Terms of Service

1. Agreement to Terms

By accessing or browsing the Proof application (“Proof,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), accessible via proofnyc.co and associated subdomains, you acknowledge these Terms of Service. Before submitting content or initiating contact, you must affirmatively accept these Terms and the Privacy Policy through Proof's consent prompt. If you do not agree, do not submit content or initiate contact through Proof.

2. Eligibility

Proof is intended only for people aged 18 or older. You may not create an account, submit content, reply, send private correspondence, or initiate a meeting invitation unless you are at least 18 years old. Before those actions, you must affirmatively confirm that you are at least 18 and accept the current Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Proof relies on this confirmation and does not independently verify age through birthdates or identity documents.

3. Nature of the Service & Verification

Proof is a location-anchored digital gathering and tasting ledger. The service facilitates authentic field notes, item ratings, and community reflections associated with physical partner venues (such as coffee shops and bakeries). Proof verifies venue access through physical QR codes or table plaques. Stored venue coordinates describe participating venues; Proof does not request device GPS or live geolocation. Any automated spoofing, unauthorized tampering, or circumventing of verification mechanisms is strictly prohibited.

4. Community Standards & Gathering Conduct

Proof is designed as a thoughtful, respectful community gathering. You agree not to post, transmit, or share any content that:

• Contains harassment, hate speech, defamation, threats, stalking, or targeted hostility toward an individual, venue, or staff member.
• Includes vulgar, sexually explicit, non-consensual, violent, or otherwise unlawful material.
• Reveals personal information, private communications, or identifying details about another person without permission (doxxing).
• Infringes another party's intellectual-property, privacy, or publicity rights, including unauthorized photography.
• Contains political advocacy, campaigning, partisan debate, or other political content.
• Is inflammatory, deliberately provocative, or intended to incite hostility, outrage, or conflict.
• Constitutes spam, commercial solicitation, deceptive advertising, manipulation, or other bad-faith activity.

Proof is for place-based reflections, shared experiences, and community connection. It is not a forum for political discourse or inflammatory content. Proof may, in its sole discretion and without prior notice, remove any content or suspend or terminate any account, including for abuse, coordinated activity, bad-faith targeting, or conduct inconsistent with the purpose or standards of Proof.

5. User Content & Intellectual Property Rights

Your Ownership: You retain ownership of your reflections, notes, ratings, photos, and voice recordings.

License to Proof: By submitting content, you grant Proof a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, host, display, reproduce, format, distribute, store, and index that content as needed to operate, improve, and promote the platform. Reflections are the personal opinions of their individual authors; they do not represent the views of Proof or any partner café venue.

Private Communications: For private correspondence and meeting invitations, this license is limited to operating, delivering, moderating, securing, supporting, and legally administering those communications. Proof will not publicly display or use private correspondence or meeting invitations to promote Proof without your permission.

6. Content Moderation & Termination

Proof reviews public replies, private letters, and meeting invitations before they are delivered or published. Original public notes are not held for pre-delivery review, but remain subject to these Terms and later moderation. Proof's operator or authorized moderators may access private correspondence and meeting invitations for moderation and safety. Proof may, at its sole discretion and without prior notice, approve, reject, flag, hide, quarantine, or permanently delete user content, or suspend or terminate an account. To report inappropriate content or request removal, contact hello@proofnyc.co or use an available in-app reporting tool.

7. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Proof, its creators, operators, affiliates, and partner cafés, together with their respective personnel, from any claims, liabilities, losses, damages, costs, and legal fees arising out of or related to your submitted content, your use of Proof, or your violation of these Terms or another person's rights.

8. Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability

Proof is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Proof and its partner venues disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of availability, accuracy, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. Neither Proof nor its partner venues will be liable for indirect, punitive, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from user behavior, platform downtime, user content, or third-party interactions.

9. Dispute Resolution, Arbitration & Class-Action Waiver

Please read this section carefully. It affects your right to a jury trial or to participate in a class action.

Before filing a claim, you and Proof agree to try to resolve the dispute informally for 30 days after written notice is sent to hello@proofnyc.co. Except for an individual claim eligible for small-claims court or a request for injunctive relief concerning intellectual-property misuse, any dispute arising from these Terms or Proof will be resolved by individual, binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this provision. The arbitrator may award the same individual remedies a court could award.

Claims may be brought only in an individual capacity, not as a plaintiff or class member in a class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. You may opt out of this arbitration provision by emailing hello@proofnyc.co within 30 days after first accepting these Terms, stating your name, account email, and that you opt out of arbitration. If this provision does not apply, New York law governs and the state and federal courts located in New York County, New York will have exclusive jurisdiction, except where applicable law requires otherwise.

10. Copyright Complaints

If you believe content on Proof infringes your copyright, email hello@proofnyc.co with: identification of the copyrighted work and the allegedly infringing material (including its location on Proof); your contact information; a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is unauthorized; a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and that you are authorized to act; and your physical or electronic signature. We may remove the material and notify the user who posted it. Users may submit a legally valid counter-notice to the same address. Proof may terminate repeat infringers where appropriate.

11. Contact Information

For legal inquiries, copyright notices, or questions regarding these terms, contact hello@proofnyc.co.