Section 1Agreement
These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a binding agreement between you (“you”, “Customer”) and Onion Search Engine LLC, a New York limited liability company (“we”, “us”, “our”).
They govern your access to and use of the threat intelligence platform: user accounts, the dashboard, the monitoring features, and the Search, History, Metadata, Link Graph and Vulnerability APIs (together, the “Service”).
They do not govern the free public onionsearchengine.com search engine, which requires no account and is offered separately.
By creating an account, issuing an API key, or using the Service, you accept these Terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the Service.
If you are entering into these Terms on behalf of a company or other organisation, you represent that you have authority to bind it, and “you” means that organisation.
Section 2Eligibility
You must be at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering into a contract. The Service is intended for professional, research and security purposes, not for personal or household use.
You may not use the Service if you are barred from doing so under section 18 (export control and sanctions), or if we have previously terminated your account for breach of these Terms.
Section 3Accounts and API keys
Registration. You must provide a valid email address and keep it current. We use it for service notices, security notices and billing.
Credentials. You are responsible for keeping your password and API keys confidential. All activity under your account or keys is treated as yours, whether or not you authorised it. Notify us at info@onionsearchengine.com without delay if you believe a key or account has been compromised; we will help you rotate keys.
One account per customer. You may not open multiple accounts to obtain additional free-tier quota, evade a rate limit, or evade a suspension. Doing so is a material breach.
Sharing. You may not sell, lease, share or otherwise make your API keys available to any third party, except as permitted under section 11 (resellers and multi-tenant use).
Section 4Plans, quotas and rate limits
The Service is offered on a free Developer tier and on paid plans, as described on our pricing page.
Free tier. The free Developer tier provides a limited monthly request allowance. It is offered as-is, may be modified, limited or discontinued at any time, and carries no availability commitment.
Quotas and rate limits. Each plan carries request quotas and rate limits. We may enforce them by throttling, returning error responses, or refusing requests once the allowance is exhausted. We may adjust rate limits where necessary to protect the stability of the Service or other customers.
Metering. We measure usage on our systems, and our records are the reference for quota enforcement and billing, absent manifest error. If you believe a count is wrong, contact us within 30 days of the invoice concerned and we will review it.
Premium endpoints. The History, Metadata, Link Graph and Vulnerability APIs are available only on plans that include them.
Section 5Fees, billing and renewal
Charges. Paid plans are billed in advance for each subscription period at the price shown at the time of purchase. Prices are in US dollars unless stated otherwise.
Automatic renewal. Paid subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each period at the then-current price, until cancelled. You may cancel at any time from your dashboard; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period, and you keep access until then. We will notify you by email before any price increase takes effect on renewal.
Card payments. Card and other traditional payments are processed by Stripe, Inc., subject to Stripe’s own terms. We do not receive or store your full card details.
Cryptocurrency payments. Cryptocurrency payments are made through btcpaynow.com, an instance of BTCPay Server that we operate ourselves. You are responsible for sending the correct amount, in the correct asset, to the address shown on the invoice, within the invoice validity window. Blockchain transactions are irreversible. We cannot recover funds sent to a wrong address, on a wrong network, after an invoice has expired, or in an incorrect amount. Where an underpayment or overpayment can be identified against a valid invoice, we will normally apply it as account credit; we are not obliged to make an on-chain refund, and we do not do so as a matter of course.
Taxes. Prices exclude taxes. You are responsible for any sales, use, VAT, GST or similar taxes, other than taxes on our income. If you are required to withhold any amount, you will gross up so that we receive the full invoiced sum.
Non-payment. If a payment fails or is not made when due, we may suspend the Service after notice to your registered email address.
Refunds. Fees are non-refundable except where required by law or expressly stated in writing. Cancelling mid-period does not produce a pro-rated refund. This does not affect any statutory rights you may have.
Chargebacks. If you dispute a charge, contact us first. Initiating a chargeback without contacting us may result in immediate suspension pending resolution.
Section 6Acceptable use
This section is the core of these Terms. The Service indexes material from the Tor network and returns it in structured form; that makes it powerful for defensive and investigative work and equally capable of being misused. The restrictions below define the boundary, and we enforce them.
