Terms of use

Porcupine isn't open yet. These terms cover the website, the Quills Check and the waitlist today. Before the app opens, we'll update them with what's specific to the app.

Porcupine is run by Porcupine Chat Inc., a company incorporated in British Columbia, Canada (incorporation number BC1612473). In these terms, “we” and “us” mean Porcupine Chat Inc., and “you” means anyone who uses porcupinechat.com, signs up for early access or uses the app. By doing any of those, you agree to these terms and to our privacy policy. If you don't agree, please don't use Porcupine.

You must be 19 or older to sign up for early access or use Porcupine. Everyone you talk with through Porcupine must be 19 or older, too.

Porcupine is a coach for everyday hard conversations. It suggests other ways to say things and shares ideas from research on communication and conflict.

It isn't therapy, counseling, medical advice, legal advice or professional mediation, and it doesn't replace them. For custody, separation, workplace complaints or other legal matters, talk to a lawyer, a family mediator or HR.

The guides, Mixed Signals and the Quills Check on this site are general information about communication, not legal, financial or professional advice. Every situation is different, so use your own judgment about what fits yours. You're responsible for how you use them, and we can't promise how any conversation will go.

Porcupine suggests words, but nothing is sent until you approve it, and you can change anything. Read every suggestion before you use it. AI can misunderstand, get facts wrong or miss what matters to you.

You're responsible for the messages you send, whether you send them through Porcupine or copy them and send them yourself. We can't promise any message will be received the way you hope, or that a conversation will end in agreement.

The Quills Check suggests other ways to say a message and ways a message you got could be read. It's for everyday disagreements. If someone's safety is at risk, use the support lines above instead.

When it offers ways to read someone's message, they're guesses. Only the person who wrote it knows what they meant, so asking them is the best way to find out.

When it shows a finding from research, it describes what a study found about the people it studied, not about you or anyone you know.

It has a daily limit, so it can stay free for everyone. We may change it, or stop offering it, at any time.

Please don't use Porcupine to:

• Harass, threaten, bully, stalk or pressure anyone
• Contact someone who has asked you not to, or who is protected by a court or protective order
• Pretend to be someone else, or trick someone into replying
• Share someone's private information without their permission. Paste in only messages that were sent to you or that you wrote, and describe only things you were part of.
• Break the law

Porcupine may stop helping with a message that looks like any of these.

Please don't interfere with the site, try to get around its security, flood the waitlist or Mixed Signals with fake entries, use automated tools with the Quills Check, try to get around its daily limit, or copy the site with automated tools. You're welcome to link to any page and share what you find.

You keep ownership of everything you write in Porcupine. You give us permission to use it only to run Porcupine for you, including its safety checks, and as the law requires: for example, to check a message in the Quills Check, to rewrite a message, or to show the version you approved to the person you're talking with. We don't use it for anything else. The privacy policy explains how we protect it.

The Porcupine name, the porcupine drawing, the design of the site and app, and the writing on this site belong to Porcupine. Studies cited on our principle pages belong to their authors and publishers. Our summaries of them are general information, and we don't guarantee they're complete or current.

If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them freely, without owing you anything.

Porcupine is still being built. Features may change, pause or stop, and there may be bugs. Signing up for early access doesn't guarantee access. We haven't set prices yet. We'll always tell you the price before you pay, and let you know before it changes.

You can stop using Porcupine at any time, and ask us to delete your information as the privacy policy describes. We may suspend or end access for anyone who breaks these terms or puts others at risk. We may also end early access at any time.

We work hard to make Porcupine helpful and reliable, but we provide it “as is,” without promises that it will always be available, error-free or right for your situation.

As far as the law allows, we aren't responsible for indirect or consequential losses, or for what happens because of a message you chose to send. If we are responsible for a loss, our total responsibility is limited to the greater of what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or 100 Canadian dollars.

If you break these terms or the law while using Porcupine and someone makes a claim against us because of it, you agree to cover our reasonable costs, as far as the law allows.

Nothing in these terms takes away rights you have under the consumer protection laws where you live.

These terms are governed by the laws of British Columbia and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. Any dispute will be handled by the courts of British Columbia, unless the law where you live gives you the right to bring it closer to home.

We may transfer these terms to another company, for example if Porcupine is sold or merged. You can't transfer them to anyone else. If any part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies.

When these terms change, we'll update the date at the top, and we'll let people know before a significant change takes effect, for example by email or a notice on the site. If you keep using Porcupine after that, the new terms apply.

Questions? Email hello@porcupinechat.com.