Draft — not yet reviewed by a qualified solicitor. Do not treat this as legally sufficient.
1. Introduction and Acceptance
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of Backbond (the "Service"), operated by [COMPANY NAME], a company registered in England and Wales under company number [COMPANY REGISTRATION NUMBER] ("Backbond", "we", "us", or "our"). By creating an account or otherwise using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service.
2. Who Can Use Backbond
Backbond is intended for use by adults aged 18 and over. You must provide your genuine date of birth when creating an account and actively confirm that it is accurate. We currently rely on self-reported date of birth as a first line of defence; this is not a substitute for identity verification, and we reserve the right to introduce stronger age-assurance measures at any time. You may not use the Service if you are under 18, if you have previously been banned from the Service, or if applicable law prohibits your use of the Service.
3. Your Account
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to provide accurate information and keep it up to date. You may only create and maintain one account. Accounts are personal to you and may not be transferred, sold, or shared.
4. Acceptable Use
Backbond exists to help people build real friendships and attend real, in-person plans. To keep that possible, you agree that you will not, under any circumstances, including within private circles:
- Post, share, or request nudity, sexually explicit content, or sexual solicitation of any kind
- Share an image of another person without their consent
- Harass, threaten, stalk, or intimidate any other user
- Post hateful, discriminatory, or extremist content
- Impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your identity or age
- Use the Service for commercial solicitation, spam, or unauthorised advertising
- Upload or transmit any content that is illegal in your jurisdiction, including material depicting or sexualising minors
- Attempt to circumvent, disable, or interfere with any safety, security, or content-moderation feature of the Service
We use a combination of automated content screening (including text filtering and third-party image analysis) and human review to enforce this policy. We may remove content, hide content pending review, and suspend or permanently terminate accounts, at our discretion, with or without prior notice, to protect users and comply with our legal obligations.
5. User-Generated Content
You retain ownership of the content you post ("User Content"). By posting, you grant Backbond a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, and display that content solely to operate the Service as intended (for example, showing your posts to members of a circle you belong to, or a Moment to attendees of the plan it relates to). You are solely responsible for the User Content you post and confirm you have all necessary rights to post it.
6. Circles, Plans, and In-Person Meetings
Backbond is designed to help you arrange real plans, which may include meeting people in person. Backbond does not conduct criminal background checks on users and cannot guarantee the identity, intentions, or conduct of any other user. You are solely responsible for your own safety and conduct when meeting other users. We strongly recommend meeting new people in public places, telling a trusted third party where you are going, and trusting your own judgement. Backbond is not responsible or liable for any interaction, meeting, or event arranged using the Service, or for the conduct of any user, online or in person.
7. Content Moderation and Enforcement
Certain categories of report (including nudity or sexual content, non-consensual imagery, and concerns about underage use) may result in the reported content being hidden automatically, pending human review. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to warn, temporarily suspend, or permanently ban any account that we believe, in good faith, has violated these Terms, applicable law, or otherwise poses a risk to other users.
8. Intellectual Property
The Backbond name, logo, and the software and design underlying the Service are the property of [COMPANY NAME] or its licensors. Nothing in these Terms grants you any right to use our trademarks, branding, or proprietary technology except as necessary to use the Service as intended.
9. Termination
You may delete your account at any time from the Safety screen. Doing so deletes your profile and associated content as described in our Privacy Policy. We may suspend or terminate your access at any time, with or without cause or notice, including where we believe you have violated these Terms.
10. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, to the fullest extent permitted by law. To the fullest extent permitted, [COMPANY NAME] shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the Service. Nothing here excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.
11. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless [COMPANY NAME] and its officers, employees, and agents from any claim, liability, damage, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your violation of these Terms or your misuse of the Service.
12. Governing Law and International Use
These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, whose courts have exclusive jurisdiction, save where mandatory local consumer-protection law requires otherwise. Backbond is currently operated with the United Kingdom as its primary market. We intend to expand internationally over time; we have not yet completed a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction legal compliance review for international markets, and this document will be revised as that expansion happens. If you access the Service from outside the UK, you are responsible for compliance with your local laws.
13. Changes to These Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.
14. Contact
For questions about these Terms, contact us at hello@joinbackbond.com.
1. Introduction and Scope
This Privacy Policy explains how [COMPANY NAME] ("Backbond", "we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, shares, and protects personal data when you use the Backbond service. We only collect what the Service actually needs to function, and we describe below, plainly, what that is and why.
2. Who We Are
For the purposes of UK GDPR, the data controller is [COMPANY NAME], registered in England and Wales. You can contact us about privacy matters at hello@joinbackbond.com.
3. What Information We Collect
- Account information: your email address and password (handled via our authentication provider, Supabase Auth)
- Profile information you provide: display name, username, bio, location (town/city level, not precise geolocation), interests, and profile photo
- Date of birth, collected once at signup solely to confirm you meet our minimum age requirement
- Content you create: posts, comments, circles, plans, RSVPs, Moments, and private notes
- Communications: reports you submit, and notifications sent through the Service
- Technical data necessary to operate the Service, such as session state (handled via your browser's local session storage, not persistent tracking cookies)
4. How We Use Your Information
- To create and operate your account and provide the core features of the Service
- To match you with relevant nearby people and circles based on the town/city you provide
- To screen content for safety, including automated text filtering and automated image analysis, and manual review of reported content
- To communicate with you about your account and material changes to our policies
- To comply with our legal obligations
5. Legal Basis for Processing
We rely on: performance of a contract (providing the Service you signed up for), legitimate interests (safety and content moderation), consent (such as confirming your date of birth), and legal obligation, where applicable.
6. Who We Share Data With
We do not sell your personal data. We share data with two categories of processor, solely to operate the Service:
- Supabase — our database, authentication, and file storage provider, which hosts substantially all Service data
- Google Cloud (Vision API) — used to automatically screen uploaded images for nudity, sexual, and violent content before they become visible to other users
We may also disclose data where required by law, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, subject to equivalent protections continuing to apply.
7. Data Retention
We retain your data for as long as your account is active. Deleting your account removes your profile and directly associated content (posts, comments, circle memberships, plans, memories, bonds) immediately. Certain records, such as reports made against your account, may be retained briefly afterward for safety or legal purposes.
8. Your Rights
Under UK GDPR you have the right to access, rectify, erase (both available directly in the Service), restrict or object to processing, receive your data in a portable format, and to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk if you believe we have not handled your data properly.
9. Data Security
We use database-level access controls (row-level security) that restrict who can read or modify data based on your actual relationships within the Service — for example, ensuring photos from a private circle's plan are only visible to people who actually attended. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
10. Children's Privacy
Backbond is not intended for anyone under 18. This is currently a self-reported check at signup, not identity verification. If we become aware we've collected data from someone under 18, we will take steps to delete that account and its data.
11. International Data Transfers
Our processors may store or process data outside the United Kingdom, including in the United States, relying on their own compliance mechanisms for international transfers. This section will be revised as Backbond expands to serve users outside the UK.
12. Cookies and Similar Technologies
Backbond does not use advertising or tracking cookies. We use your browser's session storage to keep you signed in during a session; this clears automatically when you close your browser and is never used for tracking or advertising.
13. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated to you through the Service.
14. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, contact us at hello@joinbackbond.com.