Terms and Conditions of Use and Services

PREAMBLE

These Terms and Conditions of Use and Services (hereinafter 'Terms') govern access to and use of the website accessible at https://howmation.com (hereinafter the 'Site'), published by the French sole proprietorship EI GOUDET VALENTIN (hereinafter 'the Publisher'). Any registration and/or use of the Site implies unreserved acceptance of these Terms.

Article 1 - Definitions

• Site: The website https://howmation.com.
• Howmation: Refers to the registered trademark and, by extension, to the Publisher of the Site.
• User: Any person who accesses the Site.
• Member: Any User who registers on the Site.
• Services: All free or paid features offered.
• Content: All elements (texts, images, etc.) present on the Site.

Article 2 - Purpose

The purpose of these Terms is to define the conditions for accessing and using the Site and its Services. They constitute the contract between the Publisher and the Member.

Article 3 - Member account creation

Account creation is required to access certain Services. It is reserved for individuals aged at least 15 years (digital consent age in France). For other territories, the User declares that they are of the required age to consent to the processing of their personal data in their country of residence. The Member is solely responsible for the confidentiality of their credentials.

The Member agrees to provide sincere and accurate information. Registration via temporary or disposable email addresses is prohibited. The Publisher reserves the right to refuse or suspend any registration that does not meet these technical criteria.

Minors: for Members aged 15 to 17, consent to the processing of personal data is valid pursuant to Article 8 GDPR and Article 45 of the amended French Data Protection Act. For Members under 15 years of age, registration is not permitted.

Article 4 - Description of Services

4.1. Current free services

The Publisher provides Members, free of charge, access to the following services: a community forum, an article comment system, quizzes, a price drop notification service, a private messaging system between Members, and a gamification system (experience points, ranks and badges).

4.2. Price comparison service and affiliate links

The Site presents products with affiliate links. The Publisher is not the seller of the products.

Affiliate programs: the Publisher participates in several affiliate programs, including Amazon Associates, as well as in direct partnerships with merchants such as Domadoo, Shelly and others. Affiliate links may set third-party tracking cookies (for example the Amazon attribution cookie) governed by the respective privacy policies of these merchants. The Publisher receives a commission on purchases made through these links, at no additional cost to the User.

Disclaimer: Prices are indicative and may contain errors. Only the price on the merchant site is authoritative. The Publisher guarantees neither the availability of products, nor delivery, nor after-sales service. Any complaint must be addressed to the relevant merchant site.

4.3. Private messaging

The Site provides Members with a private messaging service allowing individual or group exchanges. This service is subject to rate limiting (number of messages per minute and conversations per time interval). Messages are transmitted in real time via a persistent connection (Server-Sent Events).

4.4. Community forum and gamification

The Site offers a community forum allowing Members to create topics and replies, subscribe to topics, and receive notifications. A gamification system rewards active participation through the awarding of experience points (XP), progressive ranks and badges. These elements have no monetary value and are neither transferable nor exchangeable.

4.5. Evolution towards paid Services

The Publisher reserves the right to offer paid Services in the future, which will be governed by specific Terms of Sale.

Article 5 - Member obligations

The Member agrees to comply with applicable laws and not to publish illegal, insulting content, or content that infringes the rights of third parties, whether on the forum, in comments or via private messaging. It is strictly prohibited to create multiple accounts (multi-accounts) in order to circumvent a sanction (ban, suspension) or to manipulate site features. Any attempt to circumvent the technical security measures implemented by the Publisher will result in a permanent ban.

Regarding private messaging, the Member is specifically prohibited from: using the service for harassment, threats, intimidation or unsolicited commercial solicitation; sending malicious links, phishing or any fraudulent content; circumventing a block put in place by another Member; publicly disclosing the content of private conversations without the consent of all participants.

Article 6 - Moderation

Content published on the forum and in comments is moderated after publication, in accordance with French legislation. The Publisher reserves the right to delete any content that violates these Terms.

Regarding private messaging, the Publisher does not systematically monitor the content of exchanges between Members. However, in the event of a report by a Member or a founded suspicion of illegal activity, the Publisher reserves the right to review the messages concerned in order to take appropriate action (warning, suspension or account deletion). Any Member can report abusive behavior using the block feature or by contacting the Publisher.

Article 7 - Account suspension and closure

The Publisher may suspend or delete an account in case of breach of the Terms. Any account inactive for a continuous period of 3 years will be automatically deleted.

Article 8 - Intellectual property

All Site Content (excluding Member contributions) is the exclusive property of the Publisher. The trademark 'Howmation' is a registered and protected trademark belonging to Mr. Valentin GOUDET.

By posting content on the forum or in comments, the Member grants the Publisher a non-exclusive, worldwide license to use and distribute this content on the Site. Private messages exchanged between Members are not subject to this license and will not be publicly disclosed by the Publisher, except as required by law.

