Terms of Service

Swell Scope is operated by Flockatoo Tech Pty Ltd ("Swell Scope", "we", "us"), a company based in Australia. These terms are the agreement between you and us for the Swell Scope app, our website at www.swell-scope.com, and related services. Please read them. By creating an account, making a purchase, or using the app, you agree to them.

At a glance

• Swell Scope is a paid app. After a demo or trial you need a subscription or Lifetime Access to keep using it.
• The app is for your own personal use. One person, one account. No bots, scraping, reselling data, or commercial use.
• Your spots and sessions are yours. We will not publish them, aggregate them into guides or ratings, train AI on them, or sell them. That promise is binding (section 7.5).
• Forecasts are estimates. Check official warnings and use your own judgement before you paddle out.
• Subscriptions bought through the App Store or Google Play are billed, cancelled, and refunded through Apple or Google. Lifetime Access bought on our website can be refunded within 14 days, no questions asked.
• "Lifetime" means for as long as Swell Scope exists, with every future feature included.
• Questions? Email [email protected].

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

Us. Flockatoo Tech Pty Ltd (ACN 690 166 262, ABN 69 690 166 262), trading as Swell Scope, of 20-40 Meagher St, Chippendale NSW 2008, Australia. Contact details are in section 15.

What these terms cover. The Swell Scope iOS and Android apps, the servers behind them, the website at www.swell-scope.com (including the Lifetime Access checkout), the partner integration that lets other apps and devices connect to your account, and our beta program.

Other documents. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your information and forms part of these terms. Our Statement of Values explains why we built Swell Scope the way we did;

Age. You must be at least 13 years old (16 if you live in the European Union) to use Swell Scope. If you are under 18, you confirm that a parent or guardian has agreed to these terms on your behalf.

Your ability to agree. You confirm that you can enter into a binding agreement and that you are not prohibited from using Swell Scope under the laws that apply to you.

2. The service

What Swell Scope is. A surf forecasting tool and surf journal. You add your own surf spots anywhere in the world, read forecast, swell, wind, and tide data for them, and log your sessions, boards, and photos.

It is a paid app. There is no free tier. Every feature is available to everyone who has an active subscription, Lifetime Access, a Kickstarter reward, or a current demo or trial (section 5). When a demo or trial ends without a paid plan, you lose access to the app's features until you subscribe or buy Lifetime Access. Your account and the content you added are kept as described in the Privacy Policy and are there when you return.

Guest use. You can start using the app before signing in. Content you create as a guest is tied to your device until you sign in, and may be lost if you delete the app or change devices before then.

Changes to the service. Swell Scope is actively developed. We may add, change, or remove features. If we remove a feature that materially reduces what you paid for, we will give you reasonable notice, and you may cancel and receive a pro-rata refund of any prepaid period that remains.

Availability. We aim to keep Swell Scope available at all times, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted service. Maintenance, outages, and problems with the third-party services we rely on can interrupt it.

Updates. We release updates from time to time and you may need to install them to keep using the app. We do not guarantee that Swell Scope will always support every version of iOS or Android.

Data, roaming, and your device. You are responsible for your internet connection, any mobile data or roaming charges, and keeping your device charged and secure.

3. Your licence to use the app

What you get. We grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to install and use the Swell Scope app on devices you own or control, for your own personal, non-commercial use, in accordance with these terms. The app is licensed to you, not sold.

What you may not do. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of the app; reverse engineer, decompile, or try to extract its source code (except where the law expressly allows it); remove any proprietary notices; or bypass, tamper with, or interfere with the app's licensing, entitlement, or access controls.

Our intellectual property. The Swell Scope app, website, name, logo, design, and the forecast presentations and data compilations we create are owned by us or our licensors and protected by copyright, trade mark, and other laws. These terms do not give you any ownership of them.

3.1 If you downloaded the app from the Apple App Store

The following applies if you use Swell Scope on an Apple device and is required by Apple:

1. These terms are between you and Swell Scope only, not Apple. We, not Apple, are solely responsible for the app and its content. These terms do not allow anything that conflicts with the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions.
2. Your licence is limited to a non-transferable licence to use the app on Apple-branded products that you own or control, as permitted by the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions, except that the app may be accessed and used by other accounts associated with you via Family Sharing or volume purchasing.
3. We, not Apple, are responsible for maintaining and supporting the app. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support.
4. We are responsible for any product warranties, whether express or implied by law, to the extent not disclaimed. If the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price of the app to you. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, or expenses attributable to a failure to conform to a warranty are our responsibility.
5. We, not Apple, are responsible for addressing any claims by you or any third party relating to the app or your use of it, including product liability claims, claims that the app fails to conform to a legal or regulatory requirement, and claims under consumer protection, privacy, or similar laws.
6. If a third party claims that the app or your use of it infringes their intellectual property rights, we, not Apple, are responsible for the investigation, defence, settlement, and discharge of that claim.
7. You confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a United States Government embargo or designated by the United States Government as a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not listed on any United States Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
8. Our name, address, and contact details for questions, complaints, and claims are in section 15.
9. You must comply with any applicable third-party terms when using the app, for example your mobile carrier's data agreement.
10. Apple and Apple's subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms. When you accept these terms, Apple has the right (and is deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce them against you as a third-party beneficiary.

