16, 17, 18 and 20 continue to apply.
Disclaimers
To the fullest extent the law allows, Gao is provided "as is" and "as available", with no warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy and uninterrupted availability.
We do not warrant that Gao will be available, uninterrupted or error-free; that information about businesses, events, communities, places or people is accurate or current; that AI output is accurate or fit for any purpose; that we will detect, prevent or remove harmful, unlawful or misleading content; or that your data will not be lost — in particular data kept only on your device, and wallet material only you hold.
Some places do not allow certain exclusions, so parts of this section may not apply to you.
Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data or goodwill, arising out of or relating to Gao. In particular, we are not liable for: loss of data kept only on your device; loss of account access or digital assets caused by the loss, theft or compromise of your wallet; anything done in reliance on AI output; the acts or omissions of other users, or of businesses, hosts and communities found through Gao; or the acts, omissions or unavailability of services Gao depends on.
To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability to you for all claims relating to Gao will not exceed one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100).
Nothing excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, and nothing in this section limits the rights the consumer-protection law where you live gives you.
Indemnity
To the extent the law allows, you agree to cover us against claims brought by others — and the reasonable costs of dealing with them, including reasonable legal fees — that arise from what you posted, from your breach of these Terms, or from your unlawful use of Gao.
Changes to these Terms
The date these Terms were last updated is shown at the top of this page, and their effective date will be shown there once they are published as the effective agreement. Material changes will be announced in Gao before they take effect, since we cannot email you.
General
Governing law: the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Disputes: any dispute relating to these Terms or to Gao is brought in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, United States, and you and we each submit to those courts — except that where the law of the place you live gives you the right to bring a claim in your local courts, that right is not taken away. Consumer rights: nothing here removes rights you have that cannot be removed by agreement. Whole agreement: these Terms together with the Privacy Policy, the Acceptable Use and Community Guidelines, the Cookie and Local Storage Notice, the Wallet and Digital Asset Notice, and the AI and Connected Intelligence Notice. Severability, waiver, assignment: an unenforceable provision leaves the rest standing; not enforcing something is not giving it up; you may not transfer these Terms, and we may on notice as part of a reorganisation or sale.
Contact
Toii Social LLC, a Delaware Limited Liability Company · Delaware, United States Legal: legal@gao.global · Privacy: privacy@gao.global · Security: security@gao.global