Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a legal agreement between you and Awaire Technologies LLC (“Blips,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) governing your use of the Blips mobile application and related services (the “App”). By creating an account or using the App, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the App.

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use Blips (or 16, or the minimum age of digital consent in your country, where local law requires a higher age, for example in parts of the European Economic Area). By using the App, you represent that you meet the applicable age requirement, that you can form a binding contract with us, and that you are not barred from using the App under applicable law. If you use the App on behalf of no one but yourself, these Terms apply to you personally. Blips is for real people: you agree that you are a natural person, that the account is for your own use, and that you will not operate the App through a bot, script, or automated system, or on behalf of an artificial-intelligence agent.

2. Your account

You create an account using Sign in with Apple or email. You are responsible for the activity that happens under your account and for keeping access to your device and Apple ID secure. Provide accurate information, and let us know promptly if you believe your account has been compromised. You may not impersonate others, create an account for someone who does not meet the eligibility requirements, or transfer your account to anyone else without our consent.

3. Acceptable use

You agree to use Blips lawfully and respectfully. You will not:

• Break the law or infringe anyone’s rights, including privacy and intellectual property rights.
• Post or share prohibited content (see Section 4).
• Harass, threaten, bully, stalk, or harm another person.
• Attempt to identify, locate, or contact someone against their wishes, or misuse any location information.
• Access another user’s account or content without authorization, or attempt to defeat the App’s access controls, Row-Level Security, signed links, or moderation.
• Reverse engineer, scrape, or bulk-collect content or data from the App, except as expressly permitted by law.
• Introduce malware, overload or disrupt the service, or interfere with its security features.
• Use the App to send spam, or for advertising, commercial solicitation, or any deceptive purpose.

4. Prohibited content & zero-tolerance policy

Blips enforces a zero-tolerance policy for objectionable content and abusive behavior. You may not capture, upload, share, or make public any content that:

• Is sexually explicit, or sexualizes minors in any way. Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is strictly forbidden and will be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and/or law enforcement as required by law.
• Depicts or promotes graphic violence, gore, self-harm, or cruelty.
• Is hateful, harassing, or incites violence or discrimination against people based on protected characteristics.
• Is illegal, promotes illegal activity, or facilitates the sale of illegal or dangerous goods.
• Infringes copyright, trademark, or other rights, or discloses someone’s private or personal information without consent.
• Is deceptive, fraudulent, or impersonates another person or entity.

These rules apply with particular force to content you set to Public or share with others. Content you keep Private stays on your own device and is not reviewed by us, but the prohibitions above still apply to your conduct, and unlawful content is never permitted anywhere.

5. Your content & the license you give us

To operate the App, we need permission to handle the content you choose to share. You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, store, reproduce, transmit, adapt (for example, to compress media or generate thumbnails), and display your content solely for the purpose of operating and providing the App to you and the audiences you choose. This license exists only to run the service. We do not use your content for advertising, do not sell it, and do not use it to train unrelated products.

The scope of this license follows your visibility settings: for Private moments, media stays on your device and is not uploaded to us, so this hosting license applies only to the metadata needed to sync your globe. For Shared and Public moments, it extends to the media we host so your chosen audience can view it. This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies retained briefly in routine backups or as required to comply with law or address safety and abuse. You are responsible for your content and represent that you have the rights necessary to share it.

6. Feedback

If you send us suggestions, ideas, feature requests, bug reports, or other feedback about the App (“Feedback”), you agree that we may use it without restriction and without any obligation to you. You grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, and incorporate your Feedback into the App or any other product for any purpose. Feedback is provided voluntarily, and we are not required to keep it confidential.

7. Moderation, reporting & blocking

To keep public and shared spaces safe, content you share to friends, family, or the public may be screened by automated content filtering before it becomes visible, and public content must be approved before it appears to others.

Every user has built-in safety tools directly in the App:

• Report: you can report any post or user you believe is objectionable, directly from the content or profile.
• Block: you can block another user at any time, which removes their content from your experience and prevents further contact.

We act on reports of objectionable content within 24 hours by removing the offending content and ejecting the user who posted it, consistent with Apple App Store Guideline 1.2. More broadly, we may remove content, limit its visibility, or restrict or terminate accounts if we believe in good faith that they violate these Terms or the law, or to protect users, with or without notice. We are not obligated to monitor all content, and we do not review private content that stays on your device. If you need to reach us about objectionable content or a safety concern, contact us using the published contact information in Section 23.

