Surfshark Terms Of Service

Thank you for visiting Surfshark! Please read the following information carefully. PLEASE PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE PROVISIONS COVERING AUTOMATIC RENEWAL OF SERVICES AND CHANGE OF THESE TERMS OF SERVICE. These Terms of Service govern your access to and use of all Surfshark Services. This is a binding agreement. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF SERVICE, DO NOT ACCESS OR USE THE WEBSITE OR OUR SERVICES. BY ACCESSING OR USING THE WEBSITE AND OUR SERVICES, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF SERVICE. References to ‘you’ in these Terms of Service indicate a person who created Surfshark account and/or whose payment method is charged.

We may change these Terms of Service from time to time. We will post a notice on the Surfshark Site any time these Terms of Service have been amended or updated. It is your responsibility to review these Terms of Service periodically, and if at any time you find these Terms of Service unacceptable, you must immediately leave the Surfshark Site and cease all use of our Services.

When you agree to use our Services, which includes, but is not limited to: the use of our servers, routers, IP addresses, protocols, add-ons, software, applications, extensions, and other equipment, as well as any updates thereof, you agree to accept these Terms.

1. What services does Surfshark provide?

Surfshark provides virtual private network (VPN) services, also other privacy and cyber security related services (“Services”). Services include, but are not limited to VPN and other software, extensions, applications, information and content made available to you by Surfshark. A VPN is a secure way to protect your online activities by encrypting your data connection. Thus, third parties are unable to monitor your network traffic, such as websites, downloaded files, or other used internet services. With Surfshark you can connect to different VPN servers worldwide to ensure the privacy of your location.

No-logs Policy is one of the most important features of our Services. It means your activities are not in any way logged, retained, or transferred to third parties when you connect to our Services. We do not collect any information about what you do online (your visited IP addresses, browsing history, session information, used bandwidth, connection time stamps, network traffic or any other similar data). We can ensure such policy as we are based in the jurisdiction, which does not require data storage or reporting, and processes related to provision of our Services are automated. Moreover, only very limited user data collected from or provided by you is processed in order to provide Services to you. To prevent service abuse, our servers store your user ID and/or IP address, and connection time stamps, but this information is automatically deleted within 15 minutes after termination of your session.

Please note that if you use a dedicated IP address (a unique internet protocol address assigned exclusively to you), it will encrypt your internet traffic and hide your real IP address and virtual location. However, since it’s tied to your email address, certain online activities can be traced back to your account information as far as you don’t select an anonymous Dedicated IP option after the Dedicated IP installation process. Anonymous Dedicated IP option removes any information we have in our database about your Dedicated IP address. Therefore, after you choose this, you will have to manually set up new devices and retain your own information as we will not have any links about who and how uses your Dedicated IP address.

More information on what information is collected about you and how it is used can be found in our Privacy Policy at https://surfshark.com/privacy

We do not approve any unlawful, illicit, criminal or fraudulent activities committed by using Surfshark Services. As we are not logging any information about your activities, you are using the Surfshark Services at your own responsibility. Surfshark will not be liable in any way or form for illegal actions done by you arising through or from the use of our Services.

2. Do I have to create an account?

In order to use some of the Surfshark Services, you will be asked to set up an account. You are solely responsible for all usage or activity on your account including, but not limited to, use of the account by any person who uses your account, with or without authorization, or who has access to any computer on which your account resides or is accessible.

3. What happens if I share or lose my account information?

If you open an account to use or access the Services, you must complete the registration process by providing the complete and accurate information requested on the registration form. You may be asked to provide an e-mail address and password. You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password. You may not sell, or trade that Account to any other person.

You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account, e-mail address, or password. We are not liable for any loss that you or any third party incur as a result of someone else using your password, either with or without your knowledge. We reserve the right to terminate your account at any time.

4. What is Surfshark payment, automatic renewal and refund policy?

You can subscribe to Surfshark Services on a service period basis. After signing up for Surfshark Services you may choose a payment method. Only some of our Services are free of charge.