Article 9 - Privacy policy (GDPR)

This section details our commitment to the protection of your personal data, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR).

9.1. Data Controller

The data controller is EI GOUDET VALENTIN, represented by Mr. Valentin GOUDET. For any questions, requests to exercise your rights or complaints: [email protected] (subject: 'GDPR').

9.2. Data collected and purposes

We collect and process the following categories of data:

• Identification data: username, email address, password (hashed with a modern hashing algorithm), avatar (optional)
• Profile data: about, country, date of birth, preferred language (all optional)
• Technical security data: connection IP addresses, technical browser fingerprint, connection history
• Strong authentication data (optional): encrypted TOTP secret, registered WebAuthn keys
• Communication data: private messages, forum topics and replies, comments, reports
• Gamification data: XP, ranks, badges, participation statistics
• Preference data: newsletter opt-in, notification settings
• Federated login data (if used): Google credentials, for simplified authentication features

The legal bases applicable to these processing activities are:

• Performance of the contract (Article 6.1.b GDPR): account management, private messaging, forum, gamification, notifications
• Consent (Article 6.1.a GDPR): sending of the newsletter, optional features (online presence, public profile)
• Legitimate interest (Article 6.1.f GDPR): security of the Site, prevention of fraud and multi-accounts, content moderation
• Legal obligation (Article 6.1.c GDPR): retention of security logs for traceability purposes

9.3. Security and detection technologies

As part of protecting the Site and its community, we use technical mechanisms to detect and prevent abusive behavior:

• Technical fingerprint derived from characteristics of your browser and device, constituting pseudonymous data within the meaning of recital 26 of the GDPR, used solely for security purposes (prevention of multi-accounting and sanction circumvention) on the basis of legitimate interest (article 6.1.f).

9.4. Retention periods

• Account data: kept for as long as the account is active. Automatic deletion after 3 years of continuous inactivity.
• Connection IP addresses: kept for a maximum of 90 days, with a cap of 50 entries per account (the oldest being deleted beyond that). An automated task purges entries beyond this period on a daily basis.
• Technical fingerprints: kept for as long as the account is active, deleted with the account.
• Application security logs: kept for a maximum of 1 year, with truncated IP addresses and hashed emails.
• Password reset tokens: 1 hour maximum, hashed in the database.
• Active sessions: automatically invalidated upon each password change.
• Private messages: kept for as long as the conversation exists and at least one participant has an active account. Permanently deleted upon account closure.
• Forum content and comments: kept in anonymized form after account deletion (username replaced by a generic identifier), in order to preserve the consistency of discussion threads.
• Premium subscription consent log: timestamps of the waiver of the withdrawal right and of the Subscribe click, SHA-256 fingerprint of the IP address with a random salt unique to each subscription (the plain-text IP is never stored; only the anonymized address class — /24 prefix for IPv4, /48 for IPv6 — is kept for geographic context), browser user-agent, SHA-256 fingerprints of the accepted Terms and Refund Policy, and active locale. Retained for 5 years (aligned with L.110-4 French Commercial Code and L.218-2 French Consumer Code), for the sole purpose of evidence in the event of a consumer dispute pursuant to article L.221-28.

9.5. Your rights

Pursuant to Articles 15 to 22 GDPR, you have the following rights:

• Right of access: obtain a copy of the data concerning you
• Right to rectification: correct inaccurate data
• Right to erasure ('right to be forgotten'): request the deletion of your data
• Right to restriction of processing
• Right to portability: receive your data in a structured format
• Right to object to processing based on legitimate interest
• Right to withdraw your consent at any time, without retroactive effect
• Right to human review: regarding automated security decisions (IP blocking), you may request a re-examination by the Publisher if you consider the block to be unjustified

To exercise these rights, contact us at [email protected] (subject: 'GDPR').

Regarding the newsletter, in accordance with Article 7.3 GDPR, you may withdraw your consent at any time and as easily as you gave it, either from your account settings or by clicking the unsubscribe link included at the bottom of each email received.

Response times: in accordance with Article 12 GDPR, the Publisher undertakes to respond to any request within one month of receipt. This period may be extended by two months in the event of particular complexity or a high number of requests, with prior notice given to the data subject.

Right to lodge a complaint: if, after contacting us, you consider that your rights have not been respected, you may lodge a complaint with the CNIL (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés), 3 Place de Fontenoy, 75007 Paris, www.cnil.fr.

