The ground rules for every walk.

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) are an agreement between you and PackTales (“we”, “us”) and act as the end user license agreement for the PackTales app on iPhone, Android and the web, and this website (together, the “Service”). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy and our Community Guidelines. If you don’t agree, don’t use the Service.

If you downloaded the app from Apple’s App Store or Google Play, their terms also apply. See “App store terms” below.

• You must be 18 or older. You confirm your age when you sign up. Accounts that belong to anyone under 18 are removed, along with their content.
• You must be able to form a binding contract, and not be barred from using the Service by law.
• You can’t use the Service if we have previously banned your account.

• Give accurate information (your real name, a working email and phone number) and keep it up to date.
• One person per account. Don’t share your account or sign in as someone else.
• Keep your password safe. You’re responsible for what happens under your account. Tell us straight away if you think someone else has accessed it.
• Only add dogs you own or care for, and only invite co-owners and dog walkers you trust with your dog’s care details.
• You can stop using the Service and delete your account at any time in the app, under Settings → Danger zone → Delete Account, or from this website.

We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to download and use the app on devices you own or control, for your own non-commercial use, in line with these Terms.

You agree not to:

• copy, modify, resell or redistribute the app, or reverse engineer it except where the law allows
• scrape, harvest or bulk-download data about other members, including looking up phone numbers you don’t already know
• get around privacy settings, blocks, rate limits or security measures, or access accounts or data that aren’t yours
• interfere with or overload the Service, or use bots or automated accounts
• use the Service for advertising, selling animals, or any illegal purpose

You own what you post: photos, memories, trails, comments, reviews, meetups, chat messages and the rest (“your content”). You’re responsible for it, and you confirm you have the right to share it, including any people or places shown in it.

So we can run the Service, you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid, transferable and sublicensable license to host, store, copy, resize, reformat, display and share your content with the people you choose, and to use it as needed to operate, protect and improve the Service. Sublicensing is limited to the providers who host and deliver the Service on our behalf, and to any successor if the business is transferred — not to advertisers.

For private content this license ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies other members already shared under your settings, content kept for safety or legal reasons as described in the Privacy Policy, and backups kept for a limited time. Content you deliberately publish to the community is treated differently — see “Community and crowdsourced content” below.

Where the law allows, you waive any moral rights in your content, or agree not to assert them against us, so that we can resize, crop and reformat it to display it. We don’t use your content in advertising, and we don’t sell it. Your feedback and ideas are welcome; if you send them, we may use them without owing you anything.

Some things you add are contributions to a shared map that other people rely on. These are community content:

• trails you publish to the community, and the dog-friendly details you answer about them
• reviews and ratings of places, businesses and shelters, and helpfulness votes on reviews
• places you submit to the map, and the details and photos you add to them
• business and shelter listings, and the information in them
• trail heads-ups, hazard reports and lost dog alerts

Community content is published on purpose, for everyone. For that content you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable and sublicensable license to host, display, reproduce, adapt, aggregate and distribute it as part of the Service, including after you delete it or close your account.

We do this because other people plan real walks around it. A trail review that vanished when its author left would leave the ratings on that trail wrong, and a submitted dog park that disappeared would take other people’s reviews of it with it. When you delete your account we remove your name and photo from community content and show it as from a removed account, rather than deleting the contribution itself.

This applies only to content you chose to publish. Your private memories, health notes, chat messages, dog care details and unpublished walks are not community content and are deleted with your account.

You confirm that community content you add is your own or that you have the right to share it, that it is accurate as far as you know, and that submitting a place does not breach anyone’s rights. Map data from OpenStreetMap is © OpenStreetMap contributors and is used under its own license; your contributions to PackTales are not submitted to OpenStreetMap.

There is no tolerance on PackTales for objectionable content or abusive users. By using the Service you agree not to post, send or share anything that:

• harasses, bullies, threatens, stalks or intimidates anyone
• is hateful or discriminatory, or attacks people based on who they are
• is sexual, pornographic, violent, gory or graphic
• shows or promotes animal cruelty, dog fighting or unsafe handling
• shares someone else’s address, phone number, location or other private information without permission
• is spam, advertising, a scam, or an offer to sell or rehome animals for money
• is false or misleading, including fake lost dog alerts, fake sightings, fake reviews or false reports
• impersonates someone else, or infringes anyone’s copyright, trademark or privacy
• is otherwise illegal or breaks our Community Guidelines

How we enforce this:

• Every post, comment, trail, meetup, place, review, chat message and lost dog alert can be reported with ⚑ Report, and any member can be blocked so they can no longer see or contact you.
• We review reports, aim to act within 24 hours, and remove content that breaks these Terms or the Community Guidelines.
• We suspend or permanently remove users who post objectionable content or abuse others, and may prevent them from creating new accounts.
• We may also remove content or accounts we find ourselves, without a report and without notice, and we may report illegal content or credible threats to the authorities.