You may use the Service for lawful security, threat intelligence, investigative, journalistic, academic and research purposes, including monitoring your own organisation’s exposure or that of clients you are authorised to act for.
You may not use the Service, or anything obtained through it, to:
(a) Facilitate crime. Access, purchase, arrange, advertise, broker or otherwise facilitate any illegal goods, services or transactions; or to locate counterparties for such transactions.
(b) Target individuals. Stalk, harass, threaten, intimidate, defame, extort or dox any person; conduct surveillance of a private individual without a lawful basis; or attempt to identify, locate or expose journalists, whistleblowers, activists, human rights defenders, dissidents or their sources.
(c) Make adverse decisions about people. Determine, or contribute to determining, an individual’s eligibility for employment, credit, insurance, housing, education or any government benefit. See section 8.
(d) Circumvent limits. Evade quotas or rate limits, share keys, register multiple accounts for additional allowance, or distribute requests across accounts or addresses to exceed your plan.
(e) Rebuild or resell the index. Systematically extract, mirror, cache beyond operational need, or accumulate results in order to construct a substitute or competing index or dataset, or to resell raw API output, except under section 11.
(f) Attack the Service. Probe, scan, penetration-test, overload, reverse-engineer, or interfere with the Service or its infrastructure without our prior written consent; or bypass any authentication, quota or security control.
(g) Break the law. Use the Service in violation of any applicable law, including data protection, computer misuse, export control and sanctions law.
(h) Endanger others. Use the Service in any way that creates a foreseeable risk of physical harm to any person.
Your responsibility for queries. You are responsible for the terms and indicators you submit and for having a lawful basis to process them. Do not submit personal data you have no right to process, and do not submit material that is unlawful for you to possess.
Enforcement. We retain query and usage records, in part, to detect breaches of this section (see our Privacy Policy, section 5.2). Where we find a breach we may throttle, suspend or terminate access under section 13, with or without prior notice depending on severity.
Section 7Nature of the data — no warranty of accuracy
You must understand what the Service is before relying on it.
We index third-party content. Results reflect material published on the Tor network by others. We do not author, verify, endorse or control it. Its presence in our index is not a statement by us that it is true, lawful, current or attributable to anyone in particular.
Results may be wrong. The index may be incomplete, stale, duplicated, mislabelled or manipulated. Threat actors actively publish false, planted and recycled data. A match is a lead, not a finding. Metadata such as extracted email addresses and cryptocurrency addresses is derived automatically and may be incorrectly associated. Vulnerability data is inferred from detected technologies and cross-referenced with public databases; it may report CVEs that do not apply, or miss ones that do.
You must verify independently. You are solely responsible for corroborating results before acting on them, publishing them, reporting them, or attributing them to any person or organisation. Do not treat a result as evidence that a named individual or organisation is involved in criminal activity. The consequences of acting on an unverified match — including defamation, wrongful accusation and harm to an innocent person — are yours.
Offensive material. The Tor network contains illegal, disturbing and abusive material. Result titles and snippets may reflect it. We filter what we reasonably can, but we cannot guarantee that you will not encounter such content, and you accept that risk. If you encounter material depicting child sexual abuse, report it to the appropriate authority — in the United States, the NCMEC CyberTipline — and to us at info@onionsearchengine.com so we can remove it from the index.
Section 8Not a consumer report
The Service is not a consumer reporting agency, and its output is not a consumer report or investigative consumer report under the US Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.) or any comparable law.
You may not use the Service, in whole or in part, as a factor in establishing an individual’s eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, housing, education, licensing or any similar purpose. If you need information for those purposes, obtain it from a consumer reporting agency.
Using the Service for an FCRA-regulated purpose is a material breach and grounds for immediate termination.
Section 9Content removal and complaints
We do not host the content we index; we point to it. Nonetheless, if you believe indexed material is unlawful, infringes your rights, or exposes your personal data without basis, write to info@onionsearchengine.com with the URL and an explanation. We will review it and may remove the entry from our index, at our discretion or where required by law.
Removal from our index does not remove the underlying content from the Tor network, which is outside our control.
Section 10Intellectual property
Our rights. The Service, its software, index structure, documentation and branding are ours and are protected by intellectual property law. These Terms grant you no rights in them except the limited licence below.
