Marcus Terms of Service

Effective date: July 5, 2026

Provider: Fabian S. Klinke / studio.klinke, Jülicher Str. 11, D-13357 Berlin, Germany

Contact: info@klinke.studio

These Terms govern your use of Marcus for iPhone. Marcus is a Screen Time-powered focus app with optional account sync, optional social leaderboard features, and optional repeatable in-app support payments.

1. Acceptance

By downloading, accessing, or using Marcus, you agree to these Terms and the Marcus Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use Marcus.

If you downloaded Marcus through the Apple App Store, these Terms also work alongside Apple’s applicable App Store, Apple Media Services, StoreKit, and licensed-application terms. These Terms are between you and the provider, not Apple. Apple handles App Store billing and refunds.

2. What Marcus Does

Marcus helps you create focus rules that can block or limit selected apps, app categories, and websites using Apple’s Screen Time APIs. Marcus can also show usage stats, track streaks, use sleep/workout signals for rules if you grant Health access, use location for place-based rules if you grant Location access, suggest contact addresses if you grant Contacts access, sync data through an account, and share aggregate leaderboard stats with accepted friends if you opt in.

Marcus is designed for personal focus and self-management. It is not a medical device, therapy service, emergency service, parental-control guarantee, security product, or workplace-monitoring tool.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old, or the minimum age required in your country, to use Marcus. If you are not old enough to agree to these Terms yourself, you may use Marcus only with permission from a parent or legal guardian.

Do not use Marcus to monitor, restrict, or control another person unless you have their consent and the legal authority to do so.

4. Accounts

Marcus may create an anonymous Supabase account for private sync. You can later convert that account into a full account using email/password or Sign in with Apple. Some features, including social profiles and leaderboard sharing, require a full account.

You are responsible for keeping your device, Apple ID, and Marcus account credentials secure. Tell us promptly if you believe your account was accessed without permission.

You may permanently delete your account from Account settings or contact info@klinke.studio for help. Deleting an account removes sync, profile, friendship, leaderboard, and contact-discovery data tied to that account from the active service, subject to legal retention limits and technical backup windows. On-device rules remain unless you delete them separately.

5. Permissions And Data

Marcus depends on iOS permissions. If you deny or revoke Screen Time, Health, Location, Contacts, or notification permissions, related features may stop working.

The Privacy Policy explains what Marcus collects, stores, syncs, shares, and does not collect. You agree that Marcus may process data as described there to provide and maintain the app.

6. Social Features And User Content

If you enable social features, you may add a display name, profile photo, optional discovery phone number, friend connections, and aggregate leaderboard sharing. You are responsible for anything you submit.

You must not submit content that is unlawful, abusive, harassing, deceptive, infringing, sexually exploitative, or otherwise harmful. You must not impersonate someone else or upload a profile photo you do not have the right to use.

We may remove content, disable social features, block accounts, or preserve/report information when reasonably necessary to protect users, comply with law, respond to abuse, or operate Marcus safely.

If you believe content or an account action was wrong, contact info@klinke.studio with enough detail to review it.

7. In-App Support Payments

Marcus may offer repeatable consumable in-app purchases, such as studio.klinke.marcus.tip.two, studio.klinke.marcus.tip.five, and studio.klinke.marcus.tip.eight, to support development. These payments are optional.

Support payments do not unlock extra functionality, subscriptions, service levels, tax-deductible charitable benefits, investment rights, ownership rights, or any promise that Marcus will continue indefinitely. They are handled through Apple StoreKit and the App Store.

Apple sets the final displayed price, taxes, payment method handling, family-sharing availability, Ask to Buy behavior, and refund flow. Marcus does not receive your payment-card details. Refund requests for App Store purchases must be made through Apple unless Apple provides another required process.

Support payments are digital consumables and may be finished immediately after Apple verifies the transaction. Any statutory withdrawal, cancellation, warranty, or refund rights that cannot legally be waived remain unaffected.

8. Acceptable Use

You must not:

• break, bypass, reverse engineer, or interfere with Marcus, except where law allows;
• access another person’s account or data without permission;
• use Marcus to violate privacy, employment, child-safety, consumer-protection, export, or other applicable laws;
• overload, scan, attack, or abuse Marcus, Supabase, Sentry, Apple services, or related infrastructure;
• upload malicious code or unlawful content;
• use Marcus for high-risk decisions where a blocking failure, stats error, notification delay, or sync problem could cause injury, legal harm, financial loss, or loss of essential access.

9. Reliability And Feature Limits

Marcus depends on Apple APIs, device permissions, iOS behavior, network access, Supabase, Sentry, and App Store systems. These dependencies can be unavailable, delayed, changed, rate-limited, revoked, or interrupted.

Marcus may fail to block a target, may block something longer than expected, may report incomplete or delayed stats, may miss notifications, may lose access when permissions change, or may sync later than expected. You should not rely on Marcus as your only safeguard against harm, addiction, lost productivity, legal obligations, or unwanted purchases.

