Terms & Conditions

These Terms & Conditions ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and the independent operator of Maps We Made, operating under the Maps We Made name ("Maps We Made", "we", "us" or "our"). They govern mapswemade.com, our web app, WhatsApp-assisted flows and related services (the "Service").

By accessing or using the Service, accepting an invitation, sending a prepared account or trip message, uploading content or publishing a story, you agree to these Terms and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter a binding agreement where you live. If you use the Service for an organization or another person, you represent that you have authority to bind them and obtain any required permissions.

The Service is not designed for children to hold their own accounts. Adults remain responsible for family-trip content and for protecting a child's identity and location.

Maps We Made lets people save places, import geotagged photos and videos, create maps and trips, collaborate, and publish travel stories. Accounts can be created through invited WhatsApp flows, and existing members can invite others.

The Service may be offered as an invite-only or beta product. A waitlist submission, invitation request or shared public story does not guarantee admission, availability, a particular feature or continued free use.

Your account is linked to the WhatsApp identity used to complete the invitation or login flow. You must control that account, provide accurate information and promptly report unauthorized access. You are responsible for activity authorized through your session, WhatsApp account and invitation links.

Invitations are limited, revocable and intended for people you know. Do not sell, automate, publish or misuse invitations, or invite someone in order to harass, spam or collect their data. We may expire, limit or revoke invitations and sessions to protect the Service.

You choose a visibility state where the product offers one. "Private" limits access to authorized accounts or trip members. "Link" means anyone with the link may open the content. "Public" means anyone may access it and it may be indexed by search engines.

A private or unlisted link is a secret, not a guarantee that a recipient will keep it confidential. Recipients may forward links, take screenshots or copy content. Do not share a link with someone who should not retain the information, and do not publish exact locations that could endanger a person or private property.

You retain ownership of photos, videos, text, places and other content you submit ("User Content"). You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, copy, encode, resize, store, display, distribute and otherwise process User Content only as needed to operate, secure, improve and promote the Service in accordance with your visibility choices.

This licence includes creating thumbnails, video renditions, story images, previews and backups, and displaying public content in discovery and social previews. It lasts while the content is on the Service and for the limited period needed for backup, cache, legal and cleanup processes after deletion. Public copies made by others may persist outside our control.

You represent that you own or have permission to use and share the User Content, including consent from identifiable people where required, and that our permitted processing will not violate privacy, publicity, copyright, confidentiality or other rights.

Trip owners and members may have different permissions. Depending on their role, collaborators may view, add, edit, organize or remove shared material. Changes made by a permitted collaborator can affect everyone's view of a trip.

By contributing content to a shared trip, you authorize its use within that trip. Your media becomes eligible for a public trip story only after you explicitly allow public-story use through the product controls. Trip owners must review what will become public and must not publish another person's contribution outside the permissions shown in the product. Resolve group disagreements directly where possible; we may preserve, hide or remove content while investigating a complaint.

You must not use the Service to:

• break the law, facilitate harm or violate another person's rights;
• upload obscene, exploitative, non-consensual intimate, abusive, hateful, threatening, discriminatory or sexually exploitative content;
• expose a person's home, live location, routine or private trip without permission, or place a child at risk;
• impersonate someone, misrepresent authorship, or knowingly present materially false or misleading content as fact;
• infringe copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or confidentiality;
• send spam, commercial solicitations or automated invitation traffic;
• probe, scrape, reverse engineer, overload, bypass limits, introduce malware or interfere with security or other users; or
• collect, sell or exploit another user's content, identity or location.

Maps, markers, automatically detected locations, place names, timestamps and third-party map data can be delayed, incomplete or wrong. You must review locations before relying on or sharing them.

Maps We Made is a memory and storytelling product, not a navigation, emergency, rescue, live-tracking, safety, visa, medical or travel-advice service. Do not use it to choose a safe route, confirm current access, replace official warnings or contact emergency services. You remain responsible for travel decisions, local conditions, permissions and personal safety.

The Service relies on third parties including WhatsApp/Meta, hosting and processing providers, and OpenFreeMap/OpenStreetMap-based map services. Their products, outages, data and terms are outside our control. Your use of WhatsApp and third-party links is also governed by their terms and privacy policies.

