Terms of Service
Last updated: 2026-05-30
Effective: 2026-05-30
Acceptance of these terms
These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and Kairos Studios LLC, a Massachusetts limited liability company that operates the Varia service at variagenome.com ("Varia," "we," "us," or "our"). By accessing the Varia website, uploading a genome file, viewing your scan results, generating or purchasing a PDF, subscribing to The Variant newsletter, or otherwise using any feature of the service, you accept these Terms in full. If you do not accept these Terms, do not use the service.
These Terms incorporate by reference the Varia Privacy Policy at variagenome.com/privacy, the Medical and Wellness Disclaimer at variagenome.com/medical-disclaimer, and the Refund Policy at variagenome.com/refund-policy. Read those documents alongside this one. They are part of the agreement.
What Varia is
Varia is an informational wellness service that interprets your own genome data in the context of peer-reviewed scientific literature. You upload a raw genome file, which is read locally on your device by a scanner running in your browser. The scan results are presented to you as a curated, citation-backed interpretation. You can generate a clinician-readable PDF artifact, and subscribe to The Variant newsletter for ongoing updates as the Varia database evolves.
Varia is not a medical device. Varia is not a diagnostic test. Varia is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Varia does not provide personalized medical recommendations. The full scope of these limitations is described in the Medical and Wellness Disclaimer, which is part of these Terms by reference and which you should read in full.
Who can use Varia
You may use Varia only if you are at least 18 years of age and capable of forming a binding contract under applicable law. Varia is not designed for, and is not made available to, users under 18. If you are a parent or guardian considering genomic interpretation for a minor, consult a pediatrician or pediatric genetic counselor; Varia is not the appropriate service.
Varia is currently available only in the United States. Users outside the United States are not the intended audience for this version of the service.
Your representations and warranties
By using Varia, you represent and warrant that:
You are at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms.
The genome data you upload to Varia is your own genome data, or is the genome data of another person who has given you explicit, informed consent to upload and analyze it. You will not upload genome data of any other person without that person's explicit informed consent.
You will not use Varia for any prohibited purpose listed in the Acceptable Use section below.
The information you provide to us (your email address, payment information, support inquiries) is accurate and current.
You understand that Varia is an informational wellness service and not a medical device, diagnostic test, or substitute for clinical care, and you accept the Medical and Wellness Disclaimer in full.
How Varia identifies you
Varia does not require an account to run a free scan. When you provide your email address at checkout, for an optional account, or to subscribe to the newsletter, we store a minimal metadata record (your email, optional first name, purchase status, last scan date, and database version used) that lets us recognize you when you return. This is described in detail in the Privacy Policy.
You are responsible for the email address you provide. If you provide an email address you do not control, or if you provide an email address belonging to another person without their consent, Varia is not responsible for any consequences of that misrepresentation.
Accounts
Accounts. A Varia account is optional and free. You must provide a valid email address and your first name. We verify your email with a one-time code; you are responsible for keeping access to that email address, as it is how you access your account and restore your unlock.
Your unlock. A one-time unlock purchase entitles you to access your interactive dashboard. With an account, you may restore that access on another device by verifying your email. Without an account, access is tied to the browser where you purchased; we are not able to restore access you cannot verify. Re-scanning your file after unlock is free.
Closing your account. You may delete your account at any time. Deletion removes your stored email, name, purchase record, and scan metadata. Deleting your account may remove your ability to restore your unlock on a new device; your previously downloaded reports remain yours.
No medical service. Varia remains an informational wellness service, not a medical device or diagnostic test. The Medical and Wellness Disclaimer continues to apply in full.
Unlocking the Varia Genomic Brief
Varia offers one paid product: the Varia Genomic Brief unlock. Scanning and the existence-only preview are always free. A paid unlock grants two things at the moment of purchase: persistent access to your full interactive Varia dashboard for the scan you unlocked (all 49 variants across 12 domains with significance tiers, citations, and the Medication Response view), and a downloadable Varia Genomic Brief in PDF and HTML formats with Consumer and Physician sections designed for sharing with a healthcare provider. The standard unlock price is $29 one-time. The first 100 people to unlock pay the $12 founding rate (one-time, perpetual). After the 100-cap fills, unlock is $29 one-time. There is no subscription.
Founding unlock pricing. The first 100 unlock purchases are charged $12 through Stripe Checkout. Each founding unlock is a one-time purchase with no recurring billing.
Standard unlock pricing. After the founding cap is reached, unlocks are $29 one-time through Stripe Checkout unless you qualify for Early Adopter pricing as defined below.