10. Health, Wellness, And Location

Marcus may use HealthKit sleep/workout data and location signals if you grant permission. These features are for focus automation only. Marcus does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, therapy, fitness coaching, or sleep-health recommendations.

Always make your own decisions about health, safety, driving, work, school, childcare, and emergencies. Do not use Marcus where delayed access to an app, website, message, call, map, payment, or service could create danger.

11. Third-Party Services

Marcus uses Apple platform services, Supabase, Sentry, and open-source software. Third-party services may have their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for third-party services outside our reasonable control, but we choose them to provide app functionality, sync, diagnostics, distribution, and payments.

You must comply with applicable third-party terms when using Marcus, including Apple service terms and any network, carrier, or platform terms that apply to your device.

12. App Changes And Availability

We may change, suspend, or discontinue Marcus features. We may release updates that add, remove, or change functionality to improve reliability, security, legal compliance, or product quality.

Some features may require current iOS versions, Apple entitlements, network access, or an active account.

13. Ownership

Marcus, including its design, code, text, icons, trade names, and related materials, belongs to the provider or its licensors. Subject to these Terms and Apple’s App Store terms, you receive a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use Marcus on Apple-branded devices you own or control, as permitted by Apple’s Usage Rules, Family Sharing, and volume-purchase rules where applicable.

You keep rights in content you submit, such as profile photos. You grant us the limited rights needed to host, process, display, resize, transmit, and moderate that content for Marcus features.

Feedback is voluntary. You may send ideas, bug reports, or suggestions. We may use feedback without owing compensation or attribution.

If a third party claims Marcus or your possession and use of Marcus infringes intellectual property rights, the provider, not Apple, is responsible for investigating, defending, settling, and discharging that claim to the extent required by applicable law.

14. Termination

You may stop using Marcus at any time. You may delete local app data by deleting the app or using available app controls. You may request deletion of account data by contacting info@klinke.studio.

We may suspend or terminate access to Marcus or specific features if you breach these Terms, create risk, abuse the service, or if continued operation would expose us or other users to legal, security, or product risk.

15. Support, Warranty, And Product Claims

The provider is responsible for Marcus support and maintenance to the extent stated in these Terms or required by law. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for Marcus.

The provider, not Apple, is responsible for addressing claims relating to Marcus or your possession and use of Marcus, including product-liability claims, legal or regulatory compliance claims, privacy claims, consumer-protection claims, and claims related to HealthKit use.

If Marcus fails to conform to an applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple may refund the purchase price, if any, under Apple’s rules. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation for Marcus. Any other warranty claim is the provider’s responsibility to the extent required by law.

16. Disclaimers

Marcus is provided “as is” and “as available” to the maximum extent permitted by law. We do not promise uninterrupted operation, perfect blocking, perfect stats, data-loss prevention, compatibility with every iOS version or device state, or that Marcus will meet every need.

Nothing in these Terms limits mandatory rights that cannot be waived under consumer law.

17. Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, or exemplary damages; lost profits; lost data; lost productivity; lost opportunity; emotional distress; or damages caused by unavailable, delayed, incorrect, or changed third-party services.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability for claims relating to Marcus is limited to the greater of the amount you paid for Marcus or support payments in the 12 months before the claim and EUR 50.

These limits do not apply where liability cannot legally be limited, including liability for intentional misconduct, gross negligence where applicable, death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or mandatory product-liability or consumer-protection rights.

18. Indemnity

If you use Marcus unlawfully, breach these Terms, violate another person’s rights, or submit unlawful content, you agree to reimburse us for resulting claims, losses, damages, costs, and reasonable legal fees to the extent permitted by law. This does not limit mandatory consumer protections.

19. Governing Law And Courts

These Terms are governed by the laws of Germany, excluding conflict-of-law rules, unless mandatory consumer law gives you additional rights or another governing law.

Where legally permitted, courts at the provider’s business seat have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer, you may also have the right to bring claims in the courts of your place of residence, and mandatory consumer venue rules remain unaffected.

We are not willing or obliged to participate in dispute resolution before a consumer arbitration board unless the provider later states otherwise or the law requires participation.

20. Legal Compliance

You represent that you are not located in a country or region subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated by the U.S. Government as supporting terrorism, and that you are not listed on a U.S. Government prohibited or restricted party list.

You are responsible for using Marcus only where it is lawful for you to do so.

21. Apple App Store Terms

For App Store downloads, Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms where Apple’s rules require that status. Apple is not responsible for Marcus support or maintenance except as required by applicable law and Apple’s own terms. If Apple App Store terms conflict with these Terms for billing, refunds, or App Store distribution, Apple’s terms control for that issue.

After you accept these Terms, Apple may enforce these Terms against you as a third-party beneficiary where Apple’s rules require that status.

22. Changes

We may update these Terms when Marcus, the law, or third-party requirements change. If changes are material, we will provide a reasonable notice path. Your continued use after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

23. Contact

Questions, legal notices, privacy requests, and support requests can be sent to info@klinke.studio.