Terms and Conditions

1. Introduction and Acceptance of Terms

These Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) govern access to and use of the Around You mobile application, associated AI chat/discovery feature, and the website aroundyou.co.in (together, the “Platform” or “Around You”), operated by the individual/team currently trading as “Around You” (“we”, “us”, “our”, the “Operator”).

By creating an account, browsing, posting, or otherwise using the Platform, you (“you”, “the user”) agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines, and any other policy referenced herein (together, the “Agreement”). If you do not agree, you must not access or use the Platform.

Entity status: Around You is currently offered as a Developer Version by an as-yet-unregistered operating entity. References to “we/us/our” in this document mean the individual(s) presently operating Around You. This section will be updated to name the registered corporate entity, its registered office, and CIN/GSTIN once incorporation and registration are complete, and this update should be reviewed and approved by legal counsel before the public launch.

2. Definitions

• Account: a registered profile on the Platform, created as an Individual User, Organisation/Business, or Blogger.
• Content: any text, photo, video, post, offer, review, blog, comment, or other material submitted to the Platform.
• Local Post: content primarily discoverable within about 10 km of its posting location. A local post may also be seen farther away if shared through the Share button, a screenshot, or any other capture. Anyone who has the exact web address of the photo or video can open that file, including outside 10 km. The app does not show the local post outside about 10 km. Once the content or that address is shared outside Around You, further distribution is no longer controlled by Around You.
• Public Post: content visible to all users of the Platform regardless of location.
• Travel Mode: an optional feature that uses location data to surface relevant content and notifications while enabled.
• AI Discovery / Around You AI: the chat-based, AI-powered local search feature that uses natural-language queries and location to return recommendations.
• Organisation: a business, NGO, or other entity that has created a profile to publish posts, offers, events or listings.
• Blogger: a user who publishes original content such as reviews, posts, articles, or recommendations under a blogger profile.

3. Eligibility and registration

The Platform is available to individuals aged 13 years and above. Date of birth is collected during registration to determine age eligibility. Users under 13 years of age are not permitted to create or use an account.

Users aged 13 to 17 may use the Platform subject to applicable law. We recommend that users in this age group use the Platform with the knowledge and guidance of a parent or legal guardian. Parents and legal guardians are encouraged to provide appropriate guidance and supervision regarding a minor’s use of the Platform.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, a parent or legal guardian remains responsible for providing appropriate guidance and supervision regarding the minor’s use of the Platform and for ensuring that the minor uses the Platform appropriately and in accordance with these Terms.

Around You may use the date of birth provided during registration to determine age eligibility and may restrict or terminate an account if we reasonably believe that a user does not meet the applicable minimum-age requirement.

Account types:

• Individual User: an ordinary personal profile. A phone number is not required. Information may include name, email, date of birth, gender, interests, profile photo, and location.
• Organisation/Business: a profile for a business, NGO, or other organisation to publish posts, offers, events, and listings. It may include organisation name, email, phone number, bio, location, business information, photos and media, and offer or post content.
• Blogger: a profile for original content such as reviews and articles. It may include identity and profile information, email, profile picture, and bio.

You agree to give accurate, current, and complete information and to keep it updated. You are responsible for your login and for all activity under your Account.

You may hold separate accounts for different supported types, including Individual User, Organization, and Blogger, where the app allows it. You may not create multiple Individual User accounts to avoid a restriction, manipulate ratings or visibility, or evade a suspension.

4. Nature of the Service — Developer / Early-Access Version

Around You is presently released as a free Developer Version. No payments, subscriptions, premium plans, paid bookings, commissions, or refunds are offered at this stage. Features, categories, and availability may change, and the service may be modified, suspended, or discontinued at any time without liability, though we will make reasonable efforts to notify users of material changes.

If and when paid features (such as promoted discovery, hyperlocal ads, business SaaS tools, transactions, or an “Around You Plus” subscription) are introduced, they will be governed by additional terms presented at the time of purchase, including applicable pricing, billing, and refund policies compliant with Indian consumer protection law.

5. User Content and Licence Grant

The Platform allows Individual Users, Organisations, and Bloggers to post content including text, photos, videos, blogs/articles, offers, promotions, business information, local discovery information, events, and recommendations across supported categories (including Restaurant & Hotel, Fast Food, Travel, Sales & Offers, Emergency, Lost & Found, Rentals, Local Events, Drop a Memory, Regular Posts, Fashion, Health and Beauty, Home and Living, Education and Training, Real Estate and PG, Automotive, Technology and IT, Arts and Entertainment, Pet Care and Animal Care, Non-Profit and Community, Events and Exhibitions, Fitness and Recreation, Services, Nightlife, Bloggers, and other organisation types as supported in the app).

