Terms and Conditions

1. Eligibility

BirdUp is open to users of all ages. If you are under 16, you must have the consent and involvement of a parent or guardian to create an account and use the Service. By creating an account for a child under 16, the parent or guardian agrees to these Terms on the child’s behalf and accepts responsibility for the child’s use of the Service.

We reserve the right to introduce age verification measures in future if required by law.

2. Your Account

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials, including any passkeys or passwords associated with your account. You agree to provide accurate information when creating your account and to keep your details up to date.

You must notify us promptly at contact@birdup.com.au if you become aware of any unauthorised use of your account or any security breach.

We may suspend or terminate your account if you breach these Terms, if your account is used in a manner that threatens the safety or integrity of the Service, or if required by law.

3. Acceptable Use

When using BirdUp, you agree not to:

• Submit false, misleading, or fabricated sighting data.
• Upload photos that you do not have the right to use, or that contain illegal, offensive, or inappropriate content.
• Harass, abuse, or threaten other users.
• Attempt to access another user’s account or personal information.
• Use the Service to collect or harvest data about other users.
• Interfere with, disrupt, or place an unreasonable load on the Service or its infrastructure.
• Use automated scripts, bots, or scrapers to access the Service without our written permission.
• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law.

We may remove content and suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules, at our sole discretion.

4. Your Content

4.1 Ownership

You retain full ownership of all content you submit to BirdUp, including bird sighting data, photos, notes, and profile information (“Your Content”). We do not claim ownership of Your Content.

4.2 Licence to BirdUp

By submitting content to the Service, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable licence to use, reproduce, display, distribute, and store Your Content solely for the purposes of operating, maintaining, and improving the Service. This includes displaying your sightings on the shared map and in search results.

This licence continues for as long as Your Content remains on the Service. When you delete Your Content or your account, this licence ends, subject to reasonable time required to remove the content from our systems (see our Privacy Policy, Section 7 for retention details).

4.3 Conservation and Research

You agree that we may share aggregated, anonymised sighting data with conservation organisations, academic researchers, and government agencies for the purposes of wildlife research and habitat conservation. This data will not identify you personally and will be subject to the location fuzzing described in our Privacy Policy, Section 4.

If you do not wish your sighting data to be included in research datasets, you may opt out by contacting us at contact@birdup.com.au.

4.4 Your Responsibilities

You represent and warrant that you have all necessary rights to the content you submit, and that Your Content does not infringe the intellectual property rights, privacy rights, or any other rights of any third party. You are solely responsible for the accuracy of the sighting data you submit.

5. Intellectual Property

5.1 Our Rights

The Service, including its design, branding, software, code, user interface, and original content (excluding Your Content), is owned by us and is protected by Australian and international intellectual property laws. The BirdUp name and logo are our trade marks.

You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of the Service, or reverse-engineer or attempt to extract the source code of the software, except as permitted by law.

5.2 Taxonomic and Species Data

BirdUp incorporates bird species data, taxonomic classifications, and related scientific information sourced from publicly available datasets. This data is provided for informational purposes and may contain errors or omissions. We do not warrant the completeness or accuracy of species data.

5.3 Open Data Contributions

Where sighting data is shared with third parties for research purposes under Section 4.3, it is provided under terms that require attribution to the BirdUp community. Individual contributors will not be personally identified.

6. The Service

6.1 Availability

We aim to keep BirdUp available and reliable, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free access. The Service may be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, updates, or circumstances beyond our control.

6.2 Offline Functionality

BirdUp is designed to work offline. Sightings recorded offline are stored on your device and synced when connectivity is restored. We are not responsible for data loss caused by device failure, operating system issues, or app deletion before sync has completed.

6.3 Changes to the Service

We may modify, update, or discontinue features of the Service at any time. Where a change materially affects your use of the Service, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you in advance via the app or email.

6.4 Third-Party Services

The Service relies on third-party providers (including maps, analytics, and cloud storage) as described in our Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for the availability, accuracy, or conduct of these third-party services.

7. Fees and Paid Features

BirdUp is currently free to use. We may introduce optional paid features, subscriptions, or premium tiers in the future. If we do:

• Free functionality available at the time you created your account will remain available to you at no charge, unless we provide at least 90 days’ notice of any change.
• Paid features will be clearly identified before purchase.
• Payments will be processed through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, and are subject to their respective terms and refund policies.
• You may cancel a subscription at any time through your app store account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.

We will update these Terms before introducing any paid features.

8. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. To the maximum extent permitted by Australian law, we disclaim all warranties, whether express, implied, or statutory, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Without limiting the above, we do not warrant that:

• The Service will meet your specific requirements.
• The Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free.
• Species identifications, taxonomic data, or location information will be accurate or complete.
• Any errors in the Service will be corrected.

Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts, or modifies any consumer guarantee, right, or remedy conferred by the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) or any other applicable law that cannot be excluded, restricted, or modified by agreement.

9. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, data, use, or goodwill, arising out of or in connection with your use of the Service.

Our total aggregate liability to you for any claims arising from or related to the Service is limited to the amount you have paid us (if any) in the 12 months preceding the claim, or AUD $100, whichever is greater.

These limitations apply regardless of the legal theory on which the claim is based, including negligence, breach of contract, or any other basis.

This section does not limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, fraud, or any other liability that cannot be excluded under Australian law.

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold us harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with your breach of these Terms, your use of the Service, or Your Content.

11. Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. Our collection, use, and disclosure of personal information is governed by our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms. By using the Service, you consent to our data practices as described in the Privacy Policy.

12. Termination

12.1 By You

You may stop using the Service at any time. You may delete your account through the app or by contacting us at contact@birdup.com.au. Upon deletion, your personal information will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

12.2 By Us

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice. Grounds for termination include, but are not limited to, breach of these Terms, conduct that threatens the safety of other users, or prolonged inactivity.

12.3 Effect of Termination

Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases immediately. Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including Sections 4 (Your Content), 5 (Intellectual Property), 8 (Disclaimer), 9 (Limitation of Liability), 10 (Indemnification), and 14 (Governing Law).

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. For material changes, we will notify you via the app or email at least 30 days before the changes take effect.

Your continued use of the Service after the updated Terms take effect constitutes your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you should stop using the Service and delete your account.

14. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia. Any disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service will be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Australia.

Before initiating any formal legal proceedings, you agree to first contact us at contact@birdup.com.au and attempt to resolve the dispute informally. We will make reasonable efforts to resolve any concerns within 30 days.

15. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service.
• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.
• Waiver. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.
• Assignment. You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign our rights and obligations without restriction.
• No agency. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, or agency relationship between you and us.

16. Contact Us

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