Terms of Use

Welcome to Pawship! 

These Terms of Use (or “Terms”) govern your use of Pawship, except where we expressly state that separate terms (and not these) apply, and provide information about the Pawship Service (the “Service”), outlined below. By creating an account or using the Service, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms. 

1. The Pawship Service

We agree to provide you with the Pawship Service. The Service includes all of the Pawship features, applications, services, technologies, and software that we provide to advance Pawship’s mission: To bring you closer to the pet community. The Service is made up of the following aspects: 

• Offering personalised opportunities to create, connect, communicate, discover and share. We offer you features to help you create and share content, grow your network, and communicate with people on and off Pawship. We also want to strengthen your relationships through shared experiences that you actually care about. So we build systems that try to understand who and what you and others care about, and use that information to help you create, find, join and share in experiences that matter to you. Part of that is highlighting content, features, offers and accounts that you might be interested in. 
• Fostering a positive, inclusive, and safe environment. We develop and use tools and offer resources to our community members that help to make their experiences positive and inclusive. We also work to combat abuse and breaches of our Terms and policies, as well as harmful and deceptive behaviour. We use all the information we have – including your information – to try to keep our platform secure. 
• Developing and using technologies that help us consistently serve our growing community. Organising and analysing information for our growing community is central to our Service. A big part of our Service is creating and using cutting-edge technologies that help us personalise, protect, and improve our Service on an incredibly large scale for a broad global community. Technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning give us the power to apply complex processes across our Service. Automated technologies also help us to ensure the functionality and integrity of our Service. 
• Ensuring access to our Service. To operate our global Service, we must store and transfer data across our systems around the world, including outside of your country of residence. The use of this global infrastructure is necessary and essential to provide our Service.
• Connecting you with brands, products and services in ways that you care about. We use data from Pawship, as well as from third-party partners, to show you ads, offers, and other sponsored content that we believe will be meaningful to you. And we try to make that content as relevant as all of your other experiences on Pawship. 
• Research and innovation. We use the information we have to study our Service and collaborate with others on research to make our Service better and contribute to the well-being of our community. 

2. How our service is funded  

Instead of paying to use Pawship, by using the Service covered by these Terms, you acknowledge that we can show you ads that businesses and organisations pay us to promote on and off the Pawship app. We use your personal data, such as information about your activity and interests, to show you ads that are more relevant to you.

We show you relevant and useful ads without telling advertisers who you are. We don’t sell your personal data. We allow advertisers to tell us things such as their business goal and the kind of audience they want to see their ads. We then show their ad to people who might be interested.

We also provide advertisers with reports about the performance of their ads to help them understand how people are interacting with their content on and off Pawship. We don’t share information that directly identifies you (information such as your name or email address that by itself can be used to contact you or identifies who you are) unless you give us specific permission.

You may see branded content on Pawship posted by account holders who promote products or services based on a commercial relationship with the business partner mentioned in their content.

3. The Privacy Policy

Providing our Service requires collecting and using your information. The Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and share information. You must agree to the Privacy Policy to use Pawship. 

4. Your Commitments

In return for our commitment to provide the Service, we require you to make the below commitments to us. 

4.1 How You Can’t Use Pawship. Providing a safe and open Service for a broad community requires that we all do our part. 

• You can’t post or share content that is offensive, defamatory, or harmful; Discriminatory or harassing towards others; Violent, threatening, or illegal. 
• You can’t engage in any form of cyberbullying, harassment, or disruptive behaviour. 
• You can’t impersonate others or provide inaccurate information. You don’t have to disclose your identity on Pawship, but you must provide us with accurate and up-to-date information (including registration information), which may include providing personal data. Also, you may not impersonate someone or something you aren’t, and you can’t create an account for someone else unless you have their express permission. 
• You can’t do anything unlawful, misleading, or fraudulent or for an illegal or unauthorised purpose. 
• You can’t violate (or help or encourage others to violate) these Terms or our policies. 
• You can’t do anything to interfere with or impair the intended operation of the Service. This includes misusing any reporting, dispute or appeals channel, such as by making fraudulent or groundless reports or appeals. 
• You can’t attempt to create accounts or access or collect information in unauthorised ways. This includes creating accounts or accessing or collecting information in an automated way without our express permission, regardless of whether such automated access or collection is undertaken while logged in to a Pawship account.
• You can’t sell, license, or purchase any account or data obtained from us or our Service, regardless of whether such data was obtained while logged in to a Pawship account. This includes attempts to buy, sell, or transfer any aspect of your account (including your username); solicit, collect, or use login credentials or badges of other users; or request or collect Pawship usernames, passwords, or misappropriate access tokens. 
• You can’t post someone else’s private or confidential information without permission or do anything that violates someone else’s rights, including intellectual property rights (e.g., copyright infringement, trademark infringement, counterfeit, or pirated goods). You may use someone else’s works under exceptions or limitations to copyright and related rights under applicable law. You represent that you own or have obtained all necessary rights to the content you post or share.
• You can’t modify, translate, create derivative works of or reverse-engineer our products or their components. 
• You can’t use a domain name or URL in your username without our prior written consent.   

