Terms of use

These terms of use govern your access to and use of SpotterAtlas, including the website, account features, and community mapping tools (together, the "Platform").

By creating an account, signing in, joining a community, or submitting content, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Platform.

You must provide accurate account information and keep your sign-in details secure. You are responsible for activity under your account.

We may suspend or close accounts that breach these terms, our safeguarding guidance, or applicable law.

You may delete your account at any time from your profile page. Deletion is permanent and removes your personal account data.

If you leave a community or delete your account, your personal profile and membership are removed, but content you already contributed (such as items, photos, comments, verifications, and discussions) may remain visible in that community.

Remaining content is attributed to an anonymous former-member label so community maps and records stay intact. Your name, email, username, and profile details are not shown on that content after you leave or delete your account.

Community owners must transfer ownership before leaving or deleting their account.

SpotterAtlas hosts independent communities. Community owners configure taxonomy, moderation, and member access for their community.

If you create or manage a community, you are responsible for its rules, moderation, and the lawful handling of member content and location data within that community.

Content published in communities is created by users, not by SpotterAtlas. Community owners and contributors remain responsible for what they publish.

Platform review may apply before a community is published. We may decline, suspend, or remove communities that pose safeguarding, legal, or quality risks, including where illegal content is reported or discovered.

You retain ownership of content you submit, including item descriptions, photos, comments, and community material.

You grant SpotterAtlas a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, display, reproduce, adapt, and distribute your content to operate the Platform and the communities you participate in, and to use that content in SpotterAtlas marketing and promotion (for example on the website, social media, emails, press, and advertising). This licence continues for content that remains published after you leave a community or delete your account, because that content stays available under the former-member attribution described above.

You confirm you have the rights needed to submit content and that your submissions do not infringe third-party rights.

Access to SpotterAtlas is currently free of charge for core use of the Platform.

We reserve the right to introduce charges in the future. That may include platform subscription fees, paid features, advertising on the Platform, optional paid tiers or memberships offered by community owners, or other revenue models needed to operate and sustain the service.

If we introduce platform charges or materially change pricing, we will update these terms and, where practical, give reasonable notice before they take effect. Continued use after charges apply may require payment for the relevant paid features or services.

Community owners may be offered tools to charge for access to their own communities or features. Whether a community charges is decided by its owner. SpotterAtlas may take a share of any such payments as described when those tools are made available.

Nothing in this section requires every feature to remain free indefinitely, but we do not intend to lock the entire Platform behind a paywall solely to prevent ordinary use.

You must not use the Platform to:

• break the law or encourage unlawful activity
• harass, threaten, exploit, or discriminate against others
• publish hate speech, sexual content involving minors, or non-consensual imagery
• share precise private addresses or personal data without lawful basis or consent
• attempt to bypass security, scrape the service abusively, or disrupt other users
• misrepresent locations, evidence, or verification status in bad faith

We take reports of illegal or harmful content seriously. We do not actively monitor every piece of user content in real time, but we review concerns that are reported to us, brought to our attention by legal requests, or discovered through our own checks.

Community moderators and platform administrators may review, edit, restrict, or remove content and accounts to protect users and the service.

After a good-faith review, if we believe content is illegal or materially harmful, we will remove or restrict that content. Where a community repeatedly hosts or centres illegal content, or where removal of specific items is not enough to address the risk, we may suspend, restrict, or permanently remove the community.

Enforcement actions may also include role changes, community suspension, or account termination.

To report illegal content, use in-app report tools where available or contact us via the contact page with the subject line "Illegal content report". We aim to review clear reports within five working days.

We aim to keep SpotterAtlas reliable, but the Platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. Features may change, and temporary outages may occur during maintenance or incidents.

Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded under UK law.

Community maps, items, photos, discussions, and other submissions are third-party user content. SpotterAtlas is a hosting platform and is not responsible for that content beyond our good-faith review and removal duties described in these terms.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, SpotterAtlas is not liable for unlawful or harmful user-generated content before it is reported and reviewed, for community-specific disputes, or for indirect or consequential loss arising from third-party conduct on the Platform.

We do not guarantee that every instance of unlawful content will be identified immediately. Once we have actual knowledge and have completed a reasonable review, we act as set out in the Moderation and enforcement section.

Our total liability to you for claims relating to the Platform in any twelve-month period is limited to the greater of £100 or the amount you paid us for Platform services in that period (if any).

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Courts in England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, except where mandatory consumer protections in your country of residence apply.

We may update these terms from time to time. We will post the revised version on this page and update the "Last updated" date. Continued use after changes take effect means you accept the updated terms.

Questions about these terms: see our contact page or email the address shown at the bottom of this page.