3.2 If you downloaded the app from Google Play

Google is not a party to these terms and is not responsible for the app or for providing support for it. Your use of Google Play is governed by the Google Play Terms of Service.

4. Your account

One person, one account. Your account is for you alone. You may not share your login with anyone, let anyone else use your account, or create an account for someone else. You may not sell, transfer, or give away your account. You may not create multiple accounts, including to obtain more than one demo.

Keep it accurate and secure. Keep your login details secret. You are responsible for everything done through your account. Tell us at [email protected] if you think someone else has used it.

Sign-in providers. If you sign in with Google or Apple, their terms also apply to that sign-in.

Deleting your account. You can delete your account at any time from Profile in the app. Deleting your account deletes your content as described in the Privacy Policy. Deleting your account or the app does not cancel a subscription. Subscriptions must be cancelled separately (section 5.3).

5. Subscriptions, purchases, demos, and trials

5.1 What we sell

• Monthly subscription and annual subscription, both auto-renewing, sold in the app through the App Store or Google Play.
• Lifetime Access, a one-time purchase, sold in the app through the App Store or Google Play, and on our website. Lifetime Access is limited in quantity.

All plans include the same features. Prices are shown in the app or at checkout before you buy, and may vary by country and change over time. Price changes never affect a purchase you have already made, and a subscription price increase only takes effect at a renewal after you have been notified and given the opportunity to cancel.

5.2 Demos and free trials

Demo. We may offer a free demo period. A demo is available once per person. It does not convert into a subscription, and nothing is charged. When it ends you lose access to the app's features until you buy a plan. We may change or withdraw the demo offer at any time for new users.

Free trial. We may offer a free trial through the App Store or Google Play as part of a subscription. A free trial starts a subscription. When the trial ends, the subscription converts to the paid plan and you are charged, unless you cancel before the end of the trial. You can cancel in the app, in your App Store subscription settings, or in your Google Play subscription settings. Apple and Google recommend cancelling at least 24 hours before the trial ends. If you cancel during a trial, you keep access until the trial ends and then lose access to the app's features until you buy a plan.

A demo and a store free trial are separate offers. Having used a demo does not stop a later free trial from starting a subscription.

5.3 Subscriptions bought through the App Store or Google Play

Billing. Your subscription is billed by Apple or Google to the payment method on your store account, under the store's terms. Applicable taxes may be added.

Renewal. Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each monthly or annual period, at the then-current price, unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.

Cancelling. Cancel in the app, or in your App Store or Google Play subscription settings. Deleting the app or your Swell Scope account does not cancel a subscription. When you cancel, you keep access until the end of the period you have paid for. No refund is given for the remainder of a period, except as described below or as required by law.

Refunds. Apple and Google process refunds for purchases made through their stores. We cannot issue App Store refunds ourselves; request one at reportaproblem.apple.com. For Google Play, request a refund through Google Play within 48 hours of purchase; after that, contact us at [email protected] and we can refund where appropriate. Nothing in this section limits your rights under section 10.

Your devices. Your subscription works on every device where you are signed in to the same Swell Scope account, and with Family Sharing where Apple supports it.

Restoring purchases. Use "Restore Purchase" in the app if your access does not appear on a new device.

5.4 Lifetime Access bought on our website

Who you are buying from. When you buy Lifetime Access at www.swell-scope.com, you are buying from Flockatoo Tech Pty Ltd. Payment is processed by our payment provider (RevenueCat, using Stripe). Prices are shown before you pay; applicable taxes are calculated and added at checkout. Discount codes are applied before payment.

Receiving your purchase. After payment we show you, and email you, a link to redeem your purchase in the app. The link attaches Lifetime Access to the Swell Scope account you open it with. Individual links expire after a short time for security, but your purchase does not: opening an expired link sends you a fresh one, and we can always find your purchase by the email address you used at checkout.

Unredeemed purchases. A purchase stays redeemable for as long as Swell Scope exists. We never cancel or forfeit an unredeemed purchase. Before you redeem it, we can re-send the link or move the purchase to a different email address if you ask us from the checkout email address.

