Terms of Service

Welcome to The Daily Distill! These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of The Daily Distill newsletter service, website at thedailydistill.com, and related services (collectively, the "Service"), operated by Samuel G. Browner ("we," "us," or "our").

BY CREATING AN ACCOUNT OR USING THE SERVICE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS, DO NOT USE THE SERVICE.

1. Description of Service

The Daily Distill is a personalized daily newsletter service that provides AI-assisted news summaries and analysis based on your interests. Our Service:

• Aggregates news from publicly available RSS feeds
• Uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate personalized content
• Offers conversation-based onboarding to understand your preferences through natural dialogue
• Delivers customized newsletters based on your preferences
• Supplements newsletter content with web search results when your preferred topics have limited RSS coverage
• Provides links to original news sources

AI Systems Used:

• Claude Haiku (Anthropic): Filters news articles and generates newsletter content
• Claude Sonnet (Anthropic): Powers onboarding conversations and web search supplementation

The Service is provided "as is" and may be modified, suspended, or discontinued at any time without notice.

2. Eligibility and Account Registration

Age Requirement: You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under 18, you must have permission from a parent or guardian.

Account Security: You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and account. You agree to:

• Provide accurate and complete registration information
• Keep your password secure and confidential
• Notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account
• Accept responsibility for all activities under your account

Session Security: For your protection, login sessions expire after 4 hours of inactivity. When you log in, any existing sessions on other devices are automatically terminated.

One Account Per Person: Each user may maintain only one account. Creating multiple accounts to circumvent our systems is prohibited.

3. Preference Onboarding

Conversation-Based Setup: We offer an AI-powered onboarding experience where you have a natural conversation to describe your interests. During this conversation:

• Your messages are processed by Claude Sonnet (Anthropic's AI) to extract your preferences
• The conversation is stored to allow you to review and modify your preferences later
• You may restart the onboarding process at any time to update your interests
• A fallback form is available if you prefer not to use the conversational interface

Rate Limits: To ensure service quality, onboarding sessions are limited to 10 per day per user.

Data Processing: By using the onboarding feature, you consent to having your conversation messages processed by Anthropic's AI systems as described in our Privacy Policy.

4. Acceptable Use

You agree to use the Service only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You agree NOT to:

• Use the Service in any way that violates applicable laws or regulations
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to our systems or other users' accounts
• Use automated systems (bots, scrapers) to access the Service without permission
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers
• Impersonate any person or entity
• Transmit any viruses, malware, or harmful code
• Reproduce, redistribute, or resell our newsletters without permission
• Remove or obscure any copyright, trademark, or attribution notices
• Use the Service for any commercial purpose without our written consent
• Attempt to manipulate the AI systems through prompt injection or similar techniques
• Submit false, misleading, or harmful content during onboarding conversations

5. Intellectual Property Rights

Our Content: The Service, including its design, layout, compilation of content, and AI-generated analysis and commentary, is owned by Samuel G. Browner and protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. Our original analysis and commentary in the newsletters is our intellectual property.

Third-Party Content: The Daily Distill aggregates and provides summaries of news articles from third-party sources, including content obtained through web searches. All rights to the original news content belong to their respective publishers. We provide links to original sources and encourage users to visit those sources for complete reporting.

Limited License to You: We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for your personal, non-commercial use. You may read and forward individual newsletters to friends or colleagues, but you may not:

• Reproduce our newsletters in bulk or systematically
• Create derivative works based on our newsletters
• Use our content for commercial purposes
• Republish our content on websites, blogs, or other platforms without permission

Your Feedback: If you provide feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the Service, you grant us the right to use, modify, and incorporate such feedback without compensation or attribution.

6. AI-Generated Content and Disclaimers

Nature of Content: The Daily Distill uses artificial intelligence (specifically, Anthropic's Claude models) to generate newsletter content, including summaries, analysis, and preference extraction. While we strive for accuracy, AI-generated content may contain:

• Errors, inaccuracies, or omissions
• Outdated information (as of the time of generation)
• Interpretations that differ from other news sources
• Simplified explanations that may lack nuance

Web Search Content: When your preferred topics have limited RSS feed coverage, our AI may search the web for recent articles. Web search results are:

• Subject to the same accuracy limitations as other AI-generated content
• Filtered for relevance but not independently verified
• Clearly attributed to their original sources

Onboarding Conversations: The AI conducting your preference onboarding conversation is designed to extract your interests, not to provide advice or make recommendations. The AI may occasionally misunderstand your intent or extract preferences inaccurately—you can always modify your preferences afterward.

NOT PROFESSIONAL ADVICE: The content in our newsletters is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It is NOT:

• Financial, investment, or trading advice
• Legal advice or counsel
• Medical or health advice
• Professional advice of any kind

Always consult qualified professionals for important decisions. We strongly encourage you to visit original news sources for authoritative and complete reporting.

