Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (the “Terms” or the “Agreement”) govern your access to and use of Boreal (“Boreal”, “we”, “us” or “our”), operated by Kasimir Hirvikoski, PL 13, 00561 Helsinki, Finland. Our Services are offered subject to your acceptance, without modification, of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules and policies that we may publish from time to time, including our Privacy Policy. You agree that we may automatically update our Services, and that the Agreement will apply to any updates. Please read the Agreement carefully before accessing or using our Services. By accessing or using any part of our Services, you agree to become bound by the Agreement. If you do not agree to all the terms of the Agreement, then you may not access or use our Services.

We provide aurora forecasts, alerts and related features through the Boreal website (the “Site”) and the Boreal application for iPhone and Apple Watch (the “App”, and together with the Site, the “Services”) to users (“users” or “you”).

Boreal is designed to be easy to understand. It translates complex space-weather, geomagnetic and cloud data into a simple probability, a plain summary and a clear alert, so that anyone can see at a glance whether tonight is worth looking up. That simplicity is intentional and means the App presents a summary of the underlying data rather than every detail of it.

Boreal is a paid service. After onboarding, use of the App requires an active subscription or pass purchased through Apple’s In-App Purchase system. Boreal does not require you to create an account and does not know who you are; your purchase is linked to your Apple ID and handled by Apple.

By accessing the Services, you are agreeing to be bound by these Terms of Service, our Privacy Policy, and all applicable laws and regulations, and you agree that you are responsible for compliance with any applicable local laws. If you do not agree with any of these terms, you are prohibited from using or accessing the Services. The materials contained in the Services are protected by applicable copyright and trademark law.

Season Pass (annual subscription). If you choose the Season Pass, which is an annual subscription, the subscription period starts immediately after the first payment is processed, and payment is charged to your Apple ID. By activating the subscription, your subscription will be renewed automatically for another year at the then-current price unless auto-renewal is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your Apple ID will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. Where Apple offers it, you may pay the annual price in monthly instalments as a 12-month commitment; turning off renewal does not stop the remaining instalments, as disclosed at the time of purchase. Should you decide to cancel your subscription, please consult the instructions on the App Store or in your Apple ID settings. Deleting the App does not cancel a subscription.

Passes. The 4-Day Pass and 14-Day Pass unlock the App for the stated period. The period does not start at purchase: it starts when you activate the pass in the App, so you can buy a pass ahead of a trip and start it later. Passes end automatically, do not renew and are never charged again. After a pass ends we may offer you a discounted extension, which is a separate purchase and starts immediately.

Prices and refunds. Prices are shown in the App before you buy and may vary by country. All purchases are processed by Apple, and Apple’s refund policy applies. To request a refund, visit reportaproblem.apple.com. If you are a consumer in the European Union or United Kingdom, you normally have a 14-day right of withdrawal for digital content; by agreeing to immediate delivery in Apple’s purchase flow you acknowledge that this right is lost once delivery begins. Nothing in these Terms limits your statutory consumer rights.

Restoring purchases. Your purchase can be restored on any device signed in to the same Apple ID using “Restore Purchases” in the App. The Apple Watch app and widgets unlock together with the iPhone App and cannot be purchased separately.

We want everyone who uses our Services to be safe. By using our Services you agree that you will not:

• use the Services for any purpose that is illegal or prohibited by this Agreement;
• use the Services for any harmful or nefarious purpose, or to damage us;
• use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means or interface to access the Services, our servers or the data they provide, other than through the App as distributed by Apple;
• extract, reuse or redistribute credentials, forecast data, map layers or imagery obtained through the Services, or develop any third-party application that interacts with the Services without our written consent;
• use the Services in a way that could interfere with, disrupt, overburden or impair their functioning, or circumvent any rate limit, purchase check or security measure;
• copy, modify, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the App, except where applicable law expressly permits it;
• register devices for notifications by automated means or impersonate another device.

By using our Services, you represent and warrant that:

• you are 13 years old or older, or are using the Services under the supervision of a parent or guardian who agrees to these Terms;
• you have the legal capacity to enter into this Agreement, or have such a parent or guardian’s permission;
• you are using an Apple ID that you are authorised to use;
• you are not banned from using the Services under the laws of any applicable jurisdiction.

Boreal turns public space-weather, geomagnetic and cloud data into an estimate of the chance that the aurora is visible from your location. Forecasts, alerts, readings and maps in the Services are estimates, and like any forecast they will sometimes be inaccurate. The third-party data we rely on may be delayed, revised or temporarily unavailable; cloud cover is itself a forecast for the area around you rather than your exact spot; solar activity can change within minutes; and our model, like any model, simplifies the real sky. Light pollution, terrain, haze and moonlight are beyond what any app can know. When a data source is unavailable, the Services may show the most recent values available.

The aurora is a natural phenomenon and is never guaranteed, anywhere, on any night. A forecast, however favourable, is a statement of likelihood, not a promise: the aurora may not appear when Boreal says it might, and may appear when Boreal is quiet. Boreal helps you choose the right moments to look up; it cannot make the sky perform.

