Terms & Community Rules

1. Who we are

Koffee is an independent app made in Ireland ("Koffee", "we", "us"). The person legally responsible for Koffee is named in the Privacy Policy. You can reach us at hello@koffee-app.com. These terms cover the Koffee iPhone app, this website and any related Koffee service that links to them (together, "Koffee").

2. These terms

By creating an account or using Koffee, you agree to these terms, including the Community Rules in section 7. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data. If you don't agree, please don't use Koffee.

We may update these terms as Koffee changes. If a change materially affects you, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect, and the date at the top of this page will change. If you keep using Koffee after the change takes effect, the new terms apply. If you don't accept them, you can delete your account at any time.

3. Who can use Koffee

You must be at least 16 years old. By using Koffee you confirm that you are. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 16, we'll close it and delete its data.

You can't use Koffee if we have previously removed you for breaking these terms, or if the law where you live doesn't allow it.

4. Your account

• One person per account. Accounts can't be shared, sold or transferred.
• Keep your sign-in secure. You're responsible for what happens through your account unless it was used without your permission and you weren't careless. Tell us straight away if you think someone else has access.
• Pick a username that isn't misleading, offensive or someone else's name or brand. We may change or reclaim a username that breaks these rules.
• Some sensitive actions, like exporting your data or deleting your account, may ask you to sign in again.

5. The public beta

Koffee is in public beta. Koffee for iPhone is distributed through Apple's TestFlight, and Koffee for Android, where available, through Google Play's testing programme. That means:

• Features may change, pause or be removed, sometimes without notice.
• Koffee may have bugs, go offline for maintenance or, rarely, lose data. We take reasonable care to prevent this, but please keep your own copy of anything you can't afford to lose. You can export your data from Settings at any time.
• On iPhone, beta builds expire under Apple's TestFlight rules, and on both iPhone and Android you may need to update to keep using Koffee.
• If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them to improve Koffee without owing you anything. Feedback doesn't give us rights over your posts.

You can join the iPhone beta through the official Koffee TestFlight invite.

6. Your content

You own it

Your logs, photos, ratings, notes, comments and profile ("your content") belong to you. Posting on Koffee doesn't transfer ownership to us.

What you let us do with it

So Koffee can work, you give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, resize, process and display your content, only as needed to run, secure, moderate and improve Koffee, and only to the audience you chose. For example, a private Journal log is stored for you alone, and a public post is shown to the people your settings allow.

This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for: copies other people made using Koffee's features before you deleted it (such as a recap they saved); data we must keep for legal, safety or dispute reasons, as described in the Privacy Policy; and copies that take a short time to clear from our providers' systems.

What we won't do

We won't use your content, name or photos in advertising, on this website, in app store listings or on social media without asking you first and getting your yes. We don't sell your content.

Your promises

• You have the right to share what you post. If you didn't take a photo, you have the photographer's permission.
• If another person can be recognised in your photo, you've checked that they're happy for it to be shared with the audience you chose. Take extra care with children, cafe staff and strangers.
• You only tag people who were really with you, and you remove a tag if the tagged person asks.
• Your ratings and notes reflect your own real experience.

If someone tells us your content infringes their rights or privacy, we may remove it while we look into it.

7. Community Rules

Koffee is for sharing coffee, places and good company. Don't post, upload, send or encourage:

• Abuse. Harassment, bullying, threats, hate speech, or attacks on anyone because of who they are.
• Unsafe content. Sexual or exploitative content, graphic violence, self-harm encouragement, or anything that sexualises or endangers children.
• Other people's private information. Home addresses, phone numbers, precise locations of others, or photos of people who haven't agreed to be shared.
• Fake or unfair reviews. Ratings for places you didn't visit, reviews of your own business or a competitor without saying so, paid or incentivised reviews without disclosure, or coordinated rating campaigns.
• Targeting staff. Naming, photographing or shaming individual cafe workers. Rate the coffee and the place, not the person.
• Spam and scams. Unsolicited advertising, fake accounts, fake engagement, phishing or misleading links.
• Impersonation. Pretending to be another person, business or Koffee.
• Illegal content. Anything that breaks the law or someone else's rights, including copyright and trade marks.
• Misuse of Koffee. Scraping, bots, reverse engineering where the law doesn't allow it, probing security, overloading the service, or getting round blocks, limits or moderation.

If you see something that breaks these rules, use Report in the app or tell us at hello@koffee-app.com. If someone is in danger, contact the emergency services first.

8. Reports, moderation and appeals

How we moderate

Photos are screened automatically for unsafe content before they're published, and photos the system is unsure about may be held for a person to review. Text may be checked for explicit language. We also review reports from members. Automated tools help us, but decisions to restrict an account are made or checked by a person.

Reporting illegal content

You can report content you believe is illegal using Report in the app, or by emailing hello@koffee-app.com with a link or description of the content, why you think it's illegal, and your name and email (unless the report concerns child sexual abuse material, where you may stay anonymous). We'll confirm we've received it and tell you what we decided. This email address is also our single point of contact for members and authorities under the EU Digital Services Act. We can correspond in English.

What we can do

We may remove or hide content, limit features, suspend an account, or close it, depending on how serious or repeated a breach is. Where the law requires it, we'll preserve information and report it to the authorities.

Telling you why, and appeals

If we remove your content or restrict your account, we'll tell you what we did and why, unless the law or a safety risk prevents it. You can ask us to look again by replying or emailing hello@koffee-app.com within six months. A person who wasn't involved in the first decision, where possible, will review it and we'll tell you the outcome. If you're in the EU, you may also be able to use a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body or go to court.

