Terms of Service

01The Agreement

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Thinker, the reading and thinking platform at thinker.vaelk.com, including its website, Room, Librarian, newsletter, and related services (together, the "Service").

By accessing or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

02The Service Provider

The Service is offered by Mr. Ngô Lê Bảo Duy (individual, owner of the Thinker project), with registered office at 268 Lý Thường Kiệt Street, Diên Hồng Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Contact: nowhere0199@gmail.com.

Until the legal entity is formally confirmed, these Terms identify the operator by the product name "Thinker" under the Vaelk brand.

03Acceptance

You accept these Terms by using the Service. Continued use after a change is treated as acceptance of the changed Terms, subject to Section 24.

04Users and Eligibility

You must be at least 13 tuổi years old to use the Service, and you must have the legal capacity to enter into a contract in your jurisdiction. By using the Service, you represent that you meet both conditions.

We do not knowingly provide the Service to children under the minimum age. If we learn that a child under the minimum age has created an account, we will delete it.

05Accounts and Credentials

• You may create an account by magic link (email) or by signing in with Google.
• You are responsible for keeping your email address (and, if used, your Google account) secure, and for all activity under your account.
• We do not store passwords; sign-in is link- or OAuth-based.
• We may suspend or terminate an account that is used in violation of these Terms, or that poses a security risk.
• You may delete your account at any time from Room settings; deletion removes all data linked to the account.

06Content

The content on Thinker — articles, episodes, imagery, and the written works it presents — is protected by intellectual property law. You may read, listen, quote fairly, and share links. You may not republish, scrape at scale, translate for redistribution, or build a competing product from the content without permission.

07User-Generated Content

Content you create in the Service — notes, highlights, questions to the Librarian, shared links ("Content") — remains yours. You grant us a limited, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, process, and display that content only as needed to operate the Service for you (for example, to show your notes in your Room).

You are responsible for your Content. Do not post Content that is unlawful, infringes a third party's rights, or that you do not have the right to share.

08The Librarian

The Librarian is an AI assistant that answers questions about the content you are reading.

• It is a tool, not a replacement for a human librarian. Answers can be incomplete, outdated, or wrong.
• When you ask a question, the question and the text of the article you are reading (up to a limited length) are sent to our language-model service for processing. Details are in the Privacy Policy, Section 08.
• Librarian output is not legal, medical, financial, or other professional advice.

09AI Disclaimers

Thinker uses AI components (the Librarian and, from time to time, AI-assisted features). AI-generated content is provided "as is". You are solely responsible for how you use AI output. Nothing in the Service constitutes professional advice of any kind.

10Vault and Privacy

Your Vault (notes, highlights, saved items) is personal space:

• It is private to you and not publicly listed.
• It is encrypted at rest (see Privacy Policy, Section 09).
• You control retention: you can clear your Vault at any time, and clearing it wipes your stored history.
• We do not sell, rent, or publicly display Vault content.

11Reading and Room

Room features (reading progress, journey, library, settings) are tied to your account. We do not sell reading behavior. Progress and bookmarks are deleted with your account.

12Payments

Payments are not live at the time of these Terms. When payment features are enabled:

• Paddle or Lemon Squeezy, acting as the payment processor and Merchant of Record / authorized reseller for applicable Thinker transactions, as specified by the provider's applicable terms. will act as merchant of record for the Service. Card or payment-app details are handled by that provider; we do not store full card numbers.
• You will receive the specific purchase terms (price, renewal, cancellation) before you commit to any payment.
• Use of the paid features is subject to those purchase terms in addition to these Terms.

We may adjust pricing and plans; we will announce material changes before they take effect for renewals.

13Refunds

• One-time purchases: refund eligibility is determined case by case; write to nowhere0199@gmail.com within 14 days of purchase for a consideration.
• Recurring plans: you may cancel at any time from your account; the plan remains active until the end of the paid period, unless the payment provider permits earlier cancellation.
• We may refuse refunds where a refund would breach our obligations to the payment provider.

14Cancellation

You may cancel a recurring plan at any time from your account or through your payment provider. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you will not be charged again after that. We do not retain access to paid features after the paid period ends.