8. Copyright & DMCA

We respect intellectual property rights and comply with the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Takedown notices

If you believe content on Blips infringes your copyright, send a written notice to our registered DMCA Designated Agent at getblips@gmail.com (postal: [DMCA AGENT MAILING ADDRESS]) including: (a) your physical or electronic signature; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; (c) identification of the allegedly infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to locate it; (d) your name, address, telephone number, and email; (e) a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (f) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or are authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.

Counter-notices

If your content was removed or disabled and you believe this was a mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notice to the same agent containing: (a) your signature; (b) identification of the removed material and its former location; (c) a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed by mistake or misidentification; and (d) your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement consenting to the jurisdiction of the federal court for your district (or, if outside the U.S., for any district in which we may be found) and to accept service of process from the complaining party.

Repeat-infringer policy

Consistent with the DMCA, we have adopted a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who are repeat infringers of copyright, and we may terminate accounts or remove content for infringement at our discretion.

9. End-User License Agreement & the App Store

These Terms function as the End-User License Agreement (EULA) between you and Awaire Technologies LLC for the App. They incorporate, at minimum, the terms of Apple’s standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement (available at apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula); where these Terms and that agreement conflict as to the App licensed from the App Store, the stricter user-protective term applies. You acknowledge that:

• This EULA is between you and us, not Apple, and Apple is not responsible for the App or its content.
• Apple is a third-party beneficiary of these Terms and may enforce them against you.
• Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the App, and is not responsible for any product warranties, product claims, or third-party intellectual-property claims relating to the App.

Blips also relies on third-party services including Apple (Sign in with Apple, Photos, geocoding, and the App Store), Supabase, and Cloudflare. Your use of those services is subject to their own terms.

10. Our intellectual property

The App itself, including its software, design, the “your world” globe experience, branding, and the name Blips, is owned by Awaire Technologies LLC and protected by intellectual property laws. We grant you a personal, limited, non-transferable, revocable license to use the App for its intended purpose. You may not copy, modify, distribute, or create derivative works of the App except as allowed by law.

11. Notifications & communications

By creating an account, you agree that we may send you communications needed to operate the App, such as messages about your account, security and verification, changes to these Terms or the Privacy Policy, moderation or safety actions, and other service or transactional messages. These are part of the service and generally cannot be opted out of while you keep an account.

We may also send optional communications, such as product news, tips, or updates about new features, by push notification or email. These are opt-in or opt-out and are not required to use the App. You can turn off push notifications in your device settings at any time, and you can unsubscribe from optional emails using the link in the message or by contacting us at getblips@gmail.com. If we ever introduce SMS or text-message features, they will be separately consented to, and you will be able to opt out (for example, by replying STOP). We do not use your contact details to send you third-party advertising.

12. Fees, purchases & free service

Blips is currently offered free of charge. There are no ads, and there are no in-app purchases or subscriptions required to use the core features described in these Terms. If we introduce optional paid features in the future (for example, an expanded backup or storage tier), we will present the price and terms before you buy, any purchase will be processed through the Apple App Store under Apple’s billing and refund policies, and additional terms specific to that feature may apply. Nothing in these Terms obligates us to offer any paid feature or to keep the App free.

13. Changes to the App & availability

We are continually developing Blips, and we may add, change, suspend, or discontinue features, or the App as a whole, at any time. Where a change materially reduces core functionality, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you in the App or by email. We do not guarantee that the App, or any particular feature, moment, or piece of content, will always be available, and we may impose limits on storage, file sizes, or usage to keep the service reliable. We are not liable to you for modifying or discontinuing the App, subject to your mandatory rights under applicable law.

14. Disclaimers

Because private moment media lives in your own Photos library and iCloud rather than on our servers, you are responsible for maintaining your own device and iCloud backups. Blips is a journal, not a backup service, unless you separately subscribe to a paid backup feature that expressly says otherwise.

15. Limitation of liability

16. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Awaire Technologies LLC from claims, damages, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your content, your use of the App, or your violation of these Terms or the rights of others.

17. Suspension & termination

You may stop using Blips and delete your account at any time from within the App or by contacting us. When you delete your account, the effects described in the Privacy Policy apply, and the license you grant us in Section 5 ends.

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your account or access to all or part of the App if:

• you violate these Terms, our content rules (Section 4), or applicable law;
• you repeatedly receive valid reports or strikes for objectionable content or abusive behavior;
• we are required to do so by law or by a valid legal request;
• it is reasonably necessary to protect other users, the public, or Blips, or to prevent harm, fraud, or security risks; or
• your account remains inactive for an extended period, as described in the Privacy Policy’s retention section.