9. Cafes and places

Cafe names, addresses, map results and ratings come from members and from mapping services such as Apple Maps and OpenStreetMap. They can be out of date, incomplete or just one person's opinion. Check opening times and details with the cafe before you travel.

Cafes shown on Koffee aren't partners of Koffee and haven't endorsed it, unless we clearly say otherwise. The nearby-cafe prompt is a convenience and doesn't mean you're inside a particular venue.

10. Kards, Koffee: The Game and characters

Kards and Koffee: The Game are separate apps from us. Each has its own privacy policy (Kards, Koffee: The Game), which applies to playing it. This section covers how Koffee members can appear in them.

10.1 You're in control

There are two ways to appear: as a friend dropping by (10.2), which you control with a setting in Koffee, and as a named character we make with you (10.3), which only ever happens with your explicit written yes. Saying no, or turning the setting off, has no effect on your Koffee account.

10.2 Friends dropping by (the game link)

A Koffee member who has Kards or the game can turn on a setting that brings their Koffee friends into it: as regulars ordering their usual drink in the game's cafe, or dropping by the card table in Kards.

• It's off until that member switches it on.
• You can only appear in their apps if you follow each other and you show your pixel character to friends. That setting is on when you make a character, and you can turn it off at any time when you edit your character. If you don't make a character, you won't appear.
• The only details shared are your Koffee username, your pixel character, your most-ordered drink from your public posts, how many coffees you've posted publicly in the last 30 days, when you last posted one, and which of Koffee's built-in profile characters you use, if any. Never your photos, places, captions, email or private Journal.
• The details are passed on the member's own phone, from the Koffee app to the game or Kards, and those apps don't send them anywhere.
• To leave, turn off Show my character to friends. You'll leave your friends' apps the next time their Koffee app refreshes the list.

10.3 Becoming a character

We may also invite members, or members may ask, to become a named character in the game (a "regular"). This is separate from the game link and needs its own written yes, by email or in the app, after you've seen the details. To take part you must be 18 or older and must be volunteering yourself, not someone else.

What we use. Only what you give us for the purpose: the name you want the character to use (your first name, a nickname or your Koffee username), your usual drink, and any appearance notes you choose to share, such as hair colour or a favourite jumper. We draw an original pixel character from these. We don't put your photos, location or Journal into the game.

What your character may do. Characters live in a made-up world. Your character may visit the cafe, order drinks, chat, make friends, fall out and make up with other characters, and appear in fictional in-game social posts. None of it describes or implies anything about the real you. We will never show your character in sexual, hateful, criminal, humiliating or political situations. You can tell us any storylines or pairings you don't want, and we'll respect that.

Seeing it first. We'll show you your character before it first appears in a released version of the game.

Permission you give. If you say yes, you give Koffee a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free permission to use the character and the details above in the game, its updates, and screenshots, trailers and store listings that show the game. You keep all rights in your own name and likeness. We own the pixel artwork and game content we create. Taking part is unpaid, and your character appearing doesn't mean you endorse the game.

Changing your mind. You can withdraw at any time by emailing hello@koffee-app.com. We'll stop using your character in anything new straight away and remove it from the game in the next update we release, and in any case within 60 days. Copies of the game that people already have can't change until they update, and we can't recall promotional material already published, but we won't publish more of it.

The Privacy Policy explains how we handle the information you give us for your character.

11. Price

Koffee is free to use during the public beta. If we ever introduce paid features, we'll explain the price and terms first, and nothing will be charged without your clear agreement.

12. Koffee's rights

Koffee's name, logo, app, website, designs, artwork and software belong to Koffee's owner or are used with permission. We give you a personal, non-transferable, revocable permission to use the Koffee app for your own non-commercial use under these terms. You can't copy, sell, resell, modify or reverse engineer Koffee, or use our brand, except where the law expressly allows it.

13. Apple, Google and other services

Koffee relies on other services, such as Apple (TestFlight, Sign in with Apple, Apple Maps), Google (Firebase, Sign in with Google, Google Play) and, on Android, OpenStreetMap services for maps and place search. Your use of those services is also covered by their own terms.

On iPhone, Apple's Standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement applies to the app alongside these terms. Apple isn't responsible for Koffee or its content and has no obligation to support it.

On Android, the Google Play Terms of Service apply to getting Koffee from Google Play. Google isn't responsible for Koffee or its content and has no obligation to support it.

14. Leaving or being removed

You can stop using Koffee whenever you like, and delete your account in the app from Settings › Account & Privacy, or use our delete-account page. Deleting your account removes your profile, posts, comments, likes, saved cafes and photos, as described in the Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or close your account if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, if the law requires it, or to protect members or Koffee. Where it's safe and lawful, we'll tell you why and how to appeal (section 8). We may also end the beta or close Koffee. If we do, we'll give at least 30 days' notice where we reasonably can, so you can export your data.

Sections that by their nature should continue after your account ends will keep applying, including sections 6, 12, 15 and 16.

15. Responsibility and liability

Koffee is a free beta provided "as is" and "as available". We don't promise it will always work, be error-free, or that cafe details and member posts are accurate.

We're not responsible for what other members post or do, for cafes and their products, or for third-party services. We're not liable for losses that weren't reasonably foreseeable, or for business losses, because Koffee is for personal use. Otherwise, to the extent the law allows, our total liability to you for any claim about Koffee is limited to €50.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law doesn't allow us to limit, and nothing affects your rights as a consumer under the law where you live.

16. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of Ireland. If you live in the EU or UK, you also keep the protection of the mandatory laws of your country, and you can bring a claim in the courts where you live. Otherwise, the courts of Ireland have jurisdiction. Please contact us first so we can try to sort things out.

If any part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later.

17. Contact

Questions, reports, appeals, character requests and anything else: hello@koffee-app.com.