BetBlock — Terms of Use

Effective date: August 7, 2026

Draft — lawyer review required. This document was prepared as a plain-English draft

and has not been reviewed by an attorney. Before it is published or relied on, it must

be reviewed by a lawyer licensed in the relevant jurisdiction(s). It is not legal advice.

These Terms of Use ("Terms") are an agreement between you and the developer of BetBlock ("BetBlock," "we," "us"), covering the BetBlock iOS app (bundle id com.alix.betblock), its app extensions, and any related services. By downloading or using BetBlock, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the app.

We wrote these Terms in plain English on purpose. The headings are honest summaries, not decoration.

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1. What BetBlock is (and is not)

BetBlock is a self-help tool for people who want to stop gambling. It offers app and website blocking, streak tracking, daily pledges and check-ins, a private journal, an urge-support flow, and an optional accountability partner.

BetBlock is not medical care.

• BetBlock is not a medical device, and nothing in the app is medical, psychiatric,

psychological, or therapeutic advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

• BetBlock is not a substitute for professional help. Gambling disorder is a

recognized health condition. If you are struggling, please talk to a doctor, a licensed therapist, or a counselor who specializes in problem gambling.

• **If you are in the United States and need help now, call or text 1-800-522-4700

(1-800-426-2537).** It is free, confidential, and available 24/7. Outside the US, look up your national problem-gambling helpline. If you are in immediate danger or having thoughts of harming yourself, contact your local emergency number (911 in the US) or the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US).

• Content in the app (streaks, "money saved" estimates, milestones, encouragement copy)

is motivational, not clinical. Money figures are estimates based on numbers you enter, not financial advice.

2. Blocking is best-effort — no guarantee

BetBlock's protection uses two mechanisms, both running on your device:

• Screen Time / Family Controls shields, which block apps and websites you select; and
• an optional on-device VPN packet tunnel that filters gambling domains at the DNS

level, locally on your phone. Your browsing data is processed on the device and does not leave it.

We work hard to make blocking effective — including a built-in, default-on blocklist of gambling sites — but we cannot and do not guarantee it is complete or unbeatable:

• New gambling sites, apps, mirrors, and prediction markets appear constantly. Some will

not be on our filters.

• Filters can miss things, and occasionally block things they shouldn't.
• A determined user can bypass BetBlock's protection through iOS Settings. This is by

design on Apple's part: Apple requires that you always be able to revoke Screen Time permissions and remove VPN configurations at the operating-system level. No app can override that.

BetBlock is a strong speed bump, not a locked door. Your recovery cannot rest on the blocker alone — please combine it with real-world support (Section 1).

3. The one-way door

This is BetBlock's core design decision, and you should understand it before you turn protection on:

• The app intentionally contains no in-app way to remove or reduce protection. There

is no "unblock" button, no code path that takes a shield away, and adding new blocked apps or sites only ever adds — it never subtracts.

• The only way to remove protection is outside the app, in iOS Settings (for example,

revoking Screen Time permission or removing the VPN profile).

• The in-app "disable" flow does not disable anything. It walks you through a series of

reflection steps, explains that removal happens only in iOS Settings, and may notify your accountability partner that you started the process, if you have set one up and enabled that sharing.

By using BetBlock's protection features, you consent to this design, including the possibility that your accountability partner is notified when you attempt to remove protection. If you do not want that, do not add an accountability partner or adjust your sharing preferences before starting.

One more promise, in writing: a billing problem will never remove your protection. There is deliberately no code path from "payment failed" to "shields off." (See Section 8 — there are no purchases in this version anyway.)

4. Who can use BetBlock (17+)

• You must be at least 17 years old to use BetBlock. If you are under the age of

majority where you live, you may use BetBlock only with a parent's or guardian's involvement and consent.

• You must comply with these Terms and applicable law.

BetBlock deals with gambling recovery, which is why it is not intended for children.

5. Accounts

• You can use BetBlock without an account ("Skip for now"). Your data then stays on

your device.

• If you sign in, BetBlock uses Sign in with Apple only — there is no BetBlock

password. Signing in enables backup and sync of your recovery data to our backend (hosted on Supabase), where each user's rows are locked to their own account.

• Journal and setback text is encrypted on your device (AES-GCM) before it is ever

uploaded. The encryption key lives in your device Keychain and never leaves your device. We cannot read those entries — and that cuts both ways: if you lose access to your Keychain, encrypted entries cannot be recovered by anyone, including us.

