Terms

Summary

Fathom is a research-oriented platform for running forced-choice parapsychology trials under cryptographically tamper-evident conditions. It is free for individual use. These terms cover who can use it, free anonymous contribution and the optional $5 donation, what you may and may not do, and the usual disclaimers. Fathom takes no position on whether psi phenomena are real — it is a place to gather honest data, not a source of claims.

Eligibility & your account

• An account requires a valid email address and password, collected from first use. Your email is hard-verified before you can run trials.
• You are responsible for keeping your credentials secure. One account per person.
• You can delete your account at any time; deletion cascades to your trials, sessions, and statistics (see the privacy page for what deletion does and does not reach).

Free for individual use

Every paradigm, every statistic, every methodology page is free. There is no subscription, no premium tier, no daily trial limit, no gated analysis, and no advertising. Contributing to the research dataset is free too — a one-time opt-in. The optional $5 donation below is not a paywall on functionality and unlocks nothing — all platform features work without it.

Contribution & the optional $5 donation

• Contributing is free. Opting in to anonymous contribution of your trial data to the aggregate research dataset costs nothing and is never required to use Fathom. You can opt out at any time.
• The $5 donation is optional and grants nothing functional — it simply helps fund Fathom. Contributing, and every other feature, works whether or not you donate.
• Donation payment is handled by Stripe. Stripe receives your card details; Fathom never sees them — only a payment-success acknowledgement.
• Refunds. A donation is non-refundable except where required by law. Because contribution is free and decoupled from payment, a donation refund is a billing matter only — it does not change your contribution status.

Acceptable use

To keep the dataset research-grade, you agree not to:

• Submit trials through automated or scripted means — trials must reflect genuine human choices.
• Attempt to defeat, forge, or probe the integrity-signing scheme, the rate limits, or other platform protections.
• Attempt to re-identify contributors or otherwise link the anonymous research dataset back to individual accounts.

Research data & license

If you opt into contribution, your trial data is published to a public, de-identified aggregate dataset under a separate contribution_user_id that is unjoinable to your account or payment. By contributing, you grant Fathom a non-exclusive license to include that de-identified data in the aggregate dataset and to make it available to researchers. Because published aggregates carry no link back to you, they cannot be deleted individually after the fact — that unlinkability is the privacy guarantee.

Disclaimers & liability

Fathom is provided “as is,” without warranties of any kind. It is a research tool, not a source of medical, financial, psychological, or any other professional advice, and nothing on the platform should be relied on as such. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Fathom and its operator are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the platform.

Changes to these terms

These terms may change as the platform evolves. Material changes will be reflected on this page. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated terms.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of [JURISDICTION — to be set before public launch], without regard to conflict-of-laws principles.

Contact

Questions about these terms go through the contact form. We aim to respond within 7 days.