Terms of Service
Please read these Terms carefully, especially the parts in bold, which affect your rights (for example the limitation of liability and dispute resolution). By signing up for, signing in to or using Read OutWard, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use Read OutWard.
About these Terms#
Read OutWard (listed as “阔读英语” on the mainland China App Store; together, the “Service”) is an English-learning product for reading, listening and practising in English, made up of the iPhone / iPad app and the website readoutward.com. The Service is operated by Inchfield Technologies Limited, a company incorporated in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“we”, “us”).
These Terms are the agreement between you and us about your use of the Service. The Subscription Terms, the Privacy Policy and the AI-Generated Content Notice form part of these Terms. These Terms are published in Chinese and English; if the two differ, the Chinese version prevails unless mandatory law where you live says otherwise.
Eligibility and minors#
- You must be at least 13 years old to create an account.
- If you are under 18 (or the age of majority where you live), a parent or guardian must read and agree to these Terms and the Privacy Policy before you use the Service. In mainland China, children under 14 may use the Service only with a guardian’s consent.
- If we learn that someone under 13 has created an account, we will delete it. Parents and guardians can contact us at support@readoutward.com.
Accounts#
- You can sign in with Sign in with Apple, a Google account or an email code; the China edition of the app supports phone and email codes. One account works on the web and on iPhone; membership, AI credits and learning records are the same on both.
- Some features work without an account; your records are then kept on your device and you can import them into an account after signing in.
- Give us accurate contact details and keep your sign-in methods secure. Your account is for you alone: do not lend, sell or share it. Activity under your account is treated as yours unless you tell us promptly that it was compromised.
- You can export your data or delete your account at any time; see Delete your account and data.
The Service#
The Service offers English news, articles, journals, books, audio episodes, scene videos and interactive books, with tap-to-define, sentence breakdowns, narration, word-card review, pronunciation scoring, study plans and the iRe study coach. Some features are free; others need a membership, AI credits or a separate purchase, as described in the product.
We keep improving the Service and may add, change or discontinue features or content. If a change materially reduces something you have paid for, we will tell you in advance and handle it under the Subscription Terms and applicable law.
Acceptable use#
When using the Service, you must not:
- break the law or infringe anyone’s intellectual property, privacy or other rights;
- use crawlers, scripts or other automated means to access, download or copy the Service’s content or APIs in bulk, or get around access limits, membership limits, AI credit metering or technical protections;
- reverse engineer, decompile or crack the app or Service (except where the law expressly allows it), or interfere with its operation or security;
- publicly distribute, resell or commercially exploit the Service’s content (including articles, translations, narration audio, illustrations and interactive books), or use it to train machine-learning models;
- import, upload or generate with AI features anything unlawful, infringing, obscene, violent, hateful or harassing, or use AI features to impersonate others or create misleading information;
- obtain memberships, trials, redemption codes, AI credits or other benefits through bugs, false identities or other improper means.
If you break these rules, we may remove the content concerned, limit features, or suspend or terminate your account, depending on the seriousness, and we reserve our legal rights.
Our content and intellectual property#
The articles, editing and translations, narration audio, illustrations, videos, interactive books, software, interface design, and the “Read OutWard” and “iRe” names and marks in the Service belong to us or our licensors. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable licence to use them for your own non-commercial learning, as these Terms allow.
Some content comes from third-party sources or is used under public-domain or Creative Commons licences; we credit the source and licence on the content page. Links to originals open the publisher’s website, where the publisher’s own content and terms apply.
If you believe content in the Service infringes your rights, send proof of your rights and the exact location to support@readoutward.com and we will act promptly.
Your content#
“Your content” means what you create in or provide to the Service, such as reading notes, word cards, imported articles, e-books, subtitles and feeds, feedback, and what you share with study buddies.
- Your content remains yours. To provide the Service to you (including storing, syncing across devices, splitting into sentences, generating narration or explanations, scoring and backups), you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to store, copy, process and transmit your content to the extent needed to provide the Service, including through the service providers listed in the Privacy Policy. This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies the law requires us to keep or that remain in backups for their retention period.
