Network Participation Terms

1. What these terms cover

These Network Participation Terms (the “Participation Terms”) form part of, and are incorporated by reference into, the Terms of Service between you and Trendifyr Tech (Private) Limited (“we”, “us”, “our”), a private limited company incorporated in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), which operates the DeskTunnel software and service (the “Service”).

They describe the network behaviour of the Service: how a session between two devices is established, the circumstances in which traffic is relayed by a third machine, and the circumstances in which a device running DeskTunnel may itself perform that relaying function for other users of the Service.

They apply to every installation of DeskTunnel, whether used under a free or a paid plan. Relay participation is a property of a device’s network position, not of the plan the device is licensed under. We say this explicitly because it would be reasonable to assume otherwise.

Capitalised terms not defined here have the meaning given to them in the Terms of Service.

2. How a connection is made

When one device (the “controller”) connects to another (the “controlled device”), the Service attempts to establish a transport between them in the following order, and uses the first that succeeds:

1. QUIC, directly between the two devices. Attempted first, within a short time budget.
2. TLS 1.3 over TCP, directly between the two devices. Attempted if QUIC cannot be established.
3. A relay. Used only if neither direct transport can be established, which typically occurs where one or both devices sit behind carrier-grade NAT, a symmetric NAT, or a firewall that blocks inbound connections.

Our relay-matching server (the “coordination server”) introduces the two devices to one another and supplies each with a short list of candidate relays. It does not carry session content in any of the three cases above.

A relay used under limb (3) may be either (a) a server operated by us or by our infrastructure providers, or (b) another user’s device acting as a relay candidate as described in section 3. Our selection logic considers estimated latency, measured reliability, available capacity and historical performance for the particular pair of devices, and currently applies a preference in favour of user-device relays over our own servers where the measured quality is otherwise comparable. That preference is a weighting and not an override: every quality and eligibility filter is applied first.

Our own relay servers carry a limited number of Sessions at once. When a new Session connects through one of our servers and that server is already at its limit, the new Session is admitted and the coordination server ends one Session already relayed through that same server, to bring it back within the limit. It ends at most one Session for each new one. It chooses only among Sessions that have been relayed through that server for at least a minimum period (currently ten minutes), and among those a free-plan Session before a paid one and, within each, the Session that has been connected longest. A Session started from the free plan never causes a paid Session to end. A Session connected directly between the two devices, or relayed through a user’s device, is never ended for this reason. Both devices are told that the Session has ended. Nothing is read from the Session in doing this: it remains encrypted end to end.

3. When your device may act as a relay

3.1 Automatic assessment

When DeskTunnel registers a device with the coordination server, the server performs a connectivity probe against that device to determine whether it is reachable from the public internet on an inbound connection. If it is, the device is recorded as a “relay candidate” and the DeskTunnel service running on it starts an embedded TURN relay component. The outcome of that assessment is stored locally on the device and on the coordination server.

By installing and running DeskTunnel you agree that your device may be assessed in this way and, where it qualifies, may be used to relay other users’ encrypted session traffic.

3.2 Which devices qualify

In practice, a device qualifies only where it has a publicly routable address and an unobstructed inbound path. A device behind carrier-grade NAT, a typical home or office router without port forwarding, a mobile data connection or a restrictive corporate firewall will ordinarily not qualify and will never be asked to relay anything.

3.3 The decision is revisited

A candidacy decision is not permanent. It expires approximately six hours after it is made, and is also re-evaluated when the device’s public IP address changes. A device that ceases to qualify stops relaying and its relay component is shut down. This is deliberate: a device that moves onto a different network must not continue to advertise itself as reachable.

3.4 No compensation, and the one free-plan feature tied to candidacy

Participation as a relay candidate is uncompensated. No fee, credit, discount or other payment is made to you for it, and none is implied by it. Relaying is not a condition of using the free plan, with one exception: on the free plan, game mode can be switched on only by a device that is currently recorded as a relay candidate and has not opted out under section 7. The DeskTunnel app asks the coordination server when game mode is switched on, and switches it back off when it next starts if the device no longer qualifies. Every other free-plan feature works identically whether or not a device qualifies, and paid plans include game mode on every device.

4. What a relay can and cannot see

This section is the one that matters most, and we state it precisely.

Every DeskTunnel session is encrypted end to end between the controller and the controlled device. Each session uses its own ephemeral certificate, and each endpoint pins the other’s certificate for the duration of that session. TLS session resumption is disabled deliberately, because a resumed session would bypass that certificate check.

Consequently, a relay — whether operated by us or running on another user’s device — forwards encrypted bytes it cannot decrypt. A relay does not have, and is not given, any key capable of decrypting session content. It cannot see screen contents, keystrokes, mouse input, clipboard data, transferred files, audio or chat messages.

A relay does necessarily observe, because it is a network intermediary:

• the network addresses of the two endpoints it is forwarding between;
• the volume and timing of the traffic it forwards;
• the duration of the relayed connection.

This is inherent to the function of any relay or router and is the same information your internet service provider observes about your own traffic. If your device acts as a relay, this information is observable by your device at the network level in the same way; the DeskTunnel software does not surface it to you, retain it on your device, or transmit it to us beyond the aggregate quality measurements described in section 11.

Nothing in this section is a representation that the Service is immune from compulsion. Where we are lawfully required to disclose information we hold, we will do so as described in the Privacy Policy. What we cannot do is produce the content of a session, because we do not hold it and are not technically able to obtain it.

5. Bandwidth, data and electricity

Relaying consumes the resource that actually costs you something: your internet bandwidth. It also consumes a small amount of processing capacity and electricity. You should read this section before deciding to leave relay participation enabled.

