Terms of Service

Last updated: March 1, 2026. Effective immediately upon use of the Service.

Document reference: QS-TOS-2026.03.01-R4 — Classification: PUBLIC

1. Definitions

For the purposes of this Agreement, the following terms shall have the meanings ascribed to them below:

"Service" means the Quicksand virtual private network, ad blocking proxy, DNS filtering, WireGuard tunnel provisioning, dashboard interface, and any related software, APIs, or infrastructure operated by the Company.

"Company," "we," "us," "our" means ████████████, LLC, a limited liability company registered in ██████████, ██, United States, registration number ██████████████.

"User," "you," "your" means any individual or entity that accesses, registers for, or uses the Service.

"Account" means a unique credential set (Ghost account ID, or email/password combination) that grants access to the Service.

"Ghost Account" means an account created without any personally identifiable information, authenticated solely by a randomly generated account identifier.

"Standard Account" means an account registered with an email address and password, enabling account recovery and email-based notifications.

"Peer" means a WireGuard cryptographic endpoint provisioned for the User upon subscription activation.

"Lambda (λ)" means the User-configurable ad blocking sensitivity parameter, ranging from 0.0 (no blocking) to 1.0 (maximum blocking).

"P(ad) Score" means the machine-learning-derived probability that a given network request is advertising or tracking content.

"Grace Period" means the period of continued service access following a failed payment, currently set at three (3) calendar days.

2. Service description

Quicksand provides an encrypted virtual private network service with integrated intelligent ad blocking. The Service operates as follows:

  • VPN Tunnel: All User traffic is encrypted using the WireGuard protocol and routed through Company-operated exit nodes. The tunnel is established between the User's device and the nearest available exit node.
  • Ad Blocking: Network requests are evaluated in real-time against a machine learning classifier that assigns a probability score P(ad) to each request. Requests exceeding the User's configured lambda threshold are blocked. This processing occurs entirely in volatile memory.
  • Quicksand Delay: Blocked requests receive a synthetic delay response rather than an immediate block signal, preventing ad-blocker detection by websites. This delay is calibrated to appear as network latency.
  • Dashboard: A web-based interface for managing account settings, viewing real-time query logs (client-side only), adjusting ad blocking sensitivity, and managing billing.

The Service is operated by ████████████, LLC, registered address ████ ████████ ██, ████ ███, ██████████, ██ █████. Primary infrastructure is hosted by ██████ █████ ████ in Helsinki, Finland (EU jurisdiction for data processing).

3. Account tiers, registration, and access

The Service offers tiered access levels. All tiers provide identical technical functionality. Tiers differ only in identity requirements, payment methods, and recovery capabilities.

3.1 Ghost Account ($10/month)

Anonymous account requiring zero personally identifiable information. Registration generates a unique account identifier (format: QS-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX) which serves as the sole credential. Payment is accepted exclusively via cryptocurrency (BTC, XMR, Lightning Network) through a self-hosted BTCPay Server instance. If you lose your account identifier, there is no recovery mechanism. This is an intentional design constraint to ensure true anonymity — the Company has no information by which to verify account ownership. Each cryptocurrency payment extends service access by thirty (30) calendar days. There is no automatic renewal.

3.2 Standard Account ($7/month)

Email-based account with password recovery. Registration requires a valid email address and a password of at least eight (8) characters. The password is stored as an Argon2id hash (memory cost: 64MB, time cost: 3, parallelism: 4) — the Company never stores plaintext passwords. Subscription is billed monthly via Stripe and renews automatically unless cancelled. Payment via cryptocurrency is also accepted.

3.3 Annual Account ($60/year)

Identical to Standard, billed annually at a reduced effective rate of $5.00/month. Subscription renews automatically unless cancelled. Payment via Stripe only. Annual subscribers receive priority support response times.

You may maintain only one (1) active account per payment identity. Creating multiple accounts to circumvent usage limits or abuse restrictions is a violation of these terms.

4. Acceptable use policy

Quicksand is a privacy tool designed to protect lawful internet activity from surveillance and unwanted tracking. It is not an enablement tool for harmful, illegal, or abusive activity. By using the Service, you agree not to:

  • Engage in any activity that violates applicable local, state, national, or international law or regulation in any jurisdiction where you access the Service or where Company infrastructure is located.
  • Distribute, store, transmit, or access child sexual abuse material (CSAM). This is a zero-tolerance offense resulting in immediate, irreversible account termination and referral to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), INTERPOL, and/or applicable law enforcement. No notice, no warning, no appeal.
  • Send unsolicited bulk email (spam), phishing messages, social engineering attacks, or malware distribution via the Service.
  • Conduct or participate in denial-of-service (DoS/DDoS) attacks, port scanning, network probing, or vulnerability exploitation against any target.
  • Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of Quicksand's own infrastructure, networks, or systems without prior written authorization from the Company.
  • Share, sell, lease, sublicense, or otherwise transfer your account credentials, WireGuard configuration, or access to the Service to any third party.
  • Consume excessive infrastructure resources, generate abnormal traffic patterns, or otherwise degrade Service quality for other Users. Bandwidth is unmetered for normal use; automated scraping, cryptocurrency mining, or sustained high-throughput abuse is prohibited.
  • Reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to derive the source code of the ad classification model, proxy engine, or any proprietary component of the Service.
  • Use the Service to circumvent sanctions, export controls, or other trade compliance requirements administered by ██████ or applicable regulatory bodies.

