Acceptable Use Policy

What this policy covers

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) sets out what you can and can't do with It's Birds Mate, and explains what happens to content you submit. It sits alongside our Terms of Service.

Your content — what you own and what you licence to us

You own your photos and recordings. When you submit a photo or audio recording to the app, you keep full ownership of that content.

By submitting content you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable licence to:

• Store and process your content on our servers (Supabase / Vercel)
• Pass your photo to our AI identification service (Anthropic) to identify the species
• Display your content within the app — for example, as your card face if you set a photo as your hero image, or as proof of a sighting on your profile
• Show your content to other users within the app where you have made it public (e.g. a shared win screen showing your card photo)

This licence is limited to operating the service. We will not use your photos in advertising, sell them, or share them with third parties outside the processors listed in our Privacy Policy, without your explicit permission.

Real sightings only

The entire point of It's Birds Mate is that your card collection is made of birds you have actually seen. The following are strictly prohibited:

• Submitting photos of birds you did not personally observe
• Uploading stock images, other people's photos, or screenshots
• Using automated scripts or tools to generate fake sightings
• Manipulating image metadata to falsify location or time

Accounts found to be submitting fake sightings will be suspended without refund.

Content standards

Content you submit must not:

• Infringe third-party copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights
• Contain hate speech, slurs, or content targeting people based on protected characteristics
• Harass, threaten, or abuse other users
• Include personal information about other people without their consent
• Be illegal under English law

The brand voice is banter-first and mild profanity is part of the culture — we are not a sanitised product. But there's a difference between “absolute unit of a pigeon” and a slur. We are the judge of where that line sits.

AI identification — not authoritative

The photo ID tool is powered by AI and is a best-effort identification aid. It can be wrong — especially for juveniles, hybrids, poor-quality photos, and species that look similar. Do not rely on it for scientific records, ring-scheme submissions, conservation reporting, or any other formal purpose. Always apply your own judgement.

Enforcement

We may remove content, suspend features, or terminate accounts that breach this policy, with or without prior notice depending on severity. For minor first-time breaches we will usually warn first. Repeated or serious breaches — especially fake sightings or hate content — may result in immediate termination.

Takedown notices

If you believe content on It's Birds Mate infringes your copyright or other rights, please contact us with:

1. Your contact details
2. Identification of the content you believe infringes your rights
3. A description of the rights you hold and why you believe this is an infringement
4. A statement that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the rights holder or authorised to act on their behalf

Send notices to: hello@itsbirdsmate.com

We aim to respond to valid takedown requests within 5 business days.

Contact

Questions about this policy: hello@itsbirdsmate.com