Terms of Service

The following terms of service has been translated from German. It serves exclusively for better comprehensibility. The German version of the terms of service is therefore always applicable. 

1. General

1.1 These terms of service (the “Terms“) apply to the use of the mobile apps (the “Apps”; Dog Scanner, Cat Scanner and Horse Scanner) and the website https://siwalusoftware.com (Apps and Website together also the “Services”) by you (“User“, “you“, “your“). The Services are provided by Siwalu Software GmbH, An der Schluse 122a, 48329 Havixbeck, Germany (“Siwalu“, “we“, “us“).

1.2 The Apps offer you the possibility to determine the breed of dogs, cats and horses in a simple and uncomplicated way by using the smartphone camera or by uploading an image. You can also share pictures and text with other users, collect experience points and complete challenges. The services provided in the Apps include interactive features that allow you, in particular, the ability to post content, including, but not limited to, images and text. Once you publish content in the apps, other users of our services can access it. You can find more information about the Apps on our website. The Apps are available to you through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Some features of the apps may also be available on the website.

1.3 Advertisements can be displayed in the Apps, which may have to be closed by clicking a box to get back to the Apps. You are not allowed to edit, remove or obscure the placed advertisement.

1.4 Siwalu is not obliged to improve or expand the offered Apps (updates/upgrades) or to make the content and features provided in the respective Apps accessible. Siwalu does not guarantee certain functionalities of the Apps (in particular the correctness of the offered breed recognition).

1.5 Siwalu reserves the right to expand, change, delete and improve services, especially if these serve technical progress or appear necessary to prevent abuse. The changes may result in changes to the appearance, navigation or functions of the apps. In doing so, we make every effort to take user-friendliness into account.

2. Scope of application

2.1 By using the Apps, you agree to the validity of these conditions. We recommend each user to read these conditions carefully.

2.2 The conditions are aimed at both consumers and companies. They are available on the Internet at all times and apply to all one-off and ongoing services, unless special regulations apply. Any terms and conditions of the user that contradict or deviate from these Terms shall not apply unless expressly agreed in writing.

2.3 Siwalu reserves the right to change or adapt these terms and conditions for the future, e.g. to take changes in the law, changes in services or loopholes in regulations into account.

3. Subject of the contract

3.1 The subject of the contract is the use of our Services that are free of charge, unless a premium version has been purchased (the regulations for the premium version can be found in section 5).

3.2 By accepting the Terms for the Apps through the use of the same, the User submits an offer to conclude a contract for the use of the Apps. Siwalu accepts the offer by providing the corresponding Services to the User. Siwalu is, however, not obliged to conclude a respective contract with the User. 

3.3 If users wish to use Services that require the storage of personal data, it is necessary for users to sign up and provide personal data. Such a service is for example the modification of the profile picture.

3.4 Siwalu’s Services are available to the age groups defined by Siwalu in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. If the User has not yet reached this age, he/she is not entitled to use the Apps.

3.5 Voluntary, unpaid services and benefits can be discontinued at any time. In this case, the user has no right to continue the service.

3.6 If maintenance becomes necessary and the Apps or a certain feature of the Apps is therefore not available, the User will be informed in time if possible. However, we cannot guarantee availability. Furthermore, we are not responsible for internet/network-related downtimes and especially not for downtimes during which the Apps or a certain feature of the Apps cannot be accessed due to technical or other problems that are beyond our control (e.g. force majeure, fault of third parties, etc.).

4. Your right to use the Apps; our right to use your content

4.1 Upon conclusion of the contract, Siwalu grants you — subject to the limitations set forth in these Terms (see in particular section 7) — a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sub-licensable right to use the Apps for the intended purposes of the Apps and for the duration of the contract, limited, however, to an only personal and non-commercial use of the Apps.

4.2 You allow us to use the content that you publish by in the Apps («User Generated Content») (in particular the content protected by intellectual property rights) in order to provide you with the corresponding App services in the Apps (in this context and for these purposes we are in particular entitled to host, use, distribute, modify, perform, reproduce, copy, publicly perform or display, translate or create derivative works based on the User Generated Content (such types of use together the «Rights of Use») The license in the preceding section is granted to us free of charge and for the purpose of providing the App services to you.

4.3 We may also use the User Generated Content on our social media pages (e.g. Facebook) and/or use them in (connection with) other publications of us that we might produce and distribute without any further consideration owed to you. Also, in such cases and for such purposes we also have the corresponding Rights of Use.

4.4. If and to the extent the Websites also provide the User (in the future) with the possibility to post content on the Websites similar to User Generated Content (such content also the “Website User Generated Content”), then the aforementioned granting of rights in favor of Siwalu as set forth in section 3.2 above shall apply mutatis mutandis to such Website User Generated Content. If and to the extent the Websites also provide the User (in the future) with the possibility to post Website User Generated Content, then the aforementioned granting of rights in favor of Siwalu as set forth in section 3.3 above shall apply mutatis mutandis to such Website User Generated Content.

