Terms of use

1. Who we are

Small World is provided by the operator named in our Impressum (“we”, “us”). These terms apply to the Small World app and this website. You accept them when you create an account. How we handle your data is explained separately in our privacy policy.

2. Who can use Small World

You must be at least 16 years old. One account per person, in your own name — no accounts for someone else, and no account for a person who doesn't know about it.

3. What Small World is — and isn’t

Small World is free. It tells people who have connected with each other when they happen to be nearby. It depends on your phone, its location services and network, and on our servers, so alerts can arrive late, not at all, or be imprecise. It is not a safety, emergency or tracking service. Don't rely on it to find or protect anyone; in an emergency, call the emergency services.

We keep improving the app, so features can change or be removed. There is no right to a particular feature or to uninterrupted availability.

4. What’s not okay

Our community guidelines are part of these terms. In particular, you may not use Small World to:

• follow, monitor, stalk or pressure anyone, or get someone to connect with you or stay visible against their will
• harass, threaten or deceive people, or pretend to be someone else
• share content that is illegal, or that you don't have the right to share
• create, share, solicit or facilitate child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE), including child sexual abuse material (CSAM) — see our child safety standards
• access the service by automated means, scrape it, or probe, overload or work around its security
• use the service commercially without our written permission

Our standards against CSAE are published at /child-safety.

5. Your content

Messages, photos, names and other things you add stay yours. You allow us to store, process and deliver them to the people you choose, as far as that is needed to run Small World. You are responsible for what you share.

6. Reports and moderation

You can report a person, a message or a photo in the app. Anyone — with or without an account — can also report content they believe is illegal by emailing support@small-world.app; please say what it is, where it appears and why you think it is illegal.

A person on our team reviews reports. Depending on what we find, we may remove content, limit features, or suspend or close an account. One measure is automatic: when three different people report the same account within seven days, it is suspended until we have reviewed it. When we restrict your account or content, we tell you what we did and why, unless the law prevents it. If you disagree, reply or email us and a person will look at it again. You can also go to court.

7. Ending your account

You can delete your account in the app at any time. We may suspend or close an account that seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms or the law, or when we are legally required to. If we ever shut Small World down, we will tell you in good time first.

8. Tips

Tips are voluntary and unlock nothing. In the app they are handled by Apple or Google, on this website by Ko-fi, under their terms.

9. Liability

We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, under the German Product Liability Act, and where we have given a guarantee. For slight negligence we are liable only if we breach an obligation that is essential to the service and that you can normally rely on, and then only for the typical, foreseeable damage. Otherwise our liability is excluded. This also applies to the people who work for us.

10. Changes to these terms

If we need to change these terms — for example because of new features or new laws — we will tell you beforehand, in the app or by email. If you don't agree with the new terms, you can delete your account.

11. Law

German law applies. If you are a consumer living in another country, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of that country. If a clause of these terms is invalid, the rest stays valid.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms, and contact under Articles 11 and 12 of the Digital Services Act: support@small-world.app (German, English or Spanish).