Whale Spotter Terms of Service

Last updated: July 6, 2026

These Terms of Service govern your use of Whale Spotter, including the Whale Spotter mobile app and related website pages. By using Whale Spotter, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the app or submit sightings.

1. What Whale Spotter Does

Whale Spotter helps people identify marine animals in Timor-Leste, record sightings, attach optional notes or photos, and contribute sighting information for community awareness, conservation, and research purposes.

2. Your Responsibilities

Use Whale Spotter lawfully and respectfully.
Submit sightings only when you have a good faith basis for them.
Do not submit false, misleading, offensive, illegal, abusive, or harmful content.
Do not upload photos or content unless you own them or have permission to submit them.
Do not include names, faces, contact details, or other private personal information in sighting notes or photos.
Follow local laws, marine safety rules, and responsible wildlife watching practices.

3. Safety and Wildlife Disclaimer

Whale Spotter is an identification and sighting-log tool. It is not a navigation system, emergency service, tour operator, safety guide, or guarantee that whales or other marine animals will be present. Always follow your vessel operator, local authorities, and applicable marine wildlife rules. Do not use the app in a way that distracts from boating safety or encourages unsafe approaches to wildlife.

4. Sightings, Photos, and User Content

You keep any rights you own in content you submit. By uploading a sighting, photo, note, or related field data, you give Whale Spotter a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, process, display, reproduce, adapt for formatting, share, and analyze that content for app operation, community maps, education, conservation, and research-related purposes.

We may remove, hide, edit for formatting, reject, or moderate submitted content if we believe it is inaccurate, unsafe, offensive, unlawful, abusive, duplicative, private, or otherwise inconsistent with these terms or our community guidelines.

5. Community Map and Research Use

Uploaded sightings may appear anonymously on public or internal maps and may be shared in aggregated or reviewed form with conservation, education, or research partners. We do not require user accounts, and we do not sell submitted sighting data to advertisers.

6. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains what data is collected, how it is used, and how to request deletion of uploaded data. Please review it before submitting sightings.

7. App Stores and Third-Party Services

If you download Whale Spotter from Apple App Store or Google Play, those store terms may also apply. Whale Spotter is responsible for its own app and website content, not for third-party stores, devices, operating systems, network providers, or map services.

8. Availability and Changes

We may change, suspend, or discontinue parts of Whale Spotter at any time. We may also update these terms. If changes are material, we will update the date on this page and, where practical, provide notice in the app or on the website.

9. Disclaimers

Whale Spotter is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We do not promise that the app will be uninterrupted, error-free, or fully accurate. Species information, maps, community sightings, and research outputs may contain errors or omissions.

10. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent allowed by applicable law, Whale Spotter and its operators are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss resulting from use of the app, reliance on sighting information, unsafe boating decisions, unavailable service, or submitted user content.

11. Contact

Questions about these terms can be sent to whalespotter_app@proton.me.