Terms of Service

1. Service Description

PikPal is a social movie and TV recommendation platform that allows you to:

• Rank movies and TV shows you have watched.
• Write reviews, quotes, and notes about media.
• Connect with friends and discover what they are watching.
• Receive personalized recommendations based on your taste and your friends' activity.
• Manage your watchlist via the app or WhatsApp chatbot.
• Import watch history from Letterboxd and IMDb.

2. Accounts

2.1 Account Creation

To use the Service, you must create an account using Google OAuth or phone number verification. You must:

• Be at least 13 years of age.
• Provide accurate information during registration.
• Keep your authentication credentials secure.
• Notify us immediately of any unauthorized access to your account.

2.2 Account Responsibilities

You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account. We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from unauthorized use of your account. You may not share your account or let others access the Service through your credentials.

2.3 Usernames

You may choose a username for your profile. We reserve the right to reclaim or reassign usernames that are inactive, misleading, or violate these Terms. Usernames must not impersonate other people, brands, or organizations.

3. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• Post content that is illegal, defamatory, harassing, threatening, obscene, or otherwise objectionable.
• Impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.
• Upload viruses, malware, or other harmful code.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other users' accounts, or our systems and infrastructure.
• Scrape, crawl, or use automated means to access the Service without our written consent.
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service.
• Use the Service for any commercial purpose without our written consent.
• Spam other users with unsolicited messages, friend requests, or recommendations.
• Circumvent any rate limiting, security measures, or access controls.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these guidelines, at our sole discretion.

4. Content and Intellectual Property

4.1 Your Content

You retain ownership of all reviews, quotes, notes, and other original content you create on the Service ("User Content"). By posting User Content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, display, and distribute your User Content solely for the purpose of operating and improving the Service. This license ends when you delete your User Content or your account, except where your content has been shared with other users and they have retained their own copy (for example, in their activity feed).

4.2 Movie and TV Metadata

Movie and TV show information displayed in the Service (titles, descriptions, posters, cast data) is sourced from TMDB (The Movie Database). This data is provided under TMDB's terms of use. We do not claim ownership of this metadata.

4.3 Our Intellectual Property

The Service, including its design, features, code, and branding (but excluding User Content and third-party data), is our intellectual property. You may not copy, modify, distribute, or reverse-engineer any part of the Service without our written consent.

5. Friend Connections and Social Features

The Service includes social features such as friend connections, taste similarity scoring, activity feeds, and recommendations. By using these features:

• You consent to your rankings, reviews, and activity being visible to your friends.
• You acknowledge that taste similarity scores are calculated automatically based on shared rankings and are provided for entertainment and discovery purposes.
• You agree not to abuse social features (for example, by mass-sending friend requests to strangers).

6. Data Import

You may import watch history from Letterboxd and IMDb by uploading CSV export files. By using this feature:

• You represent that you have the right to upload the data contained in those files.
• You acknowledge that the import process is a best-effort match against our media database and may not capture every entry perfectly.
• Uploaded CSV files are processed and then deleted; only the extracted ranking data is retained.

7. WhatsApp Chatbot

The Service offers a WhatsApp chatbot for managing your watchlist and receiving recommendations. By using the chatbot:

• You acknowledge that messages are processed by our servers and by Twilio (our messaging provider).
• You agree to Twilio's terms of service and WhatsApp's terms of service as they apply to chatbot interactions.
• You understand that the chatbot may not be available at all times due to service outages or maintenance.

8. Service Availability

We strive to keep the Service available and reliable but make no guarantees regarding uptime or availability. Specifically:

• The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis.
• We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time, with or without notice.
• We do not guarantee that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of harmful components.
• Scheduled maintenance may require temporary service interruptions.

9. Termination

9.1 By You

You may delete your account at any time through the app's settings. Upon deletion, your personal data, rankings, reviews, and friend connections will be permanently removed in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

9.2 By Us

We may suspend or terminate your account at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice. Reasons for termination may include, but are not limited to:

• Violation of these Terms or our Acceptable Use policy.
• Conduct that is harmful to other users, us, or third parties.
• Extended inactivity.
• Requests by law enforcement or government agencies.

9.3 Effect of Termination

Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases immediately. Sections 4 (Content and Intellectual Property), 10 (Disclaimers), 11 (Limitation of Liability), and 13 (Governing Law) survive termination.

10. Disclaimers

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW:

• THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
• WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT RECOMMENDATIONS OR TASTE SIMILARITY SCORES WILL BE ACCURATE OR USEFUL.
• WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACCURACY OF MOVIE OR TV SHOW METADATA PROVIDED BY TMDB.
• WE DO NOT ENDORSE OR ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY USER CONTENT.

11. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL WE BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA, LOSS OF PROFITS, OR LOSS OF GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR FIFTY DOLLARS ($50), WHICHEVER IS GREATER.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising out of or related to your use of the Service, your User Content, or your violation of these Terms.

13. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, United States, without regard to conflict of law principles. Any disputes arising under these Terms shall be resolved in the courts located in Florida.

14. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by posting the revised Terms within the app and updating the "Last updated" date above. Your continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, you should stop using the Service and delete your account.

15. Severability

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

16. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding your use of the Service and supersede any prior agreements.

17. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms of Service, please contact us at:

Email: legal@pikpal.app