Effective date: 9/2/2026. These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and In Hand [, LLC], a Maine company ("In Hand," "we," "us"). They govern the In Hand website, your customer profile, our text-message service, and the printed digests we create and mail (together, the "Services"). Our Privacy Policy at www.inhandstories.com/privacy explains how we handle information and is part of these Terms. By creating an account, joining a family circle, or using the Services, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Services.
In plain terms: Account owners are adults. Teens can contribute with a parent’s okay. Kids under 13 can star in the photos, but can’t use the service.
You must be at least 18 years old (and able to form a binding contract) to create a customer profile, purchase a subscription, or manage a family circle. A person aged 13–17 may be invited to contribute to a circle only with the permission of a parent or legal guardian who is a member of that circle and who accepts these Terms on the teen’s behalf. The Services are not for children under 13, and children under 13 may not register or contribute. By using the Services you represent that you meet these requirements, that you have not previously been suspended from the Services, and that your use complies with applicable law. The Services are intended for use within the United States.
In plain terms: Keep your login to yourself, keep your info current, and know who’s in charge of the family subscription.
You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information when creating your profile and to keep it up to date — especially your recipient’s mailing address, since digests go where you tell us. Your account is personal to you: keep your password confidential, do not share your login, and tell us right away at hello@inhandstories.com if you suspect unauthorized use. You are responsible for activity under your account.
Each circle has an account manager — normally the person who purchased the subscription. The account manager controls the subscription, the delivery schedule, and circle membership, and may transfer the manager role to another adult member of the circle. Contributing members have free accounts limited to sharing content with their circle.
In plain terms: Your plan renews automatically so digests keep arriving. Canceling is as easy as subscribing, online, anytime.
In plain terms: We put real care into every printed digest. If one arrives damaged or misprinted, we’ll make it right.
Each digest has a content deadline shown in your circle; contributions after the deadline roll into the next digest. We produce digests from the content your family submits — please review what your circle has shared before the deadline, because what is in the circle at the deadline is what we print. Digests are produced by professional print partners and delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to the recipient address on file. Estimated production and delivery times are shown in your account; they are estimates, and we are not responsible for postal delays once a digest is in the mail.
Our quality promise: if a digest arrives with a printing defect, shipping damage, or our production error, tell us within 30 days (a photo helps) and we will reprint and re-mail it at no charge. Because every digest is personalized, we cannot accept returns for content your family chose to include, but if you are ever unhappy with how a digest turned out, contact us and we will work with you to make it right.
In plain terms: What belongs to you stays yours. We get only the permission we need to print and deliver it — and a duty from you that you had the right to share it.
"Content" means the messages, photos, and other material you or your circle submit. You and your family retain all ownership of your Content. You grant In Hand a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license — sublicensable only to the service providers who help us operate (such as hosting and print partners) — to host, store, reproduce, format, print, and deliver your Content solely to provide the Services. This license ends when the Content is deleted or your account closes, except for digests already printed and copies retained as described in the Privacy Policy. We will never sell your Content, or use it to train artificial-intelligence models, and we will not use your Content for marketing or advertising unless you separately and expressly agree in writing.
By submitting Content, you represent that: (a) you own it or have the rights needed to share it and to let us print it; (b) it does not infringe anyone’s intellectual-property, privacy, or publicity rights; and (c) for photos that include other people, you have their permission — and, for minors, the permission of a parent or guardian. You are responsible for the Content you submit. We do not review your family’s Content as a matter of course and are under no obligation to monitor it, but we may remove Content that we reasonably believe is unlawful or violates these Terms, and we may refuse to print material that our print partners are legally unable to produce. Please keep your own copies of irreplaceable photos; while we take real care with your Content, you should not treat In Hand as your only backup.
In plain terms: Use In Hand for what it’s for — sharing family life with people you love. Don’t use it to hurt anyone or break anything.
You agree not to use the Services to: harass, threaten, defame, or abuse anyone; submit content that is unlawful, obscene, or hateful; violate anyone’s intellectual-property or privacy rights; impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation; send spam or unsolicited commercial messages through a circle; transmit viruses or malicious code; interfere with the Services or other users’ access; attempt to access another circle or account without permission; scrape or harvest data from the Services by automated means; reverse engineer the Services; resell or commercially exploit the Services; or use the Services in violation of law, including sanctions and export laws. We may investigate suspected violations and may suspend or terminate accounts that break these rules, as described in Section 11.
In plain terms: The texting ground rules live in one place so they can’t drift apart.
Our text-message program — how you opt in, what we send, message frequency, that message and data rates may apply, and how STOP and HELP work — is described in Section 3 of our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms. By providing your mobile number and confirming enrollment, you agree to receive the service messages described there. Consent to marketing texts is separate and optional, and never a condition of purchase. Wireless carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. We may modify or discontinue the text program with notice as described in Section 13 of these Terms.
In plain terms: The service, the layouts, the name — those are ours. Your ideas for making In Hand better are welcome, and we can use them.
The Services — including our software, site, digest templates and layouts, designs, and the In Hand name and logo — are owned by In Hand or our licensors and protected by intellectual-property law. We grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Services as intended while these Terms are in effect. Your family’s Content is yours (Section 5); the templates and layouts we arrange it in remain ours. Do not copy, modify, or create derivative works of the Services, remove legal notices, or use our name or logo without written permission. If you send us suggestions or feedback, you agree we may use them to improve In Hand without restriction or obligation to you — though we’ll always be grateful.
In plain terms: If you believe something in a circle infringes your copyright, here is exactly how to tell us, and what happens next.