Paid Surfshark Services renew automatically at the end of each service period and your chosen payment method is charged again, unless you decide to cancel your automatic payments before the automatic renewal. By entering your payment details you agree with the automatic renewal. We will inform you in advance by email about the automatic renewal of your subscription (if it is longer than one month).

We will send the first receipt for your purchased Services to your email. All later receipts will be sent to your Surfshark account (to see those receipts please log in to your account, click on “My account”, select “Subscriptions” and then see the receipts in the “Invoices & receipts” section).

Surfshark may change the price for the subscriptions, including recurring subscription fees, or other subscription terms from time to time and will communicate any price or other changes to you in advance. Subject to applicable law, you accept the new price and terms by continuing to use the Services after the changes take effect. Please see currently applicable recurring subscription fees here.

Your satisfaction with our Services is our main goal. If you choose not to use our paid Services anymore, we guarantee you a right to claim a refund within 30 days following your purchase of our Services. However, we would like to solve your issue before you decide to cancel the subscription, therefore you are always welcome to reach out to us at [email protected]. You can get a refund for the cancellation of our Services twice. If you already have been granted a refund once, you can get the second refund if the period between both cancellations for which you claim refund is not less than 6 months. If you purchase our Services again after the second refund, you will not be granted a refund for any further cancellation. Monthly subscriptions may be refunded on the basis of the 30-day money-back guarantee only after the initial purchase. Once a monthly subscription is renewed, it cannot be refunded on the basis of the 30-day money-back guarantee. Surfshark reserves the right to verify the validity of your account information, and to withhold or delay any refunds until such verification is complete.

As a rule, you have no right to claim a refund after the period of 30 days from the purchase has passed. Nevertheless, in the exceptional cases, we will consider refund beyond such 30-days period, at our sole discretion, if you can demonstrate that the Services which you purchased were not available or usable and that you made reasonable attempts to contact us regarding this issue. In such a case, we may provide you with a pro-rata refund of Services’ fees paid during the subscription period when the Services were not available or usable.

If you purchase our subscription through iTunes/App Store/Amazon – we are not able to grant you a refund, as subscriptions purchased via the iTunes/App Store/Amazon are subject to iTunes/App Store/Amazon refund policies. In such a case, you would have to contact a specific store for a refund. Surfshark cannot refund any purchases made from our resellers. In this case, refunds are handled according to the terms and conditions of the reseller from which the product was purchased.

Payments made using prepaid cards or gift cards are not refunded. For payments made in cryptocurrency, the equivalent amount in US Dollars is refunded in the same cryptocurrency (based on the rate of exchange at the moment of refund).

You have a right to delete your account at any time, however, deleted accounts will not be refunded for the unused part of the ongoing service period.

If you decide to use an anonymous Dedicated IP option which can be selected after the installation of your Dedicated IP, this will cause a removal of all the information we have in our database about your Dedicated IP address. Taking that into account, we will no longer be able to grant you a refund, as we will not have any possibility to establish any links between you and a particular Dedicated IP.

We reserve the right not to issue refund in the event of a breach of these Terms.

Any fees charged by Surfshark are exclusive of taxes. Nevertheless, we may calculate and add taxes or duties, including, but not limited to VAT, GST and other taxes or fees under laws applicable to you at the time of purchase.

All payments are being processed by our own payment processing companies (Surfshark Limited, registered at Suite 1, 3rd Floor 11-12 St. James’s Square, London, United Kingdom, SW1Y 4LB and Surfshark Inc., registered at 16192 Coastal Highway, Lewes, Delaware 19958, County of Sussex) with help of third-party providers (see our Privacy Policy).

5. What age do I have to be to use this Website or your Services?

Surfshark is not intended for users under the age of 18. Such users are expressly prohibited from submitting any of their information to us, and from using portions of the Website and our Services for which registration is required. If any information is submitted by such users, it will not be collected or retained.

