Terms of Service
INeedHelp Terms of Service
Important: INeedHelp is not an emergency service. It does not contact the police, an ambulance, the fire brigade or any rescue service, and nobody at INeedHelp watches alerts or answers them.
If you are in danger, or someone's life or health is at risk, call your local emergency number first.
1. These Terms
These Terms of Service ("Terms") are the agreement between you and Siarhei Kananovich ("we", "us") about the INeedHelp app, website and related services (the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service you accept them. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
Our Privacy Policy and Safety Notice are part of what you accept when you create an account; please read them too.
2. Who can use the Service
You must be at least 13 years old. If you are younger than the age at which the law of your country lets you enter into this agreement and agree to the use of your personal data yourself, a parent or guardian must agree to it for you. You may have one account for yourself; you may not create accounts for other people or in another person's name.
3. What the Service does
INeedHelp lets you:
- create groups of people you trust and invite them by username or email;
- raise an alert - from the app, its widget or a paired Bluetooth button - that reaches the members of the groups you chose, with your message and your location while the alert lasts (from 1 minute to 2 hours, and it can be extended);
- receive the alerts of the people in your groups, and alerts raised by people near you (section 6).
An alert is a notification and a shared location. It is not a call, it does not reach any public service, and it only helps if the people it reaches see it and are able to act.
4. Not an emergency service
We do not guarantee that any alert is delivered, seen or answered, or that anybody comes to help. Delivery depends on things outside our control: mobile networks and internet access, your phone and its battery settings, the operating system, Google's push service, GPS accuracy, and the phones of the people you alert.
Do not use the Service instead of calling emergency services, and keep your own backup plan (see the Safety Notice).
5. Your account
Keep your email address up to date and your password and sign-in codes to yourself. You are responsible for what happens in your account unless it is caused by our failure to protect it. Tell us at once if you think someone else has accessed it.
Your username is visible to the people in your groups and to anyone your alerts reach. The name you choose to show is optional; it must not impersonate another person.
6. Nearby alerts
- With Premium you can send an alert to people near you, within a radius you choose (50 to 1000 metres). They are strangers: they see your username, name, message and live location, and nothing else about you.
- The app also brings you nearby alerts raised by other people. On the Basic plan this is always on; on Premium you can turn it off. It uses your last known location or a point you set on the map (see the Privacy Policy).
- If you go to help a stranger, you do so by your own decision and at your own risk. Use your judgement, keep your distance if a situation looks dangerous, and call emergency services.
- If a nearby alert is false, abusive or misused, you can report it with a reason. If five different people report one person's nearby alerts within 24 hours, that person's nearby alerts are paused for 7 days automatically. We review reports and may dismiss them, which ends the pause, or confirm them and pause nearby alerts for longer (up to 365 days). Alerts to your own groups are not affected by a pause.
7. Plans and payment
- Basic is free. It includes up to 3 groups you own with up to 10 members each, and alerts to your groups.
- Premium is a paid subscription. It adds nearby alerts, up to 20 groups you own, larger groups, and the option not to receive nearby alerts. The current price is shown in the app before you buy.
- Premium is sold and billed by Google Play under Google Play's terms. It renews automatically for the same period until you cancel it in Google Play (Payments & subscriptions); cancelling takes effect at the end of the paid period. Refunds are handled by Google under its refund policy, without affecting your statutory rights.
- Deleting your INeedHelp account does not cancel a subscription in Google Play; cancel it there.
- When Premium ends, your account returns to Basic. Groups over the Basic limits keep working for 7 days; after that, the newest groups over the limits are paused (they are not deleted) until they fit the limits again or you buy Premium again.
- We may change prices or what each plan includes. A price change for an existing subscription is made through Google Play, which informs you in advance and, where the law requires, asks for your consent.
8. What you send
You remain the owner of what you write in alerts, group names, reports and messages to us. You allow us to store, process and deliver it to the people it is meant for, only to run the Service and to meet our legal obligations. You are responsible for it being lawful.
9. Rules of use
You must not:
- raise false alerts, or alerts meant to frighten, prank or lure anyone;
- use alerts or groups to harass, threaten, stalk or track another person without their agreement;
- impersonate another person or use a name or username that misleads about who you are;
- send advertising, spam or unlawful content;
- file reports you know to be untrue;
- try to access accounts, data or systems that are not yours, overload the Service, or get around its limits;
- copy or collect other users' data.
Testing the app is fine: tell the people in your group first, and cancel the alert when you are done.
10. Suspension and termination
If you break these Terms, or your use puts other people at risk, we may pause features (such as nearby alerts), suspend or close your account. We will tell you why unless that would put someone at risk or the law forbids it, and you can reply to us to contest the decision. You can stop using the Service and delete your account at any time (Account > Delete account, or https://ineedhelp.konon.net/delete-account).
11. Changes to the Service
We keep developing the Service and may change or remove features. We may also stop the Service; if we do, we will tell you at least 30 days in advance, except where we must stop sooner for legal or security reasons. App updates may be required to keep using the Service.
12. Our software
The app, its design and the INeedHelp name belong to us. We give you a personal, non-transferable right to use the app for as long as these Terms apply. You may not copy, sell or reverse-engineer it, except where the law allows.
13. Third-party services
The Service relies on Google Play, Google's push notification service, Google Maps and your phone's operating system. Their own terms apply to them, and we are not responsible for their failures.
14. Liability
We provide the Service with care, but as it is and as available: we cannot promise that it works without interruption or error, that alerts arrive, or that locations are accurate.
To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, for the acts or omissions of other users, or for harm that the Service did not prevent. Our total liability is limited to the greater of what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or EUR 100.
Nothing in these Terms limits liability for intentional harm or gross negligence, for death or personal injury caused by our fault, or any other liability that cannot be limited by law, and nothing limits your mandatory rights as a consumer.
15. Changes to these Terms
If we change these Terms in a way that matters, the app asks you to read and accept the new version; you have 7 days to do so, after which you need to accept it to keep using the Service. If you do not agree, you can delete your account. Corrections that do not change the meaning take effect when published.
16. Law and disputes
These Terms are governed by Polish law. If you are a consumer, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live, and you can bring a claim in the courts there. Please write to us first; most problems can be solved that way. Consumers in the EU can also use the out-of-court dispute resolution bodies of their country.
17. Language
These Terms are written in English. Translations are provided for convenience; if a translation differs from the English text, the English text applies.
18. Other
If a part of these Terms is invalid, the rest still applies. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms to anyone else.
19. Contact
ineedhelpkonon@gmail.com, phone +48 571 830 202, or by post to the address at the top of this page.