Terms of Service

These terms are a contract between you and the operator of ein1. Please read them before you create an account.

1. About these terms#

ein1 is an all-in-one local discovery platform. You can find local businesses, read and write reviews, share photos and videos, save places into collections, follow businesses and people, add and correct business listings, claim a business you own, and message businesses and other users.

Operator

Tizita Abeje Dubale, operating ein1 as an individual (sole proprietor) in Ethiopia

Store listings

On the App Store and Google Play we are listed as Tizita Dubale

Support and general enquiries

support@mail.ein1.app

Privacy and data requests

privacy@mail.ein1.app

Postal address

Available on request. Email privacy@mail.ein1.app

In these terms, "ein1", "we" and "us" mean the operator above. "You" means the person using ein1. "The service" means the ein1 mobile app, our website, and the interfaces the app uses to reach our servers.

By creating an account, or by using ein1 without one, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

Our Privacy Policy explains what we do with your information. It forms part of this agreement, and you should read it as well.

ein1 is currently operated by an individual rather than a company. We intend to transfer operation to an Ethiopian company once one is incorporated. If that happens, the company takes over this agreement, and we will give you notice as described in §20.

2. Who may use ein1#

You must be at least 13 years old to create an ein1 account. ein1 is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly allow them to register.

If you are between 13 and 18, or under the age of majority where you live, you may use ein1 only with the knowledge and involvement of a parent or guardian, who accepts these terms on your behalf. We ask that you review these terms and our Privacy Policy together with them.

We do not ask for your date of birth, so we cannot verify your age. We rely on you telling us the truth when you accept these terms. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 13, we will delete it and its content. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, email privacy@mail.ein1.app.

You also confirm that:

• You have the legal capacity to enter into this agreement, or a parent or guardian has entered into it for you.
• You are not barred from using the service under any law that applies to you.
• We have not previously terminated your account for breaking these terms, unless we have given you written permission to return.

You may hold one account. Do not create additional accounts to evade a suspension, to inflate review counts or follower numbers, or to appear to be more than one person.

3. Your account#

Registering. You can create an account with an email address and a password, or by signing in with Google or with Apple. Whichever you choose, you must give us a real name or the name you go by, and an email address that reaches you. We derive a public profile handle from your name, and you can change it at any time.

If you sign in with Apple and choose to hide your email address, Apple gives us a forwarding address instead of your own. That is fine, but you should know that turning the forwarding off in your Apple settings stops our messages reaching you, including the codes needed to delete or restore your account.

Verifying your email. Accounts created with an email address and password must confirm a six-digit code we send you before you can use most of the service. This protects other people from having their email address used to create an account they did not ask for.

Keeping your account secure. You are responsible for your password and for everything that happens under your account. Do not share your credentials or let someone else use your account. Tell us at support@mail.ein1.app as soon as you suspect someone else has access, and change your password. Resetting your password signs you out of every device.

Staying signed in. A sign-in session can remain valid for up to a year while you keep using the app, so signing out on a device you no longer control matters.

Accurate information. Keep your account information current, and do not impersonate another person, business or organisation, or use a handle or display name designed to make people think you are someone you are not.

4. What ein1 costs, and what we promise about availability#

ein1 is free to use. There are no subscriptions, no in-app purchases and no advertising. If we ever introduce a paid feature, we will describe it clearly and you will never be charged without agreeing first.

We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable permission to use the service for its intended purpose, on your own devices, in accordance with these terms.

We are building and improving the service continuously. We may add, change, restrict or remove features, and we may take the service offline for maintenance. We aim to give notice of anything significant, but we do not promise uninterrupted availability, and we are not liable for interruptions. See §16.

5. Content you post#

Your content stays yours. You keep all rights you already have in the reviews, photos, videos, captions, collection names and descriptions, business listing information, suggested edits, messages and other material you post ("your content"). This agreement does not transfer ownership of it to us.

The permission you give us. So that we can actually run the service, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, reformat, resize, re-encode, cache, transmit, display and distribute your content, and to make it available to the people it is meant to reach. This licence exists only to operate, promote and improve ein1, and it lasts for as long as your content is on the service, plus a short period afterwards while it clears our backups (see the Privacy Policy).

