Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of These Terms

By creating an account, accessing or using the Service, you agree to:

• These Terms;
• The Pocket Friends Privacy Policy;
• Any Community Guidelines or feature-specific rules displayed in the Service; and
• Any additional terms presented when you use a particular feature.

If you do not agree, do not access or use the Service.

If you use Pocket Friends on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization, although Pocket Friends accounts are ordinarily intended for personal use.

2. Eligibility and Users Under 13

You must be at least 13 years old to use Pocket Friends.

If you are under 13 years of age, you are not authorized to use the Service, with or without registering.

You may not use the Service if:

• You are under 13;
• Applicable law requires you to be older;
• Applicable law requires parental consent that has not been obtained;
• You have previously been permanently suspended from Pocket Friends, unless we authorize a new account;
• You are prohibited from receiving the Service under applicable law; or
• You cannot legally agree to these Terms.

If you are between 13 and the age of legal majority where you live, you represent that your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms and permits you to use the Service.

Where required, we may request age or parental-authority verification. The availability of Pocket Friends or particular features may vary by state to comply with age-assurance, parental-consent or youth-safety laws.

Parents and guardians should discuss location sharing, messaging, check-ins and online safety with minor users.

3. Your Account

You agree to:

• Provide accurate account information and a truthful confirmation that you are at least 13;
• Maintain only accounts you are authorized to use;
• Keep verification codes confidential;
• Keep your phone number current;
• Protect access to your device;
• Promptly notify us of unauthorized access; and
• Be responsible for activity conducted through your account, except to the extent caused by Pocket Friends’ failure to use reasonable security.

You may not:

• Impersonate another person;
• Create an account for someone without authorization;
• Misrepresent your age;
• Sell, rent, transfer or purchase an account;
• Share an account in a way that creates a safety or security risk; or
• Attempt to regain access after a permanent suspension without permission.

We may require identity, age or account verification where reasonably necessary to protect users or comply with law.

4. The Pocket Friends Service

Pocket Friends may allow users to:

• Connect with accepted friends;
• Optionally share your current foreground location with eligible friends;
• View eligible friends on the Radar map;
• Share availability and send pokes;
• Create plans and check in to them;
• Send constrained friend and group pings or messages;
• Create or join groups;
• Respond to RSVP links, add plus-ones and use an event wall when the host enables those features; and
• Optionally upload an avatar and use notifications, blocking and reporting tools.

We may modify, test, add, limit or discontinue features. We will provide notice where required by law.

We do not guarantee that every feature will always be available, accurate or compatible with every device.

A. Product Analytics

Product analytics is optional and remains off unless you explicitly enable it in Settings. When enabled, Pocket Friends sends PostHog an internal account identifier and limited product-interaction events. We do not send contacts, message or notification text, precise coordinates or avatar content to PostHog. You can withdraw consent at any time in Settings.

Analytics is used only to understand and improve product usage and reliability. It is not used for advertising or cross-app tracking, and Pocket Friends does not sell personal information. The Privacy Policy describes the data, purposes, retention and providers in more detail.

5. Location Features and Safety

A. Your Choice to Share

Location sharing is optional. You decide whether to enable location access and which accepted friends may see your location.

Pocket Friends requests location only while you are using the app. The current release does not request background location permission. You may withdraw permission through the app or device settings, although doing so may disable location features.

B. Share Only With People You Trust

Precise location can reveal where you live, work, attend school, spend time and follow routines. Only share it with people you know and trust.

People who receive location information may:

• Take screenshots;
• Record it;
• Share it with others;
• Use it outside Pocket Friends; or
• Infer patterns about your activities.

Pocket Friends cannot control recipients after information has been disclosed to them.

C. No Stalking, Surveillance or Harassment

You may not use Pocket Friends to:

• Stalk, monitor or track someone without permission;
• Circumvent another person’s location settings;
• Pressure or threaten someone to share location;
• Monitor a current or former romantic partner without consent;
• Locate someone for harassment, violence, discrimination or retaliation;
• Track a child without lawful authority;
• Facilitate burglary, assault, trafficking or another crime;
• Publicly expose another person’s home, school or sensitive location; or
• Use location information in a manner that violates law or another person’s rights.

Violations may result in immediate suspension, preservation of relevant records and disclosure to authorities where legally permitted or required.

D. Not an Emergency or Safety Service

Pocket Friends is not:

• An emergency-response system;
• A substitute for calling 911;
• A medical-alert system;
• A missing-person service;
• A professional security service; or
• A guarantee of another person’s safety.