• Metered and capped connections. If your internet connection is metered, charged by volume, subject to a data cap, or provided over a mobile or satellite link, relayed traffic will count against it and may cause you to incur charges or to be throttled. You are solely responsible for those charges.
• Shared bandwidth. Relayed traffic shares the connection with everything else on it and may affect the performance of other activity on your network.
• Your ISP agreement. Some internet service agreements restrict running server software, reselling bandwidth, or carrying third-party traffic. You are responsible for confirming that relay participation is permitted under your own agreement with your provider, and for disabling it if it is not. Section 7 explains how.

6. Limits we apply

We apply limits so that participation is bounded rather than open-ended:

• A daily volume quota. Each relay candidate has a daily byte quota. Once it is reached, the device is not selected for further relaying until the quota resets.
• A concurrency limit. A candidate advertises a finite capacity and is not selected beyond it.
• Quality-based exclusion. A candidate that performs poorly, fails repeatedly, or is unreachable is deprioritised and may be excluded.
• Our discretion. We may block any device from relaying, at any time, for any reason, including abuse, instability or at your request.

These limits are operational parameters. We may change them without notice in order to manage the network, and they do not constitute a guarantee of any particular level of consumption.

7. How to switch it off

You may opt out of relay participation at any time, for any reason. We will not degrade your use of the Service because you do. The only consequence is the one section 3.4 describes: a free-plan device that is not a relay candidate cannot use game mode.

You can achieve this in any of the following ways:

• Ask us. Write to [email protected] from the address associated with your account, or from any address if you are a free user, quoting your DeskTunnel device address. We will record the opt-out against the device, and it will stop being offered as a relay. We aim to action requests within five business days.
• Block the inbound path. A device that is not reachable from the public internet cannot qualify. Removing a port-forwarding rule, or blocking inbound UDP and TCP to the DeskTunnel service at your firewall, removes candidacy at the next assessment (see section 3.3).
• Uninstall. Removing DeskTunnel ends participation immediately.

An opt-out applies to the device it is recorded against. If you run DeskTunnel on several machines, tell us which ones, or tell us to apply it to all devices on your account.

8. Your authority to agree

You represent and warrant that, in respect of each device on which you install or operate DeskTunnel, you either own that device or are authorised by its owner to install software on it and to accept these Participation Terms on their behalf, and that you have the authority of the owner or operator of the network to which it is connected to permit the network behaviour described in these terms.

If you are installing DeskTunnel on equipment belonging to your employer, a client, an educational institution or any other organisation, it is your responsibility — not ours — to obtain that organisation’s consent before doing so.

9. Where you must not enable it

You must not operate a device as a relay candidate, and must opt out under section 7 before installing or immediately upon installation, where:

• the network is one on which you are not permitted to carry third-party traffic, including many corporate, government, educational, hospital and card-processing environments;
• the device is subject to a regulatory or contractual regime that restricts or prohibits the transit of third-party data, including environments governed by payment-card, healthcare, defence or classified-information rules;
• carrying third-party traffic through your network or jurisdiction would be unlawful, require a licence you do not hold, or breach a sanctions or export-control restriction applicable to you;
• your internet service agreement prohibits it (see section 5).

We have no practical means of detecting these circumstances from our side, and we therefore rely on you. Operating a relay in breach of this section is a breach of the Terms of Service.

10. Responsibility and risk

We do not control, and cannot inspect, the content of traffic relayed through any relay, including one running on your device. The encryption that makes the Service safe to use is the same encryption that makes such inspection impossible. A relay operator — including you, if your device relays — performs a purely automatic, technical and passive transmission function: it does not initiate the transmission, does not select the receiver, and does not select or modify the information transmitted. We consider that function to fall within the ordinary legal protections afforded to a mere conduit, and we will say so.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, and subject always to the limitations and exclusions in the Terms of Service:

• we exclude all liability for any claim, loss, charge or liability arising from your device’s participation as a relay, including bandwidth charges, overage fees, throttling, degraded performance of your own network, or action taken against you by your internet service provider;
• we exclude all liability for the content of third-party traffic relayed through your device, which we neither select, inspect, originate nor are able to read;
• you agree not to bring any claim against us in respect of the lawful acts or omissions of other users of the Service whose encrypted traffic happens to transit your device.

Nothing in this section excludes or limits liability which cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

If you are a consumer, your statutory rights under the consumer protection laws of your country of residence are unaffected by these Participation Terms.

11. What we measure

To choose sensible relays we keep measurements about relay performance. For a relay candidate these comprise: the result of the connectivity probe; the device’s public IP address and the country, city and network operator derived from it; whether the network supports UDP and IPv6 and the type of NAT in front of it; advertised and consumed capacity against the daily quota; and aggregate quality measurements — round-trip time, jitter, packet loss, throughput and time-to-connect — reported by peers after a relayed session.

These measurements concern the path, not the people using it. They are described, together with their retention periods and the lawful bases on which we process them, in the Privacy Policy.

12. Changes

We may update these Participation Terms. Where a change materially increases what participation asks of you, we will give at least thirty (30) days’ notice by e-mail to account holders and by a notice on this website, and the change will take effect at the end of that period. Continuing to run DeskTunnel after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of it. If you do not accept a change, your remedy is to opt out under section 7 or to uninstall the software.

The date at the top of this page is the date of the current version.

13. Contact

Questions, opt-out requests and complaints about relay participation should be addressed to:

Trendifyr Tech (Private) Limited
Pakistan
[email protected]