- We do not publish your imported content or notes, and we do not use them to train models of our own.
- You confirm you have the right to import and use your content. Importing is for your personal study only: import only content you are entitled to read, and do not use the Service to distribute copyrighted works.
- We may freely use feedback and suggestions you send us to improve the Service, without payment to you.
AI-generated content#
Some features use artificial intelligence to generate content, such as narration voices, definitions, translations, explanations and illustrations. Which features use AI, how AI content is labelled and its limits are described in the AI-Generated Content Notice.
AI-generated content may be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date. It is a language-learning aid only and is not professional (for example legal, medical or financial) advice. Use your own judgement. These Terms’ acceptable-use rules apply to what you enter into AI features and to what they generate.
Interactive books#
Interactive books are branching English stories. Some chapters are free; the full book may need a separate purchase (prices and member prices are in the Subscription Terms). Your choices and endings are saved to your account.
Books you buy stay available in your account. If we must withdraw a book you bought, for example for rights reasons, we will refund you or provide equivalent compensation as the law requires.
Paid services#
Prices, auto-renewal, trials, cancellation, refunds, Family Sharing and redemption codes for memberships, AI credit packs and interactive books are covered by the Subscription Terms.
Third-party services#
The Service relies on third-party services such as Apple’s App Store and Sign in with Apple, Google sign-in and Stripe for web payments. Their own terms and privacy policies apply when you use them. The providers that process data for us are listed in Third-party services.
Suspension and termination#
- You can stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription bought through Apple; cancel it in your Apple account first (see the Subscription Terms).
- We may suspend or terminate your account if you seriously or repeatedly breach these Terms, if the law requires it, or where needed to protect other users or the Service. Except in emergencies or where the law forbids it, we will tell you why, and you can appeal at support@readoutward.com. Fees paid by an account terminated for breach are handled as the law requires.
- If we decide to shut down the Service, we will give at least 30 days’ notice and refund unexpired paid benefits as the law requires.
- Terms that by their nature should survive termination (such as intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability and governing law) survive it.
Disclaimers#
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. We work to keep it reliable and accurate, but we do not promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that you will reach any particular learning or exam result. This does not affect consumer rights that cannot be excluded by agreement.
Limitation of liability#
To the fullest extent permitted by law: (1) we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses (such as lost profits or business losses); and (2) our total liability to you arising from these Terms or the Service is limited to the greater of the amounts you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the liability and US$50.
These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law, such as loss caused by our wilful misconduct or gross negligence, personal injury, or your statutory consumer rights.
Governing law and disputes#
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. We will first try to resolve any dispute informally; if that fails, the courts of Hong Kong have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer, this does not take away the mandatory protections of the law where you live, including the right to bring proceedings in your local courts.
Changes to these Terms#
We may update these Terms. The version and date are shown at the top of this page. For changes that materially and adversely affect your rights, we will notify you in the app, on the website or by email at least 7 days before they take effect (unless an immediate change is required by law or for security). If you keep using the Service after a change takes effect, you accept the updated Terms; if you do not, you can stop using the Service and delete your account.
Additional terms for the Apple App Store#
If you downloaded the app from the Apple App Store, the following also applies:
- These Terms are between you and us, not Apple. We, not Apple, are responsible for the app and its content.
- Your licence is limited to using the app on Apple-branded devices 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 an applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price of the app (if any); to the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation for the app.
- We, not Apple, are responsible for addressing any claims relating to the app (including product liability claims, claims that it fails to meet legal or regulatory requirements, and consumer protection or privacy claims) and any third-party claim that the app infringes intellectual property rights.
- 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 (such as your wireless data service agreement) when using the app.
- Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and, once you accept them, may enforce them against you as a third-party beneficiary.
Contact#
For any question about these Terms, email support@readoutward.com or report a problem on the website. We usually reply within 1–2 working days.
Operator: Inchfield Technologies Limited (the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region)