4.2 Permissions you give to us. As part of our agreement, you also give us permissions that we need to provide the Service. 

• We do not claim ownership of your content, but you grant us a licence to use it. Nothing is changing about your rights in your content. We do not claim ownership of your content that you post on or through the Service and you are free to share your content with anyone else, wherever you choose. However, we need certain legal permissions from you (known as a “licence”) to provide the Service. When you share, post or upload content that is covered by intellectual property rights (such as photos or videos) on or in connection with our Service, you hereby grant to us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, worldwide licence to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings). This licence will end when your content is deleted from our systems. You can delete content individually or all at once by deleting your account. 
• Permission to use your username, profile picture and information about your relationships and actions with accounts, ads and sponsored content. 
  You give us permission to show your username, profile picture and information about your actions (such as likes) or relationships (such as follows) next to or in connection with accounts, ads, offers and other sponsored content that you follow or engage with that are displayed on Pawship, without any compensation to you. For example, we may show that you liked a sponsored post created by a brand that has paid us to display its ads on Pawship. As with actions on other content and follows of other accounts, actions on sponsored content and follows of sponsored accounts can only be seen by people who have permission to see that content or follow.
• You agree that we can download and install updates to the Service on your device. 
• Right to monetise. You grant to Pawship the right to monetize your Content on the Service (and such monetization may include displaying ads on or within Content or charging users a fee for access). This Agreement does not entitle you to any payments. Any payments you may be entitled to receive from Pawship under any other agreement between you and Pawship will be treated as royalties. If required by law, Google will withhold taxes from such payments. 

5. Additional rights that we retain 

• If you select a username or similar identifier for your account, we may change it if we believe it is appropriate or necessary (for example, if it infringes someone’s intellectual property or impersonates another user). 
• If you use content covered by intellectual property rights that we have and make available in our Service (for example, images, designs, videos, or sounds we provide that you add to content you create or share), we retain all rights to our content (but not yours). 
• You can only use our intellectual property and trademarks or similar marks as expressly permitted by us or with our prior written permission. 
• You must obtain written permission from us or under an open-source license to modify, create derivative works of, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract source code from us. 

6. Child Safety and Protection

Pawship is committed to maintaining a safe environment for all users, including minors. 

6.1 Protection Against Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE).

We have a strict zero-tolerance policy for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or any content, communication, or behaviour that promotes, encourages, or engages in the sexual exploitation or abuse of children. This includes, but is not limited to, imagery, text, audio, or video that depicts or implies CSAE. When we find this type of violating content, we remove it and may be reported to the appropriate authorities and/or local law enforcement, regardless of the context or the person’s motivation for sharing it.

6.2 Compliance with Child Safety Laws.  

Pawship complies with all applicable laws related to child protection, including data privacy and digital safety regulations relevant to minors.

6.3 Content Review and Enforcement.

All reports of content or behaviour involving minors are reviewed promptly and escalated as necessary. If we determine that content violates our child safety policies or legal obligations, we will remove it and may disable or terminate the associated accounts.

6.4 Child Safety Point of Contact.

If you have questions, concerns, or reports related to child safety, you may contact us at hello@pawship.com. 

7. Reporting mechanism

Users can report objectionable content, abusive behaviour, or any content that violates our child safety standards, by using the in-app reporting feature or by contacting our support team.  