5. Premium-Version

There is the possibility to use a premium version of our Apps. This premium version offers you the possibility to use certain premium features beyond the basic features. You can find more information about these features on our website.

5.1 The User can use the premium version of Siwalu by completing the payment process in the Apps.

5.2 The premium version is subject to a fee. Users have the option to choose between a weekly, monthly or one-time payment. The currently valid price will be displayed to the user before the final purchase.

5.3 In order to pay the fee for the premium version, the User must make the payment via the Google Play Store or via the Apple App Store. Once the User has paid, the User may change the payment method using the appropriate Store Account. Siwalu does not refund fees or pay out credits. 

5.4 If the User chooses a recurring payment instead of a one-time payment, the fees for the premium version will be automatically renewed until the premium membership is terminated. The User can cancel the premium membership at any time as described in section 6 below.

6. Duration & Termination

6.1 The contract is concluded for an indefinite period. The contract can be terminated by either party at any time with a notice period of two weeks. 

6.2 In addition, the right of both parties to terminate the contract for good cause remains unaffected. Siwalu is entitled to terminate the contract without notice for good cause, in particular 

  • in the event of misuse or fraudulent use of the Services by the User, or if there is reasonable suspicion of misuse or fraudulent use of the Services by the user,
  • if the User does not comply with the essential provisions of these Terms (in particular the provisions of Section 7); and/or 
  • if the apps are used on a smartphone on which usage restrictions or security features of the manufacturer have been overridden or otherwise blocked functions have been activated

6.3 The user can delete his user account by termination in text (e-mail) or written form (letter). Upon termination, the user must provide the contact address stored in his user account (email address, mobile number, Google account or Facebook account). Otherwise it will not be possible to assign the user account.

6.4 In case of a subscription purchased or concluded via iTunes (respectively the Apple App Store) or the Google Play Store, the termination must be made in the iTunes or Google Play Store. Siwalu cannot charge back / cancel due to technical limitations of these stores.

7. Restrictions regarding the use of the Services

7.1 You may only use the Services for the intended purposes of the Services. Any other use of the Services not expressly granted to you in these Terms is (i) not allowed and (ii) with regard to the Apps not covered by the license granted to you in Section 4.1. In particular, you must comply at all times with the restrictions of use and the obligations set forth in sections 7.2 to 7.3.

7.2 The User undertakes to not post in the App and/or on the Websites:

  • any illegal or unlawful content;
  • Content that is defamatory, insulting, libellous, morally offensive, obscene or pornographic, that contains discrimination; content that constitutes a crime and/or (i) violence and/or (ii) terrorism and/or (iii) glorifies or incites racism;
  • Content that contains hate speech or harasses other users of the Services; 
  • Content that contains personal data of other persons or makes other persons identifiable in any other way (this includes the publication of images of other persons), unless (i) the other person has expressly consented to this publication, or (ii) there is a legal regulation that permits this publication in individual cases without the corresponding express consent of the other person;
  • advertising for commercial products and services that have not been authorized by us and/or the implementation, advertising and promotion of structural sales measures (such as multi-level marketing or multi-level network marketing);
  • Content that infringes the intellectual property rights of third parties (such as copyrights, trademarks);
  • content that contains trade secrets of third parties (at least if the corresponding disclosure of such information would violate applicable law);
  • Content that is offensive and/or sexually suggestive to other users.

We reserve the right to remove User Generated Content and Website User Generated Content that does not comply with any of the rules set forth in this section 7.2.

  • With regard to the Services the User undertakes to not:
  • not to implement any malicious programs in the Services or otherwise attack the Services and/or the users of the Apps with (i) data that contains viruses, worms, Trojan horses or other malware and/or (ii) contain spam messages;
  • not to carry out any actions that could compromise the functioning and/or security of Siwalu’s technical infrastructure for the Services (in particular actions that overload said infrastructure) and/or that could affect the appearance of the Services;
  • not to use internal APIs, unless they have been explicitly made public;
  • not to create, construct and/or operate any third party websites (e.g. (social media) fan pages), apps and platforms consisting entirely or largely of compilations of the Content published by other users in the Apps and/or on the Website without the express written consent of Siwalu (such User Content is also referred to as «Third Party Content»; such Third Party websites, apps and platforms are also referred to as «Third Party Platforms»;
  • not to assist third parties in creating, building and/or operating third party platforms without the express written consent of Siwalu, without Siwalu’s express written consent (such as, but not limited to, providing third party content to the operators of respective Third Party Platforms);
  • not to modify, alter, translate, reconstruct, decompile, disassemble or otherwise decipher the source code of the Apps or create derivative works based on the Apps (except to the extent that such actions are permitted by applicable law)
  • not to harass or harm other users of the Apps;
  • not to intimidate, stalk or otherwise threaten other users of the Apps; not to use any automation systems and/or software to extract data from the services (including third party content), especially if this data is used for commercial purposes and/or published on Third Party Platforms;
  • not to assist third parties in extracting data from the Services (including Third Party Content), in particular if such data is used for commercial purposes and/or published on Third Party Platforms;
  • not to access app accounts of other users without the permission of the respective app user;
  • sell, rent, lease and/or offer products/goods and/or services in the Apps and/or on the Website;

