Sortem Terms of Service
Last updated: 20 September 2026
1. About these Terms
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Sortem website, desktop application and related services ("Sortem").
By purchasing a subscription, creating an account or using Sortem, you agree to these Terms.
If you are using Sortem on behalf of a business or organisation, you confirm that you have authority to use Sortem on its behalf.
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any rights that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
2. About Sortem
Sortem is a UK-based software business providing desktop file organisation and file-management software.
Sortem helps users organise, move and rename files, including through AI-assisted functionality and automated Smart Folders.
Contact: danny.burrows@sortem.ai
3. Eligibility and accounts
You must provide accurate information when creating and maintaining a Sortem account.
You are responsible for maintaining the security of your device and account and for activity carried out through your account where reasonably attributable to you.
You must not deliberately share account credentials in a way that circumvents the limits of your subscription.
If you believe your account has been compromised, contact Sortem promptly.
4. Licence to use Sortem
Subject to these Terms and any applicable subscription requirements, Sortem grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable licence to install and use the Sortem software for its intended purpose.
Sortem and its underlying software, branding, designs and other intellectual property remain owned by Sortem or the relevant rights holder.
Purchasing a subscription gives you the right to use the applicable Sortem service. It does not transfer ownership of Sortem's software or intellectual property to you.
5. Acceptable use
You must not knowingly:
- use Sortem for unlawful purposes;
- attempt to gain unauthorised access to Sortem's backend, accounts or systems;
- bypass subscription, authentication or feature-access controls;
- distribute unauthorised copies of Sortem;
- resell, sublicense or commercially redistribute Sortem unless Sortem has expressly agreed to this;
- interfere with or deliberately disrupt Sortem's services;
- use automated methods to abuse or place unreasonable loads on Sortem's services;
- use Sortem in a way that infringes another person's intellectual property or other legal rights.
Nothing in these Terms restricts rights that applicable law gives you and which cannot lawfully be restricted, including any applicable rights relating to interoperability, security research or software examination.
6. Fair Use and Service Protection
Sortem subscriptions are intended for normal use of the Sortem application. To protect the availability, security and reasonable operation of the service, Sortem may apply reasonable technical safeguards or usage limits to automated and AI-powered functionality.
These safeguards are designed to prevent abuse, unusually excessive automated requests, malfunctioning software or other activity that could adversely affect Sortem or its service providers. They are not intended to interfere with normal use of Sortem.
Where appropriate, Sortem may temporarily restrict affected functionality if unusually high or abnormal usage is detected. Customers who believe a restriction has been applied to legitimate business use may contact Sortem for assistance.
7. Subscriptions
Some or all Sortem functionality may require a paid subscription.
Available plans, features, prices and billing intervals will be displayed on the Sortem website or during checkout.
The price and billing interval presented to you when you purchase a subscription form part of your agreement with Sortem.
Unless clearly stated otherwise at purchase, a recurring subscription will renew automatically at the applicable billing interval until cancelled.
You authorise the applicable payment provider to charge the payment method associated with your subscription when payment becomes due.
Sortem may offer different plans with different functionality, usage allowances or limits.
8. Payments
Payments and subscription billing are processed using Stripe or another payment provider identified during checkout.
Payment information may be provided directly to the payment provider.
Sortem does not need to receive or store your complete payment card number to determine whether your subscription is active.
You are responsible for providing valid billing information.
Taxes will be handled as required by applicable law and as displayed or calculated during the purchase process.
9. Cancelling a subscription
You may cancel a recurring Sortem subscription using the cancellation method made available through your account, billing portal or by contacting Sortem where appropriate.
Cancellation prevents future renewal charges but does not normally remove access that has already been paid for before the end of the current billing period, unless otherwise stated or required by law.
Any rights you have to a refund, cancellation or remedy under applicable law remain unaffected.
Sortem will not impose an undisclosed cancellation charge.
10. Consumer cancellation rights and immediate digital supply
If you purchase Sortem as a consumer, you may have statutory cancellation rights under UK law.