One purchase, one account. Each purchase can be redeemed on one account, and each account holds one Lifetime Access. If you redeem a second purchase on an account that already has Lifetime Access, contact us and we will move the duplicate to another email address of your choosing.

14-day refund. You can cancel a website purchase of Lifetime Access for any reason within 14 days of the purchase date, whether or not you have redeemed it, by emailing [email protected]. We refund the full amount to your original payment method, and access is removed. After 14 days a purchase is not refundable except under section 10 or where the law gives you a right to a refund. If you live in the European Union or the United Kingdom, this 14-day refund right is at least as broad as your statutory right of withdrawal.

5.5 What "lifetime" means

Lifetime Access, however you obtained it (in-app purchase, website purchase, or Kickstarter reward), means all of the following:

1. Access for as long as Swell Scope exists. You have access for as long as Swell Scope is offered to the public by us or by anyone who takes it over from us, on every platform it is offered on, including any future web or desktop versions.
2. Every future feature and version included. Lifetime Access includes all updates, new features, and new major versions. We will not release a version or tier of Swell Scope that Lifetime Access does not include.
3. It survives a sale or rebrand. If we sell Swell Scope, rename it, or replace it with an app that serves the same purpose, your Lifetime Access carries over to the new owner or app. Section 15 requires any transfer of our business to honour this.
4. It never expires. Lifetime Access is not affected by inactivity or by changes in price.
5. It stays with you. Lifetime Access cannot be transferred or sold to another person. You can move it between your own sign-in methods or email addresses by contacting support.

If Swell Scope is discontinued, section 11.3 applies. Lifetime Access is not refunded when the service ends.

5.6 Kickstarter rewards

If you backed Swell Scope on Kickstarter, your reward (Lifetime Access, or one or two years of access) is delivered by granting it to the email address you gave Kickstarter. Sign in with that email, or contact us to use a different one. Kickstarter's terms govern your pledge, but once your reward is delivered we treat it exactly like a purchase: a lifetime reward gets everything in section 5.5. Rewards are personal and cannot be transferred.

5.7 Chargebacks and abuse

If a payment is charged back, reversed, or refunded, the access it paid for is removed. We may also remove access and refuse future purchases where we reasonably believe a purchase, discount code, demo, trial, or redemption link has been obtained or used fraudulently or in breach of these terms.

6. Acceptable use

6.1 Personal use only

Swell Scope and everything in it are for the personal, non-commercial use of one individual. You may not use Swell Scope, or any data or content from it, for or on behalf of a business, surf school, club, media outlet, or other organisation, or to provide any product or service to other people (for example a forecast newsletter, a chat bot, a display in a shop, or a report you charge for). We do not offer commercial or team licences.

6.2 No automated access or scraping

You may not:

• use scrapers, crawlers, bots, headless browsers, scripts, or any other automated means to access, query, monitor, or collect data from the app, the website, or our servers;
• call our servers or APIs with anything other than the official Swell Scope apps or a partner app we have authorised (section 8), or intercept, replay, or reverse engineer the traffic between the app and our servers;
• share or reuse your access tokens, sign-in tokens, or purchase identifiers outside the app;
• bypass or try to bypass rate limits, authentication, paywalls, or other access controls; or
• download, cache, mirror, or store forecast, tide, wind, swell, buoy, or map data in bulk or systematically, beyond what the app does in normal use.

We may throttle, block, or terminate access that we reasonably believe is automated or in breach of this section.

6.3 No reselling or redistributing data

The forecast, tide, wind, swell, buoy, and map data shown in Swell Scope is licensed to us by third parties or created by us, and is licensed to you to view in the app. You may not resell, sublicense, publish, broadcast, or redistribute that data, or any dataset derived from it, whether for free or for payment. You may not use it to build, train, improve, or power any other product, dataset, forecast, or machine-learning or AI model.

This does not stop you doing the normal things people do: taking a screenshot to show a friend, talking about the forecast, or sharing a spot or session through a sharing feature in the app.

6.4 General rules

You may not use Swell Scope to break the law; to infringe anyone's rights; to upload malware or anything harmful; to impersonate anyone; to harass, threaten, or abuse other users; to access or try to access another user's account or content; to interfere with the service or other people's use of it; or to probe or test the security of our systems without our written permission (if you find a security problem, please tell us at [email protected]).

Content you add to Swell Scope must not be illegal, infringing, pornographic, hateful, or abusive. We have zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive users: we may remove content and suspend or terminate accounts without notice.

