1. Account Management

Nekotopia accounts are provided free of charge to community members. Because we run on shared infrastructure funded out of pocket, we periodically review accounts to ensure resources are being used by active members and to maintain security across the platform.

Account reviews help us keep the service healthy for everyone. If your account is flagged during a review, you will always be contacted by email before any action is taken.

2. Account Activity Requirements

When your account is approved, we expect you to set up your VPN connection within a reasonable timeframe. This helps us manage resources and ensures that approved slots go to members who are actively using the service.

Account lifecycle after approval

3. VPN Service Activity

Once your VPN is set up, we ask that you use it at least occasionally. We understand that homelabs have downtime -- hardware breaks, life gets busy, projects go on the back burner. But extended inactivity means we're reserving resources (IP addresses, firewall rules, hub capacity) that could be used by active members.

VPN activity lifecycle

4. Notifications

We will never disable or remove anything without giving you fair warning first. Here is what you can expect:

• 5-day onboarding reminder: A friendly email if you haven't requested VPN access 25 days after account approval.
• 7-day VPN warning: An email letting you know your VPN will be disabled in 7 days due to inactivity.
• Disable notification: An email confirming your account or VPN has been disabled, with clear instructions on how to reactivate.

All notifications are sent to the email address on your account. Please make sure it's one you actually check. If emails bounce, we may not be able to warn you before action is taken.

5. Community

Nekotopia is built around a community of home labbers, retro computing fans, and network tinkerers. We encourage all members to join our Discord server where you can get help, share projects, and connect with other members.

The Discord is also the fastest way to get support, report issues, or just chat about what you're working on. It's a laid-back space -- no corporate vibes, just people who like building things.

6. Fair Use & General Terms

Nekotopia is a community resource, not a commercial VPN provider. We ask that you use the service in good faith:

• No abuse (zero tolerance): Don't use Nekotopia infrastructure for anything illegal, malicious, or harmful to others. This includes port scanning third parties, launching attacks, hosting illegal content, sending spam, fraud, or using the service to evade sanctions or circumvent laws that apply to you. Violations result in immediate termination and, where appropriate, reporting to the relevant authorities.
• Geographic restrictions: The service is not available in sanctioned countries or in jurisdictions where VPN use is restricted or prohibited by law. See section 8 (Eligibility & Prohibited Jurisdictions).
• Fair-use data allowance: Each tier runs at a fast peak speed with a monthly data allowance — Basic 10 Mbps / 50 GB, Plus 25 Mbps / 200 GB, Pro 100 Mbps / 1 TB. Use that allowance however you like. Once you exceed it in a calendar month, your connection is throttled (to 256 kbps on Basic/Plus, 1 Mbps on Pro) until the allowance resets at the start of the next month. The VPN is designed for homelab connectivity, not as a general-purpose tunnel for sustained commercial traffic.
• Be honest: Provide accurate information when signing up. Don't create multiple accounts.
• Respect the infrastructure: Report issues rather than exploiting them. If you find a bug or security issue, let us know.

The admin reserves the right to modify these terms, disable accounts that violate fair use, or make changes to the service as needed. We'll always try to communicate changes in advance through email or Discord announcements.

Nekotopia is provided as-is, without warranty. We do our best to keep things running smoothly, but this is a hobby project maintained in spare time. Downtime happens, and we appreciate your patience.

7. Privacy & Data Handling

We care about your privacy and collect only what we need to run the service lawfully:

• Email address: Used solely for account management, notifications, and support. We will never share your email with third parties, sell it, or use it for marketing.
• Username: Displayed in the community directory (if you opt in) and used for VPN configuration.
• Connection metadata: We track basic connection activity (last seen, handshake timestamps) to manage the service and enforce activity policies. We do not log your traffic, browsing history, or the content of your connections.
• Compliance & anti-abuse data: To meet our legal obligations and prevent abuse, we record the country and IP address your connection originates from — at signup, at web login, and from your VPN tunnel endpoint — together with the regional hub you connect through and your email provider/domain. This is used only to (a) verify you are not connecting from a prohibited jurisdiction (section 8) and (b) detect fraud, abuse, or misrepresentation of location.
• No analytics or tracking: The Nekotopia website does not use third-party analytics, tracking pixels, or advertising cookies.

Lawful basis & retention

• Lawful basis (UK GDPR / EU GDPR): we process the compliance & anti-abuse data above on the basis of our legitimate interests in legal and sanctions compliance and in preventing fraud and abuse, and to comply with our legal obligations.
• Retention: connection-origin and compliance records are kept on a rolling 12-month window and then automatically deleted, except where we must retain them longer to comply with the law or to resolve an active abuse investigation.
• Your rights: you may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data (subject to the retention exceptions above). Contact abuse@nekotopia.io.

If you delete your account or it is removed due to inactivity, associated data (email, VPN configs, connection records) is deleted, save for any minimal records we are required to keep for legal or sanctions-compliance purposes.

8. Eligibility & Prohibited Jurisdictions

You must be legally permitted to use a VPN in the place you are connecting from. Nekotopia is a hobbyist homelab-connectivity project — it is not a tool for evading lawful national controls, and we do not offer it where doing so would be unlawful.

We screen the originating country at signup and block account creation from these jurisdictions, and we monitor connection origin during use. Accounts found to be connecting from a prohibited jurisdiction, or misrepresenting their location, will be suspended.

By creating an account you represent and warrant that you are not located in, a resident of, or accessing the service from any prohibited jurisdiction, and that you will not use the service to circumvent any law that applies to you. This list may change as laws change; the current list is maintained in good faith and is not exhaustive.

9. Regulatory Compliance & Your Responsibilities

You are responsible for complying with the laws of your own jurisdiction. We operate a zero-tolerance policy for using the service to break the law or harm others — including sanctions evasion, circumventing lawful national controls where that is illegal for you, fraud, hacking, spam, harassment, or hosting illegal content. Such use is grounds for immediate termination and, where appropriate, referral to the relevant authorities.

Reporting abuse: anyone may report suspected abuse of the service to abuse@nekotopia.io. Where possible, include the offending IP address, hostname, or username so we can investigate quickly. We review every report and act on it.

We cooperate with lawful requests from competent authorities and will preserve relevant records where required to do so.

Questions?

If anything here is unclear, or if you have concerns about your account status, reach out:

• General & signup: signup@nekotopia.io
• Abuse reports & data requests: abuse@nekotopia.io
• Discord: Join our Discord
• Contact form: nekotopia.io/contact