Where applicable law gives you a 14-day cancellation period for digital content or services, the checkout process will provide the information and choices required by law.
Where Sortem provides downloadable digital content immediately and applicable law requires it, you may be asked to:
- expressly agree to the digital content being supplied immediately; and
- acknowledge that beginning that supply may cause you to lose your statutory right to cancel during the normal cancellation period.
Where such consent and acknowledgement are legally required but have not been properly obtained, your statutory rights remain unaffected.
Nothing in these Terms removes any cancellation, refund, repair, replacement or other remedy that applicable consumer law gives you.
11. Refunds and faulty software
Refunds are provided where required by applicable law and may also be provided in other circumstances at Sortem's discretion.
If you are a consumer, digital content supplied to you is subject to applicable statutory rights, including requirements relating to satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and conformity with its description.
If you experience a problem with Sortem, contact: danny.burrows@sortem.ai
We may first attempt to diagnose or correct the problem where appropriate.
Nothing in these Terms limits your statutory rights.
12. AI-assisted functionality
Sortem uses artificial intelligence to assist with tasks such as organising and renaming files.
AI systems can make mistakes, misunderstand instructions or produce unexpected recommendations.
You should review proposed changes where Sortem provides a preview or review mechanism, particularly when working with important, sensitive or business-critical files.
You remain responsible for deciding which files and folders you allow Sortem to work with and for providing appropriate instructions.
Sortem does not guarantee that every AI-generated classification, folder choice, filename or recommendation will be correct.
13. File operations and backups
Sortem can move, rename and reorganise files on your computer.
File-management operations inherently involve some risk, including risks arising from incorrect instructions, unexpected AI output, external software, file permissions, synchronisation services, hardware failure or user actions.
Sortem includes safeguards such as previews, activity history and supported Undo functionality where applicable.
These features are intended to reduce risk but are not a guarantee that every operation can always be reversed or recovered.
You should maintain appropriate backups of important or business-critical information.
Do not rely on Sortem's Undo functionality as your only backup system.
14. Undo and History
Sortem may provide local activity history and Undo functionality for supported actions.
Undo is designed to reverse supported Sortem operations where the required files and information remain available.
Undo may not succeed in every circumstance.
For example, recovery may be affected if files have subsequently been moved, renamed, deleted, replaced, modified by other software, made inaccessible or affected by external synchronisation.
Sortem does not represent Undo as a substitute for a proper backup system.
15. Smart Folders and automation
Some Sortem plans may include Smart Folders or other automated functionality.
Automated features may perform file operations without requiring individual confirmation for every file, depending on the mode and settings selected by the user.
Users should configure automated functionality carefully and monitor it appropriately.
Where Sortem provides Review and Automatic modes, the user is responsible for selecting the mode appropriate to their circumstances.
Important or sensitive workflows should be tested before relying on unattended automation.
16. Privacy and file information
Sortem's handling of personal information is explained in the Sortem Privacy Policy.
During normal Organise and Rename use, document contents are not sent to AI. Sortem may process file names, limited folder or path information and user instructions where required to provide AI-assisted functionality.
For content-aware renaming, users may explicitly choose to allow Sortem to extract and send relevant information from supported files to the AI service for that rename operation. This option is off by default and is intended to help identify files with unclear or meaningless names.
File names and paths may themselves contain personal, confidential or commercially sensitive information.
Sortem may also perform local processing required for features such as history and Undo.
Please read our Privacy Policy for more information.
17. Third-party services
Sortem relies on third-party technology and service providers to provide parts of the service.
These may include providers used for:
- authentication;
- payment processing;
- cloud infrastructure;
- AI processing;
- software distribution and updates.
Current providers may include Clerk, Stripe, Render, OpenAI and Microsoft.
The availability or performance of these third-party services can affect Sortem.
Third-party providers may operate under their own terms and privacy policies where applicable.