6.5 What happens if you break these rules

We may investigate, remove content, throttle or block access, suspend or terminate your account (section 11), and, where appropriate, take legal action or cooperate with law enforcement. For serious breaches we may do so without refund.

7. Your content

7.1 It is yours

You own the surf spots, session logs, ratings, notes, surfboards, and photos you create in Swell Scope ("your content"). You give us only the limited permission we need to store, back up, sync, process, and display your content in order to provide Swell Scope to you (and, if you choose to use a sharing feature, to the people you share with). That permission ends when you delete the content or your account, except for backups and the limited retention described in the Privacy Policy.

You are responsible for your content. You confirm that you have the right to upload it and that it does not infringe anyone else's rights or break section 6.4.

7.2 Private by default

Today, everything you create in Swell Scope is private to your account. Nothing you add is visible to other users.

If we add features that let you share with friends, the following will apply: visibility is set per spot and per session; the only options are "friends" and "secret"; the default is secret; you control it; and we never show your content to anyone beyond your choice. Friends you have shared with may have seen or saved content before you change it to secret. Sharing the location of a surf spot is your decision and your responsibility.

7.3 Exporting your content

You can ask us at [email protected] for a CSV export of your spots and session logs at any time.

7.4 Feedback

If you send us ideas or suggestions (by email, in the beta program, or in our community group), we may use them without any obligation to you.

7.5 Our commitments about your spots and sessions

This section is a binding part of these terms. "Your spots and sessions" means the surf spots, session logs, ratings, notes, and photos you create in the app. (Account details, purchases, diagnostics, and website analytics are covered by the Privacy Policy, not this section.)

We will not:

1. Publish them or build a public spot list. We will not publish your spots or sessions, or show them to any user you have not chosen to share them with, and we will not offer a "share with everyone" option.
2. Aggregate them into guides, ratings, or forecasts. We will not combine your spots or sessions with other users' to produce surf guides, spot directories, condition ratings, crowd estimates, or forecast adjustments, whether shown in the app or published or sold elsewhere.
3. Train AI on them. We will not use your spots or sessions to train or fine-tune machine-learning or AI models, and we will not give them to anyone else for that purpose.
4. Sell them. We will not sell or license your spots or sessions to anyone.

These commitments do not restrict what is needed to run Swell Scope: storing, backing up, syncing, indexing, and processing your content to provide the features you use (including fetching the forecast for your own spots); showing content to friends you choose to share with, if that feature exists; the service providers described in the Privacy Policy processing content on our behalf to run the service; aggregate, de-identified usage counts that contain no spot locations or session content (for example, how many spots the average user saves); abuse, security, and fraud checks; and anything the law requires.

We may change this section only by giving the notice described in section 14, and a change does not apply to spots or sessions you created before the change took effect unless you agree to it.

8. Third-party services and partner apps

Data providers. Forecast, tide, wind, swell, and map data comes from third-party providers, including Mapbox and the weather and tide data sources described in the Privacy Policy. Their content is subject to their terms, and you may only use it in the app as described in section 6.3.

Other services. Sign-in with Google or Apple, the App Store, Google Play, RevenueCat, and Stripe each have their own terms that apply to your use of them.

Partner apps and devices. You can connect third-party apps or devices to your Swell Scope account. When you do, you authorise that partner to access only the information you approve (for example, your spot list or forecast data), and the partner, not Swell Scope, is responsible for what it does with that information. You can revoke a partner's access at any time in the app. Partners must comply with these terms, including sections 6 and 7.5, and with any separate agreement they have with us.

Links. Our app and website link to external sites such as Kickstarter and our community group. We are not responsible for their content.

9. Beta program

If you join our beta program, you may receive pre-release versions of Swell Scope. Beta versions may be unstable, may lose data, and may include features that change or never ship. They are provided as is to the extent the law allows. Non-public beta features are confidential until we release them publicly. Crash and usage information is collected during beta testing as described in the Privacy Policy. We may end the beta program or your participation in it at any time.

10. Your consumer rights, forecasts, and disclaimers

10.1 Australian Consumer Law

Our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts, or modifies any consumer guarantee, right, or remedy under the Australian Consumer Law or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted, or modified. Where the law allows us to limit our liability for breach of a consumer guarantee, our liability is limited, at our option, to supplying the service again or paying the cost of having it supplied again.

10.2 Other countries

If you live outside Australia, you may have rights under your local consumer law (for example the Consumer Rights Act 2015 in the United Kingdom, or the consumer laws of your EU member state) that these terms cannot take away. Nothing in these terms affects those rights.

