Terms of Service

Last Updated: April 18, 2026


1. Introduction

1.1 What This Agreement Is

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of Haagah ("Haagah", "we", "our", or "us") and the Animus Project. The Animus Project is an endeavour for the preservation of consciousness: a place where a person may entrust us with the record of their life — their writing, voice, image, correspondence, and memory — and where, from that record, a persistent digital approximation of that person (an "Animus") is maintained for interaction by themselves and, on their terms, by others.

These Terms set out the rules under which you may use the platform, the things you may and may not contribute, the nature and limits of what the platform produces, and the arrangements that govern what happens to your Animus when you die.

1.2 Acceptance

By accessing or using Haagah, you agree to be bound by these Terms, by our Privacy Policy, and by our Cookie Policy. If you do not agree, you may not use the platform and may not upload any material to it.

1.3 Relationship to Other Documents

These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and the Cookie Policy together constitute the complete agreement between you and Haagah in respect of your use of the platform. Where the documents overlap, they should be read together; where a particular matter is addressed more specifically in one document than another, the more specific provision governs that matter.


2. What the Animus Project Is, and Is Not

2.1 What an Animus Is

An Animus is a persistent digital approximation of a person — the Subject — constructed from material the Subject (or a person with authority to act on the Subject's behalf) has entrusted to the platform. Visitors to an Animus may interact with it through structured queries, and the platform generates responses that draw on the Subject's contributed material.

2.2 What an Animus Is Not

This section is important. You must read it and you must not use the platform unless you accept its substance.

Section 6 of our Privacy Policy addresses the corresponding privacy implications.

2.3 Terminology

These Terms use the defined terms set out in Section 2 of the Privacy Policy: Founder, Subject, Corpus, Animus, Output, Visitor, Successor Custodian.


3. Eligibility and Identity Verification

3.1 Minimum Age

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account, create an Animus, or contribute any material to the platform. There are no exceptions.

3.2 Capacity

You must have the legal capacity under the law of your jurisdiction to enter into a binding contract.

3.3 Identity Verification

Because the platform preserves the approximation of a person, identity matters. To create an Animus as its Subject, you must complete identity verification, which requires you to submit a government-issued identification document and to complete a biometric verification that confirms you are the person named on the document. Where you act as a Successor Custodian in respect of a deceased Subject, we will require verification of your identity and of your authority to act.

3.4 Accuracy

You agree that all information you provide in connection with your account and verification is accurate, current, and complete. Providing false information, submitting another person's identification, or impersonating another person is a material breach of these Terms and grounds for immediate termination.

3.5 Account Security

You agree to keep your credentials confidential, to enable multi-factor authentication where available, and to notify us at security@haagah.com without delay if you suspect unauthorized access. You are responsible for activity conducted through your account.


4. Your Corpus — What You May Contribute

4.1 Your Own Material

You may contribute material that is yours: writings you authored, recordings of your own voice, photographs of yourself, videos in which you appear, and other material that originates from you and that does not substantively involve another person without their consent.

4.2 Material Involving Other People

Material that substantively involves another person — including correspondence, intimate communications, material authored by the other person, and material that is substantially about the other person — may be contributed only as permitted by Section 4 of the Privacy Policy. Incidental appearances of others in material that is substantively about you are permitted. Substantive material from or about a living third party requires that third party's informed consent. Substantive material from or about a deceased third party requires authority of the estate, executor, or Successor Custodian.

4.3 Prohibited Content

You may not contribute:

4.4 Our Right to Decline

We reserve the right to decline to process, or to remove, any material we believe contravenes this Section or the law, without being obliged to state a specific reason. Where we remove material, we will notify you.


5. Creating an Animus of Another Person

5.1 The General Rule

An Animus is primarily created by its Subject. Creating an Animus to represent someone other than yourself is permitted only in narrow circumstances set out in this Section.

5.2 Living Persons

You may not create or maintain an Animus of another living person except with that person's express, informed, written consent, delivered through a mechanism the platform is able to verify. Spousal, familial, or other private relationships do not, on their own, provide consent.

5.3 Deceased Persons

You may create or maintain an Animus of a deceased person only where:

Where a deceased person was a public or historical figure, the fact of their public prominence does not create authority. Authority must come from the estate or from an instrument executed by the person during their lifetime.