• You are responsible for keeping your Apple ID secure. You can delete your account and

its data as described in Section 7.

6. Acceptable use

Please use BetBlock for what it's for. You agree not to:

• use the app for any unlawful purpose, or to harass, harm, or deceive anyone (including

an accountability partner);

• probe, attack, overload, or attempt to break the app, its extensions, or its backend,

or attempt to access another user's data;

• reverse-engineer, copy, resell, or redistribute the app except where the law expressly

permits it;

• misrepresent yourself when acting as someone's accountability partner;
• use the app on behalf of someone else without their knowledge and consent — BetBlock is

a tool a person chooses for themselves, not something to be imposed on another adult covertly.

7. Termination and deletion

• You can stop any time. You can sign out, delete your account and synced data from

within the app, or delete the app. (Remember Section 3: the app itself contains no way to remove protection — removal happens outside the app, at the operating-system level.)

• We can suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, abuse the service,

or create legal or security risk — with notice where practical. If we discontinue the service, we will give reasonable notice where practical so you can export your data.

• Sections that by their nature should survive (disclaimers, liability limits, and the

one-way-door consent as it applies to past events) survive termination.

8. Subscriptions and purchases — RESERVED

This section is reserved. Version 1 of BetBlock has no paywall, no subscriptions, and no in-app purchases. Everything in the app is currently available at no charge. The app includes the Superwall SDK, but it is dormant — it sells nothing in v1.

If paid features are introduced in a future version, this section will be updated with pricing, billing, renewal, and cancellation terms before any purchase is offered, and two commitments will hold regardless:

1. A lapsed or failed subscription will never remove protection (Section 3).
2. **Crisis features — the urge flow, panic support, and setback recovery — will never be

behind a paywall.**

9. Privacy, in one paragraph

The full details live in the Privacy Policy, but the short version: BetBlock contains no ads, no third-party analytics SDKs, and no trackers. Blocking decisions (Screen Time shields and DNS filtering) happen entirely on your device — your browsing data does not leave your phone, and Apple's rules for Family Controls forbid that data leaving the device. Journals are encrypted before upload with a key we never have. Sign in with Apple means we hold minimal personal information, and you can use Apple's private relay email.

10. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

Plain English first: we built BetBlock carefully, but it is a self-help tool provided as-is, and we can't take legal responsibility for your gambling outcomes, for losses from gambling that got past the filters, or for what you or others do with the app.

• As-is. To the maximum extent permitted by law, BetBlock is provided **"as is" and

"as available," without warranties of any kind**, express or implied — including fitness for a particular purpose, uninterrupted or error-free operation, or that blocking will be complete or effective (Section 2).

• No liability for gambling outcomes. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are

not liable for gambling losses, relapses, missed blocks, over-blocking, notifications sent (or not sent) to accountability partners, data loss (including unrecoverable encrypted entries after Keychain loss), or actions taken in iOS Settings.

• Cap. To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability for all claims

relating to the app will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim (in v1, that is $0) or (b) $50 USD, and we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages.

• Your rights. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty exclusions or

liability limits. Nothing in these Terms takes away rights you have under law that cannot be waived. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot legally be limited (for example, for willful misconduct).

11. Apple — standard EULA and App Store terms

• BetBlock is distributed through the Apple App Store. Unless a separate custom EULA is

presented, your license to the app is governed by Apple's standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement (EULA), available at <https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/>, with these Terms supplementing it. Where the two conflict as to the license, Apple's standard EULA controls.

• Apple is not a party to these Terms, is not responsible for the app or its content, and

has no obligation to provide support for it. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of the license terms and may enforce them.

12. Changes to the app and these Terms

We may update the app and these Terms as BetBlock evolves. If we make material changes — especially anything touching protection behavior, partner notifications, or (in the future) payments — we will post the updated Terms with a new effective date and flag the change in the app. Continuing to use BetBlock after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms. One thing will not change by policy: the app will not add an in-app path that removes protection (Section 3).

13. Contact

Questions, complaints, or notices about these Terms:

Email: alix.profession@gmail.com

If you need help with problem gambling rather than the app, see Section 1 — 1-800-522-4700 in the US.

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Effective August 7, 2026. Draft pending review by a licensed attorney (see notice at top). This document is not legal advice.