10.3 Forecasts and ocean safety

Swell Scope helps you read conditions and make your own call. Please remember:

• Forecasts, tide times, wind, swell, and buoy data are estimates derived from third-party models and sources. They can be wrong, late, incomplete, or unavailable, and conditions can change quickly.
• Swell Scope is not a substitute for official marine and weather warnings (such as the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia), lifeguard advice, beach flags, or your own assessment at the beach.
• Surfing and other ocean activities carry inherent risks. You are responsible for your own safety, your equipment, your fitness, and your decisions about whether, where, and when to enter the water.
• Spot locations, whether added by you or shared by friends, may be inaccurate or hazardous. Respect local access rules, private property, and the local community.

10.4 No other warranties

Subject to sections 10.1 and 10.2, Swell Scope is provided "as is" and "as available". To the extent the law allows, we do not promise that the app will be accurate, uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or compatible with your device, and we exclude all warranties that are not set out in these terms.

11. Suspension, termination, and discontinuation

11.1 By you

You can stop using Swell Scope at any time, delete your account from Profile in the app, and cancel any subscription with Apple or Google (section 5.3).

11.2 By us

We may suspend or terminate your account if you breach these terms (in particular sections 4, 6, and 7), if a payment is charged back or fraudulent, if the law requires it, or if your account creates a risk to Swell Scope or other users. Where practical we will tell you what is wrong and give you a chance to fix it first; for serious breaches we may act immediately.

If we terminate for a serious breach, we do not refund any amount you have paid. If we terminate for any other reason, we refund the unused part of any prepaid subscription period pro-rata.

When your account ends, your licence ends, you must stop using the app, and your content is handled as described in the Privacy Policy. You can request an export of your spots and sessions (section 7.3) before deletion.

11.3 If Swell Scope is discontinued

We hope never to do this, but if we discontinue Swell Scope we will give you at least 90 days' notice by email and in the app. During that period, and for 30 days after the shutdown date, you can request an export of your spots and sessions. Subscriptions will not renew, and any prepaid period that extends past the shutdown date is refunded pro-rata. Lifetime Access and Kickstarter rewards end with the service and are not refunded. If a legal requirement or an event outside our control (such as losing access to a critical data provider or platform) forces a shorter notice period, we will give as much notice as we reasonably can and still make the export available.

11.4 What survives

Sections 3 (intellectual property), 6, 7.5, 10, 12, 13, and 15 continue to apply after your account or these terms end.

12. Liability

Subject to sections 10.1 and 10.2:

• We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of data, loss of profit or opportunity, or loss arising from events outside our reasonable control.
• We are not liable for any loss, injury, or damage arising from your reliance on forecasts or other information in Swell Scope, or from your decision to enter the water, to the extent the law allows us to exclude it.
• Our total liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to Swell Scope or these terms is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us for the plan in force when the claim arose (meaning subscription fees paid in the previous 12 months, or the price you paid for Lifetime Access), and (b) AUD 100.

Nothing in this section limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence where the law so provides.

Your responsibility to us. If your breach of sections 4, 6, or 7, or your unlawful use of Swell Scope, causes us loss or a claim from someone else, you agree to compensate us for the reasonable costs that result from that breach, to the extent you caused them.

13. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia, and you and we submit to the courts of New South Wales. If you live outside Australia, this does not take away any mandatory consumer protection or right to bring a claim in your home country that your local law gives you.

If you have a problem, please email [email protected] first. We will try in good faith to resolve it with you within 30 days before either of us takes any formal step.

Apple and its subsidiaries may enforce these terms against you as described in section 3.1. You must comply with all applicable export and sanctions laws when using Swell Scope.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. For material changes we will give you at least 30 days' notice by email and in the app before they take effect. You can stop using Swell Scope or cancel your subscription before the new terms apply; continuing to use Swell Scope after that date means you accept them. Minor changes, such as corrections, new features that do not reduce your rights, and changes required by law or by Apple or Google, may take effect when posted. Changes to section 7.5 are never applied to content you created before the change.

15. General

Entire agreement. These terms, the Privacy Policy, and any partner agreement are the whole agreement between you and us about Swell Scope.

Severability. If any part of these terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.

Assignment. You may not transfer these terms or your account to anyone else. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to a successor that takes over Swell Scope, on condition that it honours your Lifetime Access as described in section 5.5. We will tell you if this happens.

No waiver. If we do not enforce a part of these terms, we can still enforce it later.

Language. These terms are written in English. If they are translated, the English version applies.

Contact.

Flockatoo Tech Pty Ltd (trading as Swell Scope)
ACN 690 166 262 · ABN 69 690 166 262
20-40 Meagher St, Chippendale NSW 2008, Australia
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +61 494 634 201