We respect copyright and expect our members to do the same. If you believe content on the Services infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent: In Hand [, LLC], Attn: Copyright Agent, hello@inhandstories.com. Your notice must include the elements required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3): your physical or electronic signature; identification of the copyrighted work and of the material claimed to infringe, with enough detail to locate it; your contact information; a statement of good-faith belief that the use is unauthorized; and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and you are authorized to act. If your content is removed and you believe that was a mistake, you may send a counter-notification with the elements of § 512(g), and we will follow the statute’s restore timeline unless the complaining party files suit. We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers. Knowing misrepresentations in a notice or counter-notice can make the sender liable for damages under § 512(f).
In plain terms: Payment processors, app stores, and links to other sites belong to other companies with their own rules.
The Services rely on third parties we choose carefully — payment processors, text-message carriers, cloud hosts, and the U.S. Postal Service — and may link to sites or services we do not control. Your use of third-party services is governed by their terms and privacy policies, and we are not responsible for their content or practices. If you access In Hand through a mobile app store version of our service in the future, the store’s standard terms (including Apple’s third-party-beneficiary provisions) will apply as required by that store.
In plain terms: You can leave anytime and take your memories with you. If we ever have to close an account, we’ll say why, and your family’s content still leaves with you.
You may cancel your subscription (Section 3) or close your account entirely, at any time, in your account settings or by emailing hello@inhandstories.com. We may suspend or terminate an account if it materially violates these Terms (including the acceptable-use rules and payment obligations), if required by law, or if we discontinue the Services. Except where the violation requires immediate action or notice is legally restricted, we will tell you the reason and give you a chance to fix it.
Whatever the reason an account ends: we believe your family’s content is yours, so before deletion under our Privacy Policy’s retention schedule, you will have at least 30 days to download your content, and on request we will provide a digital export. If we terminate your account without cause, or discontinue the Services, we will refund the unused portion of any prepaid subscription and give you reasonable advance notice with a chance to retrieve your content. Sections that by their nature should survive (including Sections 5’s representations, 8, 12–14, and 15) survive termination.
In plain terms: We work hard to make In Hand dependable, but the law makes every company say this part in capital letters: we can’t promise perfection.
We provide the Services with commercially reasonable skill and care, and Section 4 states our quality promise for printed digests. Beyond those express commitments: THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN HAND DISCLAIMS ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR ALWAYS AVAILABLE; MAINTENANCE, UPGRADES, AND EVENTS BEYOND OUR CONTROL MAY CAUSE INTERRUPTIONS. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW LIMITS ON IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
In plain terms: If something goes wrong, our responsibility is capped at what you’ve paid us — the standard deal that keeps a small subscription service viable.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW: (A) IN HAND WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, OR SUBSTITUTE SERVICES, ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES, UNDER ANY LEGAL THEORY, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY; AND (B) IN HAND’S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE OR ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100). THESE LIMITS DO NOT APPLY WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW, AND NOTHING IN THESE TERMS LIMITS LIABILITY FOR OUR OWN FRAUD, WILLFUL MISCONDUCT, OR GROSS NEGLIGENCE, OR ANY LIABILITY THAT CANNOT LAWFULLY BE LIMITED. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS, SO PARTS OF THIS SECTION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
In plain terms: If your content or your breach of these Terms gets us sued by someone else, you cover that claim.
You agree to defend and indemnify In Hand and its officers, employees, and agents against third-party claims, and resulting damages and reasonable attorneys’ fees, to the extent arising from: (a) Content you submit, including claims by people appearing in photos you shared; (b) your material breach of these Terms; or (c) your violation of law or of a third party’s rights. We will notify you promptly of any such claim and may participate in the defense with our own counsel. This obligation does not apply to the extent a claim arises from our own breach of these Terms or violation of law.
In plain terms: Talk to us first — we mean it. If we truly can’t fix it, disputes go to individual arbitration (with a 30-day opt-out and small-claims always available).
Step one, always: email hello@inhandstories.com. Almost every problem is solved here, by a person, at no cost. Before starting any formal proceeding, you and we agree to give each other written notice of the dispute and 30 days to resolve it informally.
Arbitration agreement. If we cannot resolve a dispute informally, you and In Hand agree that it will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. THIS MEANS BOTH YOU AND IN HAND WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section. Arbitration will be conducted by a single arbitrator, by videoconference or, at your choice for claims of $10,000 or less, on documents alone; for such claims, In Hand will pay the filing, administration, and arbitrator fees. The arbitrator may award the same individual relief a court could, and judgment may be entered in any court with jurisdiction.
What arbitration does not take away: either of us may bring an individual claim in small claims court; either of us may seek injunctive relief in court for intellectual-property infringement or misuse of confidential information; and you may report concerns to any federal, state, or local agency, which may seek relief on your behalf.
Your right to opt out. Arbitration is not a condition of using In Hand. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement, keeping every other part of these Terms, by emailing hello@inhandstories.com within 30 days of first accepting these Terms with your name, account email, and a statement that you opt out. If you opt out, or if this section is found unenforceable, disputes will be resolved in the courts specified in Section 16. If we ever materially change this Section 15, you may reject the change within 30 days and the prior version will continue to apply to you.
In plain terms: Which state’s law applies, how we send notices, what happens if a clause fails, and how these Terms can change.
Questions about these Terms — or anything else — are welcome:
In Hand [, LLC] · hello@inhandstories.com
A person, not an auto-responder, reads these — and if something about In Hand ever feels unfair, we genuinely want to hear it before anyone reaches for Section 15.
