Legal

Terms of Service

Last updated: Sep 25, 2026

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Skans Labs website (skanslabs.com) the Skans customer portal and account, and the Offsite Vault hosted storage service (together, the “Services”), operated by La Costa Services, LLC (“Skans Labs”, “we”, “us”). The Skans software you install is licensed separately under the Software License Agreement; how we handle personal data is described in our Privacy & Cookie Policy and, for business customers, our Data Processing Addendum. By creating an account or using the Services you agree to these Terms; if you agree on behalf of an organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind it.

Your account

You must give accurate information, keep your password and second factor secure, and are responsible for activity under your account. An account represents one organization; people you invite act under it. Tell us promptly at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorized use.

Acceptable use

You agree not to misuse the Services: no unlawful use; no unauthorized access to, interference with, or disruption of the Services or their infrastructure; no probing or scanning except as we expressly invite for security research; no using the Services to build a competing product; and no reselling or sublicensing access without our written permission. Do not store electronic protected health information (ePHI) or criminal justice information in the Offsite Vault; Skans Labs signs no Business Associate Agreement and is not CJIS-vetted. The Offsite Vault has further rules on what you may store, below. Use of the Skans software itself is governed by the Software License Agreement.

Licenses and editions

Skans requires a license to run. The Community edition is free and issues immediately; paid editions are provided under the order or plan you select. License keys are issued to your organization and may not be shared outside it. Your rights in the software are those granted by the Software License Agreement, not these Terms.

Availability and changes to the Services

The Services are provided on an “as available” basis. We do not guarantee that the website or portal will be uninterrupted or error-free, and we may modify, suspend, or discontinue features. Any specific availability commitment applies only if stated in a separate written agreement with you. The appliance is designed to keep protecting your network even when it is disconnected from us.

Fees

The Community edition is free. Paid editions are billed as set out in your order; fees are exclusive of taxes, for which you are responsible where applicable.

Automatic renewal and cancellation

A paid edition or an Offsite Vault subscription bought in the portal is a subscription. It renews automatically at the end of each monthly or annual period, at the price then current, and is charged to the payment method on file until you cancel it. You can cancel online at any time in the billing portal, without contacting us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period; until then the subscription continues. Fees are not refunded for a partial period, except where these Terms say otherwise. If we raise the price of a subscription you have, we will email the account at least 30 days before the new price applies; it applies from your first renewal after that notice, and you can cancel before then. When an Offsite Vault subscription ends, the read-only period and return to the edition’s storage described below apply. Closing your portal account does not by itself delete a site’s Offsite Vault: cancel the Vault (it then lapses as described below) or use Delete my vault first. A request to erase a site’s Vault is handled the same way as Delete my vault: the backups are unreadable as soon as the key is destroyed, and the stored copies are purged once their 14-day lock has passed.

Offsite Vault

The Offsite Vault is an optional hosted service that stores encrypted copies of a site’s backups. It is bought per site, bound to that site’s license, and never pooled with another site’s storage. By using it you agree to the following.

