SideScatter terms of use (research beta)

Version 0.1, effective 22 Oct 2026. Draft for a research beta; not reviewed by a lawyer.

1. Who you are dealing with

SideScatter (formerly Gatecraft) is provided by Anaphase (Anaphase Ltd, incorporation pending). Until incorporation completes, the service is provided by Paul Maciocia, London, UK, trading as Anaphase. Contact: paulmaciocia@gmail.com.

2. What SideScatter is

SideScatter is a research beta: flow cytometry analysis in the browser. It opens FCS files and FlowJo .wsp workspaces. Features may change, break or be withdrawn. There is no service level agreement; we use reasonable care and skill to keep it available and working.

SideScatter is for research use only. It is not for clinical, diagnostic or treatment decisions and it is not a medical device. Check results against your own methods and, where it matters, a second implementation before relying on them. Agreement with FlowJo has been checked only with an internal test harness, not against an external reference. Notebook export is disabled, and the R script export is a scaffold that has not been checked against flowCore output. Methods text that SideScatter drafts is a draft for you to check before use.

3. Price

SideScatter is free to use during the research beta. No payment is taken. Any draft prices you see are labelled as drafts and are not an offer. If paid plans are introduced, they will come with their own terms, which you will see and accept before paying; nothing you are using free today will be removed from the free tier without notice.

4. Your content

You keep all rights in your data, files, workspaces and figures. SideScatter analyses your files in your browser and Anaphase does not receive them. Where you choose to send something to Anaphase (a problem report or a support email), you give Anaphase permission to use it only to answer you, fix faults, and keep the service running and safe. We do not use your content to train AI models and do not publish it.

Use only material you are entitled to use. Do not put patient-identifiable information into SideScatter (including file names, sample names, keywords and notes), and do not send export-controlled material or anything you are not allowed to share with the recipients listed in the privacy notice.

5. Acceptable use

Do not: break or probe the service's security without following the security policy; overload it or evade rate limits; use the hosted AI route for anything other than working in SideScatter; use it to store or distribute unlawful material; resell or provide the service to others as a hosted product; or use automated access beyond normal use of the app.

We may block access that breaks these rules. Where we can, we will tell you why first.

6. AI features

AI features are optional. With your own provider key, your use is also governed by your agreement with that provider, which may charge you even for failed requests. The limited hosted mode uses free models with low limits and can be withdrawn at any time. AI output can be wrong. It is a draft for you to check, not a statistical, scientific or clinical review. See the AI page.

7. Software and licences

The SideScatter source code is licensed under the PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0 (see the LICENSE file in the source repository and https://polyformproject.org/licenses/shield/1.0.0). Third-party components are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md in the same repository. Demo data sources and their terms are listed in DATASETS.md. FlowJo is a trademark of Becton, Dickinson and Company. GraphPad and Prism are trademarks of GraphPad Software, LLC. Anaphase is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.

8. Liability

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited by law. If you use SideScatter as a consumer, you have legal rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 that these terms do not take away.

Subject to that: we are not liable for losses that were not foreseeable, for loss of data you did not keep a copy of, or for decisions made on the basis of the software's output. For business and institutional users, our total liability in any 12 months is limited to the amount you paid us in that period (nothing, during the free research beta).

Keep your own copies of anything important. Save workspaces to a file. Browser storage can be cleared by the browser, by you or by an update.

9. Ending use

You can stop using SideScatter at any time; clearing the site data in your browser removes everything SideScatter stored there. We may end the beta with at least 30 days' notice on the site, during which you can save your workspaces to files.

10. Changes to these terms

We will change the version and date when these terms change and summarise the change in the release notes. Continuing to use SideScatter after a change means you accept it; if you do not, stop using it.

11. Law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer living elsewhere in the UK or in the EU, you also keep the protection of the mandatory rules where you live and can bring a claim there.