This has two consequences:

• We re-encode images. Photos you upload are converted and resized so the app loads quickly. This is part of the licence above, and it removes embedded metadata including any GPS coordinates your camera stored.
• Public content can be seen and reused by other people. Reviews, photos, videos, your public profile and public collections are visible to anyone using ein1. We cannot control what other people do with content once they can see it. Do not post anything you would not want copied or shared.

We do not claim your content for advertising. We will not sell your content, and we will not use your name, handle or photos to endorse a product without asking you first.

Your promises about your content. For everything you post, you confirm that:

• You own it, or you have all the rights and permissions needed to post it and to grant the licence above.
• It does not infringe anyone's copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other rights.
• Everyone recognisable in a photo or video has agreed to appear in it, where their agreement is needed.
• It does not break these terms or any law that applies to you.

Deleting content. You can delete your reviews, photos, videos and collections at any time. Deleting removes them from the service. A copy may remain in a backup for up to 30 days, and content you sent to another person in a message stays in that conversation.

6. Rules for content and conduct#

The value of ein1 depends entirely on people being honest and decent in it. Do not post, send or do any of the following.

Illegal and dangerous

• Anything unlawful under Ethiopian law or the law where you are.
• Content that sexualises a minor in any way. We report this to the authorities and permanently ban the account, with no appeal.
• Threats of violence, incitement to violence, or promotion of terrorism or violent extremism.
• Sale of, or trade in, weapons, illegal drugs, human beings, wildlife or stolen goods.
• Instructions for making weapons, explosives or other means of causing serious harm.

Harmful to other people

• Harassment, bullying, stalking or repeated unwanted contact.
• Hate speech, or attacks on people based on ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sex, sexual orientation, disability, age or a comparable characteristic.
• Sharing someone else's private information without their agreement, including their home address, phone number, identity document or exact location.
• Sexual content, nudity, or content designed to shock or disgust.
• Graphic violence, cruelty to animals, or content promoting self-harm, suicide or eating disorders.
• Impersonating a person, business or organisation, or falsely claiming to represent one.

Dishonest

• Fake, paid, incentivised or otherwise inauthentic reviews. See §7.
• False business information, listings for businesses that do not exist, or claims of ownership over a business you do not own or represent.
• Scams, phishing, pyramid or multi-level schemes, or requests for money under false pretences.
• Spam: repetitive, irrelevant or bulk content, and unsolicited advertising in reviews, messages or business pages.
• Manipulating rankings, ratings, follower counts, reactions or search results, whether by multiple accounts, coordinated behaviour or automated means.

Harmful to the service

• Accessing the service by any means other than our app and website, including scraping, crawling or automated collection of listings, reviews, profiles or images.
• Reverse engineering, decompiling or attempting to derive our source code.
• Probing, scanning or testing the security of our systems, defeating rate limits, or interfering with other users' access.
• Uploading malware, or content designed to damage or gain unauthorised access to any system.
• Using the service to build a competing product or dataset.

Reporting. If you see something that breaks these rules, use the report option next to the content, or email support@mail.ein1.app. Reports are reviewed by a moderator.

7. Reviews#

Reviews carry their own rules, in addition to those in §6.

Write only from first-hand experience. Review a business you have actually visited, used or dealt with. Do not review a place based on someone else's account of it, on news coverage, or on how you feel about its owner.

Do not review your own business, and do not review a competitor. If you own, work for, represent, or are related to the people who own a business, you must not review it. If you compete with a business, you must not review it either. This is the most common form of review abuse and we treat it seriously.

No paid or incentivised reviews. Do not offer, accept or solicit money, discounts, free goods or any other benefit in exchange for writing, changing or removing a review. This applies to you whether you are the reviewer or the business.

No review extortion. Do not threaten a negative review, or the mass posting of negative reviews, to obtain something from a business. Businesses must not threaten a reviewer to have a review changed or removed.

Stay on topic. A review should be about your experience of the business: the goods, the service, the place, the price. It is not a place for unrelated political content, personal disputes with staff conducted in public, or accusations you cannot support.

Ratings are opinions. A star rating is your personal opinion, and we present it as such. Do not state something as a fact about a business unless you know it to be true.

Business replies. A business's authorised managers can reply to reviews of that business. A reply is public, must follow the same rules, and must not reveal a reviewer's private information.