Payments. All payments are processed by Stripe. By purchasing an unlock, you authorize Varia to charge the payment method you provide. Prices are in U.S. dollars and do not include applicable sales taxes, which will be calculated and added at checkout where required.
Delivery. Dashboard access is granted immediately upon successful checkout; the Brief PDF and HTML are delivered to your browser at the time of purchase and to the email address you provide. You are responsible for storing the Brief artifacts you receive. Varia does not retain copies of generated Briefs on our servers.
Refunds. All unlocks are final, subject to a narrow exception for technical failure described in the Refund Policy. The Refund Policy is part of these Terms by reference.
The Early Adopter program
The Early Adopter program is Varia's mechanism for recognizing users who unlocked at the $12 founding rate among the first 100 unlocks.
How you become an Early Adopter. You become an Early Adopter if you are among the first 100 people to complete a paid unlock at the $12 founding rate and provide your email address at checkout. The metadata anchor described in the Privacy Policy records your Early Adopter status against your email address.
What Early Adopter status provides. Early Adopter status confers permanently discounted unlock pricing on future unlocks: $12 per unlock for the Varia Genomic Brief, even after the founding cap fills and the standard price is $29.
Limitations. Early Adopter status is associated with the specific email address you provided at your founding unlock. Early Adopter status is not transferable. Varia may revoke Early Adopter status for fraud, prohibited use, or other material breach of these Terms.
Future modifications. Varia reserves the right to modify the Early Adopter discount structure in the future on reasonable notice. We will not raise the Early Adopter price for an existing Early Adopter without at least 90 days' notice through The Variant newsletter and a notice on variagenome.com.
Acceptable use
You may use Varia only for lawful, personal purposes consistent with these Terms. The following uses are prohibited and constitute material breach:
Genome data of others. You may not upload genome data of any person other than yourself without that person's explicit informed consent. This includes data of family members, partners, deceased relatives, children, or any other person.
Forensic or surveillance use. You may not use Varia for forensic matching, familial DNA searching, surveillance, criminal investigation, family reconstruction without consent, paternity testing without consent, or any law-enforcement-adjacent purpose.
Insurance, employment, custody, immigration. You may not use Varia output to make or inform decisions about insurance underwriting, employment, child custody, immigration status, or any other context in which your or another person's interests would be materially affected without informed consent and qualified professional involvement.
Clinical decision-making without physician involvement. You may not rely on Varia output as the sole basis for clinical or medical decisions. The Medical and Wellness Disclaimer is incorporated into these Terms by reference; conduct that violates the discipline described there is a breach of these Terms.
Commercial redistribution. You may not use Varia to provide genomic interpretation services to other parties as a commercial offering without a separate written agreement with Kairos Studios LLC. Personal use by you, including sharing your own PDF with your own healthcare providers, is permitted.
Technical interference. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, scrape, automate access to, or interfere with the operation of the Varia service. You may not bypass technical or rate-limiting controls. You may not extract or republish the Varia database content.
Misrepresentation. You may not impersonate another person, provide false email addresses, or misrepresent your identity or affiliation in interacting with Varia.
Illegal activity. You may not use Varia in violation of any applicable law or regulation.
Varia may terminate your access to the service, revoke your Early Adopter status, refuse to provide further service, and pursue legal remedies for breach of this Acceptable Use section.
Intellectual property
Varia's content. Varia, the Varia logo, the Varia editorial content (variant interpretations, glossary, methodology pages, Editorial Standards, the curated database compilation), the Varia website design, and all other materials produced by Kairos Studios LLC are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. We retain all rights not expressly granted to you.
Your content. You retain all rights to your own genome data. Varia does not claim ownership of your genome data, your scan results, or any other content you provide to the service. By providing your email address, payment information, support inquiries, or other content to Varia, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive license to use that content as necessary to provide the service and to perform our obligations under these Terms.
License to you. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Varia service for personal, non-commercial purposes. You may share PDFs you generate with your healthcare providers, family members, or other parties of your choice for non-commercial purposes consistent with these Terms.
Citations. Varia interprets peer-reviewed scientific literature and cites that literature in its content. The citation of journal articles is fair use. Linking to or otherwise referring to published research does not constitute endorsement by the cited authors, journals, or publishers, nor does it indicate any relationship between those parties and Varia.
Disclaimers of warranties
The Varia service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Varia disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, reliability, completeness, timeliness, and uninterrupted operation. We do not warrant that the service will meet your specific requirements, that the service will be error-free, or that defects will be corrected.