Your licence. Subject to these Terms and to payment of applicable fees, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access the Service and to use the results internally for your own security, intelligence or research purposes, including in reports and alerts you produce for your organisation or your authorised clients.
What that licence does not include. It does not include the rights restricted by section 6(e), nor any right to redistribute raw API output as a standalone product.
Attribution. Where you publish analysis substantially derived from the Service, we ask that you attribute Onion Search Engine as the source. This is a request, not a condition.
Feedback. If you send us suggestions or feedback, we may use them without obligation or compensation to you.
Section 11Resellers and multi-tenant use
Building the Service into your own product, serving multiple client organisations from one account, issuing sub-tokens, or reselling access in any form requires an Enterprise agreement with us. Contact info@onionsearchengine.com.
Where we grant such rights, you remain responsible for your end users’ compliance with section 6, must impose terms on them at least as protective as these, and must not present the Service as your own crawling capability in a way that misleads them about the source of the data.
Section 12Availability and changes to the Service
We aim for high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted operation. The Service may be unavailable for maintenance, upgrades, network conditions, or events outside our control. Free and standard paid plans carry no service level agreement; SLAs are available only under Enterprise agreements.
We may add, modify, deprecate or remove features and endpoints. For changes that would materially break existing integrations on paid plans, we will give at least 30 days’ notice by email or through the API documentation, except where a shorter period is required for security or legal reasons.
Index coverage varies over time. The Tor network is unstable by nature: hidden services appear, move and disappear. We make no commitment as to the size, coverage or freshness of the index.
Section 13Suspension and termination
By you. You may cancel at any time from your dashboard or by writing to us. See section 5 for the effect on fees.
By us, for cause. We may suspend or terminate your access immediately, with notice where practicable, if you breach section 6 or section 8, fail to pay, create risk to the Service or to other customers, or if we are required to by law.
By us, for convenience. We may terminate a free-tier account at any time. We may terminate a paid account on 30 days’ notice, in which case we will refund any prepaid fees covering the period after termination.
Effect. On termination, your licence ends, your API keys stop working, and your watches stop running. Data handling after termination is governed by our Privacy Policy. Sections 6, 7, 8, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21 and 22 survive.
Section 14Confidentiality
Neither party will disclose the other’s non-public technical or business information received under these Terms, except to those who need it and are bound to protect it, or where legally compelled. Your queries and watch terms are treated as described in our Privacy Policy.
Section 15Disclaimers
THE SERVICE AND ALL RESULTS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR TRADE USAGE.
WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT THE INDEX IS COMPLETE, CURRENT OR ACCURATE, THAT ANY THREAT WILL BE DETECTED, OR THAT ANY ALERT WILL BE DELIVERED. THE SERVICE IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR YOUR OWN SECURITY PROGRAMME, LEGAL ADVICE OR PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT.
Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions; in those places, the exclusions apply to the maximum extent permitted.
Section 16Limitation of liability
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER PARTY IS LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE, LOST DATA, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, OR REPUTATIONAL HARM, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY.
OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (a) THE FEES YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (b) US $100.
These limits do not apply to your obligations under sections 5, 6, 17 and 18, or to liability that cannot be limited by law, including fraud, wilful misconduct, or death or personal injury caused by negligence.
The allocation of risk in sections 15 and 16 is a fundamental basis of the bargain and reflects the fees charged.
Section 17Indemnity
You will indemnify, defend and hold harmless Onion Search Engine LLC and its members, officers and personnel against any claim, demand, proceeding, loss, liability, damages, fine and reasonable legal costs arising out of or relating to:
- your use of the Service or of any result obtained through it;
- your breach of these Terms, in particular sections 6, 8, 10 and 18;
- any action you took, published or reported on the basis of a result, including any claim of defamation, wrongful accusation, privacy violation or unlawful processing;
- your end users’ use of the Service, where you operate under section 11.
We will notify you of any claim, allow you to control the defence with counsel reasonably acceptable to us, and cooperate at your expense. You may not settle in a way that imposes obligations or admissions on us without our written consent.
