Terms and Conditions:

The following terms and conditions (“Terms”) govern all use of the WordPress.com website and all content, services, and products available at or through the website, including, but not limited to, Jetpack (“Jetpack”), VaultPress (“VaultPress”), and WordPress.com VIP (“VIP Service”), (taken together, our “Services”). Our Services are offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, Automattic’s Privacy Policy) and procedures that may be published from time to time by Automattic (collectively, the “Agreement”). You agree that we may automatically upgrade our Services, and these Terms will apply to any upgrades.

We use the term “Designated Countries” to refer to Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and all countries located in the European continent. If you reside in the “Designated Countries,” your agreement is with Aut O’Mattic A8C Ireland Ltd. If you reside outside of the “Designated Countries,” your agreement is with Automattic Inc.

We refer to Aut O’Mattic A8C Ireland Ltd. and Automattic Inc. collectively as “Automattic” or “we” throughout this agreement.

Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using our Services. By accessing or using any part of our Services, you agree to become bound by the Terms of this Agreement. If you do not agree to all the Terms of this Agreement, then you may not access or use any of our Services. If these Terms are considered an offer by Automattic, acceptance is expressly limited to these Terms.

Our Services are not directed to children. Access to and use of our Services is only for those over the age of 13 (or 16 in the European Union). If you are younger than this, you may not register for or use our Services. Any person who registers as a user or provides their personal information to our Services represents that they are 13 years of age or older (16 years or older in the European Union).

Use of our Services requires a WordPress.com account. You agree to provide us with complete and accurate information when you register for an account. You will be solely responsible and liable for any activity that occurs under your username. You are responsible for keeping your password secure.

1. WordPress.com.

• Your WordPress.com Account and Website. If you create a blog or website on WordPress.com, you get to use an Automattic-owned subdomain, such as example.wordpress.com or mollys.food.blog. You must not engage in “domain squatting,” claim an unreasonable number of subdomains (as determined by us), or sell access to any subdomains. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and blog, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the blog. You must immediately notify Automattic of any unauthorized uses of your blog, your account, or any other breaches of security. Automattic will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.
• Responsibility of Contributors. If you operate a blog, comment on a blog, post material to WordPress.com, post links on WordPress.com, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available (any such material, “Content”), you are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content or your conduct. That is the case regardless of what form the Content takes, which includes, but is not limited to text, photo, video, audio, or code. By using WordPress.com, you represent and warrant that your Content and conduct do not violate these Terms or the User Guidelines. By submitting Content to Automattic for inclusion on your website, you grant Automattic a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing, and promoting your blog. This license allows Automattic to make publicly-posted content available to third parties selected by Automattic (through Firehose, for example) so that these third parties can analyze and distribute (but not publicly display) your content through their services. You also give other WordPress.com users permission to share your Content on other WordPress.com websites and add their own Content to it (aka to reblog your Content), so long as they use only a portion of your post and they give you credit as the original author by linking back to your website (the reblogging function on WordPress.com does this automatically!). If you delete Content, Automattic will use reasonable efforts to remove it from WordPress.com, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable. Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, Automattic has the right (though not the obligation) to, in Automattic’s sole discretion, (i) reclaim your username or website’s URL due to prolonged inactivity, (ii) refuse or remove any content that, in Automattic’s reasonable opinion, violates any Automattic policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (iii) terminate or deny access to and use of WordPress.com to any individual or entity for any reason. Automattic will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.
• Web Traffic. We use a third party, comScore, Inc. (“comScore”), to measure WordPress.com’s audience and usage. By hosting your site on WordPress.com, you agree to assign the traffic relating to your website to Automattic and authorize us to sign a Traffic Assignment Letter on your behalf for comScore audience measurement reports. Your website’s traffic will be included under Automattic. You understand that your website will not receive credit for traffic in these reports, and you must not assign your website’s traffic to any other party. If we or comScore require additional documentation to verify ownership of your website or domain name, you agree to make reasonable efforts to accommodate such requests.
• HTTPS. We offer free HTTPS on all WordPress.com sites by default, including those using custom domains, via Let’s Encrypt. By signing up and using a custom domain on WordPress.com, you authorize us to act on the domain name registrant’s behalf (by requesting the necessary certificates, for example) for the sole purpose of providing HTTPS on your site.
• Advertisements. Automattic reserves the right to display advertisements on your blog unless you have purchased a plan that includes the removal of ads.
• Attribution. Automattic reserves the right to display attribution text or links in your site footer or toolbar, attributing WordPress.com or the theme author, for example. The toolbar may not be altered or removed. Attribution text or links may only be hidden if you are subscribed to WordPress.com Business or VIP.
• Friends of WP.com Themes. By activating a partner theme from the Friends of WP.com section of our themes directory, you agree to that partner’s terms of service. You can opt out of their terms of service at any time by de-activating a partner theme.
• VIP Service. VIP Hosting/Support and VIP Support services are provided by Automattic under the terms and conditions for each such service, which are located at vip.wordpress.com/hosting-tos and vip.wordpress.com/support-tos, respectively. By signing up for a VIP Hosting/Support or VIP Support services account, you agree to abide by such terms and conditions.