What we may do. We may remove a review, a reply or an attached photo that breaks these rules, and we may remove a rating from a business's average. We do not remove a review simply because a business dislikes it, and we do not sell the removal of reviews. If a business asks us to remove a review, we ask them to tell us which rule it breaks.

8. Business listings, edits and ownership claims#

Anyone can help build the directory. You can add a business that is missing, and suggest corrections to one that is already listed. When you do, give accurate information and only information you are entitled to share. A moderator or an authorised manager of the business reviews suggested changes before they take effect.

Listings are not endorsements. A business appearing in ein1 does not mean we have inspected it, verified its licences, or vouch for its goods, services, prices or safety. See §16.

Claiming a business. If you own or represent a business, you can claim its listing. You will be asked for your name, your position at the business, a contact phone number, a contact email address, and documents proving your connection to it, such as a business licence or registration certificate. By submitting a claim you confirm that the information is true and that you are authorised to act for the business.

Claim documents are held in private storage, are not publicly accessible, and are visible only to an administrator reviewing your claim. They are deleted when the claim is deleted and when you delete your account.

We may approve, reject or ask for more information, and we may reverse an approval if we later learn the claim was inaccurate. Approving a claim confirms your connection to the business. It does not verify the business itself. Submitting a false claim, or documents that are not yours, is a serious breach of these terms.

You can withdraw a claim while it is still pending. Withdrawing deletes the claim and its documents.

Managing a business. An approved claim can lead to your account being linked to the business with a role: owner, co-owner, manager or content creator. Roles differ in what they allow, and higher roles can add others. If you manage a business:

• You are responsible for what you and the people you authorise post on its behalf.
• You must keep the listing accurate, and correct it when it changes.
• You must remove people who no longer work for the business.
• Everything posted from the business, including replies to reviews and messages, must follow these terms.

If a business changes hands, the new owner is entitled to the listing. We may transfer control of a listing when we are satisfied who is entitled to it.

9. Messaging#

ein1 has two kinds of conversation: direct messages between two people, and business conversations between a person and a claimed business.

Business conversations are a shared team inbox. Anyone the business has authorised as a manager can read the entire conversation, including messages sent before they were added. If you message a business, you are messaging its team, not one individual.

Messages are not end-to-end encrypted. They are stored on our servers so they can be delivered and re-read on your other devices. We are technically able to read them, and we access them only where necessary, for example to investigate a report of abuse or where the law requires it.

Image attachments are deleted after 90 days to free storage. The message stays, with a marker in place of the file. Save anything you want to keep.

Blocking. You can block another person from messaging you. Blocking mutes the conversation in both directions and prevents a new one from being started. It deliberately does not hide your public profile, reviews or photos from them, and it does not affect follows or business conversations, because a business inbox is a team, not a person. We do not tell someone that you have blocked them.

Rules for messages. The rules in §6 apply in private messages exactly as they apply in public. A private conversation is not a place where harassment, threats, scams or unlawful content become acceptable.

10. Collections and following#

You can save businesses into collections, make a collection public or keep it private, and follow businesses, collections and other people.

A private collection is not visible to other users, but it is stored on our servers and is not end-to-end encrypted. Treat it as private from other people, not as secret from us.

Public collections can be followed. If you make a collection public, other people can find, view and follow it, and it appears with your name on it. Making it private again stops new people from seeing it.

Following someone is public. Your follower and following counts are visible on your profile.

11. Moderation and enforcement#

We review reports; we do not pre-screen everything. ein1 carries content created by other people, and we do not review it before it appears. We have no obligation to monitor the service, but we may do so, and we act on reports.

What we can do when these terms are broken. Depending on what happened, how serious it is, and whether it has happened before, we may:

• Remove or restrict access to content.
• Remove a rating from a business's average.
• Limit features on an account, such as posting, messaging or claiming.
• Suspend an account temporarily.
• Terminate an account permanently.
• Remove a manager from a business, or reverse an approved claim.
• Report the matter to the authorities where the law requires it or where someone is at risk.

We aim to take the smallest action that resolves the problem, and to act consistently. For the most serious categories, in particular content that sexualises a minor, we terminate immediately and permanently.

Telling you why. Where we remove your content or restrict your account, we will tell you what happened and which rule was involved, unless telling you would break the law, put someone at risk, or help someone evade enforcement.

