Terms of Service

1. Agreement and operator

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern access to and use of this deployment of Pawmuch, including its websites, mobile applications, APIs, communications, and related services (together, the "Platform"). The person or organization that makes this deployment available is the "Platform Operator," "we," "us," or "our." By creating an account, accessing an authenticated feature, or otherwise using the Platform, you agree to these Terms and the Privacy Policy.

If you do not agree, do not create an account or use the Platform.

2. Eligibility and adult attestation

You must be at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering into this agreement. Registration requires an affirmative adult attestation. The Platform is not directed to children, and you may not create an account for a person under 18.

3. The Platform's role

The Platform helps people publish animal listings, discover adoption opportunities, submit and review applications, communicate, and record adoption-related workflows. Unless the Platform Operator expressly says otherwise for a particular service, the Platform Operator is not the owner, custodian, adopter, broker, veterinarian, transporter, guarantor, or party to an adoption arrangement between users.

The Platform does not replace veterinary advice, home checks, identity or ownership verification, animal-welfare assessment, licensing, permits, contracts, or other checks required by applicable law or good adoption practice. Users remain responsible for their decisions, representations, due diligence, and compliance with the rules that apply where they live and where an animal is located.

4. Accounts and security

• Provide accurate, current information and keep it updated.
• Use only an account you are authorized to use.
• Protect your Google account and devices, and promptly revoke sessions you do not recognize.
• Notify the Platform Operator using the support or security contact shown above if you suspect unauthorized access.
• Do not sell, transfer, or share an account in a way that defeats identity, authorization, or audit controls.

You are responsible for activity performed through your account until you report compromise, except to the extent applicable law provides otherwise. Staff access is limited by assigned permissions and additional verification where required.

5. Adoption and animal-welfare responsibilities

Information about an animal, listing, applicant, or adoption must be truthful, sufficiently complete, and not misleading. A person publishing or managing an animal or listing must have authority to do so and must disclose material health, behavior, care, location, fee, and eligibility information that the workflow requests. Applicants must provide honest information and must not use information obtained through the Platform to harass, discriminate unlawfully, exploit, resell, breed, fight, traffic, or harm an animal or person.

Custodians and adopters must independently determine whether an adoption is lawful and appropriate, use qualified veterinary or welfare professionals when needed, and prioritize animal welfare. The Platform does not guarantee the identity or conduct of a user, the condition or suitability of an animal, the accuracy of user content, or the completion or outcome of an adoption.

6. User content and communications

You retain ownership of content you submit. You grant the Platform Operator a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, format, transmit, display, and otherwise use that content only as reasonably necessary to operate, secure, moderate, improve, and provide the Platform and the adoption workflows you request. This license ends when the content is deleted from active systems, subject to backups, audit records, legal obligations, and content shared with or relied upon by others.

You confirm that you have the rights and permissions needed to submit content, including personal information, photographs, animal records, and adoption answers. Do not publish highly sensitive personal information in public listings or messages. Platform communications and transactional emails may include security, account, application, moderation, and legal notices. You may not opt out of communications necessary to operate or secure your account.

7. Acceptable use

You may not use the Platform to:

• break the law, facilitate animal cruelty or trafficking, or evade animal-welfare requirements;
• impersonate another person, misrepresent authority, commit fraud, or submit fabricated records;
• threaten, harass, exploit, unlawfully discriminate against, or endanger another person;
• upload malware, probe or bypass security controls, interfere with service availability, or access data without authorization;
• scrape, harvest, index, or reuse personal or platform data except through an expressly permitted interface and for a lawful purpose;
• send spam, manipulate reviews or workflow outcomes, or use the Platform for unrelated commercial solicitation; or
• infringe intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, confidentiality, or other rights.

8. Moderation, suspension, and termination

The Platform Operator may review reported or security-relevant activity and may restrict content or features, revoke sessions, suspend accounts, preserve evidence, or terminate access when reasonably necessary to protect users or animals, enforce these Terms, comply with law, or secure the Platform. Backend authorization decisions remain controlling even when an interface displays an action incorrectly.

You may schedule account deletion through account controls. The current identity service provides a 30-day cancellation period before due accounts are anonymized. Some information may remain where another user must retain a workflow record, where an audit or legal obligation applies, or in time-limited backups. These Terms continue to apply to earlier activity and to provisions that by their nature should survive termination.

9. Third-party services

The Platform may use or link to third-party services such as hosting providers, email delivery services, and Google sign-in. Third-party services are governed by their own terms and privacy practices. The Platform Operator is not responsible for a third-party service that it does not control, but remains responsible for its own selection and use of service providers as required by applicable law.

10. Availability and changes to the service

The Platform may change, suspend, or discontinue features and may impose reasonable technical limits. We aim to operate the Platform safely and reliably but do not promise uninterrupted, error-free, or permanently available service. You should keep copies of information you are independently required to retain.

11. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Platform is provided "as is" and "as available." The Platform Operator disclaims implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, and any warranty arising from course of dealing. Nothing in these Terms excludes a warranty or consumer right that cannot lawfully be excluded.

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Platform Operator will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, loss of data, loss of opportunity, or harm arising from user conduct or an adoption decision. This limitation does not apply to fraud, willful misconduct, death or personal injury caused by negligence, breach of non-waivable privacy or consumer rights, or any liability that applicable law does not permit to be limited.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may publish a new version when the Platform, law, or our practices materially change. The Platform records the version you accept and may require a new affirmative acceptance before further authenticated use. A new version applies from its stated effective date; it does not retroactively change completed obligations unless law requires it.

14. Governing rules and disputes

These Terms are governed by the law applicable to the Platform Operator and this deployment, without removing mandatory rights or forums available to you under applicable consumer, privacy, or animal-welfare law. Before starting formal proceedings, you and the Platform Operator should try in good faith to resolve the issue using the support contact shown above. Nothing prevents either party from seeking urgent protective relief or reporting a safety, welfare, privacy, or criminal concern to the appropriate authority.

15. General

If a provision is unenforceable, it will be limited to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions will continue. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not transfer these Terms without the Platform Operator's consent; the Platform Operator may transfer them with the deployment or its operations, subject to applicable law and the Privacy Policy. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and any feature-specific terms presented to you are the entire agreement about the Platform.