The variant interpretations provided by Varia are summaries of published scientific literature current at the time of your scan. Scientific understanding evolves. Interpretations that are current at one point may be revised, expanded, or contradicted by subsequent research. Varia provides no warranty that its interpretations represent the absolute or final scientific consensus on any variant.
Nothing in these Terms excludes warranties or liability that cannot lawfully be excluded under applicable law. Some jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion of certain warranties; those exclusions do not apply to the extent they are unenforceable in your jurisdiction.
Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Kairos Studios LLC, its members, officers, employees, contractors, or affiliates be liable to you or any third party for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, loss of data, loss of business opportunity, loss of goodwill, or cost of substitute services, arising out of or related to your use of or inability to use the Varia service, even if Varia has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
Varia's aggregate liability for any direct damages arising out of or related to these Terms or your use of the service shall not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid to Varia in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).
This limitation applies regardless of the legal theory under which the claim is brought (contract, tort, statute, or otherwise) and regardless of whether the limitation deprives any remedy of its essential purpose.
Some jurisdictions do not permit certain limitations of liability; those limitations do not apply to the extent they are unenforceable in your jurisdiction.
Carve-outs. This limitation of liability does not apply to (a) Varia's gross negligence or willful misconduct, (b) Varia's indemnification obligations under these Terms, or (c) any liability that cannot lawfully be limited under applicable law.
Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Kairos Studios LLC, its members, officers, employees, contractors, and affiliates from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to:
Your breach of these Terms, including the Acceptable Use section.
Your upload of genome data belonging to another person without that person's explicit informed consent.
Your use of Varia output for any prohibited purpose, including any insurance, employment, custody, forensic, or surveillance use.
Your violation of any applicable law or regulation in connection with your use of the Varia service.
Your infringement of any intellectual property right or other right of any third party in connection with your use of the Varia service.
Varia agrees to indemnify you against third-party claims alleging that the Varia service (excluding your inputs and content) infringes any U.S. intellectual property right of that third party, provided you notify Varia promptly of the claim, give Varia sole control over the defense, and cooperate reasonably in the defense.
Dispute resolution and arbitration
Informal resolution first. If you have a dispute with Varia, you agree to contact [email protected] and attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least 60 days before initiating formal proceedings. Most issues are resolved this way.
Binding arbitration. If informal resolution does not succeed, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or related to these Terms or your use of the Varia service (a "Dispute") will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect. The arbitration will be conducted by a single arbitrator. The arbitration will take place in Massachusetts, or by video conference at the arbitrator's discretion. The arbitrator's decision will be final and binding. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.
Class action waiver. You and Varia agree that each may bring claims against the other only in your or its individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate the claims of more than one person or preside over any form of representative or class proceeding.
Carve-outs from arbitration. This arbitration agreement does not apply to (a) claims that may be brought in a small-claims court of competent jurisdiction, (b) claims for injunctive or other equitable relief to protect intellectual property, or (c) any matter that applicable law expressly prohibits from being subject to arbitration.
Opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by sending written notice of your opt-out to [email protected] within 30 days of your first acceptance of these Terms. The notice must include your name, email address, and a clear statement that you are opting out of arbitration. Opting out of arbitration does not affect any other provision of these Terms.
Federal Arbitration Act. This arbitration agreement is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act.
Governing law and venue
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. For any matter not subject to arbitration under the section above, you and Varia consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, or the federal District of Massachusetts.
Termination
You may stop using Varia at any time. You may request deletion of your email address and scan metadata anchor at any time by contacting [email protected].
Varia may suspend or terminate your access to the service, with or without notice, for any reason or no reason, including but not limited to breach of these Terms, prohibited use, fraud, or non-payment. On termination, your right to access the service ceases immediately. Provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination (intellectual property, limitation of liability, indemnification, dispute resolution, governing law) will survive.
Severability
If any provision of these Terms is found by an arbitrator or court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect, and the invalid provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable while preserving its intent.
Entire agreement
These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, the Medical and Wellness Disclaimer, and the Refund Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Varia concerning your use of the service. They supersede any prior agreement or understanding, written or oral.
Modifications
We may modify these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated through The Variant newsletter (if you are subscribed) and through a notice on variagenome.com. Continued use of the service after a material change constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms. If you do not accept a modification, your remedy is to stop using the service.
Notices and contact
For support inquiries: [email protected]
For privacy-related matters: [email protected]
For legal notices, including arbitration opt-out: [email protected] (subject line: "Legal Notice")
For postal correspondence: Kairos Studios LLC, 82 Wendell Ave, STE 100, Pittsfield, Berkshire County, MA 01201, USA