Location information may be delayed, inaccurate, unavailable or affected by device settings, battery status, network coverage, software errors or user actions.

In an emergency, contact 911 or the appropriate emergency service.

E. Safe Use

Do not use Pocket Friends in a manner that distracts you while driving, cycling, walking in traffic or participating in an activity requiring attention.

Do not trespass or enter a dangerous location to create content, check in or meet another user.

6. Your Content

“User Content” means information or material you submit to the Service, including profile details and avatars, availability or mood, plans and event details, RSVP responses, plus-ones, pings or messages, check-ins, reports and event-wall content.

A. You Retain Ownership

As between you and Pocket Friends, you retain ownership of your User Content.

You are responsible for User Content and must have the rights and permissions necessary to upload and share it.

B. License to Operate the Service

You grant Pocket Friends a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable license to host, store, reproduce, process, adapt, transmit, display and distribute your User Content solely as reasonably necessary to:

• Operate the Service;
• Deliver content to the audience you select;
• Maintain backups;
• Format content for different devices;
• Detect abuse, fraud or security threats;
• Moderate reported or unlawful content;
• Improve Service functionality; and
• Comply with legal obligations.

This license ends when User Content is deleted from our active systems, except:

• To the extent another user retains a copy;
• During a reasonable backup-deletion period;
• Where content has been incorporated into aggregated or deidentified information; or
• Where retention is reasonably necessary for legal, security or enforcement purposes.

Pocket Friends does not obtain ownership of your User Content.

We will not use private messages or precise location in public marketing without your express permission.

C. Your Responsibilities

You represent and warrant that:

• You own or have permission to use your User Content;
• Your User Content does not violate law;
• Your User Content does not infringe intellectual-property, privacy, publicity or other rights;
• You have permission before posting another person’s private or precise location information; and
• Your User Content complies with these Terms and our Community Guidelines.

D. Recipient Conduct

Content shared with another person may be copied, saved, photographed or shared outside Pocket Friends. Use care when sending private or sensitive information.

Deleting content from your account may not delete copies already received or saved by others.

7. Acceptable Use

You may not use the Service to:

Harm or Exploit People

• Threaten, harass, intimidate, bully or defame;
• Stalk or conduct unauthorized surveillance;
• Promote or facilitate violence;
• Exploit, groom or sexually endanger a minor;
• Create, possess, request or distribute child sexual-abuse material;
• Engage in sextortion or nonconsensual intimate-image abuse;
• Encourage suicide, self-harm or eating-disorder behavior;
• Facilitate human trafficking;
• Dox another person; or
• Reveal another person’s precise location without authorization.

Engage in Illegal or Deceptive Conduct

• Commit fraud or identity theft;
• Impersonate another person;
• Facilitate illegal drug sales or weapons transactions;
• Promote unlawful discrimination;
• Violate sanctions or export-control laws;
• Misrepresent affiliation with Pocket Friends; or
• Use the Service for conduct that violates applicable law.

Infringe Rights

• Violate copyright, trademark or other intellectual-property rights;
• Violate privacy, publicity or confidentiality rights;
• Upload content without required consent;
• Record private communications unlawfully; or
• Misuse another person’s name, image or likeness.

Abuse the Service

• Send spam or unwanted bulk communications;
• Distribute malware;
• Phish for credentials;
• Attempt unauthorized access;
• Interfere with security features;
• Reverse engineer the Service except where law prohibits restricting that activity;
• Scrape or harvest information;
• Use bots or unauthorized automation;
• Create fake engagement;
• Circumvent rate limits, blocks or suspensions;
• Test vulnerabilities without written permission;
• Use Pocket Friends data to build a competing location, identity or social-graph database; or
• Use User Content to train an artificial-intelligence model without the content owner’s authorization.

Post Prohibited Content

You may not post content that:

• Is unlawful;
• Contains child sexual-abuse material;
• Contains nonconsensual intimate imagery;
• Credibly threatens violence;
• Promotes terrorism or violent extremist activity;
• Contains malicious code;
• Facilitates stalking or exploitation; or
• Violates these Terms or our Community Guidelines.

8. Minor Safety

Adults may not use Pocket Friends to pursue inappropriate, exploitative or sexual interactions with minors.

Users may not:

• Request sexual content from a minor;
• Send sexually explicit material to a minor;
• Encourage a minor to conceal an interaction from a parent or guardian;
• Offer money, gifts or benefits for sexual or exploitative conduct;
• Use location features to arrange an unsafe encounter;
• Threaten to disclose a minor’s images or information; or
• Misrepresent age to access a minor.

