Terms and Conditions of Service

Last updated: August 17, 2026

These Terms apply when you use Tide Alerts — the website at tidealerts.com and the Tide Alerts iOS and Android apps (together, the “service,” “app and website”) — provided by Sentient Things, Inc. (“Sentient Things,” “we,” “us”).

By creating an account, tapping agree, or using the app or website, you accept these Terms.

Two documents, on purpose. These pages are the software-service terms the app and website open in-app. If you lease or purchase tide-gauge hardware or a paid hardware subscription, that relationship is governed by the live store terms (effective August 8, 2025), which we do not replace here:

Tide Alerts Terms and Conditions of Service (Sentient Things Store)

Store checkout (cart, payment, shipping) is also subject to the store’s general Terms of service. If anything in these software Terms conflicts with the store Tide Alerts terms on hardware, lease, equipment, subscription fees, or the customer data license, the store page controls.

Flood Levels (floodlevels.com) is a related Sentient Things website, not a shipped native app under these Terms.

1. The Tide Alerts service

Tide Alerts lets you view live and recent water levels, maps, charts, tables, and calendars from Sentient Things gauges and public sources such as NOAA.

You may browse without an account. An optional free account unlocks favorites sync and subscribing to public email alerts. Custom-threshold / “Professional” alerts are listed as Coming Soon and are not sold in the app. There are no in-app purchases in the current Tide Alerts apps.

We do not guarantee NOAA-equivalent accuracy at every location. Predictions use NOAA-style techniques on local observations where we have them; that is not a claim that Tide Alerts is an official NOAA app or is more accurate than NOAA everywhere.

2. License to use the app and website

Sentient Things grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Tide Alerts website and, if you downloaded them from the App Store or Google Play, the Tide Alerts apps, solely to use the service as we provide it.

You may not copy, reverse engineer, or resell the apps, or use the service to build a competing commercial data product.

On iOS, Apple’s Licensed Application End User License Agreement also applies. On Android, Google Play’s terms apply. If those platform terms and these Terms conflict on a platform-required point, the platform terms control for that store’s distribution.

3. Accounts

You may sign in with email and password, Google, or Sign in with Apple. Keep your credentials confidential. You are responsible for activity on your account.

You must provide accurate information. If you use Sign in with Apple’s Hide My Email feature, alerts and account mail go to the relay address Apple gives us.

We may suspend or close an account that violates these Terms or that we reasonably believe is abusive or unlawful.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app or website: Settings → Account → Delete account. Deletion is permanent. Hardware leases and store orders are not cancelled by deleting a Tide Alerts login — use the store terms and sales@sentientthings.com for equipment and subscription cancellation.

Alerts in the current service are email only. Push notifications are not included. SMS is not enabled
You choose which public alerts to subscribe to. We are not responsible if email is delayed, filtered, or not read
Share uses the device share sheet. Calendar export uses your calendar app. Those apps have their own terms

5. Location

Location is optional and used only to center the map on nearby stations, when you allow it. Refusing location does not block the rest of the service. See the Privacy Policy.

6. Acceptable use of data shown in the service

Water-level data, forecasts, datums, and related outputs shown in Tide Alerts (“Service Data”) are provided so you can use the app and website.

You may not sell, lease, sublicense, or rent Service Data, and you may not scrape, harvest, or embed it on a commercial forecasting, media, or data-aggregator product without Sentient Things’ prior written consent.

Hardware customers have additional data-license rights and limits — including non-commercial public sharing and what happens to historical data after a subscription ends — in the store Tide Alerts terms (section 2 on that page). Those store terms are the source of truth for that license. These software Terms do not cut back or rewrite that section.

7. Hardware, lease, and store purchases

Tide gauges are offered separately at store.sentientthings.com. The store Tide Alerts terms cover, among other things:

Lease of equipment for the subscription term
Installation, replacement, and return of equipment (including the store’s unreturned-equipment fee)
Annual prepaid subscription fees, taxes, suspension for non-payment
Cancellation notice and that unused time is not refunded
The customer data license described on that page

We do not restate those clauses here so they cannot drift from the live store page. Read them on the store before you buy or lease.

8. Disclaimers

Data and forecasts in the app and website are provided “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE.” Sentient Things makes no guarantees about accuracy, completeness, or uptime, and disclaims implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, to the extent permitted by law.

Do not rely on Tide Alerts as your only source for navigation, flood, or safety decisions.

9. Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by law, Sentient Things is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, or for how you use tide data.

If you paid Sentient Things for hardware or a hardware subscription, the liability cap in the store Tide Alerts terms applies to that relationship. For use of the free app and website only, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law (and is not a promise that you paid for the apps — they are free on the App Store and Google Play).

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Sentient Things from claims arising from your use of the service or your violation of these Terms, to the extent permitted by law.

11. Changes, law, and contact

We may update these software Terms by posting a new version in the app and website. Continued use after a change is posted is acceptance. Material changes may also be noted by email or in the service.

Massachusetts law governs these Terms, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. The store Tide Alerts terms likewise state that Massachusetts law governs that agreement.

You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We are not responsible for delays caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

Contact: sales@sentientthings.com
Sentient Things, Inc., 172 Daniels Island Road, Mashpee, MA 02649, United States

Privacy practices: Privacy Policy.
Cookies and similar technologies: Cookies Policy.