Abuse detection operates on external signals only (DMCA notices, upstream provider complaints, network-level anomalies). We do not inspect, log, or analyze the content of your traffic. See Section 8 for details on our enforcement mechanism.

5. Account suspension and termination

The Company reserves the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, subject to the following framework:

5.1 Immediate termination (no notice)

CSAM distribution, active attacks on Company infrastructure, verified participation in terrorism financing, or court-ordered account seizure. WireGuard peer is deprovisioned immediately. Any remaining subscription balance is forfeited.

5.2 Termination with warning

Excessive resource consumption, spam, port scanning, or other prohibited activity identified through external abuse reports. User receives one (1) warning via the notification method available for their tier (email for Standard/Annual; none for Ghost — Ghost accounts may be terminated without prior notice if abuse is confirmed). Failure to cease prohibited activity within forty-eight (48) hours results in termination.

5.3 User-initiated cancellation

Standard/Annual: Cancel anytime through the Stripe Customer Portal (accessible from Dashboard > Billing > Manage subscription). Service continues until the end of the current billing period. Ghost: Let your account expire by not renewing payment. Account data is permanently deleted thirty (30) days after expiration for all tiers.

6. Payment, billing, and early renewal

6.1 Standard & Annual tiers

Billing is processed by Stripe, Inc. Your payment card details are stored exclusively by Stripe — the Company never receives, transmits, or stores card numbers, CVVs, or expiration dates. Subscriptions renew automatically at the beginning of each billing cycle unless cancelled. Stripe will attempt to charge your payment method up to four (4) times over seven (7) days in the event of a failed payment. During this period, a three (3) day grace period applies during which your VPN access remains active. After the grace period, your WireGuard peer is deprovisioned and VPN access ceases.

6.2 Ghost tier

Payments are processed by a self-hosted BTCPay Server instance operated on Company infrastructure. No third-party payment processor is involved. We accept Bitcoin (on-chain), Bitcoin Lightning Network, and Monero (XMR). Each payment adds thirty (30) calendar days of service. There is no automatic renewal — you must manually initiate each payment. We do not store wallet addresses or transaction hashes beyond what is required for payment confirmation.

6.3 Early renewal discount

Users with three (3) or more days remaining on their current billing period may renew early to receive a fifteen percent (15%) discount on their next billing cycle. This discount is applied once, at the time of early renewal, and does not compound or carry over. The early renewal discount is available to all tiers.

6.4 Price changes

The Company reserves the right to modify pricing at any time. Price changes will not affect active billing periods. Standard/Annual tier users will receive thirty (30) days' email notice before any price increase takes effect. Ghost tier users should consult the pricing page for current rates.

7. Refund policy

7.1 Standard tier

Prorated refund for unused days in the current billing period, issued to the original payment method via Stripe. Refund requests must be submitted within thirty (30) days of the charge date. Processing time: 5-10 business days.

7.2 Annual tier

Prorated refund for remaining complete months in the annual period, issued via Stripe. Within the first thirty (30) days: full prorated refund for remaining months. After thirty (30) days: prorated refund for complete remaining months only (partial months are not refunded).

7.3 Ghost tier

No refunds. Cryptocurrency payments are final and irreversible. This is inherent to the anonymous nature of the Ghost tier — the Company has no mechanism to verify payment origin or destination for refund purposes. By choosing the Ghost tier, you explicitly acknowledge and accept this limitation.

7.4 Chargebacks

If a chargeback is initiated against a legitimate charge, the associated account will be immediately suspended pending resolution. Fraudulent chargebacks may result in permanent account termination. Contact billing@vextraq.com before initiating a chargeback — we can almost certainly resolve the issue faster.

8. Abuse detection and enforcement

Because our architecture does not log, inspect, or store traffic data, abuse detection relies exclusively on external signals. This section describes what we can and cannot see.

What we CAN detect

  • DMCA takedown notices referencing our exit node IP addresses
  • Abuse complaints from upstream network providers (e.g., ██████)
  • Aggregate bandwidth anomalies at the network level (sustained >1 Gbps from a single peer)
  • Connection count anomalies (thousands of concurrent connections from a single peer)
  • Automated port scanning patterns detected by upstream IDS/IPS systems

What we CANNOT see

  • Which websites you visit
  • The content of any request or response
  • DNS queries (processed in memory, immediately discarded)
  • Your real IP address in connection with your browsing activity
  • Timestamps of your VPN sessions
  • Any correlation between your identity and your traffic

9. Service availability and SLA

The Company targets ninety-nine point nine percent (99.9%) monthly uptime for the VPN tunnel service, excluding planned maintenance windows. This is a target, not a guarantee. The Service is provided on an "as available" basis.