We may suspend accounts, preserve evidence and make legally authorized or required reports concerning suspected child exploitation.

9. Reporting, Blocking and Moderation

Pocket Friends may provide tools to block users, report content and request safety support.

Blocking may limit future communication but cannot:

• Delete information already received;
• Prevent activity outside Pocket Friends;
• Guarantee that a person will not create another account; or
• Replace contacting emergency services or law enforcement where appropriate.

We may, but are not obligated to, review, restrict, remove or preserve content or accounts that we believe violate these Terms, create risk or expose Pocket Friends to liability.

Moderation decisions may use automated systems and human review. Automated systems can make mistakes.

Where available, you may appeal a moderation decision through support@pocketfriends.app.

We may take action without advance notice when reasonably necessary to protect users, preserve evidence, prevent harm or comply with law.

10. Pocket Friends’ Intellectual Property

The Service, including its software, design, branding, text, graphics, logos, interfaces and non-user content, is owned by Pocket Friends or its licensors and protected by intellectual-property law.

Subject to these Terms, Pocket Friends grants you a limited, personal, nonexclusive, nontransferable, revocable license to use the Service for lawful, noncommercial purposes.

No rights are granted except as expressly stated.

You may not use Pocket Friends’ trademarks, branding or copyrighted material without written permission.

11. Copyright Complaints and DMCA Procedure

Pocket Friends respects intellectual-property rights.

If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a written notice containing:

1. Identification of the copyrighted work;
2. Identification and location of the allegedly infringing material;
3. Your name, address, telephone number and email address;
4. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized;
5. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act for the owner; and
6. Your physical or electronic signature.

Send notices to:

We may remove allegedly infringing content and notify the user who submitted it.

A user may submit a valid counter-notification as permitted by 17 U.S.C. § 512. We may restore content after the statutory period unless the copyright claimant informs us that a court action has been filed.

We may terminate accounts of repeat copyright infringers in appropriate circumstances.

12. Third-Party Services

The Service may rely on or link to third-party services, including:

• Cloud database, storage and hosting providers;
• SMS verification providers;
• Push-notification delivery providers;
• Mapping and place-search providers;
• Avatar-moderation providers;
• Optional product-analytics providers when you opt in;
• App stores, websites and device-operating-system features.

Third-party services are governed by their own terms and privacy policies. Pocket Friends is not responsible for third-party services except to the extent required by law.

13. Paid Features

Pocket Friends does not offer subscriptions, in-app purchases or other paid features in the current release. If paid features are offered later, the following terms will apply.

Before purchase, we will display:

• Price;
• Billing period;
• Included features;
• Whether the purchase automatically renews;
• How to cancel; and
• Any trial terms.

Purchases made through an app store are also subject to the app store’s terms.

Unless otherwise stated or required by law:

• Subscription fees are charged at the beginning of each billing period;
• Subscriptions renew automatically until canceled;
• Cancellation applies at the end of the current paid period; and
• Partial-period refunds are not provided.

We may change prices prospectively after providing required notice.

14. App Store Terms

If you download Pocket Friends from Apple’s App Store:

• These Terms are between you and Pocket Friends, not Apple;
• Apple is not responsible for the Service or its content;
• Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support;
• Pocket Friends, not Apple, is responsible for addressing claims concerning the Service, subject to these Terms and applicable law;
• You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. government embargo and are not listed on a U.S. government prohibited-party list; and
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce the applicable provisions.

Corresponding app-store terms may apply to downloads from Google Play or another marketplace.

15. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using Pocket Friends at any time and may request account deletion through the app or by contacting support.

We may restrict, suspend or terminate access if:

• You violate these Terms;
• Your account creates a safety or legal risk;
• We reasonably suspect fraud or unauthorized access;
• You repeatedly infringe intellectual-property rights;
• Required by law;
• You fail to pay applicable fees; or
• We discontinue the Service.

When reasonably appropriate, we may provide notice and an opportunity to appeal. We may act immediately where necessary to prevent harm.

After termination:

• Your right to use the Service ends;
• We may delete or deidentify account information according to our Privacy Policy;
• Content received or saved by other users may remain;
• Provisions that by their nature should survive will continue, including ownership, disclaimers, liability limitations and dispute terms.

16. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the service is provided “as is” and “as available.”

Pocket Friends disclaims express, implied and statutory warranties, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, availability and security.