Alerts depend on public data feeds, Apple’s push service and your device being reachable, which are outside our control, so an alert may occasionally be late, missing, or sent for a display that does not materialise.

Aurora hunting often means being outside at night, in the cold and in remote places. Please take care of your own safety, and do not use the App, including Aurora Finder, while driving or operating machinery. Our Disclaimer forms part of these Terms.

The Services incorporate data provided by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and GeoNet New Zealand under Creative Commons Attribution licences, and by the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center and the USGS Geomagnetism Program as United States public-domain data. Geomagnetic indices are provided by the Tromsø Geophysical Observatory, and global cloud imagery by OpenWeatherMap. Maps and place search are provided by Apple Maps. None of these organisations endorses Boreal or is responsible for it, and their data may be delayed, interrupted or withdrawn at any time.

The Services may provide links to other sites. Boreal has no control over such sites and is not responsible for their content.

The materials appearing in the Services could include technical, typographical or photographic errors. Boreal does not warrant that any of the materials in the Services are accurate, complete or current. Boreal may make changes to the materials contained in the Services at any time without notice, but does not make any commitment to update the materials.

The Services, including the App’s software, forecast model, design, graphics, 3D globe, text, and the Boreal name and logo, are owned by Kasimir Hirvikoski and protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. We grant you a limited, personal, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the App on Apple devices you own or control, in accordance with the App Store Usage Rules, for your own non-commercial use. The App is licensed, not sold. Any feedback you send us may be used without restriction or compensation.

The App is distributed through the Apple App Store, and Apple requires that the following applies. This Agreement is between you and Boreal only, not Apple, and Boreal alone is responsible for the App and its content. Your licence is limited to use on Apple-branded products that you own or control, as permitted by the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the App. If the App fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price; to the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation with respect to the App. Boreal, not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claims relating to the App, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance and consumer protection claims, and for the investigation, defence and settlement of any third-party intellectual property claim. You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties. You must comply with applicable third-party terms when using the App. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of this Agreement and may enforce it against you.

We may revise these Terms of Service at any time. The current version is identified by the effective date at the top of this page. For material changes we will notify you in the App or on the Site before they take effect. By continuing to use the Services after that, you are agreeing to be bound by the then-current version of these Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, stop using the Services and cancel any subscription before its next renewal.

YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS AND, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, INFORMATION ACCURACY AND UNINTERRUPTED OPERATION. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT ANY FORECAST, ALERT, READING, MAP OR OTHER DATA WILL BE ACCURATE, TIMELY OR COMPLETE, OR THAT THE AURORA WILL OR WILL NOT BE VISIBLE AT ANY TIME OR PLACE. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT FORECASTS ARE ESTIMATES AND THAT YOU RELY ON THEM AT YOUR OWN RISK. IF YOU ARE A CONSUMER, THIS SECTION DOES NOT EXCLUDE ANY WARRANTY OR GUARANTEE THAT CANNOT BE EXCLUDED UNDER THE LAW APPLICABLE TO YOU.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER BOREAL NOR ITS LICENSORS OR SERVICE PROVIDERS SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL LOSS, LOSS OF PROFIT, WASTED TRAVEL OR EXPENDITURE, LOSS OF DATA, OR ANY KIND OF INTANGIBLE LOSS RESULTING FROM (I) YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO ACCESS OR USE, THE SERVICES, (II) ANY FORECAST, ALERT OR FAILURE OF ALERT, OR (III) THE CONTENT OF THIRD PARTIES ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. IN NO EVENT WILL BOREAL’S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICES IN ANY TWELVE-MONTH PERIOD EXCEED THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU TO BOREAL FOR THE SERVICES IN THAT PERIOD.

NOTHING IN THESE TERMS EXCLUDES OR LIMITS OUR LIABILITY FOR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY NEGLIGENCE, FOR FRAUD, FOR GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILFUL MISCONDUCT, OR FOR ANY LIABILITY THAT CANNOT BE EXCLUDED OR LIMITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW. IF YOU ARE A CONSUMER, THE MANDATORY CONSUMER-PROTECTION LAW OF THE COUNTRY WHERE YOU LIVE PREVAILS OVER ANY CONFLICTING PROVISION OF THESE TERMS.

These Terms are governed by the laws of Finland. If you are a consumer living in another country of the European Economic Area, you also benefit from the mandatory consumer law of that country and may bring a claim in its courts. Consumers in Finland may refer a dispute to the Consumer Disputes Board (kuluttajariita.fi) after contacting the Consumer Advisory Services; consumers elsewhere in the EU may use the alternative dispute resolution body in their own country. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid, the remaining provisions remain in effect.

If you have any questions or suggestions about our Privacy Policy or Terms of Service, do not hesitate to contact us at moc.liamg@iksokivrih.rimisak.