5.1 Ownership

You retain ownership of Content you submit, where applicable. Around You does not claim ownership of your Content merely because it is uploaded to the Platform.

5.2 Licence to Around You

By posting Content, you grant Around You a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sub-licensable licence to host, store, reproduce, display, distribute, and adapt that Content solely for the purpose of operating, promoting, and improving the Platform (including surfacing it to other users via the feed, maps, search, and AI Discovery). This licence ends when you delete the Content or your Account, except to the extent copies are retained as permitted under Section 19 (Account Deletion) or required by law.

5.3 Your responsibility for Content

You represent that you hold the necessary rights and permissions for any Content you post and that it does not infringe any third party’s intellectual property, privacy, or other rights, and does not violate applicable law. You remain solely responsible for your Content.

6. Location Services, Travel Mode, and Post Visibility

6.1 Location-based discovery

Location is used to power local discovery, ranking, and notifications. Around You does not continuously track your location when location-based functionality is not being used. Location Information: With your permission, we may collect your device’s precise location, including latitude and longitude coordinates. The precision of the location data may vary depending on the device and location services. We use this information to provide location-based features, such as nearby content and local discovery.

6.2 Travel Mode

Travel Mode is a feature that, when enabled, collects location to identify relevant content and provide notifications while you are travelling. You may enable or disable Travel Mode at any time. Travel Mode location data associated with your Account is deleted when your Account is deleted, subject to lawful retention requirements.

6.3 Post visibility

• Local posts are primarily discoverable within about 10 km. They may also be seen farther away if shared through the Share button, a screenshot, or any other capture. Anyone who has the exact web address of the photo or video can open that file, including outside 10 km. The app does not show the local post outside about 10 km. Once the content or that address is shared outside Around You, further distribution is no longer controlled by Around You.
• Public Posts are visible to all Around You users, regardless of location. Organization and blogger posts are matched out to about 20 km.

You are responsible for choosing the appropriate visibility setting for your Content, particularly where it may reveal your location or the location of others.

7. AI-Powered Discovery (“Around You AI”)

Around You uses OpenAI’s technology to power natural-language, AI-based local discovery. When you use AI Discovery, your query and, where necessary to return location-relevant results, your location, may be processed to generate a response. We do not knowingly send unnecessary personal information (such as date of birth or gender) to the AI feature unless genuinely required for the query.

7.1 No guarantee of accuracy

AI-generated results (including recommendations, prices, offers, and availability) are provided for convenience and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date. AI results are not guarantees, endorsements, or professional advice, and you should independently verify any information (particularly prices, offers, and availability) with the relevant business before relying on it.

7.2 Query storage — first-release practice

For the first public release, Around You stores AI queries in its database to operate and improve local discovery. Each stored record is designed to contain the user’s query text together with location information, including latitude and longitude coordinates. The precision of the location data may vary depending on the device and location services. Stored records are designed not to intentionally include your name, email address, Account ID, phone number, IP address, device ID, session ID, or conversation history. Do not include passwords, financial details, or other sensitive or confidential information in an AI query.

7.3 Session cookie, chat memory, and rate limiting

The website uses a session cookie (aroundyou_sid) to maintain your chat session, retains conversation history in memory for approximately 30 minutes to support the current chat experience, and uses IP information for rate-limiting purposes. IP address is not intentionally stored as part of the AI-query database record.

AI query records may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to operate, maintain, secure, and improve Around You’s AI service, subject to applicable law. Around You does not currently use these records to train AI models.

8. Third-Party Content, Offers, and Listings

Around You is a platform that enables Organisations, Businesses, and other users to publish their own content, offers, and listings. We do not independently verify or guarantee the accuracy, authenticity, legality, quality, safety, availability, price, stock, validity, or fulfilment of any third-party post, offer, or listing. The Organisation or Business publishing an offer is solely responsible for its accuracy, validity, availability, and fulfilment.

Any transaction, booking, or interaction you enter into with an Organisation, Business, or other user discovered through the Platform is strictly between you and that party. Around You is not a party to, and accepts no liability arising from, such transactions unless and until it directly facilitates payments or bookings under separately published terms.