Disagreeing with us. If you think we got it wrong, reply to the notice or email support@mail.ein1.app, explaining why. A person will look at it again. We are a small operation, so please allow us reasonable time to respond.

12. Our intellectual property#

The ein1 name, logo, app, website, design, text, database structure and software are owned by us or licensed to us, and are protected by intellectual property law. These terms give you permission to use the service. They do not give you any right to our brand or our software.

You may not:

• Use the ein1 name or logo without our written permission, except to refer to the service fairly and accurately.
• Copy, modify, distribute, sell or lease any part of the service or our software.
• Extract or reuse our directory, review corpus or any substantial part of our data, by scraping or otherwise. The compilation is ours even where individual facts are not.
• Remove or obscure any notice of ownership.

Feedback and suggestions you send us are welcome, and we may use them freely without owing you anything. We will never treat your suggestion as confidential unless we have agreed in writing to do so.

13. Copyright and other intellectual property complaints#

If you believe content on ein1 infringes your copyright, trademark or other intellectual property right, email support@mail.ein1.app with:

1. 1Your name and contact details.
2. 2What was infringed, and enough detail for us to recognise it, for example a link to the original work.
3. 3Where the infringing content is on ein1, precisely enough for us to find it.
4. 4A statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorised.
5. 5A statement that the information in your complaint is accurate, and that you are the rights holder or authorised to act for them.

We will review the complaint and remove content where the claim appears well founded. We will tell the person who posted it what was removed and why, and they may respond. If they show they were entitled to post it, we may restore it.

We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.

Do not send a complaint you know to be false. Doing so is a breach of these terms and may expose you to liability.

14. Third-party services and content#

Businesses and other users are not us. ein1 shows information about independent businesses and content created by independent people. We do not control them, we do not employ them, and we are not a party to your dealings with them. Any transaction you enter into with a business you found through ein1 is between you and that business.

Services we rely on. Some parts of the service depend on companies we do not control:

Your use of those services is subject to their terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for them, and we cannot guarantee they will keep working.

Links. Where the app links to a website we do not operate, we are not responsible for what is there.

Our address search and map data run on infrastructure we operate ourselves, so your searches and locations are not passed to a third-party geocoding or analytics service. This is explained in the Privacy Policy.

15. Suspending and ending your account#

Ending it yourself. You can delete your account from inside the app, where you confirm with a code we email you. If you no longer have the app installed, www.ein1.app/account-deletion explains how to request deletion by email instead. Either way, you choose what happens to your content:

Your account is deactivated immediately, and you are signed out everywhere. You have 30 days to change your mind, after which the deletion is permanent. During those 30 days you can restore the account by signing in and confirming a code we email you. This is explained in full in the Privacy Policy.

After the 30 days, an anonymised record remains so that conversations you took part in are not left one-sided. It holds no personal data. If you signed in with Apple, we also ask Apple at that point to revoke the connection between ein1 and your Apple ID.

Suspension and termination by us. We may suspend or terminate your account, or remove your content, if:

• You break these terms, seriously or repeatedly.
• Your account is being used to harm other people or the service.
• We are required to by law.
• You have given us false information in a business ownership claim.

Where the circumstances allow it, we will warn you first and give you a chance to put things right. Where someone is at risk, or the breach is severe, we may act immediately.

What survives. If your account ends, for any reason: the licence you granted us in §5 ends for content that is deleted and continues for content you chose to keep; sections §12, §16, §17, §18 and §19 continue to apply.

16. Disclaimers#

Please read this section carefully. It limits what you can expect from us.

The service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law, we make no warranties about the service, and we exclude all implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

We do not verify businesses. We do not inspect premises, confirm licences, test goods, or check prices, opening hours, addresses or contact details. Information about a business may be wrong, out of date, or added by someone who was mistaken. Confirm anything that matters directly with the business, particularly opening hours, prices, and whether a place is suitable for you.

Reviews are opinions, not facts, and not our opinions. A review reflects the experience of the person who wrote it. Ratings and rankings are generated from user activity and are not our assessment of a business's quality. We do not endorse any business, and a high rating is not a recommendation from us.

Nothing in ein1 is professional advice. It is not medical, legal, financial or safety advice.