2. Jetpack.

• Description. Jetpack is a plugin that connects your self-hosted WordPress website to WordPress.com’s infrastructure to give you the most powerful WordPress.com features.
• Jetpack Content. You’re fully responsible for the content of any website you own that runs Jetpack (“Jetpack Content”).
• License. You agree that we may scan your website, and compile aggregated/anonymized statistics for our internal use to optimize Jetpack’s performance.
• Features. Jetpack includes various features, and you can visit Jetpack.com to learn more about them. Some features, like Enhanced Distribution, when activated, will include your Jetpack Content in Firehose. By activating these features, you grant us permission to display your Jetpack Content on WordPress.com for the purpose of distributing and promoting your website. Some features are on by default and others you need to enable manually. You can see which features are active, and activate and deactivate features, on your dashboard.
• Storage of Information. Certain Jetpack features rely on WordPress.com servers to function, such as those that allow you to send email, publish links, relate posts to each other, or resize images. To take advantage of the performance boosting features of Jetpack, certain information about the content, settings, and setup of your site are synced with our servers, as described on our “What Data Does Jetpack Sync?” support page.
• Prohibited Uses. Your site must comply with Jetpack’s Service Guidelines and must not overburden Automattic’s systems, as determined by us in our sole discretion.

3. VaultPress.

• Description. VaultPress is a subscription-based security and backup service for self-hosted WordPress websites.
• VaultPress Content. VaultPress will backup your WordPress content (e.g., your WordPress database, plugins, themes, and uploads, as well as some additional files, as described this introduction to VaultPress) (“VaultPress Content”). You can view the Content that VaultPress backs up via your VaultPress dashboard. You’re fully responsible for your VaultPress Content. It’s your responsibility to ensure that your website’s Content abides by applicable laws and by these Terms. We don’t actively review the VaultPress Content.
• Access. If you lose access to your WordPress.com account, you may not be able to access your backed up VaultPress Content.
• License. By using VaultPress, you grant us access to your website’s servers for the purpose of backing up and securing your VaultPress Content, and restoring files and database information (which may include access details for multiple servers or accounts for each website that we backup). In order to address security vulnerabilities, we may push an upgrade to your site, or we may access your site to remove malicious code. We may also scan VaultPress Content, and compile aggregated/anonymized statistics for our internal use to optimize the performance of the VaultPress service. You also grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to copy and store your VaultPress Content, to the extent necessary to operate the VaultPress service. These Terms don’t give us any rights in your VaultPress Content, beyond those we need to operate VaultPress. You own your VaultPress Content.
• Prohibited Uses. When using VaultPress, you agree not to:
  • Publish material or engage in activity that is illegal under applicable law.
  • Use VaultPress to overburden Automattic’s systems, as determined by us in our sole discretion.
  • Disclose the sensitive personal information of others.
  • Send spam or bulk unsolicited messages.
  • Interfere with, disrupt, or attack any service or network.
  • Distribute material that is or enables malware, spyware, adware, or other malicious code.
• Cancellation. If you cancel your subscription to VaultPress, we will queue your backed-up VaultPress Content for deletion.

4. Ecommerce.

There are certain features offered via WooCommerce, WooCommerce Services, or WordPress.com that enable you to sell items (goods, content, services, etc.) on your website (“Ecommerce Features”). If you use WooCommerce, the WooCommerce Use Terms also apply.

• Usage of Information. WooCommerce Services may require Automattic’s servers, a connection to our partners, and/or data from your site, to work, as described on our “What Data Does Jetpack Sync?” support page.
• Prohibited Uses. You may not use Ecommerce Features for any unlawful purposes, or in furtherance of illegal activities. We may terminate your access to Ecommerce Features if we determine (in our sole discretion) that your use is in any way harmful or objectionable. If your store is on WordPress.com, you must not violate our User Guidelines or Store Guidelines.
• Third Party Services. You may choose to set up and/or use third party services, such Stripe or PayPal to collect payment, TaxJar to calculate taxes, or EasyPost to manage shipping. If you do so, be aware that some of your — and your customers’ — data may be passed to the respective third party, and the respective third party’s terms of service, privacy policy, and other policies may apply. We are not involved in these relationships. Please note that some of these third party services (like TaxJar) may be enabled by default, but you may disable them before your store is set up. If you do not want to use these third party services, please disable them.