5.4 No Animi of Minors

We will not create, maintain, or host an Animus of a person who was under 18 at the time of their death. This is a standing rule. Section 13 of our Privacy Policy describes our posture toward children.

5.5 No Impersonation

Creating an Animus for the purpose of impersonation, defamation, sexual depiction of the Subject without authority, fraud, or any other harmful purpose is prohibited and is grounds for immediate termination and, where appropriate, referral to law enforcement.


6. The Nature of Outputs

6.1 Outputs Are Generated

Every Output produced by an Animus is generated by an AI language model drawing on the Subject's Corpus. Outputs are not retrieved quotations. Outputs are approximations.

6.2 Outputs Do Not Represent Actual Views

An Output does not represent the Subject's actual views, actual statements, or actual beliefs. Where the Subject is living, Outputs are not statements of the Subject. Where the Subject is deceased, Outputs are not statements of the Subject's estate or of their will.

6.3 Outputs May Be Wrong

Outputs may be factually incorrect, contextually mistaken, or inferentially unsound. Outputs may describe events that did not occur, hold positions the Subject did not hold, or combine elements of the Corpus in ways that produce an impression at odds with the Subject's life. This is a known limitation of AI language models; the platform does not overcome it.

6.4 Outputs Are Not Professional Advice

You must not rely on Outputs as medical, legal, financial, psychological, or other professional advice. This remains true where the Subject was, in life, a practitioner of any such profession. If you are querying an Animus in a moment of distress, please contact an appropriate human professional or support service.

6.5 Risks to the Visitor

Interaction with the Animus of a deceased loved one can be psychologically affecting. The platform is not a substitute for grief support, therapy, or the companionship of living people. By using the platform, you acknowledge this and assume the responsibility for managing your own engagement.


7. Your Representations and Warranties

By using the platform and by contributing any material, you represent and warrant to us that:

A breach of any representation or warranty in this Section is a material breach of these Terms.


8. Prohibited Uses

You may not use the platform to:


9. Access, Visibility, and Querying

9.1 Access Is the Founder's to Configure

During your lifetime, you determine who may query your Animus. The platform offers a range of configurations described in Section 7 of our Privacy Policy.

9.2 Visitors Are Bound by These Terms

Anyone who queries any Animus is a user of the platform and is bound by these Terms. A Visitor may not:

9.3 Revocation

During your lifetime you may revoke any grant of access at any time. Revocation is prospective; it does not undo prior interactions.


10. Posthumous Arrangements

10.1 Your Instructions

You may leave standing instructions for what is to happen to your Animus upon your verified death. Instructions may address access configuration, identification of Successor Custodians, limits on Successor Custodian authority, and whether the Animus is to be preserved, restricted, or deleted.

10.2 Successor Custodian

A Successor Custodian is a person you nominate to act in respect of your Animus after your death. You may nominate one or more, may set the order of succession, and may define the scope of their authority. In the absence of a Successor Custodian, the Animus remains in the state it was in at the time of death, and access remains governed by the settings in effect at that moment.

10.3 Limits on Successor Custodian Authority

A Successor Custodian may configure access, correct factual errors in the Corpus, and act in respect of the Animus on the Subject's behalf. A Successor Custodian may not contribute new substantive material authored as though by the Subject, may not alter the Corpus to misrepresent the Subject's views, and may not authorize a use of the Animus prohibited by these Terms.

10.4 Verification of Death

We act on posthumous instructions upon receipt of a death certificate or equivalent official record together with such additional evidence as we may reasonably require to confirm the event.

10.5 Disputes Among Heirs

Where multiple persons claim Successor Custodian authority and their claims cannot be reconciled through the evidence available to us, we will suspend substantive changes to the Animus and maintain its state at the time of death pending resolution of the dispute in the appropriate forum.

10.6 Deletion at Death

If you instruct the platform, during your lifetime, to delete the Animus upon your verified death, we will do so. Deletion is irreversible.


11. Intellectual Property and Licensing

11.1 You Retain Ownership

You retain ownership of the material you contribute to your Corpus. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of your Corpus to Haagah.

