Legal
QNAP AI Terms
Last updated: September 8th, 2026
These QNAP AI Terms (these “Terms”) are supplemental terms to the QNAP SOFTWARE TERMS OF USE and the QNAP SYSTEMS, INC. PRIVACY POLICY of QNAP Systems, Inc. (“QNAP,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). These Terms will be made multi-language, and all language versions shall be valid. In case of any discrepancy between the English version and other language versions, the English version shall prevail. As used in these Terms, “AI Features” means the artificial intelligence features that QNAP provides in its products and services.
With respect to the AI Features, in the event of any conflict or inconsistency between these Terms and the QNAP SOFTWARE TERMS OF USE, the QNAP SYSTEMS, INC. PRIVACY POLICY, or other general terms, these Terms shall prevail to the extent of such conflict; for any matters not addressed herein, the applicable general terms shall continue to apply.
As used in these Terms, “you” means the user or administrator who enables, configures, deploys, or operates the AI Features. If you enable or deploy the AI Features on behalf of an organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization to these Terms.
1. The AI Features
1.1 These Terms govern your rights and obligations in connection with your use of the AI Features. The AI Features include, without limitation, image recognition, generative AI, and conversational AI.
1.2 Output generated by the AI Features may be incomplete, inaccurate, or inappropriate. Accordingly, please bear the following in mind when using the AI Features:
1.2.1 Before relying on, or taking any action based on, any output, we recommend that you reasonably assess its accuracy, completeness, and appropriateness in light of your specific circumstances, and exercise careful judgment.
1.2.2 For matters that may have a material effect on the rights or interests of individuals, such as personal identity verification, access control, attendance management, employment decisions, determination of legal liability, or financial decisions, you are advised not to make decisions based solely on the output of the AI Features, and should apply appropriate human review and independent judgment to such matters.
1.2.3 QNAP will use reasonable efforts to provide the AI Features. However, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the AI Features and their output are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, and QNAP makes no warranties of any kind in this regard, whether express or implied.
1.2.4 QNAP will provide information on the capabilities, limitations, and appropriate use of the AI Features in its product documentation. If you deploy the AI Features on behalf of an organization, you should, as required by applicable law, ensure that personnel operating the AI Features have a level of AI literacy commensurate with their role and context of use.
2. Ownership of Rights in the AI Features
2.1 Rights in Input Content. When using the AI Features, please ensure that you have lawful rights to the content you input (including text, files, images, audio, and personal data), and that such input and its subsequent use do not violate applicable law or the rights of any third party.
2.2 Ownership of AI Output. As between you and QNAP, and except for QNAP’s reservation of all rights in its own technology, models, and software, QNAP claims no ownership interest in any output generated from your input. Due to the nature of AI technology, output may not be original, may be similar to output produced for other users, or may contain content protected by third-party intellectual property rights. We recommend that, before using, reproducing, distributing, or publishing any output, you first confirm its legality and obtain any necessary rights or licenses.
3. Restrictions on Use of the AI Features
3.1 Please use the AI Features only for legitimate purposes and in compliance with the applicable laws of your jurisdiction.
3.2 With respect to image recognition and biometric recognition features, you must not use them for any of the following purposes:
3.2.1 real-time remote biometric identification in publicly accessible spaces;
3.2.2 emotion recognition in the workplace or in educational institutions;
3.2.3 biometric categorization based on sensitive personal characteristics that may lead to discrimination;
3.2.4 social scoring; or
3.2.5 the untargeted or large-scale collection or scraping of facial images in order to build a biometric database (except where expressly permitted by law).
3.3 With respect to generative AI and conversational AI features, you must not use such features to:
3.3.1 create, without the consent of the persons concerned, synthetic content depicting another person’s image, voice, or identity in a manner likely to mislead others into believing it is genuine;
3.3.2 circumvent the safety or content-protection mechanisms of the AI Features;
3.3.3 pass off AI output as human-created in a manner that violates applicable disclosure or labeling obligations;
3.3.4 create or disseminate non-consensual intimate or sexualized imagery of any person, or child sexual abuse material.