  • Planned maintenance: Standard/Annual tier users will receive twenty-four (24) hours' email notice. Ghost tier users should monitor the status page at ██████████████████. Maintenance windows are scheduled during low-traffic periods (02:00-06:00 UTC).
  • Unplanned outages: The Company will use commercially reasonable efforts to restore service. No compensation is provided for outages unless the aggregate monthly downtime exceeds seventy-two (72) hours, in which case affected users will receive a prorated service credit.
  • Service discontinuation: If the Company elects to discontinue the Service entirely, at least sixty (60) days' notice will be provided, and all prepaid amounts will be refunded on a prorated basis (Standard/Annual tiers).

10. Limitation of liability

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, TITLE, QUIET ENJOYMENT, AND ACCURACY. THE COMPANY DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COMPANY, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AFFILIATES, SUCCESSORS, OR ASSIGNS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, USE, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH: (A) YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE; (B) ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (C) ANY STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE SERVICE; (D) ANY CONTENT ACCESSED THROUGH THE SERVICE; OR (E) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, EVEN IF THE COMPANY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

THE COMPANY'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF: (I) THE TOTAL AMOUNT PAID BY YOU TO THE COMPANY DURING THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM; OR (II) ONE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS ($100.00 USD).

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES. IN SUCH JURISDICTIONS, THE COMPANY'S LIABILITY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Company and its officers, directors, employees, agents, and affiliates from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including but not limited to reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from: (a) your use of the Service; (b) your violation of these Terms; (c) your violation of any law, regulation, or third-party right; or (d) any content you transmit through the Service.

12. Intellectual property

The Quicksand name, logo, visual identity, software, proprietary technology (including but not limited to the proxy engine, P(ad) machine learning classifier, DAG+LP cascade optimizer, Quicksand delay mechanism, and all associated algorithms), documentation, and marketing materials are the exclusive property of ████████████, LLC and are protected by applicable copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret laws.

The WireGuard configuration file generated for your account is licensed to you for personal use only. You may not redistribute, publish, or share your configuration file. The WireGuard protocol itself is open-source software developed by Jason A. Donenfeld and is subject to its own licensing terms.

13. DMCA and copyright complaints

The Company complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). If a copyright holder identifies infringing activity originating from our exit node IP addresses, they may submit a DMCA notice. Because we do not log traffic or maintain user-to-activity associations, we cannot identify or forward notices to specific users. In practice, this means:

  • We acknowledge receipt of DMCA notices directed at our IP addresses.
  • We inform the complainant that we operate a VPN service and do not host user content.
  • We cannot identify, warn, or take action against specific users based on DMCA notices alone.

DMCA designated agent: ████████ ██████, dmca@vextraq.com.

14. Dispute resolution and arbitration

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall first be attempted to be resolved through informal negotiation by contacting legal@vextraq.com. If informal resolution fails within thirty (30) days, either party may initiate binding arbitration administered by ██████████████████████ under its Commercial Arbitration Rules. The arbitration shall be conducted in ██████████, ██, United States, in the English language.

CLASS ACTION WAIVER: You agree that any dispute resolution proceedings will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class, consolidated, or representative action. You waive any right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.

15. Governing law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of ██████████, United States, without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. Any legal action not subject to arbitration under Section 14 shall be brought exclusively in the federal or state courts located in ██████████ ██████, ██.

16. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, such provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable, or if modification is not possible, severed from these Terms. The remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

17. Entire agreement and waiver

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and the Company regarding the Service. These Terms supersede all prior agreements, understandings, negotiations, and discussions, whether oral or written. The failure of the Company to enforce any provision of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of such provision or any other provision.

18. Assignment

You may not assign, transfer, or delegate your rights or obligations under these Terms without the prior written consent of the Company. The Company may freely assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, corporate reorganization, or sale of all or substantially all of its assets. Subject to the foregoing, these Terms shall bind and inure to the benefit of the parties and their respective successors and assigns.

19. Modifications to these Terms

The Company may modify these Terms at any time by posting the revised version on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. For material changes that adversely affect your rights, Standard/Annual tier users will receive thirty (30) days' email notice before the changes take effect. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of any changes constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, you must discontinue use of the Service and cancel your subscription.

20. Contact information

General inquiries: hello@vextraq.com

Billing & refunds: billing@vextraq.com

Legal & DMCA: legal@vextraq.com

Abuse reports: abuse@vextraq.com

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