We don’t check everything before it’s posted and aren’t responsible for content other members share, but we act on it when we find out about it.

PackTales helps dog owners find each other. We don’t screen, vet or run background checks on members or their dogs, and we can’t confirm that anything someone says about themselves or their dog, including temperament, health or vaccine status, is true.

• Meeting anyone is your choice and your responsibility. For a first meetup, meet in a busy public place like a park, never at a private home, and tell someone where you’re going.
• Supervise your dog at all times, keep dogs leashed until both owners agree it’s safe, and follow local leash, licensing and vaccination rules.
• You are responsible for your dog’s behavior, including any injury or damage it causes.
• Compatibility tiers and heads-ups are automated suggestions based on what owners entered, not a promise about how dogs will behave.

PackTales is not responsible for the conduct of any member, online or offline, or for what happens at any meetup, playdate or walk. Any dispute is between you and the other people involved. If someone makes you feel unsafe, leave, contact local emergency services if needed, and report them to us.

PackTales is not a veterinary service and does not give medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Activity trends, Dip Alerts, health notes, care reminders, vaccine due dates, vet reports and the hot pavement warning are for your information only. Always talk to a licensed veterinarian about your dog’s health, and don’t rely on reminders as your only way to give medication.

PackTales is not an emergency service. If you or your dog are in immediate danger, contact local emergency services, animal control or an emergency vet right away. Check On Me prepares a text on your phone that you must send yourself; it does not contact anyone automatically and may not work without signal or battery. Emergency vet listings may be out of date, so call ahead.

• GPS positions, distances, pace, elevation and routes are estimates. Phones can drift, lose signal or be paused by battery savers.
• Map data, parks, trails, water sources, waste bins, vets and directions come from third parties such as OpenStreetMap and OSRM, and from other members. They may be missing, wrong or out of date.
• Trail details other members add (off-leash rules, surface, shade, heads-ups) are their opinion. Check posted signs and local rules, which always win.
• Use your own judgment about weather, terrain, traffic and wildlife. Don’t use the app while driving, and watch where you walk rather than your screen.
• You decide what location you share. Live location, public trails and published trails can reveal where you are or where you walk.

• Lost dog alerts are only for dogs that are genuinely missing. The contact details and locations you put in an alert are shown to all signed-in members.
• PackTales does not handle, hold or guarantee reward money. A reward shown on an alert is a promise between the owner and whoever helps. We take no part in paying it and aren’t responsible if it isn’t paid.
• Never send money to someone who claims to have your dog before you’ve safely confirmed it, and meet in a public place or involve local animal control or police when returning a dog.
• We don’t guarantee that an alert will be seen or that a dog will be found. Also report a missing dog to local shelters, animal control and your microchip registry.

The Service uses and links to services we don’t control, including Google and Apple sign-in, Apple Maps, Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Wikipedia and Wikimedia, and weather data from Open-Meteo. Your use of them is covered by their own terms, and we aren’t responsible for them.

The Service, including its design, logo, name, code and our own text and graphics, belongs to PackTales and its licensors and is protected by law. These Terms don’t give you any rights to our brand. Map data is © OpenStreetMap contributors.

You can stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend, restrict or end your access, and remove your content, if you break these Terms or the Community Guidelines, if your use creates a risk for other members or for us, or if the law requires it. Suspended and banned accounts can’t sign in.

If you think we made a mistake, email Shane9020@icloud.com and we’ll take another look. Sections that by their nature should continue after termination (such as your content license for content already shared, the community content license, disclaimers, limits of liability, arbitration, the class action waiver and governing law) stay in effect.

The Service is still growing: we may add, change or remove features at any time. We may update these Terms; when we do, we’ll change the effective date and version on this page, and for significant changes we’ll tell you in the app or by email before they take effect. If you keep using the Service after changes take effect, you accept the updated Terms.