9.6. Cookies and trackers

The Site uses the following cookies, all necessary for its operation:

• Session cookie (PHPSESSID or equivalent): duration of the session, essential for maintaining the connection
• 'Remember Me' cookie (REMEMBERME): duration of 1 year, optional and activatable only at local login, allows you to stay logged in between sessions
• Mercure authorization cookie (mercureAuthorization): duration of 30 minutes, allows the reception of real-time notifications
• Security cookie (hm_pref_config): duration of 1 year, set only in the event of a moderation measure on an account. Aims to prevent the circumvention of a ban through the creation of a new account or reconnection attempt.
• Language preference cookie (user_locale): browser duration, stores your preferred display language

These cookies are strictly necessary for the operation and security of the Site and do not require prior consent under Article 82 of the French Data Protection Act.

Affiliate links may also set tracking cookies through partner merchant sites, under their exclusive responsibility (see Article 4.2). We do not use any advertising cookies or third-party analytics tools.

9.7. Technical processors (recipients)

Your data may be transmitted to the following processors, acting on the Publisher's instructions as part of their services:

Private messages exchanged between Members are not transmitted to Anthropic or to any third-party content processing service.

9.8. Transfers outside the European Union

Some of the technical processors listed in 9.7 are established outside the European Union, primarily in the United States. These transfers are governed by the Standard Contractual Clauses adopted by the European Commission (Implementing Decision 2021/914 of 4 June 2021), guaranteeing a level of data protection equivalent to that required by the GDPR.

For transfers to the United States specifically, the Publisher relies on the commitments of its processors under the Data Privacy Framework (DPF) where they are certified, or otherwise on the Standard Contractual Clauses supplemented by additional measures in accordance with the recommendations of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB).

9.9. Technical security measures (Article 32 GDPR)

In accordance with Article 32 GDPR, the Publisher implements appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security adapted to the risk, in particular:

• Encryption of communications: all exchanges between your browser and the Site are protected by TLS 1.3, with HSTS header forcing secure connections (HTTPS).
• Protection of secrets: passwords are stored in hashed form (modern hashing algorithm). Two-factor authentication secrets are encrypted.
• Strong authentication: multi-factor authentication available (TOTP, WebAuthn / Passkeys security keys).
• Password policy: minimum 12 characters, automatic verification against compromised password databases (Have I Been Pwned service), strength assessment.
• Abuse protection: rate limiting on sensitive endpoints, CSRF protection, cryptographic signature validation on external webhooks.
• Security logging: recording of authentication events in a dedicated channel, with truncated IP addresses and hashed emails (pseudonymisation).
• Minimization in logs: secrets and API keys are automatically masked in all application logs.
• Security headers: Content Security Policy (CSP), X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy and Permissions-Policy.
• Dependency monitoring: automated tracking of known vulnerabilities affecting third-party libraries used by the Site.
• Security audits: periodic code base reviews, white-box audit methodology covering the OWASP Top 10 and the best practices of ANSSI (French national cybersecurity agency).

9.10. Notification in the event of a data breach

In the event of a personal data breach likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, the Publisher undertakes to notify the CNIL within 72 hours of becoming aware of the incident, in accordance with Article 33 GDPR.

If the breach is likely to result in a high risk to your rights and freedoms, you will be personally informed as soon as possible, in accordance with Article 34 GDPR, with a description of the nature of the breach, the likely consequences and the measures taken to remedy it.

Article 10 - Howmation Premium subscription

Howmation offers a paid subscription called "Howmation Premium". This article describes the specific conditions applicable to this paid service. Free use of Howmation remains governed by all other articles of these Terms, with no obligation to subscribe.

10.1. Service description

The Howmation Premium subscription gives access, for the subscribed duration, to the following content and features:

• Reading of so-called Premium articles published on the blog (advanced tutorials, in-depth feedback, members-only comparisons);
• Access, as they are released, to the tools and software developed by the Editor (integrations, dashboards, utility scripts);
• Early access to new tools and software developed by the Editor, before their public release;
• Display of the Premium badge on the public profile and forum contributions of the Member.

10.2. Price, VAT and revision

The subscription price is €7.50 ex. VAT per calendar month. Applicable VAT according to the Member's country of residence is added to this price at the time of payment. The price is billed in advance for each monthly period.

Applicable VAT is calculated and added to the ex-VAT price by Paddle based on the billing country declared by the Member. The total inclusive amount is displayed and confirmed at the time of payment.

The Editor reserves the right to change the subscription price. Any price change will be notified by email to affected Members at least thirty (30) days in advance, and will only apply from the next renewal. The Member retains the option to cancel their subscription before the new price takes effect if they do not accept it.

10.3. Payment and billing (Paddle Merchant of Record)

Payments are operated by Paddle.com Market Limited ("Paddle"), an English company registered in London, acting as Merchant of Record for the sale of the Howmation Premium subscription.

Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle.com is the Merchant of Record for all our orders. Paddle handles inquiries related to payment, billing and refunds; Howmation handles inquiries related to content, features and product support.

As such, Paddle is legally the seller of the Premium subscription with respect to the Member, and is responsible for collecting payments, applying local taxes (VAT, sales tax, GST), issuing compliant invoices and processing any refunds. The Editor (Howmation) remains the service provider and retains editorial and technical responsibility for the platform.

