Terms of Use

Agreeing to these terms

By downloading, installing or using Kernel you agree to these Terms of Use and to the Privacy Policy that follows them. If you do not agree with them, please do not use the app. We may update these terms from time to time; continuing to use Kernel after an update means you accept the updated version, and we will let you know in the app when something meaningful changes.

What Kernel does

Kernel turns photos of a corn ear into an estimate of grain yield. It counts kernels, measures the ring of kernels and the cob, and combines those measurements with the plant population you enter.

An estimate is an estimate. Kernel is a sampling tool, not a measurement of your harvest. Results depend on which ears you pick, how the photos are taken, and conditions in the field. Please do not rely on Kernel alone for a marketing, insurance, financing or agronomic decision.

Estimates are not guarantees

Every number Kernel produces is an estimate, provided for informational purposes only. It is not a guarantee, promise, prediction or warranty of any yield, quantity, quality or outcome, and it is not agronomic, financial, insurance, legal or marketing advice.

Actual yields can and will differ from estimates — sometimes substantially. Weather, disease, pests, harvest loss, sampling choices, photo quality and plain biological variation all move the real number, and none of them are within the app's control.

You are solely responsible for every decision you make or do not make in reliance on an estimate, and you assume all risk of that reliance. Verify anything that matters independently — scale tickets, moisture-corrected weights, your agronomist. To the fullest extent the law allows, Gee LLC disclaims all responsibility and liability for estimates and for anything done, or not done, because of one.

Your account

You do not need an account to use Kernel. An account is what lets your estimates be backed up, so they survive a lost or replaced phone, and what lets your data-sharing choices follow you to a new phone.

Please give accurate information when you create one, and keep your device and sign-in secure. You can delete your account at any time from Settings; what happens to your data when you do is described in the Privacy Policy.

The content you create and the data Kernel derives

You keep ownership of the photos and notes you create with Kernel.

You grant Gee LLC a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid, transferable and sublicensable licence to host, store, use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, publish, create derivative works from, distribute, display, license, sell and otherwise exploit that content, and all data derived from it — including measurements, counts, estimates, the location and time each estimate was made, and the hybrid and planting details you enter — for any purpose, commercial or otherwise. That includes operating and improving Kernel; training, evaluating and commercialising machine-learning models; agronomic research; producing and selling datasets, reports, maps and other products built from it; and sharing it with or selling it to third parties.

Where that content or data is personal information about you, our use of it is also governed by the Privacy Policy, which describes the choices you have — in particular, sharing that identifies you or your fields happens only with the consent you give in the app's Data Sharing settings.

You confirm that you have the right to grant this licence for everything you put into the app. This licence continues after you stop using Kernel, withdraw a consent, or delete your account: data already delivered to a partner is not recalled, and the field data itself — photos, measurements and the location of each estimate — is retained and used as the Privacy Policy describes.

Staying in touch

We may use the contact details you give us to get in touch about Kernel — support, service notices, and news about products and services from Gee LLC and the partners we work with that we think are relevant to your operation.

If you have chosen to share with data partners in the app's Data Sharing settings, those partners may receive your contact details and may contact you directly under their own terms.

Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing does not affect your use of the app. If you gave us a phone number, it is optional and we will not send you text messages without asking you first.

Our intellectual property

Kernel — including its software, machine-vision models and their weights, measurement methods, algorithms, formulas, calibrations, interface, designs, text, graphics and trade marks — is the sole and exclusive property of Gee LLC and its licensors, and is protected by copyright, trade secret, trade mark and other laws. Nothing in these terms transfers any of it to you.

What you get is a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable and revocable licence to install and use Kernel on devices you own or control, for your own agricultural purposes. You are welcome to use the estimates Kernel produces in your own operation and business.

You agree that you will not, and will not permit or help anyone else to: copy, modify, adapt, translate or create derivative works of the app or any part of it; reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, decrypt, extract or otherwise attempt to discover its source code, models, weights, algorithms, formulas or calibration data; attempt to derive, reconstruct or approximate the agronomic formulas, coefficients or measurement methods Kernel uses — including by probing it with test inputs, analysing its outputs, or fitting your own model to them; extract, copy, run outside the app, or reuse the machine-vision models or their weights in any form; defeat or work around any technical protection; scrape, harvest, or extract data or outputs in bulk, whether by automated means or otherwise; use the app, its models or its outputs to build, train, benchmark, evaluate or improve any competing or comparable product, model or service; rent, lease, lend, sell, sublicense, distribute or make the app available to any third party; remove or obscure any proprietary notice; or use the app in violation of any law.

These restrictions protect confidential information and trade secrets, and damages alone would not be an adequate remedy for breaking them, so Gee LLC may seek an injunction or other equitable relief in addition to any other remedy. All rights not expressly granted here are reserved.

If you send us feedback, ideas or suggestions, we may use them freely and without obligation to you.

Open-source components

Kernel is built partly on openly licensed software and datasets. Their licences require us to credit them and, in one case, to include the full licence text — that is what the Required Attribution section at the end of this screen is for. Those licences cover those components only; they do not affect the terms above.

Disclaimers and limits

Kernel is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied or statutory, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the app will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any estimate will match your actual harvest. In particular, and without limiting the section "Estimates are not guarantees", we are not responsible for any decision made in reliance on an estimate.

To the fullest extent the law allows, Gee LLC will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any lost profits, lost revenue, lost crops, lost data or business interruption, arising out of or relating to your use of Kernel. Our total liability for any claim relating to Kernel is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us for it in the twelve months before the claim, or fifty US dollars.

Some states do not allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you. You agree to indemnify Gee LLC against claims arising from your misuse of the app or your breach of these terms.

Ending this agreement

You can stop using Kernel at any time, and delete your account from Settings. We may suspend or end your access if you break these terms or use the app in a way that harms other users, the service or us. The sections on content and derived data, intellectual property, disclaimers and limits survive the end of this agreement.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Indiana, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.

Contact us

Questions about these terms are welcome, and we would rather hear from you than not. Write to Gee LLC at support@kernelyield.com.