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and non-infringement. We don’t promise the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure, that walks or data will never be lost, or that information from members or third parties is accurate. Some places don’t allow these exclusions, so some may not apply to you.

To the fullest extent the law allows, PackTales and its team are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost data, lost profits, personal injury, property damage, or injury to or loss of any animal, arising from your use of the Service, your dealings with other members, meetups or playdates, or content posted by others.

Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim or US $50. The PackTales app is currently free. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that can’t be limited by law.

You agree to indemnify and hold PackTales harmless from claims arising from your content, your dog’s behavior, your meetups, or your breach of these Terms, to the extent the law allows.

Most problems get fixed by asking. Before starting arbitration or any formal claim, you agree to send us a Notice of Dispute at Shane9020@icloud.com describing what happened, what you want, and the email address on your account. We’ll do the same if we have a claim against you. Both of us agree to try in good faith to resolve it for 60 days from that notice. If we can’t, either of us may begin arbitration.

This step is a condition of starting arbitration, and the 60 days pause any applicable limitation period.

Please read this section carefully. It affects your legal rights, including your right to go to court and to have a jury decide your claim.

Except for the claims listed under “What this doesn’t cover” below, you and PackTales agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service — including how they were formed, whether they can be enforced, and claims that arose before you agreed to them — will be resolved by binding individual arbitration rather than in court. This agreement is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act.

Arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, by a single arbitrator. You may choose to have the arbitration conducted by documents only, by phone or video, or in person in the county where you live. The arbitrator may award the same individual relief a court could, and their decision is final and may be entered as a judgment in any court with jurisdiction.

Costs. The AAA rules govern fees. For any claim under US $10,000 that you bring in good faith, we will pay your filing, administration and arbitrator fees beyond what you would have paid to file the same claim in court.

How to opt out. You can opt out of this arbitration agreement — including the class action waiver below — without affecting anything else in these Terms. Email Shane9020@icloud.com from your account’s email address, with your name and a clear statement that you are opting out, within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Opting out is free, we won’t hold it against you, and it lasts for as long as you keep your account. If you opt out, the “Governing law” section applies to your disputes instead.

What this doesn’t cover. Either of us may bring a claim in small claims court if it qualifies, and either of us may ask a court for an injunction or other equitable relief to stop infringement or misuse of intellectual property, unauthorised access to the Service, or an urgent risk to someone’s safety. Bringing one of these claims doesn’t waive the rest of this section.

If you live in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, this arbitration section does not apply to you, and nothing in these Terms takes away rights you have as a consumer under the law of the country you live in, including your right to bring proceedings in your local courts.

This section survives the end of your account and these Terms.

You and PackTales agree to bring claims against each other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, consolidated or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims, or preside over any form of class or representative proceeding.

If the arbitration agreement applies, you and we are both giving up the right to a trial by jury and the right to appeal, except as the Federal Arbitration Act allows.

If this waiver is found unenforceable for a particular claim, then only that claim leaves arbitration and goes to the courts described under “Governing law”; the rest of the claims stay in arbitration. If the whole of the arbitration section is found unenforceable, the “Governing law” section applies.

This waiver does not apply where the law where you live does not permit it, and does not affect any non-waivable right to bring a representative action on behalf of a public enforcement authority.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, USA, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Where the arbitration section above does not apply — because you opted out, because your claim is excluded, because a court finds arbitration unenforceable, or because you live somewhere it doesn’t apply — any dispute will be handled in the courts located in the State of Colorado, USA, unless the law where you live gives you the right to bring it elsewhere. If any part of these Terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies. Our not enforcing a term isn’t a waiver of it. These Terms, the Privacy Policy and the Community Guidelines are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service.

If you got the app from Apple’s App Store:

• These Terms are between you and us, not Apple. We, not Apple, are responsible for the app and its content.
• Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app.
• If the app fails to meet any warranty that applies, you may notify Apple for a refund of any purchase price (the app is currently free); otherwise Apple has no warranty obligation.
• We, not Apple, are responsible for handling any claims about the app, including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, consumer protection and intellectual property claims.
• You confirm you are not in a country subject to a U.S. government embargo or listed as a terrorist-supporting country, and are not on a U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.

If you got the app from Google Play, Google Play’s terms of service also apply. Where they conflict with these Terms on your relationship with Google, Google’s terms win.

Questions about these Terms, or want to report a problem: Shane9020@icloud.com, or use ⚑ Report in the app.