9. Prohibited Uses and Content Standards

You agree not to use the Platform to:

• post fraudulent, scam, misleading, or illegal content, or fake offers or listings;
• harass, abuse, threaten, stalk, impersonate, or defame any person or organisation;
• post spam, unsolicited advertising, or content unrelated to the relevant category;
• infringe any copyright, trademark, privacy, or other proprietary right;
• upload content that is obscene, sexually explicit, hateful, or that promotes violence, self-harm, or discrimination;
• share another person’s precise location or personal information without consent;
• misuse Emergency or Lost & Found categories for content unrelated to their stated purpose;
• interfere with, reverse-engineer, or attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Platform, its AI systems, or other users’ Accounts;
• violate applicable Indian law, including the Information Technology Act, 2000 and rules made thereunder.

This list is illustrative and not exhaustive and is elaborated further in our Community Guidelines.

9.1 Emergency and Lost & Found Content Is Not an Emergency Service

The Emergency and Lost & Found categories are provided solely as community-notice features to help users share and discover local information. They are not monitored in real time, are not a substitute for contacting the police, medical services, fire services, or other emergency responders, and Around You does not guarantee that any post in these categories will be seen, actioned, or responded to by any person. In a genuine emergency, you must contact the applicable emergency services directly (for example, dialling 112 in India) rather than relying on the Platform.

9.2 Child safety

Around You prohibits Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE). This includes any content, conduct, or solicitation that sexually exploits or abuses a child, including child sexual abuse material.

Do not post, upload, share, request, or search for CSAE on the Around You mobile application, Around You AI, or aroundyou.co.in. Around You will remove such material, disable the account, and report it to the appropriate authority where the law requires it.

To report child safety or CSAE concerns, email support@aroundyou.co.in with the subject “Child safety”. The child safety contact is Yashavantaraju. S, Grievance Officer, Around You.

10. Reporting, Moderation, and Takedown

Users may report fraud, scams, misleading or illegal content, harassment, abuse, impersonation, spam, copyright infringement, privacy violations, and other prohibited content through the app or by emailing support@aroundyou.co.in. Around You aims to review reports within 48-78 hours, subject to the nature of the report and applicable law.

We may, at our discretion or where legally required, remove or restrict Content, or suspend or disable an Account, including on receipt of a valid takedown request under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, a court order, or a request from an authorised government agency.

11. Intellectual Property Rights

The Around You name, logo, application, website design, software, and underlying technology are the property of the Operator and its licensors and are protected under applicable Indian and international intellectual property laws. Except for the licence granted to you to use the Platform for its intended purpose, nothing in these Terms transfers any intellectual property right to you.

If you believe your copyrighted work has been used on the Platform in a way that constitutes infringement, please notify us at support@aroundyou.co.in with sufficient detail to identify the work and the allegedly infringing content, and we will review and act on the complaint in line with our Content, Copyright & Intellectual Property Complaint Policy.

12. Organisation and Blogger Verification

Organisations may be asked to submit verification documents appropriate to their category, for example a GSTIN or other applicable registration number for a business, NGO Darpan or other applicable registration for an NGO, or a relevant licence/registration or official document for other organisation types.

Verification documents are retained for 12 months. After this period, the Organisation must submit updated documents to maintain verified status; if updated documents are not submitted, previously submitted documents will be deleted and the Organisation may lose its verified status, subject to applicable legal retention requirements.

Organisations and Bloggers remain responsible for their own profile information, content, and offers, and retain ownership of their content where applicable, consistent with Section 5.

Bloggers may be asked to provide links to their Instagram, YouTube, blog, website, or other publicly available profiles for verification. These links are used only for verification purposes and may be deleted after the verification process is completed, unless retention is required for legitimate business, security, or legal purposes.

13. Third-Party Service Providers

Around You relies on third-party technology providers to operate the Platform, currently including:

• Google Maps Platform — maps, places, and location-related functionality;
• Firebase / Google — the specific Firebase services enabled for the Platform;
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) — hosting, infrastructure, storage, and backend services;
• OpenSearch — search, indexing, and discovery functionality;
• OpenAI — AI-powered discovery and query processing.
• Google Cloud Vision — image analysis and safety screening, including pre-screening uploaded images for potentially adult or otherwise inappropriate content.

Use of these providers is subject to their own terms and privacy practices. Our Privacy Policy sets out further detail on data shared with these providers and will be kept aligned with the actual production configuration.

14. Data Security

We use encryption in transit and at rest, together with access controls, authentication safeguards, and rate limiting, to protect data on the Platform. However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential and for notifying us promptly of any suspected unauthorised access.

14.1 Messaging and Notifications

Your private messages and notification-related data are protected using encryption while they are transmitted between your device and our servers, and while they are stored.

We use Firebase services, including Cloud Firestore, to store notification-related data such as notification titles, message bodies, and related post details. Data stored in Cloud Firestore is encrypted at rest by default. Connections between the app, our servers, and Firebase services are protected using encryption in transit.