Section 18Export control and sanctions
You represent and warrant that you are not, and are not acting on behalf of, a person or entity that is:
- located in, organised under the laws of, or ordinarily resident in a country or region subject to comprehensive US sanctions or embargo; or
- listed on any US restricted-party list, including the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, or on any comparable list maintained by the UN, EU or UK.
You will not export, re-export or make the Service available in violation of US export control or sanctions law, and you will not use it for any prohibited end use. This applies equally to payment: settling an invoice in cryptocurrency does not lessen these obligations, and we may refuse or return payment where we identify a sanctions concern.
Breach of this section permits immediate termination without refund.
Section 19Legal process
We respond to valid legal process as described in our Privacy Policy, section 9. Where the law permits, we will try to notify you of process concerning your account before responding.
Section 20Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms. The “last updated” date reflects the current version. For changes that materially affect your rights or obligations, we will give at least 30 days’ notice to your registered email address before they take effect on paid plans.
Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. If you do not accept a material change, cancel before it takes effect; where you cancel for that reason mid-period, we will refund the unused portion of prepaid fees.
Section 21Governing law and dispute resolution
Please read this section carefully. It requires most disputes to be resolved by individual arbitration rather than in court, and waives your right to participate in a class action.
Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York and applicable US federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.
Informal resolution first. Before starting an arbitration, you must write to info@onionsearchengine.com describing the dispute and the relief sought. We will do the same before proceeding against you. The parties will attempt in good faith to resolve the matter for 30 days. This step is a precondition to arbitration.
Binding arbitration. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service that is not resolved informally will be settled by final and binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its rules then in effect, before a single arbitrator. The seat of arbitration is New York, New York, and the language is English. Where the amount in dispute permits, the arbitration may proceed on documents alone or by videoconference, and neither party is required to appear in person. The arbitrator may award the same individual relief a court could, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.
Exceptions. Either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies. In addition, we may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction over you or your assets — without posting bond and without first attempting informal resolution — to stop unauthorised access to the Service, breach of section 6(e) or section 6(f), or infringement or misappropriation of our intellectual property or index. Seeking such relief is not a waiver of this section.
Class action waiver. Disputes will be arbitrated only on an individual basis. You and we each waive any right to bring or participate in a class, collective, consolidated or representative action, or to act as a private attorney general. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims or preside over any form of representative proceeding.
Coordinated filings. If 25 or more similar claims are asserted against us by or with the assistance of the same counsel or coordinated group, the claims will be administered in staged batches of no more than 50, with a single arbitrator per batch, and the limitation periods for the remaining claimants are tolled while batches proceed.
If the waiver fails. If the class action waiver is held unenforceable as to a particular claim or a particular request for relief, that claim or request will be severed and heard in the courts located in New York County, New York, while all other claims proceed in arbitration. If the arbitration provision as a whole is held unenforceable, the exclusive forum is the state or federal courts located in New York County, New York, and each party consents to jurisdiction and venue there and waives any objection based on inconvenient forum.
Your right to opt out. You may reject this arbitration and class waiver provision by emailing info@onionsearchengine.com within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, stating your account email and that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms, and we will not treat it as a reason to refuse or terminate service. If you opt out, disputes are resolved in the courts located in New York County, New York.
Time limit. Any claim must be brought within one year after it arises, or it is permanently barred, except where a longer period is required by law.
Survival. This section survives termination of your account and of these Terms.
Section 22General
Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and any Enterprise agreement or order form are the entire agreement between us on this subject, and supersede prior discussions. Where an executed Enterprise agreement conflicts with these Terms, that agreement prevails.
No waiver. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.
Severability. If a provision is held unenforceable, it is modified to the minimum extent necessary or severed, and the rest remains in force.
Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent, except to a successor of your business that is not a competitor and assumes your obligations. We may assign in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets.
Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, excluding payment obligations.
Notices. We give notice to your registered email address; you give notice to info@onionsearchengine.com. Notice is effective when sent.
Relationship. Nothing here creates a partnership, joint venture, employment or agency relationship.
No third-party beneficiaries. These Terms confer no rights on anyone other than the parties.
Section 23Contact
Onion Search Engine LLC 244 Madison Avenue #1031 New York, NY 10016 United States
info@onionsearchengine.com