• You hold the key. Backups are encrypted on your appliance before they are sent, with a key that exists only on that appliance and on the recovery sheet you print. We do not have the key and cannot decrypt, recover or reconstruct your backups. If you lose both the appliance and the recovery sheet, your stored backups cannot be restored by anyone. You acknowledge this before the service is enabled.
• You hold the names too. Your appliance also encrypts each backup’s name with the site key before it is sent, sealed together with that backup’s SHA-256 hash, and identifies its backup set and the chain of database backups it belongs to only by keyed codes we cannot reverse. We store the encrypted name, those codes, whether it is a full, differential, log or self-contained backup, a coarse type (configuration, database, disaster recovery or device), the size, the SHA-256 hash and timestamps, and our services see the network address each connection comes from. We cannot read file names, host names, database names or contents. The recovery kit refuses to restore a backup whose hash does not match the one sealed in its name, so a name moved from one backup to another is detected rather than obeyed.
• Switching it on. An enroll code is issued in the portal by the license owner, or by a partner technician assigned to the site’s license. The code does nothing until a local administrator enters it at the appliance’s console and accepts the key-loss acknowledgment; that acceptance is the site’s consent to the service.
• Deletion lock. Each stored backup is held under a 14-day lock, a rule on the storage bucket that refuses to delete or overwrite it whether the request comes through the service or through our storage account. The service gives nobody — you, a partner who manages your site, or Skans Labs staff — a way to delete a backup before its lock expires, and we do not remove or shorten the lock while backups are held under it, unless the law requires us to. The lock is a setting on storage that Skans Labs operates; it is not custody by an independent third party. After the lock expires, a backup is removed only under the retention you set, at the end of the subscription (below), on your deletion of the vault, or as described under “Legal requests and suspension”. Backups are deleted only by our retention process; the appliance cannot delete backups or change retention. Only the license owner, after a multi-factor check, can reduce retention, and a reduction takes effect only after existing locks expire. A partner’s technicians may increase retention, never reduce it. A partner that pays for the subscription can cancel it, but that only starts the read-only period described below, during which the license owner can take the subscription over.
• Retention. Retention is by calendar, never by the number of backups. Full and self-contained backups are kept daily, weekly and monthly (by default 14 daily, 8 weekly and 12 monthly copies, each the earliest complete backup of its day, week or month). Differential and log backups are kept per database backup series: the series’ base is its most recent full backup taken on or before the start of the daily window (by default 14 days), or its first full backup if there is none; we keep that full backup and every differential and log backup taken after it, including those older than the window, so a database can be restored to any backup point from the start of the window to now. Differential and log backups older than the base full backup are deleted. Any full backup that a kept differential or log backup depends on — the most recent full backup before it in its series — is always kept. Older points are restored from the kept full backups.
• Storage limits. Your storage is your edition’s included amount plus what you buy. Deleted backups still inside their lock count toward it. When the limit is reached, new uploads are refused; we never delete stored backups to make room. We may also refuse uploads above a daily limit set to protect the service.
• Region. You choose United States or European Union storage in the portal before the site’s first enroll. The region is fixed for that site from its first enroll. A site stored in the European Union region is stored only in the European Union.
• Restore. You restore by downloading backups, and the site’s manifest, from the portal and decrypting them at your site with the recovery kit, which restores the original names. To restore a database to a point in time you need, from one series, the latest full backup at or before that point, the latest differential backup after it taken at or before that point (if any), and every log backup after that up to and including the first log backup taken after that point. The recovery kit is on the appliance and is also available to download from the portal, so losing the appliance does not lose it; you still need the site key. Each download needs a multi-factor check and a role allowed to download, is recorded in the site’s audit log, and can be emailed to the license owner.
• Deleting your vault. The license owner, after a multi-factor check, can delete the site’s vault from the portal. Its appliance credentials are revoked at once and every stored backup is marked for deletion; this cannot be undone. When you then destroy the site key, what we hold is unreadable to anyone immediately. Each backup’s lock expires no more than 14 days after your request, and our hourly deletion process then removes it, normally within a day.
• When the subscription ends. If the Offsite Vault subscription ends — canceled by whoever pays for it (you or a partner who manages your site), or payment still failing after retries — the site becomes read-only for 30 days: you can download, but new uploads are refused. We email the license owner at once with the date the read-only period ends and a link to take the subscription over, and record the lapse in the site’s audit log. If the license owner starts their own Offsite Vault subscription on the license during those 30 days, the lapse ends and nothing is deleted. The take-over checkout is filled in with the number of storage blocks that were canceled when the subscription ended; if the license owner buys fewer, the site is active again but new uploads are refused until what is stored fits the new storage, and the take-over page says so before payment. Otherwise, after the 30 days the site returns to the storage its edition includes: we keep the site’s newest backups that fit within it in whole restorable units — a full backup together with every differential and log backup of its series taken after it, up to the next full — and its newest self-contained backups; a unit that does not fit is deleted whole, because a full without its logs, or logs without their full, cannot be restored. We delete the backups not kept as their locks expire, and accept uploads again within that storage. The Community edition includes no storage, so a Community site’s stored backups are all deleted. The site’s storage blocks are canceled with the subscription at the end of their current period, without refund. A site has one Offsite Vault subscription; a duplicate is canceled and refunded. Nothing on your appliance, including its own backups, is affected.
• What you store is your responsibility. Store only backups of your own systems that you have the right to hold and to send to us. Backups are encrypted before they reach us, so we cannot see, scan or review what is in them, and we do not. You are responsible for their content and for having a lawful basis to store it, including for any personal, biometric or other sensitive data in the databases your appliance backs up, and you confirm that storing it does not break the law or anyone else’s rights.
• Legal requests and suspension. You hold the key, so a demand from a court, regulator or law-enforcement body for the contents of your backups is yours to answer. If we receive one, we will refer the requester to you where we can, and tell the license owner unless the law or the demand forbids it; what we are able to produce is the encrypted backups and the metadata described above. We may suspend a site’s Offsite Vault, or end it, where the law or legal process requires, where we reasonably believe it is being used unlawfully, or where it is not paid for. Where the law and the circumstances allow, we will tell the license owner first and, if the service is ending, leave the stored backups downloadable for the 30-day read-only period before anything is deleted.
• Not for health information. We do not sign Business Associate Agreements. Do not store protected health information covered by HIPAA in the Offsite Vault.
• Not a CJIS-vetted provider. Skans Labs has signed no CJIS Security Addendum, its personnel have not been screened under the FBI CJIS Security Policy, and it has not been audited by a CJIS Systems Agency. Keeping the key at your site limits what we could ever read; it does not make Skans Labs or the Offsite Vault CJIS compliant. Whether storing criminal justice information in the Offsite Vault meets your agency’s obligations is for your agency to decide.
• No certification. Skans Labs does not claim that it, or the Offsite Vault, holds any certification, attestation, audit or authorization — including ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2, FedRAMP, CJIS or HIPAA — or that using it makes you compliant with any law or standard. It is designed to help you meet your own obligations; whether it does is for you to decide.
• Not a guarantee of recoverability. The Offsite Vault is storage. We do not guarantee that any backup is complete, current, free of corruption or restorable, or that a restore will succeed or finish within any time. We return the bytes we stored as your appliance sent them; the recovery kit checks each one against its hash at your site, and each week we check a sample of stored parts of backups against hashes recorded when they arrived; that is a spot check, not a check of every backup. Whether a backup can be restored depends on your appliance, your systems and the key you hold. Keeping the site key and recovery sheet safe, and testing your restores regularly, are your responsibility.
• No service level. We make no commitment on the Offsite Vault’s availability, durability, upload or download speed, or restore time, and no service credit applies, unless a separate agreement signed by both parties states one. It may be unavailable during maintenance or when a provider we rely on is.
• Losses we are not responsible for. In addition to the Disclaimers and Limitation of liability below, Skans Labs has no liability for the loss of, or inability to use, stored backups that results from: (a) loss, destruction or disclosure of the site key, the recovery sheet or the appliance; (b) deletion under the retention set for the site, including a reduction the license owner made; (c) the end of the subscription and the return to the edition’s storage described above, including where a partner that pays for it cancels it or payment fails; (d) your deletion of the vault, or your destruction of the key; (e) uploads refused because the site reached its storage or daily limit, or while it was read-only or suspended; (f) what your appliance sent, including a backup that was incomplete, corrupt or never taken; (g) an outage, delay or failure of Cloudflare, any other sub-processor, the internet or your own network, or any other cause beyond our reasonable control; or (h) the act or omission of a partner, integrator or anyone else acting for you, or of anyone using your account’s credentials.
• The most we are liable for. If Skans Labs is found liable in connection with a site’s Offsite Vault despite these Terms, your sole and exclusive remedy, and our total aggregate liability for all claims relating to that site’s Offsite Vault, is the greater of the Offsite Vault fees (the subscription and storage blocks) paid to us for that site in the twelve months before the claim, or US $100. This applies even if the remedy fails of its essential purpose, and it is subject to “What these limits never cover” below. It limits our liability only: it does not reduce the fees you owe or your own obligations under these Terms, and it does not limit any right a data subject has under the Standard Contractual Clauses.
• What these Terms promise. Our product, pricing and solution pages describe how the Offsite Vault is designed to work. These Terms and the Data Processing Addendum state what Skans Labs undertakes; a description elsewhere, or a statement by a partner or reseller, does not add to them.