OpenStreetMap data is made available under the Open Database Licence and requires attribution. Third-party map data does not imply endorsement of Maps We Made or guarantee accuracy.

We may review reports and remove, restrict, preserve or disable content, links, invitations or accounts when we reasonably believe this is needed for safety, legal compliance, rights protection, security or enforcement of these Terms. Urgent action may occur without advance notice.

Report privacy, safety, impersonation or copyright concerns to support@mapswemade.com. Include "Grievance" in the subject line, the relevant URL, the material at issue, the reason for the request, your contact information and, for rights claims, evidence that you are authorized to act. False or abusive notices may themselves violate these Terms.

We will acknowledge a grievance within 24 hours and target resolution within seven days, or faster where applicable law requires. Clearly identify urgent reports involving non-consensual intimate imagery, nudity, sexual content or electronic impersonation so they can receive expedited review. We may ask for information needed to locate the content, verify the requester and avoid misuse of the process.

The Service, software, brand, logo, interface, design and original materials are owned by or licensed to Maps We Made and are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws. These Terms give you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive and non-transferable right to use the Service as intended. They do not transfer ownership or permit you to copy our brand, source code or product design.

Feedback may be used without restriction or payment, but we will not treat it as permission to expose your private content or personal data.

We may add, change, limit or discontinue features, storage, access methods or the invite programme. We may impose reasonable technical or usage limits. Where a change materially affects stored content, we will try to provide reasonable notice or an export opportunity when practical.

We do not guarantee uninterrupted access, successful message delivery, permanent storage, compatibility with every media file or device, or that third-party services will remain available. Keep independent copies of important media and travel information.

You may stop using the Service at any time and request account deletion at support@mapswemade.com. Leaving a trip does not necessarily delete content already contributed to it; use available controls or ask support about specific material.

We may suspend, restrict or terminate access if you breach these Terms, create risk, misuse invitations, threaten safety or security, or if operation is no longer practical. Where appropriate, we will provide notice and a reasonable chance to remedy the issue. Sections that by nature should survive, including ownership, licences already necessary for public copies, disclaimers, liability, disputes and enforcement, will survive termination.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available". We disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, availability, accuracy and data preservation.

We are not responsible for User Content, collaborator conduct, forwarded links, travel outcomes, third-party map errors, Meta/WhatsApp delivery, search-engine copies or services outside our control. Nothing in these Terms excludes a warranty, remedy or responsibility that applicable law does not allow us to exclude.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Maps We Made and its operators, contributors, contractors and affiliates will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, opportunities, goodwill, travel, content or data, arising from the Service.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability for claims relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid us for the Service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim or INR 5,000. This limit does not apply where liability cannot lawfully be limited, including any mandatory consumer rights.

To the extent permitted by law, you will defend, indemnify and hold harmless Maps We Made and its operators, contributors, contractors and affiliates from third-party claims, losses and reasonable costs arising from your User Content, your unlawful or unauthorized sharing of another person's location or media, your misuse of the Service, or your breach of these Terms or another person's rights.

We will give reasonable notice of a covered claim and allow reasonable cooperation. You may not settle a claim in a way that admits fault or imposes obligations on us without our written consent.

These Terms are governed by the laws of India, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Mandatory rights and consumer forums that cannot legally be excluded remain available.

Before filing a non-urgent claim, please email support@mapswemade.com and allow 30 days for a good-faith attempt to resolve it. Subject to mandatory law, disputes will be brought before courts of competent jurisdiction in India.

We may update these Terms to reflect product, provider, risk or legal changes. We will post the effective date and give additional notice of material changes where required. Continued use after revised Terms take effect constitutes acceptance to the extent permitted by law.

If part of these Terms is unenforceable, the remainder continues in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not transfer these Terms without our consent; we may transfer them as part of a reorganization, financing or sale of the Service. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement about the Service unless we sign a separate written agreement with you.

Account, grievance, safety, privacy and takedown requests: support@mapswemade.com
General enquiries: hello@mapswemade.com