7.1 Content removal and disabling or terminating your account. 

• We can remove any content or information that you share on the Service if we believe that it violates these Terms of Use, our policies or we are permitted or required to do so by law. We can refuse to provide or stop providing all or part of the Service to you (including terminating or disabling your access to Pawship) immediately to protect our community or services, or if you create risk or legal exposure for us, violate these Terms of Use or our policies, if you repeatedly infringe other people’s intellectual property rights, or where we are permitted or required to do so by law. We can also terminate or change the Service, remove or block content or information shared on our Service, or stop providing all or part of the Service if we determine that doing so is reasonably necessary to avoid or mitigate adverse legal or regulatory impacts on us. If you believe that your account has been terminated in error, or you want to permanently delete your account, please contact us. When you request to delete content or your account, the deletion process will automatically begin no more than 30 days after your request. It may take up to 90 days to delete content after the deletion process begins. While the deletion process for such content is being undertaken, the content is no longer visible to other users, but remains subject to these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. After the content has been deleted, it may take us up to another 90 days to remove it from backups and disaster recovery systems. 
• Content will not be deleted within 90 days of the account deletion or content deletion process beginning in the following situations: 
  • where your content has been used by others in accordance with this licence and they have not deleted it (in which case this licence will continue to apply until that content has been deleted); or 
  • where deletion within 90 days is not possible due to technical limitations of our systems, in which case, we will complete the deletion as soon as technically feasible; or 
  • where deletion would restrict our ability to: 
    • investigate or identify illegal activity or violations of our terms and policies (for example, to identify or investigate misuse of our products or systems); 
    • protect the safety and security of our products, systems and users; 
    • comply with a legal obligation, such as the preservation of evidence; or 
    • comply with a request of a judicial or administrative authority, law enforcement or a government agency; 
  • in which case, the content will be retained for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which it has been retained (the exact duration will vary on a case-by-case basis). 
• If you delete or we disable your account, and you stop accessing or using Pawship, then these Terms shall terminate as an agreement between you and us, but this section, the section above called “Your Commitments”, and the section below called “Our Agreement and What Happens if We Disagree” will still apply even after your account is terminated, or deleted. 

8. Our agreement and what happens if we disagree 

8.1 Our Agreement. 

• Your use of our API is subject to our policy. If you use certain other features or related services, additional terms will be made available and will also become a part of our agreement. If any of those terms conflict with this agreement, those other terms will govern. 
• If any aspect of this agreement is unenforceable, the rest will remain in effect. 
• Any amendment or waiver to our agreement must be in writing and signed by us. If we fail to enforce any aspect of this agreement, it will not be a waiver. 
• We reserve all rights not expressly granted to you. 

8.2 Who has rights under this agreement.

• This agreement does not give rights to any third parties. 
• You cannot transfer your rights or obligations under this agreement without our consent. 
• Our rights and obligations can be assigned to others. For example, this could occur if our ownership changes (as in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets) or by law. 

8.3 Who is responsible if something happens. 

• Our Service is provided “as is”, and we can’t guarantee that it will be safe and secure or will work perfectly all the time. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE ALSO DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. 
• We also don’t control what people and others do or say, and we aren’t responsible for their (or your) actions or conduct (whether online or offline) or content (including unlawful or objectionable content). We also aren’t responsible for services and features offered by other people or companies, even if you access them through our Service. 
• Our responsibility for anything that happens on the Service (also called “liability”) is limited as much as the law will allow. If there is an issue with our Service, we can’t know what all the possible impacts might be. You agree that we won’t be responsible (“liable”) for any lost profits, revenues, information or data, or consequential, special, indirect, exemplary, punitive or incidental damages arising out of or related to these Terms, even if we know that they are possible. This includes when we delete your content, information or account. 

8.4 Governing Law. 

These Terms and any dispute or matter arising from or incidental to the use of the Service shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as “Hong Kong”), unless otherwise specified. 

8.5 Unsolicited material.

We always appreciate feedback or other suggestions, but may use them without any restrictions or obligation to compensate you for them, and are under no obligation to keep them confidential. 

9. Updating these Terms 

We may change our Service and Policies, and we may need to make changes to these Terms so that they accurately reflect our Service and Policies. Unless otherwise required by law, we will notify you (for example, through our Service) before we make changes to these Terms and give you an opportunity to review them before they go into effect. Then, if you continue to use the Service, you will be bound by the updated Terms. If you do not agree to any updated Terms or wish to terminate your agreement to this contract, you can do so by deleting your account and no longer using any part of the Pawship Service.