Terms of Use

01Who we are

ThugQR (thugqr.com, api.thugqr.com, go.thugqr.com) is a personal, non-commercial project. It is built and run by a private individual, a student living in Greece, not by a company. It has no revenue, advertising, subscriptions or investors.

• Operator: a private individual residing in Greece. The full name is given on request to anyone with a legitimate interest, for example for a legal claim or a request from an authority.
• Email: hello@thugqr.com, for all contact, and as the point of contact for authorities under Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.

In these terms, “ThugQR”, “we” and “the service” refer to the project and the individual who runs it. “You” are anyone who uses the service, whether as a visitor, as an account holder, or by scanning a QR code.

02Acceptance and changes to the terms

By using any part of the service you accept these terms, the Privacy Policy and the Cookie Policy. When you create an account we ask you to accept them explicitly and record the time of acceptance. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

We may update the terms, for example when we add features or when the law requires it. The date at the top shows the current version. For material changes affecting account holders we send an email at least 14 days before they take effect. If you do not accept them, you can delete your account before the effective date; continued use after that date means acceptance. Previous versions are available on request.

03What the service includes

The service consists of three parts:

• The static QR code generator at thugqr.com: you make and download QR codes directly in your browser, free, without an account, without limits on number, downloads or scans, and without a watermark.
• The account: a free registration with email and password, which gives access to dynamic QR codes and your settings.
• Dynamic QR codes: short links of the form go.thugqr.com/name, which redirect to the destination you set and can change after printing, with rules by device, time, country or language, destination rotation, password locking, groups and scan statistics.

Today all of the above is free, with technical fair-use limits (currently up to 500 dynamic QR codes per account and up to 200 codes per group; the limits are shown inside the service). We may in future offer a paid plan (“Pro”) with additional features. If we do, the prices, payment terms, right of withdrawal and how to cancel will be presented to you clearly before you pay anything, and a separate acceptance will be requested. We will never quietly turn something free into something paid, and static QR codes will never depend on a plan or a payment.

We may improve, change or discontinue features. For dynamic QR codes, because you have printed them, we make a specific commitment: if we ever decide to stop the redirect service, we will notify you by email at least 90 days in advance and give you the possibility to export your codes and destinations.

04Your account

To create an account you must be at least 16 years old and provide an email address that belongs to you, which you verify with the code we send. The account is personal: you may use it on behalf of your business, but not share it in a way that leaves us unable to know who is responsible for it.

You are responsible for the security of your password and for every action taken from your account. Choose a password you do not use elsewhere, tell us immediately at hello@thugqr.com if you suspect unauthorised access, and use “Sign out of all devices” in your settings.

You can delete your account at any time from your settings. Deletion is immediate and final; your dynamic QR codes stop redirecting and their short links stay reserved so that nobody else can take them. If you are a consumer, you also have the right to withdraw from the contract for the service within 14 days of signing up, without giving reasons; the simplest way to exercise it is to delete your account or to email us.

We may suspend or terminate an account that breaks these terms, following the procedure and safeguards of section 8. We do not delete accounts for inactivity without prior notice by email at least 90 days in advance.

05Static QR codes: yours, forever

The static QR codes you create and the files you download belong to you. You may use them for any lawful purpose, personal or commercial, on packaging, menus, posters, business cards, products, websites or anywhere else, without crediting ThugQR and without any obligation towards us.

A static code contains its own content (the link, the text, the Wi‑Fi details). That is why it never expires, does not depend on us, and cannot be disabled or tracked by us. It also means it cannot change once printed: if the destination changes or disappears, you will need a new code (or a dynamic QR code).

The logos, marks and content you add remain yours. You warrant that you have the right to use them. Because the generator runs in your browser, we do not receive, store or review the content of static codes.

06Dynamic QR codes

A dynamic QR code encodes a short link on go.thugqr.com. When it is scanned, our server answers with a temporary redirect (HTTP 302, not cached) to the destination in force at that moment. By using them, you agree to the following:

• Destinations: you are solely responsible for every destination you set, in every rule and every variant, now and each time you change it. The destination must match what you tell people they will find when they scan.
• Short links (slugs): custom names are given on a first-come, first-served basis. You must not use names that infringe trademarks or the rights of others, or that impersonate people, organisations or ThugQR. We may refuse or revoke such names. A link you delete is never reissued, neither to you nor to anyone else, so that printed codes can never be taken over.
• Rules and rotation: rules by device, time, country or language rely on the technical details sent by the scanner’s browser and on a geographic estimate of their IP. They are approximate and can fail (e.g. VPNs, unusual browsers). They must not be used for unlawful discrimination or to show different, deceptive content to reviewers or authorities (cloaking).
• Password lock: locking prevents the redirect without a password, but it does not encrypt the destination and is not a high-security system. Anyone who learns the password can share it. Do not use it as the only protection for confidential or sensitive content.
• Statistics: scan statistics are approximate (bots and previews are excluded, repeats within 10 seconds count as one) and detailed data is kept for 90 days. They are not accounting or legal evidence.
• The people who scan: if you use the statistics or destination rules in the course of your own business, you are responsible for your own information duties towards them (e.g. in your own privacy policy). Our Privacy Policy describes exactly what we process, so that you can refer to it.
• Giveaways: if you turn a group into a giveaway, you are the organizer. You are responsible for the legality of the promotion where you run it (age limits, entry terms, taxes, notices required by local law), for describing and delivering the prizes truthfully, and for the details winners leave in the form: they are collected on your behalf, solely to deliver the prize, and you must tell winners how you use them and delete them when you no longer need them. The draw is random and its outcome is not a promise from us; we are not a party to the giveaway and owe nothing to participants.
• Availability: we aim for continuous operation of the redirect, but cannot guarantee the absence of interruptions (maintenance, provider failures, force majeure). See section 13.

