Terms of service

Last updated July 5, 2026

These are the rules for using the PALY Press app and this website. By making an account or using the app, you're agreeing to them. We kept them short and readable on purpose. If something here is unclear, ask us and we'll explain what we meant.

What this app is (and isn't)

PALY Press is an independent project built by a Paly student. It is not run by, endorsed by, or affiliated with the Palo Alto Unified School District, Palo Alto High School, or any of the publications whose work appears in the app.

Whose content this is

Every article, photo, and byline you see in the app was written, shot, or published by one of the student publications and their staff, not by us. That content belongs to the publication and its staff, not to PALY Press — we don't own it, we don't hold any copyright in it, and we don't edit it. We display it because it's already public on the publication's own website, and it stays theirs the whole time we show it. Publication names and logos are the property of those publications too. If you want to reuse an article for anything beyond reading it in the app, ask the publication that made it, not us.

Copyright complaints

If you believe something in the app infringes your copyright, email us at [email protected] with what the work is, where it appears in the app, and a statement that you believe in good faith the use isn't authorized. We'll look into it and take it down if that's the right call, and we can cut off access for anyone who repeatedly posts infringing comments.

Your account

You need to be at least 13 to make an account. Use your real information when you sign up, and keep your password to yourself. If someone does something with your account because you shared your login, that's on you. If you think your account has been compromised, reset your password or contact us.

Comments

Comments you post in the app are submitted to the publication's own website and published there publicly under your display name. That means two things. First, each publication's comment rules apply to you, and they can moderate or remove your comment like any other. Second, once a comment is published on their site, deleting your app account doesn't remove it.

Don't use comments to harass people, impersonate anyone, spam, or post things you know are false about real people. We're a journalism app built by student journalists; we care about this one. If you abuse the comment feature we can suspend your account, and the publications can ban you from theirs.

Acceptable use

Don't try to break the app. Specifically: no attempting to access other people's accounts or data, no flooding the server with automated requests, and no using the app to redistribute the publications' content at scale. If you find a security hole, please tell us instead of exploiting it. We'll be genuinely grateful.

This is beta software

The app is in beta and distributed through TestFlight. Things will break sometimes. Features may change or disappear, the server may go down, and in a worst case your saved articles, to-dos, or schedule could be lost. We do our best to avoid that, but you shouldn't keep anything in this app that you can't afford to lose.

No warranty, and a liability cap

The app is provided as-is, without warranties of any kind. The app is free, nobody pays us, and we're students, so to the fullest extent the law allows, we're not liable for damages that come from using it or from not being able to use it. Where the law doesn't allow liability to be excluded entirely, our total liability is capped at $10.

We also aren't responsible for the content of the articles themselves. Complaints about what a publication wrote should go to that publication.

Ending things

You can delete your account any time from the profile screen in the app, and our privacy policy explains exactly what gets deleted. We can suspend or delete accounts that violate these terms, and since this is a student project, we may someday shut the whole thing down. If that happens we'll try to give notice through the app first.

Changes and governing law

If we change these terms, we'll update the date at the top, and continuing to use the app after that means you accept the new version. These terms are governed by California law, and if any part of them turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still stands. Questions go to the feedback form in the app or [email protected].