1. Who we are
Beacon Atlas is operated by ThoughtsOnThings LLC (we, us, our), a limited liability company based in Brooklyn, New York, USA. You means anyone who uses the service, including a visitor, player, or server operator.
By using Beacon Atlas, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Statement. If you use Beacon Atlas for an organization, you confirm that you can bind that organization.
These Terms cover the hosted Atlas service only. The Beacon software you download and run yourself is separate free software licensed under GPL-3.0, and these Terms do not limit your rights under that license.
2. Free alpha service
Beacon Atlas is provided free of charge while the project is in alpha. It may change, break, lose data, or stop operating at any time. We do not provide uptime, support, moderation, backup, or data-recovery commitments.
3. Eligibility and children
To register a beacon with Atlas or use the sign-in broker, you must be at least 13 years old and old enough under your local law to enter an online agreement. If you are under the age of majority where you live, use Beacon Atlas only with a parent or guardian's permission.
Beacon Atlas is not directed to children under 13. Do not use Atlas for a server, listing, or sign-in flow directed to children under 13, or knowingly submit children's personal information to Atlas, unless you have all consent and legal authority required by law.
4. Beacon registration
Atlas has no website accounts. Instead, your beacon registers once — during deployment or with `beacon auth register` — and receives a beacon ID and client secret. That single credential authenticates Minecraft sign-in, the heartbeat publisher, and listing management. Keep the client secret safe, rotate it with `beacon auth rotate-secret` if it is exposed, and tell us at admin@beacon-mc.io if you believe it has been compromised.
We may suspend or revoke a beacon registration, listing, or broker access if it violates these Terms, creates legal or security risk, or threatens the service or its users.
5. Listings and public data
The Atlas directory is public. A listing may include the server name, description, rules, tags, region, Minecraft address, public links, profile text, and other details you choose to publish. Your beacon also sends public heartbeat data such as online status, compatible version, loader, installed mods or plugins, and player counts. Atlas may independently ping the advertised Minecraft address to corroborate status.
Roster and activity data are opt-in. Atlas drops those heartbeat sections unless the operator has enabled the matching consent controls. If you publish player information, you confirm that you have a lawful basis and any consent needed to make it visible under your chosen privacy settings.
Public listing data may be viewed, indexed, cached, copied, and shared by others. Do not publish anything you are not allowed to make public.
A heartbeat does not give Atlas access to dashboard accounts, allowlists, invite codes, world files, backups, chat history, audit logs, RCON, Docker, or any server-control capability. See Privacy and heartbeats for the technical boundary.
You own your listing content. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, display, reproduce, and distribute it as needed to operate, secure, and promote Atlas. You can pause or delete your listing from your beacon's dashboard.
6. Minecraft sign-in broker
The broker lets a player sign in to a beacon with a Microsoft and Minecraft account without giving the beacon Microsoft credentials. Atlas runs the Microsoft sign-in, confirms the Minecraft username and account ID, and gives the beacon a short-lived signed identity statement.
Atlas does not receive a player's Microsoft password or email address, does not ask for offline access, does not store Microsoft, Xbox, or Minecraft tokens, and does not give those tokens to a beacon. Use of Microsoft and Minecraft account systems is also subject to the Microsoft Services Agreement and the Minecraft EULA.
Operators may use the broker only for genuine Beacon servers and only with redirect destinations they control. Once a beacon receives the signed identity statement, the operator is responsible for what that beacon does with the player's identity and data.
7. Operator responsibilities
A beacon runs on the operator's own infrastructure. We do not operate listed servers, control who joins them, review their communities, or see their private server data. Listed servers are not endorsed by us, and players join them at their own risk.
- Tell your players what your beacon collects, why, how long you keep it, and whether you publish any of it to Atlas.
- Have a lawful basis for handling player data and get consent where required, including parent or guardian consent where child-protection law requires it.
- Honor privacy requests for data on your beacon, including access, correction, deletion, and opt-out requests where the law gives those rights.
- Keep your server, dashboard, secrets, and player data reasonably secure.
- Follow all laws and third-party terms that apply to your server, including Microsoft and Minecraft terms.
8. Acceptable use
Do not use Beacon Atlas to:
- break the law, infringe rights, harass, deceive, threaten, or endanger anyone;
- post false, misleading, impersonating, hateful, sexually exploitative, or malware-linked content;
- claim a server, identity, trademark, or content you do not control or have permission to use;
- capture, retain, or misuse Microsoft, Xbox, Minecraft, Atlas, or beacon secrets or tokens;
- register redirect destinations you do not control or try to intercept another beacon's sign-ins;
- overload, disrupt, scrape, reverse engineer, or access the service in a way that harms reliability or security; or
- evade suspensions, rate limits, moderation, or security controls.
We may remove content, restrict listings, revoke broker access, or contact law enforcement where appropriate. Send abuse, safety, trademark, or copyright concerns to admin@beacon-mc.io.
9. Third-party services and marks
Beacon Atlas relies on third-party services, including Microsoft and Mojang systems for Minecraft identity and skins, and the infrastructure and email providers listed in our Privacy Statement. Those services are governed by their own terms and privacy notices.
The Beacon and Beacon Atlas names, logos, and marks belong to us. You may use them only for accurate references, such as saying that a server runs Beacon or is listed on Atlas. Minecraft is a trademark of Mojang Synergies AB and Microsoft; Beacon and Beacon Atlas are not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Mojang or Microsoft.
10. No warranties
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Beacon Atlas is provided as is and as available, without warranties of any kind, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, availability, security, or error-free operation.
11. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost data, lost profits, lost goodwill, business interruption, or server/community disputes arising from Beacon Atlas.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability for all claims relating to Beacon Atlas will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid us for the service in the 12 months before the claim or US$100. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
12. Indemnification
You agree to defend and indemnify us from claims, damages, liabilities, losses, and reasonable expenses, including legal fees, arising from your listing, your beacon, your handling of player data, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of law or third-party rights.
13. Ending use and changes
You may stop using Beacon Atlas at any time, pause or delete your listings from your beacon's dashboard, and ask us to remove your beacon's registration. We may change, suspend, or discontinue any part of the service, or update these Terms, by posting the updated version with a new effective date. If a change is material, we will try to give reasonable notice where practical.
Sections that by their nature should continue after access ends will continue, including intellectual property, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnification, and governing law.
14. Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. The exclusive venue for disputes is the state courts located in Kings County, New York, or the United States federal courts in the Eastern District of New York, except where mandatory law requires otherwise.
15. Contact
Questions about these Terms or Beacon Atlas can be sent to admin@beacon-mc.io.