We do not warrant that:

• the service will be uninterrupted or error-free;
• location data will be accurate or current;
• another user is who they claim to be;
• user content is accurate or safe;
• users will comply with their sharing obligations;
• the service will prevent stalking, harassment or other harm; or
• deleted content will never exist in another user’s possession.

You are responsible for your interactions with other users and your decisions to share location or content.

Nothing in these Terms excludes warranties or rights that cannot legally be excluded.

17. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Pocket Friends and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, agents and licensors will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, loss of goodwill or business interruption.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability arising from or related to the service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of:

1. the amount you paid Pocket Friends during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim; or
2. $100.

These limitations apply regardless of the legal theory and even if we were advised that damages were possible.

The limitations do not apply to liability that cannot be limited under applicable law, which may include liability for intentional misconduct, gross negligence or certain personal injuries.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or limitations, so portions of this section may not apply to you.

18. Dispute Resolution, Arbitration and Class-Action Waiver

A. Informal Dispute Resolution

Before filing a lawsuit or arbitration, you and Pocket Friends agree to attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least 60 days.

A notice must include:

• The sender’s name and contact information;
• The relevant Pocket Friends username;
• A description of the dispute;
• Supporting information; and
• The requested resolution.

Send notices to:

Statutes of limitation are paused during the 60-day informal-resolution period where permitted by law.

B. Individual Binding Arbitration

Except for disputes excluded below, you and Pocket Friends agree that disputes arising from or relating to the Service, these Terms or the Privacy Policy will be resolved through individual binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its applicable Consumer Arbitration Rules.

The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section.

The arbitrator may award any relief available to an individual in court but may not combine claims or preside over a class, collective, coordinated or representative proceeding except where applicable law requires otherwise.

Arbitration may take place by telephone, video conference, written submissions or in person in the county where you reside, unless the parties agree otherwise.

Pocket Friends will pay arbitration fees to the extent required by the applicable rules or law.

C. Excluded Disputes

Either party may:

• Bring an eligible individual claim in small-claims court;
• Seek emergency or temporary injunctive relief concerning unauthorized access, security threats or intellectual-property misuse; or
• Report matters to a government agency.

D. Class-Action and Jury-Trial Waiver

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you and Pocket Friends waive the right to:

• a jury trial;
• participate in a class action;
• act as a private attorney general; or
• have a dispute heard on a class, collective, consolidated or representative basis.

If the class-action waiver is held unenforceable for a particular claim or remedy, that claim or remedy will proceed in court after all arbitrable claims are completed.

E. Arbitration Opt-Out

You may opt out of arbitration by sending written notice within 30 days after first accepting these Terms.

The notice must include:

• Your full name;
• Your Pocket Friends username;
• The email address or phone number associated with the account;
• A clear statement that you opt out of arbitration; and
• Your signature.

Send the notice to support@pocketfriends.app or the mailing address above.

Opting out will not affect your access to Pocket Friends.

F. Minor Users

Where applicable law requires a parent or guardian to agree to arbitration on behalf of a minor, this section applies to the minor only if the parent or guardian has validly agreed. Otherwise, disputes involving the minor will be handled in a court with lawful jurisdiction.

19. Governing Law and Courts

Except as governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, these Terms are governed by the laws of the state in which you reside, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles.

For disputes that are not subject to arbitration, you and Pocket Friends consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in your county and state of residence, unless applicable consumer law permits you to bring a claim elsewhere.

20. Indemnification

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Pocket Friends and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees and agents from claims, liabilities, damages, losses and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising from:

• Your User Content;
• Your misuse of the Service;
• Your violation of these Terms;
• Your violation of law; or
• Your infringement of another person’s rights.

This obligation does not apply to the extent a claim results from Pocket Friends’ own unlawful conduct, negligence or breach of these Terms.

If you are a minor, this provision applies only to the extent enforceable under applicable law.

21. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms to reflect changes in the Service, business practices or law.

For material changes, we will provide reasonable advance notice where practicable and required. We may request renewed acceptance.

Changes will not retroactively alter how an existing dispute is resolved unless you expressly agree or applicable law permits.

If you do not agree to updated Terms, you must stop using the Service.

22. General Terms

These Terms constitute the entire agreement concerning the Service, except for additional terms expressly incorporated into them.

If a provision is held unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent necessary or severed, and the remaining provisions will remain effective.

Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.

You may not assign these Terms without our written permission. We may assign them as part of a merger, acquisition, reorganization or asset transfer.

Headings are for convenience only.

The word “including” means “including without limitation.”

23. Contact Information