Accepted payment methods (Visa, Mastercard, American Express cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, SEPA transfers, etc.) vary depending on the Member's billing country and are offered by Paddle at payment time. No banking data (card number, security code, expiration) passes through Howmation's servers.

A compliant invoice is issued by Paddle for each payment and made available to the Member by email and from their Paddle customer area. This invoice mentions Paddle (or its competent local entity) as seller and the applicable VAT.

The Member is also subject to Paddle's Checkout Buyer Terms, available at https://www.paddle.com/legal/checkout-buyer-terms, which govern the payment transaction itself.

10.4. Duration and renewal

The subscription is concluded for a duration of one (1) calendar month from the date of the first effective payment.

The subscription renews tacitly for one-month periods, by automatic charge on the registered payment method, until cancellation by the Member according to the terms described in 10.5.

If a renewal fails (expired card, insufficient funds, ceiling reached, etc.), Paddle automatically performs several new attempts over a maximum period of seven (7) days and notifies the Member by email to update their payment method. During this period, Premium access is maintained. At the end of this period without successful payment, the subscription is terminated by operation of law, free of charge or compensation, and Premium access is revoked.

10.5. Cancellation by the Member

The Member can cancel their Premium subscription at any time, without reason or penalty.

Cancellation is performed from the Premium personal area accessible on the Site, via a dedicated link opening the Paddle customer portal. No phone call, postal mail or email is necessary.

Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid monthly period: the Member retains all their Premium access until the next due date, from which no new billing is issued and Premium access is revoked.

The Editor, or Paddle acting on its behalf, reserves the right to suspend or terminate the subscription with immediate effect in case of serious breach of these Terms, fraudulent behavior or unjustified payment dispute (chargeback).

10.6. Waiver of the right of withdrawal and no refund

The Howmation Premium subscription consists of the immediate supply of digital content and members-only features. In accordance with article L.221-28, 13° of the French Consumer Code (transposing EU directive 2011/83/EU), the 14-day right of withdrawal does not apply when the performance of the contract has started with the express consent of the Member and the Member has waived this right. This waiver is materialised by a dedicated checkbox, distinct from the acceptance of the Terms and not pre-ticked, presented to the Member when paying for the subscription. By ticking this box, validating the payment and first accessing the Premium content, the Member expressly requests immediate execution of the service and acknowledges waiving the right of withdrawal. The date and time of this express waiver are recorded by the Editor as proof. Consequently, the subscription is non-refundable, except in the exceptional cases listed in the Refund Policy.

The Member retains at any time the option to cancel the renewal of the subscription (article 10.5), with effect at the end of the current paid monthly period. Cancellation does not give right to any refund of the current period.

Notwithstanding this policy, Paddle, in its capacity as Merchant of Record, retains the right to grant a refund at its sole discretion, in accordance with its own terms, in particular in the event of chargeback risk or suspected fraud.

10.7. Premium service availability

The Editor commits to a monthly Premium service availability level of 99% (i.e. a maximum of approximately 7 hours 20 minutes of unavailability per calendar month), excluding scheduled maintenance announced at least 48 hours in advance. If this threshold is not met, the Member may request a prorated credit calculated on the unavailability time exceeding the threshold. Beyond 5% cumulative monthly unavailability (excluding scheduled maintenance), the Member may request immediate termination of the subscription with full refund of the current month. Request procedures are specified in the Refund Policy.

10.8. Modification of service scope

The Editor reserves the right to evolve the scope of features included in Howmation Premium (adding features, removing a feature, etc.). Any substantial evolution likely to significantly reduce the perceived value of the service will be notified by email to affected Members at least thirty (30) days in advance, opening the right to cancel the subscription free of charge before the evolution takes effect.

Article 11 - Changes to the Terms

The Publisher reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time. Members will be informed of any substantial modification.

Article 12 - Consumer mediation

Pursuant to articles L.616-1 and R.616-1 of the French Consumer Code, EI GOUDET VALENTIN has put in place a consumer mediation mechanism. The selected mediation entity is: CNPM Médiation Consommation. In the event of a dispute that could not be resolved through a prior complaint sent to [email protected], the consumer may refer the matter to the mediator free of charge, electronically at https://www.medconsodev.eu/ or by post at: CNPM Médiation Consommation, 27 avenue de la Libération, 42400 Saint-Chamond, France. The mediator must be contacted within a maximum period of one year from the written complaint sent to EI GOUDET VALENTIN.

Article 13 - Applicable law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by French law. In case of dispute, and after an attempt at amicable resolution, exclusive jurisdiction is attributed to the competent French courts of Paris. This clause applies subject to the rules of public and private international law that may govern the situation of a User residing outside of France.