Terms of Service

Last updated: August 16, 2026

These terms cover your use of Ember — the self-hosted voice assistant software, its companion mobile and desktop applications, and this website. Using any of them means you accept what follows. If you do not, don't use it; nothing is lost, since there is nothing to cancel.

What Ember is

Ember is software you install and run on your own hardware. It is not a hosted service. There is no server of ours between you and it, which means there is no account to suspend, no subscription to lapse, and no service for us to take offline. It also means the running of it — the machine, the network, the electricity, the backups — is yours.

Using it

You agree to use Ember only in ways that are lawful. In particular:

• Don't use it to record people who have not consented to being recorded, where the law where you live requires their consent. A voice assistant in a shared space is a microphone in a shared space, and that is your responsibility to disclose.
• Don't use it to break into, overload, or interfere with any service it connects to, including Google's.
• Don't use it to infringe anyone's copyright, or to download or redistribute media you are not entitled to.

Your Google account

Connecting a Google account is optional. If you do, you are also bound by Google's own terms for the services involved, and your data is handled as described in our Privacy Policy. You can disconnect at any time from inside Ember or at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

YouTube

Ember's media features use YouTube API Services. By using them you agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service, and your information is additionally subject to the Google Privacy Policy. Those are separate agreements between you and Google, and Ember has no power to vary them.

Third-party model providers

Ember can be configured to answer using a language model that runs locally or one that runs at a third-party provider. If you choose a hosted provider, that provider's terms apply to the requests you send through it, and their availability and pricing are between you and them.

No warranty

Ember is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, express or implied — including any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. It is a voice assistant built by a small independent project. It will sometimes mishear you, sometimes be wrong, and sometimes be unavailable.

Do not rely on it for anything where being wrong matters — medical, financial, legal, or safety-critical decisions, or as the only control for anything that must not fail, such as a lock, a heater, or an alarm.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, the maintainers of Ember are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or for any loss of data, arising from your use of Ember — including anything that follows from a device it controls doing, or failing to do, what you expected.

Changes

These terms may change; the date at the top will change with them. Continuing to use Ember after a change means accepting the revised terms.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

Contact

Questions about these terms: [email protected].