15Prohibited Conduct

You must not:

• use the Service to violate applicable law;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, its data, or other users' accounts;
• scrape content at scale or interfere with the Service's operation;
• use the Librarian or AI features to generate unlawful, harmful, or infringing content;
• misrepresent your identity, or use someone else's account;
• resell the Service or provide access to it as a shared service.

We may suspend access for conduct that violates this Section.

16Intellectual Property

Except for content you create (Section 07), all Service content and the Service itself — including the name, logo, design, and code — are owned by Mr. Ngô Lê Bảo Duy (individual, owner of the Thinker project) or its licensors and are protected by applicable intellectual property law. These Terms do not transfer any ownership rights to you; they grant only the limited right to use the Service as described here.

17Third-Party Links

The Service may link to third-party websites (for example, Google's sign-in, or payment pages). Those sites have their own terms and privacy practices. We are not responsible for their content; links do not imply endorsement.

18Availability and Service Changes

• The Service is provided on an "as available" basis. We aim for high reliability but do not guarantee uninterrupted service.
• We may modify, suspend, or discontinue features (or the Service) with reasonable notice where practical. Paid features: material discontinuation triggers the refund terms in Section 13.
• We may update these Terms from time to time (Section 24).

19Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• the Service is provided as is, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement;
• we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of data, profits, or goodwill, even if advised of the possibility;
• our total liability arising from the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 30 days before the claim, or (b) a nominal sum where you have not paid — in either case, to the extent legally permitted.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or limits on liability; where they do not apply to you, they do not apply here.

20Indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Mr. Ngô Lê Bảo Duy (individual, owner of the Thinker project) and its operators from claims, damages, and reasonable legal fees arising from (a) your Content, or (b) your violation of these Terms or applicable law. This does not apply to claims caused by our negligence or willful misconduct.

21Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time, or delete your account (Section 05). We may terminate or restrict your access if you breach these Terms, or as required by law. Sections 15–20 survive termination.

22Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Vietnam, except to the extent that mandatory consumer-protection or other applicable laws in the customer's jurisdiction provide otherwise. Payment transactions may also be subject to the applicable terms of Paddle or Lemon Squeezy, which govern the relationship between the customer and the relevant Merchant of Record., without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Disputes will be brought before the courts of These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Vietnam, except to the extent that mandatory consumer-protection or other applicable laws in the customer's jurisdiction provide otherwise. Payment transactions may also be subject to the applicable terms of Paddle or Lemon Squeezy, which govern the relationship between the customer and the relevant Merchant of Record. where legally permitted; mandatory consumer protections in your jurisdiction still apply to you.

23Dispute Resolution

We prefer to resolve disputes directly: write to nowhere0199@gmail.com first, and we will respond within a reasonable time. If a dispute concerns a payment, your payment provider's chargeback process also applies. Nothing in this Section prevents you from using mandatory legal remedies available to you.

24Changes to These Terms

We may change these Terms when the Service or our obligations change. We will:

• update the "Updated" date at the top of this page;
• for material changes affecting paid features or your data, notify you in your Room before the change takes effect;
• keep prior versions available on request during the transition.

If you do not accept a material change, you may stop using the Service and delete your account; refund treatment follows Section 13.

25Founding Thinker+ Price Protection

Approved Founding Thinker+ members receive a protected Founding price associated with their account.

A Founder does not lose this price protection solely because a Thinker+ subscription is cancelled, expires, or is inactive for a period of time.

If an eligible Founder later returns and subscribes again, the applicable Founding price remains available under the Founding terms in effect when that Founder entitlement was granted.

Changes to Thinker+ standard pricing do not automatically change the protected price of an existing Founder.

Founding status and price protection may be revoked only in circumstances expressly permitted under the applicable Founding terms, including cases of fraudulent or abusive acquisition where applicable.

Specific billing mechanics, such as billing frequency changes, refunds, currency conversion, taxes, and provider-related checkout behavior, do not alter the underlying Founding entitlement unless expressly stated in the applicable terms.