07Acceptable use

You are responsible for the content you encode and for every destination your dynamic QR codes lead to. You must not use the service to create or distribute codes that:

• lead to malware, phishing websites, fake sign-in or payment pages, scams or fraud schemes
• mislead about who you are, where the code leads or what the person scanning will find, or change destination in order to deceive (“bait and switch”)
• break the law or the rights of others, such as copyright, trademarks, privacy or personality rights
• promote or facilitate illegal acts, such as selling illegal goods, breaking into systems or money laundering
• contain or lead to child sexual abuse material, terrorist content, incitement to violence or hatred, or harassment
• are used for unsolicited bulk communication (spam) or for placing stickers and codes on other people’s property without permission
• impersonate ThugQR or imply that we endorse or guarantee the destination

You must also not interfere with the operation of the service: overload it, bypass rate limits or technical limits, create accounts or codes by automated means without our permission, test its security without prior written agreement, scrape data, or resell or present the service as your own. If you find a security flaw, write to us at hello@thugqr.com; we will handle it responsibly and will not take action against those acting in good faith.

08Abuse reports and blocking

We do not check destinations in advance and have no general monitoring obligation. We act when we receive a report, a notice from an authority, or when we become aware of a breach ourselves. Anyone can report a dynamic QR code through the “Report abuse” link on the go.thugqr.com pages or by emailing hello@thugqr.com with the short link, the reason and, where possible, supporting evidence. We confirm receipt and examine every report diligently, impartially and as quickly as possible, in accordance with Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (the Digital Services Act).

Depending on the seriousness, we may pause a code, block it (anyone who scans it sees a page explaining that the code was blocked), remove content, or suspend or terminate the account. In manifestly illegal or dangerous cases (e.g. phishing, malware) we act immediately.

When we take such a measure, we inform you by email of what we did, which provision of the terms or the law we relied on, which facts justify it and how you can contest it (Article 17 of the same Regulation), unless the law or an order from an authority prohibits this. You can reply to the same email within 6 months with your arguments and evidence; your request will be examined by a person, not an automated system, and you will receive a reasoned answer. If you disagree with the answer, you keep every right to go to court or to an out-of-court dispute settlement body. Abusive or repeatedly unfounded reports may be left unexamined.

We comply with binding orders from courts and competent authorities to remove content or provide information, to the extent set by law. Point of contact for Member State authorities, the European Commission and users: hello@thugqr.com, in Greek or English.

09Your content and the licence you give us

Whatever you store in the service (code names, destinations, rules, group names) remains yours. You grant us only the non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence that is technically necessary for the service to work: to store it, copy it into backups, display it to you and redirect whoever scans your code. The licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for backups, which are deleted within 30 days.

You warrant that you hold all necessary rights to your content and destinations and that their use through the service does not break the law or the rights of others. If a third party brings a claim against us because of your content or your use in breach of the terms, you will compensate us for the reasonable costs and damages we suffer, to the extent they result from your breach.

10Our intellectual property and open-source software

The ThugQR name, logo, mascot, texts and the design of our websites belong to ThugQR and are protected by copyright and trademark law. Do not copy them or use them in a way that implies we endorse you or that you are us. You may of course mention that a code was made with ThugQR, or link to us.

“QR Code” is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED. ThugQR is not affiliated with it.

ThugQR is built with open-source software, which we thank: QR Code Styling, Tabler Icons, flag‑icons, JSZip, Leaf PHP and PHPMailer (MIT License), firebase/php‑jwt (BSD‑3), MaxMind DB Reader (Apache 2.0), the Commissioner and Geologica fonts (SIL Open Font License), and the DB‑IP Lite country database (db-ip.com, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0), which provides the country geolocation in the statistics. The licences of these works apply to the works themselves, not to ThugQR as a whole.

11Privacy

How we handle data is explained in detail in the Privacy Policy and the Cookie Policy, which form part of these terms.

12No warranty

The service is provided free of charge, “as is” and “as available”. To the extent permitted by law, we give no warranty, express or implied, of fitness for a particular purpose, uninterrupted availability, absence of errors, or that every code will scan on every device. Colours, logos, size, contrast, material and printing conditions all affect scanning.

Before you print or publish a code, scan it with more than one phone and make sure the destination is the right one. This goes double for large print runs.

13Limitation of liability

We are liable without limitation for damage caused by our intent or gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, and in every other case where the law does not allow liability to be limited (Article 332 of the Greek Civil Code and consumer protection provisions).

In every other case, and because the service is provided free of charge, we are not liable for indirect or consequential damage, lost profits, loss of data, or costs such as reprinting material, arising from the use of or inability to use the service, from interruptions of the redirect, from codes that do not scan, from visiting a third party’s destination, or from content uploaded by other users. QR code destinations are third-party websites that we do not control and are not responsible for.

14Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by Greek law. If you are a consumer residing in another EU country, you keep the protection of the mandatory provisions of your own country. Otherwise, the Greek courts have jurisdiction.

Before any legal action, please write to us at hello@thugqr.com; most issues are solved with a conversation. Because the service is free and non-commercial, it is not subject to a mandatory alternative dispute resolution procedure for consumer disputes; we do, however, consider every such proposal.

If any provision is found invalid, the rest remain in force. Not exercising a right does not mean waiving it. The terms are available in eight languages; in case of discrepancy between the versions, the Greek version prevails.