Terms of Service

Legal terms governing the use of PQC Today and its embedded cryptographic software

Effective Date: March 22, 2026 · Last Updated: March 22, 2026

This document is updated when the platform's terms materially change; see the date above.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using PQC Today (the “Platform”), available at www.pqctoday.com and its associated GitHub repositories, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree to these Terms, do not access or use the Platform.

2. License

The Platform's source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0-only). The full license text is available in the LICENSE file. Nothing in these Terms restricts rights granted under the GPL-3.0.

3. Educational Purpose and Cryptographic Disclaimer

The Platform is an educational and research tool for post-quantum cryptography (PQC). All cryptographic operations — including key generation, signing, verification, encryption, decryption, and key encapsulation — are performed client-side in your browser using WebAssembly (WASM) and are intended for educational and demonstration purposes only.

In short: this is a demo, not a certified crypto library — never use keys it generates to protect anything real.

You must not:

  • Use cryptographic keys generated by this Platform to protect production systems, real data, or financial transactions.
  • Rely on this Platform as a substitute for professionally audited cryptographic implementations.
  • Treat assessment results, migration recommendations, or compliance guidance as professional legal, security, or regulatory advice.

4. Export Compliance and Sanctions

In short: because this Platform bundles real cryptographic source code, U.S. export control and sanctions law applies to who can access it — details below.

4.1 Classification

The Platform embeds open-source cryptographic software classified under Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) 5D002 pursuant to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This includes but is not limited to: OpenSSL, liboqs, ML-KEM (FIPS 203), ML-DSA (FIPS 204), SLH-DSA (FIPS 205), AES, RSA, ECDSA, ECDH, Ed25519, secp256k1, FrodoKEM, HQC, Classic McEliece, and Falcon.

4.2 License Exception

Distribution is authorized under License Exception TSU (§740.13 EAR) for publicly available encryption source code and License Exception ENC (§740.17 EAR) for mass-market encryption software.

4.3 Prohibited Destinations

You may not access, download, or use the Platform if you are located in, or a national or resident of, any country or territory subject to comprehensive U.S. sanctions, including but not limited to:

  • Cuba
  • Iran
  • North Korea (DPRK)
  • Syria
  • The Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine

4.4 Denied Parties

You may not access or use the Platform if you are listed on, or acting on behalf of any party listed on, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List, the U.S. Treasury Department's Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List, or any other applicable restricted party list.

4.5 User Responsibility

You are solely responsible for complying with all applicable export control and sanctions laws in your jurisdiction. By using the Platform, you represent and warrant that you are not located in a prohibited destination and are not a denied party.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

  • Use the Platform for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable laws or regulations.
  • Misrepresent the Platform as your own creation or remove attribution and license notices.
  • Attempt to compromise, disrupt, or interfere with the Platform's infrastructure or other users' access.
  • Use the Platform to develop weapons, conduct surveillance, or engage in any activity that violates human rights.
  • Scrape, crawl, or harvest data from the Platform in a manner that degrades service for other users.

6. No Warranty

The Platform is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement.

This is consistent with Sections 15 and 16 of the GPL-3.0 license.

The Platform aggregates data from public sources including NIST, ETSI, IETF, BSI, ANSSI, ISO/IEC, and others. Content may be inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated. You should independently verify all information before making decisions based on it.

7. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the maintainers, contributors, and affiliates of PQC Today shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, data, or goodwill, arising from your use of or inability to use the Platform.

8. Third-Party Content and Attribution

The Platform references and aggregates content from third-party organizations including but not limited to:

  • NIST — National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • ETSI — European Telecommunications Standards Institute
  • IETF — Internet Engineering Task Force
  • BSI — Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik
  • ANSSI — Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d'information
  • ISO/IEC — International Organization for Standardization
  • Common Criteria (CCRA)

The Platform is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of these organizations. All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.

9. Intellectual Property

  • The Platform's source code is licensed under GPL-3.0.
  • Original educational content, data compilations, and visualizations are copyright of the PQC Today maintainers.
  • Third-party standards, specifications, and documents referenced by the Platform are subject to their respective licenses and copyright terms.

10. Privacy and Analytics

The Platform collects no personal data. There are no user accounts, no login credentials, and no server-side data processing. All cryptographic operations and assessments run entirely in your browser using client-side WebAssembly.

We use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to collect anonymous usage data, including page views and aggregated interaction events (e.g., which learning modules are started or completed, search queries with PII scrubbed). GA4 may set cookies on your device to distinguish unique visitors. No personally identifiable information is collected or transmitted. Analytics are disabled entirely when the Platform is accessed on localhost.

For details on how Google processes analytics data, see Google's Privacy Policy.

The Platform's PQC Assistant chat feature offers two modes. When using Google Gemini Flash, your chat messages and page context are sent to Google's servers for processing. You must provide your own Google AI API key to use this mode. Your API key is stored locally in your browser and is never transmitted to PQC Today's infrastructure. Google's use of data sent via the Gemini API is governed by Google's Gemini API Terms of Service. Alternatively, you can use the Local LLM (WebLLM) mode, which runs the AI model entirely in your browser — no data leaves your device.

Local browser storage (localStorage) is used solely to persist your learning progress and preferences on your device. This data never leaves your browser.

11. Modifications

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. Changes will be indicated by updating the “Last Updated” date. Continued use of the Platform after changes constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms.

12. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

13. Contact

For questions about these Terms, please open a discussion on GitHub Discussions or contact the maintainers through the repository.

PQC Today is an open-source, community-driven educational platform. These Terms supplement — and do not replace — the rights and obligations under the GPL-3.0 license.