Meeting people and going places. ein1 helps you find places and lets you message people you may not know. Use your judgement, as you would anywhere else. We are not responsible for the conduct of any user or business, online or in person, and we do not screen or run background checks on anyone.

Location. Location features depend on your device and on data that may be imprecise. Do not rely on ein1 where an error could put you at risk.

Availability. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that content will not be lost. Keep your own copies of anything you cannot afford to lose.

Nothing in this section excludes a liability that cannot be excluded under the law that applies to you.

17. Limitation of liability#

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

• We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for loss of profit, revenue, data, goodwill or opportunity, however caused.
• We are not liable for the conduct of any user or business, for content posted by anyone other than us, or for any transaction between you and a business you found through ein1.
• We are not liable for loss or damage caused by something outside our reasonable control, including a failure of the internet, of your device, or of one of the third-party services listed in §14.
• Where we are liable, our total liability to you, for all claims arising out of or relating to the service or these terms, is limited to what you have paid us for the service in the twelve months before the claim arose. ein1 is free to use, so for most people that is nothing. If we ever introduce a paid feature and you pay for it, this limit rises to what you paid.

These limits do not apply to liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or to any other liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.

And they never reduce rights you have by law. Some laws do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or liabilities. Nothing in these terms limits or removes a right you hold under a law that applies to you and that cannot be varied by agreement. Where such a law conflicts with this section, that law wins, and the rest of this section continues to apply.

18. Indemnity#

If someone brings a claim against us because of something you did, you agree to cover our reasonable losses. Specifically, you agree to indemnify us against claims, damages, liabilities and reasonable legal costs arising from:

• Content you posted.
• Your use of the service in breach of these terms or of any law.
• A business ownership claim you submitted, or your management of a business listing.
• Your dealings with another user or a business.

We will tell you promptly about any claim, and you may take over its defence with counsel we reasonably approve. Do not settle a claim in a way that admits fault on our part, or imposes an obligation on us, without our agreement.

19. Governing law and disputes#

These terms, and any dispute arising out of them or out of your use of ein1, are governed by the laws of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules.

Talk to us first. Most problems are quicker to solve directly. Email support@mail.ein1.app with a description of the issue and what you would like us to do, and we will try in good faith to resolve it with you.

If we cannot, the competent courts of Ethiopia have exclusive jurisdiction, and you and we both submit to them. If you are a consumer in a country whose law gives you the right to bring a claim in your local courts, this section does not take that right away.

Claims must be brought individually. You may not bring a claim as a class action or in any representative capacity.

20. Changes to these terms#

We may change these terms, for example when we add a feature, or when the law changes.

• For a change that materially affects your rights or obligations, we will give you at least 14 days' notice before it takes effect, by email or in the app, and we will update the effective date at the top of this page.
• For a minor change, such as a correction or clarification, we will update this page and the effective date.

If you keep using ein1 after a change takes effect, you accept the new terms. If you do not accept them, stop using the service and delete your account, as described in §15.

We will not apply a change retroactively to a dispute that arose before it took effect.

21. General#

Severability. If any part of these terms is held unenforceable, the rest continues to apply, and the unenforceable part is limited to the smallest extent needed to make it valid.

No waiver. If we do not enforce a right straight away, we have not given it up.

Assignment. You may not transfer your rights or obligations under these terms. We may transfer ours to a company we incorporate to operate ein1, or to an acquirer of the service, provided your rights are not reduced. We will give you notice if this happens.

Entire agreement. These terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between you and us about the service, and replace any earlier understanding about it.

No agency. These terms do not create a partnership, employment, agency or joint venture between you and us.

Notices. We will send notices to the email address on your account, or show them in the app. Send notices to us at support@mail.ein1.app. Keep your email address current: a notice sent to the address on your account counts as received.

Language. These terms are written in English. If we publish a translation and the versions disagree, the English version governs.

22. Contact us#

Support, reports and everything else

support@mail.ein1.app

Privacy and data requests

privacy@mail.ein1.app

Account deletion

www.ein1.app/account-deletion

Operator

Tizita Abeje Dubale (listed on the App Store and Google Play as Tizita Dubale), operating ein1 as an individual (sole proprietor) in Ethiopia

Postal address

Available on request. Email privacy@mail.ein1.app