6. How do I comply with intellectual property laws?

To access and use our Services, you may be required to download and install our Software on a device. Below see the terms and conditions applicable to the use of such Software. Pursuant to these Terms, “Software” means any mobile and desktop software applications and any other software (including any releases, updates, enhancements, or revisions) and any documentation that accompanies or is made available in connection with such software provided by us to you for your use of the Services. When accessing the Website or using our Services, you agree to obey the law and to respect the intellectual property rights of others. Your use of the Website or our Services is at all times governed by and subject to laws regarding copyright ownership and use of intellectual property.

Subject to these Terms we grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, personal, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, non-assignable, fixed-term license (the “License”) to download, install and use a copy of the Software on a compatible device that you own or control. No other right or license, express or implied, of any kind is granted to you hereunder with respect to the Services and/or Software. You shall not also build a product using similar ideas, features, functions, or graphics of the Service/Websites or copy any ideas, features, functions, or graphics of the Services/Websites.

For the sake of clarity, in respect to the Software that is downloaded from Apple, Inc. (“Apple”) App Store, the License is limited to the use of such Software on any Apple-branded devices that you own or control and as permitted by the Usage Rules set forth in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions, except that such Software may be accessed and used by other accounts associated with you via family sharing or volume purchasing features.

The Software, used pursuant to these Terms is licensed, not sold, and you receive no title to or ownership of any copy, or of the Software itself, or even more so of the Services and Websites. You receive no rights to the Software other than those specifically granted in Section 6 of these Terms. We and/or our licensors retain all right, title and interest in and to the Services, Software, Websites, and any portion thereof. All rights are reserved unless otherwise explicitly expressed. You are forbidden from registration, adoption, or any other use of trademarks, trade names, symbols, or signs that are either identical or confusingly similar to any trademarks owned by Surfshark and/or its affiliated companies.

You hereby grant Surfshark and/or its affiliated companies a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide license to use Feedback (as defined below) you communicate to us without reimbursement or compensation, without any obligation to report on such use, and without any other restriction. You waive (or agree not to enforce) any and all rights that may now or in future exist (including moral and equivalent rights) in Feedback. (“Feedback” refers to any recommendation, idea, proposal, suggestion, feedback, review, or other input related to our Services, Software, Websites).

7. What activities are prohibited?

By using our Services, you shall not:

• Use our Services for any illegal use, such as transmitting any illegal material that would constitute a criminal offense as per the local, state, national or international law or regulation;
• Use our Services for web crawling, scraping, harvesting or other similar activities which might negatively affect rendering of our Services to other users;
• Transmit any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, torturous, or that can be deemed objectionable in a court of law;
• Harass, abuse, insult, harm, defame, slander, disparage, intimidate, or discriminate based on gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, race, age, national origin, or disability; to submit false or misleading information;
• Present the Service so that it appears to be made available by any third party, access the Service in bulk, scrape, redistribute, resell or make the Services available to any third party in any way;
• Transfer or use the Services except as expressly authorized under these Terms of Service or by Surfshark, copy, disassemble, reverse engineer or decompile, modify or alter any part of the Services. You may not use any part of the Service in any manner that competes with Surfshark, as solely determined by Surfshark;
• Send spam or otherwise duplicative or unsolicited messages in violation of applicable laws;
• Send or store material containing software viruses, worms, Trojan horses or other harmful computer code, files, scripts, agents or programs;
• Interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service;
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service or its related systems or networks;
• Misrepresent or to act on behalf of others;
• Alter the attribution of origin in electronic mail messages or posting;
• Use the Service for anything other than lawful purposes;
• Use Surfshark to mask your identity for illegal or malicious purposes;
• Distribute copyright-protected material through our servers;
• Take any action that results in an unreasonable load on Surfshark’s infrastructure;
• Use any 3rd party software to interfere with or attempt to interfere with the Services;
• Download or transmit any material that is libelous, defamatory, discriminatory or otherwise malicious or harmful to any person or entity; or use our Services to serve pop-ups ads.
• Exploit or attempt to exploit our refund policy;
• Otherwise infringe or circumvent these Terms;
• You shall at all times abide by all applicable local, state, national and foreign laws, treaties and regulations in connection with your use of the Services, including those related to data privacy, international communications and the transmission of technical or personal data.