To provide, secure, moderate, and operate our messaging and notification services, our systems and service providers may process relevant message and notification content. Our servers and authorised service providers may have access to this content as necessary to store, process, and deliver the relevant functionality. Access is limited to authorised personnel and systems and is subject to applicable security and access controls.

We may access or review message or notification content when reasonably necessary to investigate reports, enforce our Terms of Service, protect users and the Platform, prevent abuse, or comply with applicable legal obligations.

Standard chats and notifications are not end-to-end encrypted. The service and its authorised service providers may have controlled access to this content for the purposes described above.

15. Disclaimers

THE PLATFORM, INCLUDING AI DISCOVERY, IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE INDIAN LAW.

We do not warrant that the Platform will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free, that AI-generated recommendations will be accurate or complete, or that any offer, listing, or item of third-party Content is accurate, safe, or lawful.

16. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Operator, its founders, employees, and affiliates shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or relating to your use of, or inability to use, the Platform, any Content, or any third-party offer, listing, or interaction facilitated through the Platform.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable Indian law, including liability for fraud or wilful misconduct.

17. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Operator and its founders, employees, and affiliates from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with your Content, your use of the Platform, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any right of a third party.

18. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or terminate your Account, or remove or restrict Content, where we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, our Community Guidelines, or applicable law, where required by a valid legal order, or to protect the safety or rights of other users or third parties. Where practicable, we will provide notice and an opportunity to respond before taking such action.

You may stop using the Platform at any time. To close your Account, follow the process described in Section 19.

19. Account Deletion

On a deletion request, your Account is soft-deleted immediately and your sign-in is removed. You cannot sign in. Your Account is removed from normal discovery. If your profile is opened, your name and profile photo are no longer shown. They appear as “Deleted_User”, “Deleted_Organization”, or “Deleted_Blogger”, as applicable, with no profile photo. Travel Mode location for a user Account is deleted at that time. Notification history, the location stored on your profile, and the profile photo file remain until permanent deletion.

Permanent deletion follows a retention window of 30 days. After that window, the Account and the content still linked to it are permanently deleted from our active production systems. Posts and comments you deleted yourself are hidden immediately. Posts and comments you did not delete may remain visible during that window under the deleted-account label, without your profile photo, and are then removed.

After a photo or video is removed from our storage, a copy may remain available for up to about 24 hours to anyone who already has the exact file address. The app does not show the deleted post during that time. The deletion window and backup rules in the Privacy Policy still apply.

The deletion window, notification history, profile photo, published posts, backup retention, and permanent-deletion timing are the rules stated in the Privacy Policy.

20. Grievance Redressal

In accordance with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, complaints and grievances relating to the Platform may be addressed to:

Support / Grievance Contact: support@aroundyou.co.in

A formally designated Grievance Officer has been appointed, the support above e-mail serves as the interim grievance contact. Grievance Officer Yashavantaraju. S, #119, 13thcross, 1st main road, Bhuvaneshwarinagar, Bangalore North – 560023

We aim to acknowledge and act on grievances within the timelines prescribed by applicable law.

21. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. Subject to Section 20, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the Platform shall first be addressed through good-faith negotiation between the parties. If unresolved within a reasonable period, the dispute shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts within the Karnataka, India.

22. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time, including to reflect changes in the Platform, applicable law, or our production data practices (such as the AI-query storage design described in Section 7). Material changes will be notified through the app or by other reasonable means, and continued use of the Platform after such notice constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

23. Miscellaneous

23.1 Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.

23.2 Entire agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any other referenced policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Around You regarding the Platform.

23.3 No waiver

Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms shall not be deemed a waiver of that or any other provision.

23.4 Assignment

You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, or to our future registered corporate entity upon incorporation.

23.5 Force majeure

We shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performance resulting from causes beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, internet or infrastructure failures, or acts of government.

23.6 Relationship of the Parties

Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise, or employment relationship between you and the Operator. You act solely on your own behalf, and Organisations and Bloggers act as independent account holders responsible for their own Content, offers, and conduct on the Platform.

23.7 Notices

We may give you notice under these Terms by in-app notification, posting on the Platform, or sending a message to the email address linked to your Account. You may send us notice relating to these Terms at support@aroundyou.co.in. Notices are deemed received when sent, subject to applicable law.

23.8 Feedback

If you send us feedback, suggestions, or ideas about the Platform, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to use and incorporate that feedback into the Platform without any obligation or compensation to you.

23.9 Governing Language

These Terms are drafted in English. Any translation provided for convenience is not authoritative, and the English-language version prevails in the event of any conflict.