No Warranty of Accuracy: We make no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or reliability of any content provided through the Service, whether from RSS feeds, web searches, or AI generation. You use the Service and rely on its content at your own risk.

7. Privacy and Data Protection

Your privacy is important to us. Our collection, use, and protection of your personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using the Service, you also agree to our Privacy Policy.

Key points:

• We collect email addresses, names, preferences, onboarding conversation data, and engagement data
• We process your onboarding conversations using Anthropic's AI to extract preferences
• We share data with service providers (Resend, Anthropic, Railway, Cloudflare)
• We do not sell your personal information
• You have rights to access, update, and delete your data, including onboarding conversations
• We may perform web searches using your topic preferences (not personal identifiers)

Please read our full Privacy Policy for complete details.

8. Subscription and Cancellation

Free Service: The Daily Distill is currently provided free of charge. We reserve the right to introduce paid subscription tiers in the future, but any existing free users will be notified in advance of any changes.

Product Announcements: We may send occasional product announcement emails about new features and updates. You may opt out of these emails separately from newsletters.

Unsubscribing: You may unsubscribe from our newsletters at any time by:

• Clicking the "Unsubscribe" link in any newsletter email
• Toggling off your subscription in your account dashboard
• Emailing [email protected]

Unsubscribe requests are processed immediately. You may resubscribe at any time through your dashboard.

Account Deletion: You may request complete deletion of your account and all associated data (including onboarding conversations and preference data) by submitting a request at thedailydistill.com/data-request or emailing [email protected]. Deletion requests are processed within 30 days.

9. Termination

Our Right to Terminate: We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice, including if you:

• Violate these Terms
• Engage in fraudulent or illegal activity
• Abuse or misuse the Service
• Attempt to manipulate or abuse the AI systems
• Create risk or legal liability for us

Effect of Termination: Upon termination, your right to use the Service will immediately cease. We may delete your account and data, though some information may be retained as described in our Privacy Policy or as required by law.

Survival: Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including intellectual property provisions, disclaimers, limitations of liability, and dispute resolution provisions.

10. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES: THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

We do not warrant that:

• The Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free
• The results from using the Service will be accurate or reliable
• Any errors in the Service will be corrected
• The Service will meet your requirements
• AI-generated content will be accurate, complete, or suitable for any purpose
• Web search results will be current or comprehensive

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL SAMUEL G. BROWNER, THE DAILY DISTILL, OR OUR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS OR REVENUES, WHETHER INCURRED DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, USE, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, RESULTING FROM:

• Your use or inability to use the Service
• Any unauthorized access to or use of our servers or your data
• Any errors, mistakes, or inaccuracies in content (including AI-generated content)
• Any personal injury or property damage resulting from your use of the Service
• Any decisions you make based on content in our newsletters or web search results
• Any misinterpretation of your preferences by the AI onboarding system

AGGREGATE LIABILITY CAP: Our total liability to you for any claims arising from or related to the Service shall not exceed $100 or the amount you paid us in the past 12 months, whichever is greater.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or limitation of liability, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Samuel G. Browner, The Daily Distill, and our affiliates, officers, agents, and employees from any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from or related to:

• Your use of the Service
• Your violation of these Terms
• Your violation of any rights of another party
• Your violation of any applicable laws or regulations
• Content you submit during onboarding conversations

12. Dispute Resolution and Governing Law

Governing Law: These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Ohio, United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

Informal Resolution: Before filing any formal legal action, you agree to first contact us at [email protected] to attempt to resolve any dispute informally.

Jurisdiction and Venue: If informal resolution fails, you agree that any legal action or proceeding arising from or relating to these Terms or the Service shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Hamilton County, Ohio, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of such courts.

Class Action Waiver: You agree that any dispute resolution proceedings will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class, consolidated, or representative action.

13. Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by:

• Posting the updated Terms on our website with a new effective date
• Sending an email notification to your registered email address

Your continued use of the Service after any changes indicates your acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the modified Terms, you must stop using the Service and may delete your account.

14. General Provisions

Entire Agreement: These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and The Daily Distill regarding the Service.

Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

Waiver: Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

Assignment: You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your rights under them without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms without restriction.

No Agency: Nothing in these Terms creates any agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship between you and The Daily Distill.

Force Majeure: We will not be liable for any delay or failure to perform resulting from causes outside our reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, riots, embargoes, acts of civil or military authorities, fire, floods, accidents, strikes, or shortages of transportation, facilities, fuel, energy, labor, or materials.

15. Contact Information

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at:

The Daily Distill
Attn: Samuel G. Browner
2338 Bedford Ave
Cincinnati, OH 45208
Email: [email protected]

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By using The Daily Distill, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service.

Last Updated: January 20, 2026