If Surfshark is contacted with a complaint regarding or arising from your use of the Services or independently detects a breach of these Terms, Surfshark may deem your usage in violation of these Terms and terminate your account or limit and/or suspend the provision of the Services without notice.

Our Services (products) may be subject to the U.S. and European Union export and re-export control laws and regulations or similar laws applicable in other jurisdictions, including the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR“) maintained by the U.S. Department of Commerce. You also warrant that you are (a) not located in any country to which the European Union, the United Kingdom, the U.S. or other relevant jurisdiction has embargoed goods or has otherwise applied any economic sanctions, which would forbid or limit the use, import, export, sale of, or payment for the Services; and (b) not a denied party as specified in any applicable export or re-export laws or regulations or similar laws applicable in relevant jurisdictions or otherwise listed on any list of prohibited or restricted parties as administered by the Office of Foreign Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“OFAC“), the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, His Majesty's Treasury of the United Kingdom, or other relevant sanctions authority (“Sanctions Authorities”). You agree to comply with all applicable export and re-export control laws and regulations, including without limitation the EAR and trade and economic sanctions maintained by OFAC as it may be applicable to you. Specifically, you agree not to - directly or indirectly - use, sell, export, re-export, transfer, divert, release, or otherwise dispose of any Services, including products, software, or technology (notwithstanding products derived from or based on such technology) received under these Terms of Service to any destination, entity, or person or for any end-use prohibited by the applicable export control laws, trade and economic sanctions maintained by Sanctions Authorities or any applicable laws or regulations without obtaining any required prior authorization from the competent government authorities as required by those laws and regulations.

8. What is Surfshark’s Fair Usage Policy?

Surfshark is committed to provide the best possible experience of using the Services to all our users. This includes making sure that every user of our Services gets the full experience from their chosen plan. To deliver on this commitment, we have implemented an automated infrastructure maintenance system which continuously manages our network capacity.

Although one of the core premises of Surfshark is an unlimited number of simultaneous connections (except for Antivirus service), there might be some users who exploit it, and this might have an adverse effect on the quality of our Services as well as usage experience for the rest of our users. Such users can include, but are not limited to, unauthorized resellers, organizers of illicit activities which involve usage of a very large number of devices, and other.

Our Fair Usage Policy manages inappropriate use of our Services and guarantees that the Services can be used fairly by everyone. Under the Fair Usage Policy, we reserve the right to enable limits of an immoderate number of simultaneously connected devices in our network maintenance system in order to make sure that none of our users are affected by potentially deteriorated quality of the Services.

Surfshark Antivirus service allows a maximum of five simultaneous connections per account.

9. Does Surfshark link to any third party sites?

Surfshark may link to or be linked from other websites that are not maintained by, or related to, Surfshark. Surfshark does not endorse, and is not responsible for, the content of any of those third-party websites. You acknowledge that Surfshark has not reviewed and does not endorse the content of all sites linked to from this Website and is not responsible for the content or actions of any other sites linked to from this Website. We do not promise that the contents of any linked sites are accurate, compliant with local, state or federal law, including any intellectual property laws. Your use of any linked site is at your own responsibility and you assume all responsibilities and consequences resulting from such reliance.

10. Disclaimers and Limitations on Liability.

SURFSHARK PROVIDES ITS WEBSITE AND SERVICES TO YOU ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS. Surfshark cannot guarantee that the Services or its content is error free and makes no representations about the technical accuracy or functionality of the Services or that the content is accurate, error free or up to date. Actual service coverage, speeds, locations and quality may vary. Your hereby expressly agree and acknowledge that Antivirus complies with the current industry standard of software technology and that it is impossible under any currently available technology for any application to identify and eliminate one hundred percent of all malware. Surfshark makes no representations – your use of the Services is your sole responsibility. Our Services may be updated, modified, suspended or interrupted at any time without any notice or liability.

We may, from time to time, include computer software supplied by third parties together with our Services. Such third parties’ computer software is provided with permission of the relevant copyright holders and/or licensors, and on their provided terms.