Where practical, we will give you notice and, for less serious issues, an opportunity to fix the problem. For serious violations, including prohibited content under Section 4, illegal activity, or threats to safety or security, we may act immediately and without prior notice. Consistent with Apple App Store Guideline 1.2, we act on reports of objectionable content within 24 hours by removing the content and, where warranted, ejecting the user who posted it. Repeat violations may lead to permanent termination. If you believe your account was actioned in error, you may contact us at getblips@gmail.com to seek review. The provisions that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 5, 6, 8, 10, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, and 21) will survive.

18. Dispute resolution & arbitration; class-action waiver

Informal resolution first

Most concerns can be resolved quickly. Before starting a formal proceeding, you agree to first contact us at getblips@gmail.com and give us at least 30 days to resolve the dispute informally. We will do the same before bringing a claim against you.

Binding arbitration

If we cannot resolve a dispute informally, you and we agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the App that is not resolved will be settled by final and binding individual arbitration, rather than in court, except as stated below. Arbitration will be administered by a recognized arbitration provider under its consumer rules, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction. This agreement to arbitrate is governed by the U.S. Federal Arbitration Act.

Exceptions

Either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies, and either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in court to protect intellectual-property rights or stop unauthorized access or misuse of the App. Nothing here prevents you from reporting a concern to a government agency.

Class-action & jury-trial waiver

To the extent permitted by law, you and we agree that each may bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, consolidated, or representative proceeding, and that the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims. You and we also waive any right to a jury trial where arbitration applies.

Opt-out

You may opt out of this arbitration and class-action-waiver section within 30 days of first accepting these Terms by emailing getblips@gmail.com with your account information and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out will not affect any other part of these Terms.

Consumers outside the United States

If mandatory law in your country of residence prohibits pre-dispute arbitration agreements or class-action waivers, this Section 18 does not apply to you to that extent, and disputes will be handled under Section 19 and Section 20 and your local law.

19. Governing law & venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of [GOVERNING LAW / STATE], without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Subject to Section 18 (Dispute resolution & arbitration), you and we agree that any dispute not subject to arbitration will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in [GOVERNING LAW / STATE], and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there, unless applicable law gives you the right to bring a claim elsewhere. Nothing in these Terms limits any mandatory consumer-protection rights you have under the law of your country of residence.

20. Additional rights for EU/EEA and other local consumers

If you are a consumer in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with mandatory consumer-protection law, nothing in these Terms removes or limits rights you have under that law, and those rights take precedence where they conflict with these Terms. In particular:

• You keep the mandatory legal guarantees and remedies available to consumers in your country.
• Because Blips is provided free of charge and gives you immediate access to digital content and services, a statutory “cooling-off” or withdrawal right for paid purchases generally does not apply. If we introduce a paid feature, we will tell you about any applicable withdrawal right and how to exercise it before you buy.
• You may be entitled to bring proceedings in the courts of your country of residence and to have your local law applied, regardless of Section 19.
• EU/EEA consumers may access the European Commission’s Online Dispute Resolution platform, and you may also contact a local consumer-protection or dispute-resolution body.

21. General provisions

Entire agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any additional terms we present for specific features, are the entire agreement between you and us about the App and replace any prior agreements on that subject.

Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, that provision will be limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will stay in full effect.

No waiver

If we do not enforce a provision of these Terms, that is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.

Assignment

You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account without our consent. We may assign these Terms, for example in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, and will give notice where required by law.

Force majeure

We are not responsible for any failure or delay caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labor disputes, government action, internet or utility failures, or the acts or outages of third-party providers such as Apple, Supabase, or Cloudflare.

Third-party beneficiaries

Except for Apple, which is a third-party beneficiary of these Terms as described in Section 9, there are no third-party beneficiaries of these Terms.

Notices

We may provide notices to you in the App, by email, or by push notification. You may send notices to us at getblips@gmail.com or the mailing address in Section 23. Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

22. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the “Effective date” above and, where appropriate, notify you in the App. Your continued use of Blips after an update means you accept the revised Terms. If you do not agree, stop using the App and delete your account.

23. Contact us

Questions about these Terms? Reach us at:

• Email: getblips@gmail.com
• Copyright/DMCA notices: getblips@gmail.com
• Awaire Technologies LLC
• [COMPANY MAILING ADDRESS]