18. Availability
Sortem aims to provide a reliable service, but uninterrupted availability cannot be guaranteed.
Access may occasionally be interrupted because of:
- maintenance;
- software updates;
- security work;
- internet or infrastructure failures;
- third-party service outages;
- circumstances outside Sortem's reasonable control.
Where reasonably possible, Sortem will seek to minimise disruption.
19. Updates and changes to Sortem
Sortem may release updates to improve security, reliability, compatibility, usability or functionality.
Features may evolve as the product develops.
We will not use this clause to remove paid-for rights or materially change a consumer's existing agreement in a way that applicable law would consider unfair.
Where a material change affects an active subscription, appropriate notice will be provided where required.
20. Intellectual property
Sortem's software, name, branding, website content, original visual assets and other original materials are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws.
Except where permitted by law or expressly authorised by Sortem, you may not copy, reproduce, distribute, sell or create unauthorised commercial copies of Sortem's protected materials.
These Terms do not claim ownership of files, documents or other content that you use with Sortem.
You retain your rights in your own files and content.
21. Feedback
If you voluntarily provide feedback or suggestions about Sortem, you allow Sortem to use that feedback to improve the product without an obligation to compensate you.
This does not transfer ownership of your files, confidential business information or other unrelated intellectual property to Sortem.
22. Suspension and termination
Sortem may suspend or terminate access where reasonably necessary because of:
- fraud;
- serious or repeated breach of these Terms;
- attempts to bypass payment or authentication controls;
- unlawful use;
- security threats;
- abuse of the service.
Where appropriate and reasonably possible, Sortem may provide notice or an opportunity to resolve the issue before termination.
Immediate action may be taken where reasonably necessary to protect users, Sortem or third parties.
Termination does not remove rights or liabilities that arose before termination.
23. Our responsibility to you
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where doing so would be unlawful.
In particular, nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot legally be excluded.
If you are a consumer, your statutory rights are not affected.
Sortem is not responsible for losses caused solely by circumstances outside its reasonable control where the law permits this limitation.
Sortem is also not responsible for losses caused by a user's failure to follow reasonable instructions, maintain appropriate backups, protect account credentials or use the software within its intended purpose, to the extent permitted by law.
24. Business users
If you use Sortem wholly or mainly for the purposes of a business, trade or profession, you are a business user for the purposes of this section.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Sortem will not be liable to a business user for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business opportunity or anticipated savings arising from use of Sortem, except where such liability cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
Nothing in this section excludes liability that cannot legally be excluded.
25. Consumer users
If you are a consumer, nothing in these Terms affects rights provided to you by applicable consumer law.
Any limitations or exclusions in these Terms apply only to the extent permitted by law.
Where Sortem supplies paid digital content to a consumer, applicable statutory remedies remain available where required.
26. Privacy
The Sortem Privacy Policy forms an important part of how we explain the operation of the service and our handling of personal information.
Use of personal information is governed by the Privacy Policy and applicable data-protection law.
27. Changes to these Terms
Sortem may update these Terms to reflect changes to the product, law, security requirements or business practices.
The "Last updated" date will be changed when these Terms are materially updated.
Where a material change significantly affects an existing paid subscription or a user's rights, appropriate notice will be provided where required.
Changes will not retrospectively remove rights that have already arisen under applicable law.
28. Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, subject to any mandatory protections or rights available to consumers under the law applicable to them.
If you are a consumer, nothing in this section deprives you of mandatory rights relating to where legal proceedings may be brought.
If you are a business user, the courts of England and Wales will have jurisdiction over disputes arising from or relating to these Terms, unless otherwise agreed in writing.
29. Complaints and disputes
If you have a complaint about Sortem, please contact us first so that we have an opportunity to investigate and resolve it.
Contact: danny.burrows@sortem.ai
Nothing in this section prevents a consumer from using any dispute-resolution or court rights available under applicable law.
30. Contact
Questions about these Terms can be sent to:
Sortem
Email: danny.burrows@sortem.ai