Intellectual property

The “Skans” and “Skans Labs” names, logos, and the content of the website and portal are owned by La Costa Services, LLC and may not be used without our prior written permission. We may use feedback you give us without obligation to you.

Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Services are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Services will meet your requirements, that any security control is impenetrable, or that data stored with us will be preserved, available or restorable.

Limitation of liability

This section sets out separate limits, each enforceable on its own. If one is held unenforceable in whole or in part, the others remain in effect and the next applies in its place.

• (a) To the maximum extent permitted by law, Skans Labs has no liability of any kind arising out of or relating to the Services, on any theory — contract, tort, strict liability, statute or otherwise.
• (b) If (a) is unenforceable, Skans Labs has no liability for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue or goodwill, lost, corrupted or unrecoverable data, business interruption, the cost of substitute services, or the cost of investigating, remedying or notifying anyone of a security incident, however caused and even if advised of the possibility.
• (c) In every case, Skans Labs’ total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Services is the greater of the amounts you paid us for the Services in the twelve months before the claim, or US $100; for a claim relating to the Offsite Vault, it is the amount stated under “Offsite Vault” above.

What these limits never cover. Nothing in (a), (b) or (c), alone or together, or in the Offsite Vault terms above, excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited — including for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, willful injury, gross negligence, willful misconduct or violation of law (California Civil Code section 1668) — or any right that the law does not allow to be waived by contract, including under the California Consumer Privacy Act. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these may not apply to you.

Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you will defend and indemnify La Costa Services, LLC against claims, losses, and expenses arising from your misuse of the Services or breach of these Terms.

Termination

You may stop using the Services and delete your account at any time from Settings. We may suspend or terminate access if you materially breach these Terms or use the Services in a way that risks harm to others or to us. On termination your right to use the Services ends; license keys tied to a deleted account are revoked, and closing your account does not by itself delete a site’s Offsite Vault (cancel it or use Delete my vault first), and we handle your data as described in the Privacy Policy. Terms that by their nature should survive — ownership, disclaimers, liability limits, and indemnity — survive.

Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and the state and federal courts located in Riverside County, California, have exclusive jurisdiction, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, that provision is removed and the rest remain in effect.

Changes

We may update these Terms from time to time. For a material change we will take reasonable steps to notify you — for example, by asking you to review and accept the updated Terms when you next sign in. Continued use after an update means you accept the current version; the “last updated” date above reflects it.

Contact

La Costa Services, LLC · California, USA · [email protected]