SURFSHARK AND ITS AFFILIATES, SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTIES FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ALLEGEDLY SUSTAINED ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, ANY THIRD PARTY COMPUTER SOFTWARE PROVIDED TOGETHER WITH THE SERVICES, THE SALE OR PURCHASE OF ANY GOODS OR MERCHANDISE, YOUR ACCESS TO OR INABILITY TO ACCESS THE WEBSITE OR OUR SERVICES, INCLUDING FOR VIRUSES ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN OBTAINED FROM THE SERVICES, YOUR USE OF OR RELIANCE ON THE WEBSITE OR OUR SERVICES, INFORMATION OR MATERIALS AVAILABLE ON THE WEBSITE, REGARDLESS OF THE TYPE OF CLAIM OR THE NATURE OF THE CAUSE OF ACTION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY IN ANY CASE SHALL NOT EXCEED YOUR TOTAL AMOUNT PAID FOR THE SERVICES.

ANTIVIRUS IS NOT INTENDED FOR USERS REQUIRING CONTINUOUS, ERROR-FREE OR FAILSAFE OPERATION (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IN APPLICATIONS INVOLVING NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS, MILITARY APPLICATIONS, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATIONAL AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, OR IN MEDICAL OR OTHER APPLICATIONS ESSENTIAL TO MAINTAINING HUMAN LIVES). SURFSHARK HEREBY DISCLAIMS THAT ANTIVIRUS IS FIT FOR USE IN SPECIAL-RISK AREAS.

You hereby agree to release service provider, its affiliates and third-party service providers, and each of their respective directors, officers, employees, and agents from claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed (“claims”), arising out of or in any way connected with your use of this Website or our Services.

We provide application updates for all OS versions for at least two (2) years after the initial OS version release. Therefore, we would suggest updating your OS to get the best experience when using our Services.

11. Indemnity.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Surfshark, its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, consultants, agents, and representatives from any and all third party claims, losses, liability, damages, and/or costs (including reasonable attorney fees and costs) arising from your access to or use of the Website or our Services, your violation of these Terms of Service, or your infringement, or infringement by any other user of your account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.

12. What governing law applies?

If you have contracted Surfshark before October 1, 2021, your contract is concluded with Surfshark Ltd., a company established in the British Virgin Islands. If you have contracted Surfshark on October 1, 2021 or after, your contract is concluded with Surfshark B.V., a company established in the Netherlands.

Surfshark has two legal entities that handle the contractual agreements with our customers – Surfshark Ltd., a company established in the British Virgin Islands, and Surfshark B.V., a company established in the Netherlands. No matter which Surfshark company you have contracted (Surfshark Ltd., if it was before October 1, 2021, or Surfshark B.V., if it was after the aforementioned data), these Terms of Service (contract between You and Surfshark) shall be construed in accordance with and governed by the laws of the British Virgin Islands, without reference to their rules regarding conflicts of law. This means that contracts with all our customers are governed by the same laws, i.e. laws of the British Virgin Islands.

However, please note that these Terms of Service will not limit any consumer protection rights that you may be entitled to under the mandatory laws of your country of residence. You hereby agree that the judicial proceeding to resolve claims relating to the Terms of Service will be brought in the courts of British Virgin Islands, unless the laws of your country of residence have mandatory provisions that apply to the dispute that cannot be overridden by the contractual choice of law.

13. Online dispute resolution.

If you have any issues or questions regarding Surfshark Services, you are always welcome to reach out to us simply at [email protected]. Also, if you are an EU resident, you are entitled to address any dispute with Surfshark through an internet platform for online dispute resolution established by the European Commission which may be found at http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/. Our email for the purposes of this platform is the same – [email protected].

14. Whom should I contact with questions or concerns?

If you have any questions or comments relating to Surfshark Services or this Terms of Service send an email to [email protected] or contact us via a live chat.

15. Other terms

While translations of these Terms of Service may be provided in other languages, they may not be fully up-to-date or comprehensive. Thus, in case of any conflict between the English version and the translated versions of these Terms of Service, the English version shall take precedence.