If you violate these Terms (in particular Sections 7.2 to 7.3), we may warn you, temporarily block or, if necessary, even completely exclude you from using the Apps or assist in criminal prosecution of criminal offences, take civil or criminal action with respect to illegal content or use of the Apps. Siwalu is not obliged to issue a warning or to give prior notice of deletion once illegal content becomes known.

6.4 Siwalu accepts no responsibility for the texts, content, images, data and/or information provided by the User, nor for the content of linked external websites. In particular, there is no guarantee that these contents are true or serve a specific purpose.

8. Limitation of liability

8.1 The user shall indemnify Siwalu against all claims, including claims for damages, which other users or other third parties, including public authorities, may make against us due to an infringement of their rights by the content posted by the User on our Apps, or actions taken by the User which violate the law. The User shall bear all reasonable costs, including reasonable legal defense costs, incurred by us due to an infringement of third party rights by the user. All further rights and claims for damages by Siwalu remain unaffected.

8.2 The above obligations shall only apply if the User is responsible for the infringement in question, i.e. if the User has acted knowingly or intentionally or has disregarded the care required in traffic.

8.3 It is technically impossible for us to determine with certainty whether a user registered in the Apps actually has the identity the user claims to have. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the correct identity of users.

9. Responsibility for content

Siwalu provides various media content for retrieval within the services offered. The provided content may also contain copyrights of third parties. In this case, these do not belong to Siwalu and there is no possibility of changing them. Siwalu accepts no responsibility for the accuracy, legality, completeness and timeliness of the contributions, in particular for content and information found on third-party websites to which links are provided from the apps. For this reason, Siwalu is not liable for damages caused by the provision of third party content, such as the violation of copyrights or other rights of third parties.

10. Liability on the part of Siwalu

10.1 Siwalu shall be liable to the user in accordance with the provisions of the applicable product liability laws, in case of intent and gross negligence for injury to life, limb or health, if Siwalu provides any guarantee, and in all other cases of mandatory legal liability, in any case in accordance with the statutory provisions.

10.2 In the event of a breach of essential contractual obligations («Cardinal Obligations»), Siwalu is liable to compensate the user for any damages incurred. Cardinal Obligations are obligations, the violation of which endangers the achievement of the purpose of the contract, as well as all obligations, the fulfilment of which makes the proper execution of the contract possible in the first place and on the compliance of which you can generally rely. However, if the breach of Cardinal Obligations is only caused by slight negligence and does not result in injury to life, body or health, the user’s claims for damages shall be limited to the foreseeable damage typical for the contract.

10.3 In all other cases, claims for damages against Siwalu — regardless of their legal basis, in particular due to the violation of a pre-contractual obligation or obligations arising from the contractual relationship between the user and Siwalu by Siwalu, its legal representatives, employees or agents, or due to unauthorized actions — are excluded.

10.4 To the extent that Siwalu’s liability is limited or excluded in accordance with section 10, this also applies to the personal liability of Siwalu’s legal representatives, employees and agents.

10.5 All liability privileges, e.g. according to section 8-11 of the German Telemedia Act (TMG) or section 598 of the German Civil Code (BGB), remain unaffected.

10.6 The aforementioned provisions from section 10 do not change the burden of proof to the disadvantage of the User.

10.7 The User’s claims for damages become statute-barred after expiry of the statutory limitation periods from the beginning of the statutory limitation period.

11. Indemnification

The user agrees to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Siwalu for all losses, expenses, liabilities, damages and claims (including reasonable attorney’s fees) resulting from any culpable breach by the User of the User’s obligations under these Terms.

12. Privacy

By using the Apps, our privacy policy applies, which hereby becomes part of these Terms. Further information on the collection and processing of your personal data can be found in the privacy policy.

13. Final provisions

The possible invalidity of one or more provisions of these Terms of service shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.

Any use of the Apps or of the data, information, texts, parts of texts or images listed here, as well as any action, toleration or omission in connection with the use of the Apps is subject exclusively to German law.