Terms of Use

1. The service

Buddy Abroad AI sends you scheduled check-ins by WhatsApp or text message. If you do not reply, it reminds you, then alerts the Buddies you chose, then contacts your hotel in the way you chose for that stay. If you send your secret SOS word, it alerts your Buddies at once, silently. You choose the times and delays in the app.

Buddy Abroad AI is not an emergency service. It does not contact the police, an ambulance or any emergency service. It depends on phone networks, WhatsApp, your device, the numbers you give us being correct, and the people you chose being able to act. We cannot guarantee that any message or call is delivered, read, answered or acted on, or that it arrives on time. In an emergency, call the local emergency number.

2. Who can use it

You must be at least 18 and able to enter into this agreement. You must give us accurate information, keep it up to date (especially your phone number, your Buddies' numbers and your stay), and keep your account and safety PIN secure.

3. Buddies and people you look after

You may only add someone as a Buddy, or set up Guardian check-ins for someone, if you have their permission. We ask each of them to confirm by replying YES, and we only rely on them after they do. You must never use the service to track, monitor or contact anyone without their knowledge and agreement.

A Buddy who has been alerted can close the alert once they have reached you (by replying SAFE, or on their alert page), and you can close it in the app with your safety PIN. Your other Buddies are then told you are safe. Choose Buddies you trust to do this responsibly.

4. Text messages, WhatsApp and calls

Program: Buddy Abroad AI check-ins and safety alerts. You agree to receive recurring automated messages at the number you give us: confirmation messages, one or two check-ins a day while a trip is active, reminders, alerts about your own account, and replies to your messages. Buddies receive an invitation, and then messages only when the person they look after misses check-ins, sends their SOS word, or sends them a trip update.

Frequency varies with your settings and activity. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, START to opt back in, and HELP for help, or contact support@buddyabroadai.com. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

Automated calls are placed only when you send your SOS word (to your Buddies, and to your hotel if you add "now" or "please") or at the hotel step if you chose "Called by Buddy" for that stay. We never call your own phone during an SOS. A person receiving a call can press 9 to stop future calls.

Your consent to receive messages is not a condition of any purchase. See also our SMS terms at https://buddyabroadai.com/sms-terms.

5. Location and phone signals

Location sharing and phone signals are optional and off by default. When on, your last known location (with the time it was taken) goes to your Buddies only if an alert fires. It is the last location we received, not a live position, and it may be out of date or inaccurate.

6. Plans, trials and payments

• Paid plans are subscriptions that renew automatically at the end of each period at the price shown when you subscribe, until you cancel.
• New users get a 14-day free trial once their phone number is confirmed, once per phone number. If you do not cancel before the trial ends, the subscription starts.
• Subscriptions bought in the App Store or Google Play are billed and managed by Apple or Google: cancel and request refunds in your store account settings, under their policies. Subscriptions bought on our website are billed by Stripe: cancel in the app or by contacting support; we do not give refunds for partial periods except where the law requires.
• Deleting your account does not cancel a store subscription. Cancel it in your store settings.
• We may change prices. A change applies from your next renewal, and we will tell you in advance; you can cancel before it applies.
• If your subscription ends, new check-ins stop. An alert that is already running always finishes.

7. Acceptable use

Do not: use the service to harass, stalk, monitor or deceive anyone; add people without their permission; send false alerts or SOS signals; use someone else's number; interfere with or overload the service; reverse engineer it except where the law allows; or use it for anything unlawful. We may suspend or close accounts that break these rules, especially where someone's safety or privacy is at risk.

8. AI-drafted trip updates

When you send a trip update, an AI model drafts the text from your photos and note. Drafts can be wrong. You are responsible for reviewing and editing a draft before you approve it, and for having the right to share the photos you send.

9. Your content and our rights

You keep ownership of the content you give us (such as photos and notes). You let us use it only to provide the service to you, for example to send your approved updates to the Buddies you choose.

The service, the apps and the Buddy Abroad AI name and logo belong to BUDDY ABROAD AI LLC. We give you a personal, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the apps for as long as you have an account.

10. Third-party services

The service relies on others, including phone carriers, WhatsApp, Apple, Google, Twilio and hotels. Their availability and actions are outside our control, and their own terms apply to your use of them.

11. Disclaimers

The service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose and that the service will be uninterrupted, timely or error-free. Information on the safety card (hospitals, embassies, emergency numbers) comes from third-party and public sources, may be incomplete or out of date, and is not medical, legal or travel advice.

12. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, BUDDY ABROAD AI LLC will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss arising from a message or call that was not sent, delivered, read, answered or acted on, or from the acts or omissions of Buddies, hotels, carriers or other third parties. Our total liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim and US $50.

Some places do not allow some of these limits. Where they do not, they apply as far as the law allows. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or any other liability that cannot be limited by law.

13. Indemnity

If you break these terms or the law, or add someone without their permission, you agree to cover reasonable losses and costs that BUDDY ABROAD AI LLC incurs as a result, to the extent the law allows.

14. Ending the agreement

You can stop using the service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or end your access if you break these terms, if required by law, or if we stop offering the service, with notice where reasonable. Sections that by their nature should survive (including 11 to 16) survive the end of this agreement.

15. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Wyoming, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Before bringing a claim, please contact support@buddyabroadai.com so we can try to resolve it informally within 30 days. Any dispute that is not resolved will be heard in the state or federal courts located in Wyoming, and you and we consent to their jurisdiction, except that either of us may bring an individual claim in a small-claims court where it qualifies. If you are a consumer in the EU, EEA or UK, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of your country and may bring a claim in its courts.

16. Apple and Google

If you downloaded the app from the Apple App Store: these terms are between you and us, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for the app or its content, has no obligation to provide maintenance or support, and is not responsible for any claims relating to the app (including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, consumer protection, or intellectual property claims). If the app fails to conform to an applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price, if any; Apple has no other warranty obligation. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you. You confirm that you are not in a country subject to a US government embargo or on a US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

If you downloaded the app from Google Play, Google Play's terms also apply to your download and purchases.

17. Changes and general terms

We may update these terms. We will post the new version here with a new date, and tell you in the app or by e-mail before a significant change takes effect. If you keep using the service after that, the new terms apply.

These terms, with the Privacy Policy and SMS terms, are the whole agreement between us about the service. If any part is unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a right, we do not waive it. You may not transfer this agreement; we may transfer it to a successor of the business.

18. Contact

BUDDY ABROAD AI LLC, 30 N Gould St, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States. support@buddyabroadai.com.