3.4 The AI Features are designed for the intended purposes set out in their documentation. If you intend to deploy biometric recognition features in potentially high-risk use cases (for example, access control, attendance management, or retail identity recognition), please use such features in accordance with the requirements of applicable law and implement appropriate safeguards, including, without limitation, completing any relevant impact assessments, establishing appropriate human-oversight mechanisms, and providing the necessary notices to end users.
3.5 If you place the AI Features on the market under your own name or trademark, modify their intended purpose, or make a substantial modification to them, you may be deemed the provider of the resulting AI system under applicable law and assume the full obligations of a provider. Please assess this before doing so.
4. AI Services and Data Processing
4.1 The AI Features may be provided in the following different ways, with corresponding differences in where data is processed and where responsibility lies:
4.1.1 On-device / local processing. Certain AI Features are designed to run on your mobile device or NAS, and fall into the following two categories:
a. AI Features provided by QNAP: namely the image recognition, facial recognition, object recognition, smart surveillance, generative AI, conversational AI, and other artificial intelligence features that QNAP provides in its products and services and that, by design, run on the NAS.
b. Third-party on-device AI: Certain AI Features may be provided through third-party artificial intelligence models or services built into or supported by the device you use (for example, on-device AI models provided by the mobile operating system or the device manufacturer). The operation, data processing, and any data transmission of such software are determined by the relevant third parties in accordance with their own designs and policies, are beyond QNAP’s control, and QNAP makes no warranties in this regard. When you use such third-party software, your related rights and obligations and the processing of your data are governed by the respective companies’ terms of use and privacy policies. Key links are provided below for your reference (please refer to the latest versions published by each company):
- Google: Google Terms of Service, Google Privacy Policy, Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy
- Apple: Apple Intelligence & Privacy
4.1.2 Third-party cloud services. If you choose to connect to or configure an external AI service or third-party AI model (for example, a third-party AI service connected via an API key), then, in order to provide the relevant service, the content, prompts, files, images, audio, or other data you input may be transmitted to that third-party service environment for processing as required by the feature. Such transmission occurs only when you actively enable the relevant feature.
4.1.3 Models you deploy yourself. For any open-source or third-party AI model, service, or platform that you deploy, install, connect, or use on an Edge AI NAS via Container Station, the relevant data is processed within your own hardware environment; you are responsible for the administration and management of such models and the related legal and regulatory compliance.
4.2 When using features provided by third-party service providers, in addition to these Terms, we recommend that you also review and comply with their terms of use, privacy policies, and data-processing rules, and that you remain mindful of the risks relating to their services, data processing, and legal compliance.
5. Transparency
5.1 For the conversational AI Features provided by QNAP, QNAP will inform users by appropriate means that they are interacting with an AI system, unless this is obvious from the circumstances of use.
5.2 For image, audio, video, or text output generated by the generative AI Features provided by QNAP, QNAP will, as required by applicable law, mark such output in a machine-readable format indicating that it has been artificially generated or manipulated.
5.3 If you use AI Features that perform emotion recognition or biometric categorization, you must inform the individuals subject to such processing as required by applicable law, and process their personal data in accordance with applicable data protection law.
5.4 If you use the AI Features to produce image, audio, or video content constituting a deep fake, you must disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated as required by applicable law.
6. Changes to These Terms
QNAP may amend these Terms at any time. If a material change is involved, QNAP will notify users by website announcement, in-product notice, or other appropriate means, and will obtain your renewed consent where required by applicable law. For material changes affecting your rights or obligations, QNAP will provide reasonable advance notice; if you do not agree to the amended Terms, you may stop using the AI Features. If you continue to use the AI Features after the Terms are updated, you will be deemed to have agreed to the amended Terms.
