Grounders Terms of Service

Effective date: 2026-04-27 Last updated: 2026-04-27

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and grounders ("Grounders," "we," "us") and govern your access to and use of the Grounders mobile and web application (the "Service").

By creating an account, signing in, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

If you have questions, contact support@grounders.app.

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old (or the minimum digital-consent age in your jurisdiction, whichever is older) to use Grounders. By using the Service, you represent that you meet this requirement and that you have the right and authority to agree to these Terms.

If you are under the age of majority in your jurisdiction, you confirm that your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms on your behalf.

2. Your Account

You access Grounders by verifying a phone number with a one-time code we send by SMS. Standard message and data rates from your mobile carrier may apply.

You agree to:

• Provide accurate information.
• Keep your phone, account, and any credentials secure.
• Notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorized access to your account.

You are responsible for all activity on your account. We may suspend or terminate accounts that we reasonably believe violate these Terms or pose a risk to other users.

3. Your Content

"Your Content" means everything you create, upload, post, or share through the Service — including photos, videos, audio, captions, location data, friend connections, reactions, and any other material you submit.

3.1 You retain ownership.

You keep all rights to Your Content. We do not claim ownership of anything you post.

3.2 You grant us a license.

To operate the Service, you grant Grounders a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, modify (only as required for technical operation, e.g., resizing or transcoding), display, and distribute Your Content solely for the purpose of operating, improving, and providing the Service.

This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except that we may retain backups for the period described in our Privacy Policy.

3.3 You are responsible.

You are solely responsible for Your Content. By posting it, you represent and warrant that:

• You own it or have the rights, licenses, consents, and permissions necessary to post it.
• It does not violate any third party's rights (including privacy, publicity, or intellectual-property rights).
• It does not violate any law or these Terms.

3.4 Visibility you choose.

You control whether each post is public, friends-only, or hidden inside a safe zone. Posts you mark public can be seen by any Grounders user. Once content has been seen, downloaded, or screen-captured by other users, we cannot recall it. Think before you post.

4. Acceptable Use

You agree NOT to use the Service to:

1. Post content that is illegal, fraudulent, deceptive, defamatory, threatening, harassing, hateful, sexually explicit, depicts minors in any sexualized context, or that incites or promotes violence.
2. Post content that infringes any patent, trademark, copyright, or other intellectual-property right, or that violates any privacy or publicity right.
3. Impersonate any person, misrepresent your affiliation with anyone, or use the Service to track, surveil, or stalk other users.
4. Post identifying or sensitive information about other people without their consent.
5. Spam other users (including via reactions, friend requests, or repeated low-quality posts).
6. Attempt to access another user's account, the Service's backend, or any data not made available to you.
7. Reverse-engineer, decompile, scrape, or attempt to extract source code or data from the Service, except as permitted by applicable law.
8. Interfere with or disrupt the Service, servers, or networks (including by uploading malware or executing denial-of-service attacks).
9. Use the Service to send unsolicited commercial messages, conduct surveillance, or for any commercial purpose without our prior written consent.
10. Circumvent or bypass safety, geofencing, rate-limiting, or moderation features (including safe zones or the proximity gate on reactions).

We may remove content and suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules, with or without notice. We may also report illegal content to appropriate authorities.

5. Reporting and Moderation

We provide tools inside the app to report posts and block users. Reports are reviewed by our team. We aim to act on reports within a reasonable time, but we do not guarantee any specific outcome or timeline.

If you believe content infringes your copyright, send us a notice that includes:

• Identification of the copyrighted work.
• Identification of the allegedly infringing material on the Service.
• Your contact information.
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized and that the information in your notice is accurate, and that you are the rights-holder or authorized to act on the rights-holder's behalf.
• Your physical or electronic signature.

Send notices to moderation@grounders.app.

We may terminate accounts of repeat infringers.

6. Privacy

Your use of the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

7. Push Notifications and SMS

By using the Service, you consent to receive:

• Operational SMS messages containing one-time login codes.
• Push notifications about activity on your account (reactions, friend requests, friend posts), unless you disable them in your device settings.

You can disable push notifications at any time in your device's notification settings. SMS one-time codes are required to log in; if you disable SMS for our sender, you will not be able to authenticate.

8. Account Deletion and Termination

You may delete your account at any time from inside the app (Profile → Delete account). Deletion is permanent and removes your account, posts, reactions, friends, and devices, subject to the backup-retention period in our Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, pose a risk to other users, or for any other lawful reason. We may also discontinue all or part of the Service at any time.

Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination — including ownership, license grants, indemnity, disclaimers, limitations of liability, and dispute resolution — survive termination of your account.

9. Third-Party Services

The Service depends on third-party services (including Twilio for SMS, Firebase for push notifications and authentication, Google Maps for mapping, Railway and Amazon S3 or equivalent providers for hosting and storage). Your use of those services through Grounders is governed by their respective terms. We are not responsible for outages, errors, or content provided by third parties.

10. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ACCURACY. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT ANY DEFECT WILL BE CORRECTED.

GROUNDERS IS A PRODUCT FOR SHARING CONTENT YOU CHOOSE TO MAKE PUBLIC OR VISIBLE TO YOUR FRIENDS. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONSEQUENCES OF SHARING YOUR LOCATION AND OTHER PERSONAL CONTENT. WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO REVIEW THE VISIBILITY SETTING ON EACH POST AND TO USE SAFE ZONES TO PROTECT LOCATIONS YOU DO NOT WANT TO REVEAL.

11. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, GROUNDERS AND ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE SERVICE.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU HAVE PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED CANADIAN DOLLARS (CA$100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In those jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Grounders and its directors, officers, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, liabilities, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with: (a) Your Content; (b) your use of the Service; (c) your violation of these Terms; or (d) your violation of any third-party right.

13. Changes to the Service or Terms

We may modify or discontinue all or any part of the Service at any time. We may also update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top and, where appropriate, notify you in the app. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of an updated version means you accept the changes. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service.

14. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia, Canada, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles.

You and Grounders agree that any dispute arising from or related to these Terms or the Service will be resolved in the courts located in Vancouver, British Columbia, and you and Grounders consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

If you live in a jurisdiction where binding individual arbitration or different consumer-protection rules apply, those rules may override the choice above to the extent required by applicable law.

15. Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Grounders regarding the Service.
• Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Notices. We may give you notices through the app, by SMS, or by email if you have provided one. You may give us notice at the contact email below.

16. Contact

support@grounders.app