11.2 License to Haagah

You grant Haagah a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, process, and analyze the Corpus for the purposes of operating, maintaining, and providing the platform; of generating Outputs responsive to queries; and of discharging our legal obligations. The license is co-extensive with your continued use of the platform and survives termination only insofar as necessary to complete lawful deletion and to retain records as permitted by Section 10.5 of the Privacy Policy.

11.3 Haagah Platform

All intellectual property in the Haagah platform — including the software, models, visual and graphic design, and the Haagah and Animus marks — is owned by Haagah. Nothing in these Terms grants you any license in that intellectual property beyond the right to use the platform as described.

11.4 Outputs

Outputs responsive to queries of your Animus are generated material associated with you (or with the Subject, where you are a Successor Custodian). You may use Outputs in a manner consistent with Section 2.2 of these Terms — that is, with full awareness that Outputs are not the Subject's own words and without representing them otherwise.

11.5 Aggregated Learnings

Aggregated, deidentified information about how the platform operates — not the substantive content of any Corpus — may be used by us to improve the platform. This use does not include training general-purpose AI models on your Corpus for our commercial benefit or for the benefit of any third party.


12. Takedown and Removal

12.1 Third-Party Takedown

Persons whose material has been contributed to a Corpus without their consent, and persons who believe an Output has misrepresented them, may submit requests in accordance with Section 12 of our Privacy Policy.

12.2 Our Discretion

We may remove content or suspend an Animus where we reasonably believe the content or the Animus violates these Terms, violates applicable law, or creates material risk of harm. Where we take such action, we will notify the Founder or Successor Custodian, except where notice is itself contrary to law or to the legitimate interests of a person at risk.


13. Limitations, Disclaimers, and Risks

13.1 No Warranty of Permanence

We commit to retention practices described in Section 10 of our Privacy Policy and we intend the Animus Project to endure. We do not, and cannot, warrant that any Animus will exist in perpetuity. Technical failure, insolvency, regulatory intervention, and other events beyond our control can interrupt or end preservation.

13.2 No Warranty of Fidelity

We do not warrant that an Animus will accurately represent the Subject. Fidelity depends on the completeness of the Corpus, the capacities of the language models available at the time of query, and the queries themselves.

13.3 Service Availability

We provide the platform on a reasonable-efforts basis and do not guarantee uninterrupted availability.

13.4 Cap on Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by South African law, our total aggregate liability to any person for any claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the platform shall not exceed the greater of (a) any amounts paid by that person to Haagah in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim and (b) ZAR 10,000. This cap does not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or capped.

13.5 Exclusions

We are not liable for loss or harm arising from:


14. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Haagah and its officers, employees, and service providers against any claim, loss, liability, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these Terms; your contribution of material you were not entitled to contribute; your misuse of the platform; and the lawful acts of any Successor Custodian acting within the authority you granted.


15. Termination

15.1 By You

You may terminate your account at any time. Termination triggers the deletion rights and procedures set out in Section 10.2 of the Privacy Policy. Termination during your lifetime results in withdrawal of the Animus unless you have in place active posthumous instructions expressing a contrary intent and termination would otherwise frustrate those instructions.

15.2 By Us

We may suspend or terminate your account where:

15.3 Effect of Termination

On termination, your access to the platform ceases. Your Corpus and Animus are handled in accordance with Section 10 of the Privacy Policy and with any posthumous instructions you have in place. The provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination — including Sections 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, and 17 — will survive.


16. Changes to These Terms

For material changes, we will notify you via the email address on your account at least 30 days before changes take effect, and will display an in-platform notice. Continued use after the change takes effect constitutes acceptance. Past versions of these Terms will be retained and made available on request.


17. Disputes and Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Disputes shall first be referred to good-faith negotiation between the parties. If unresolved within 30 days, disputes shall be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent South African courts. Nothing in this Section limits a party's right to seek injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction in respect of an actual or threatened breach of intellectual property rights or confidentiality obligations.


18. Contact

General: hello@haagah.com

Support: support@haagah.com

Legal: legal@haagah.com

Privacy: privacy@haagah.com

Security: security@haagah.com

Postal Address: Haagah ehf., Legal Office Gróska - innovation and business growth center Kristínargata 1, 102 Reykjavík Iceland


Effective Date: April 18, 2026

Last Reviewed: April 18, 2026

Next Scheduled Review: October 18, 2026

Approved By: Haagah Legal and Operations


These Terms should be read together with our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.