Terms of Service

1. About these Terms

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") form a legally binding agreement between you and Gossip Buzz Pvt. Ltd. ("Gossip Buzz", "Gosip", "we", "us", or "our"). They govern your access to and use of the Gossip Buzz mobile apps, web apps, APIs and any other product or service that links to these Terms (together, the "Services").

By creating an account, signing in, or otherwise using the Services, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

2. Who we are & what we offer

Gossip Buzz is a Nepal-based social platform that combines:

• Gossip — real-time end-to-end encrypted messaging and calling.
• Buzz — a public social feed (posts, reactions, comments, rebuzzes, polls, debates, 16 buzz types).
• Sip — short-form vertical video and ephemeral stories.
• Circles — communities with boards (channels), ownership, moderation and economy features.
• Debates — structured stance-and-argument discussions.
• Wallet — in-app Yeti Coins (Ɏ), subscriptions, cheers/tips, and circle economy payouts.

We evolve the Services constantly. We may add, change, suspend, or remove features at any time, including to comply with law or respond to abuse.

3. Eligibility & account

1. You must be at least 13 years old to use Gossip Buzz (14 in South Korea, 15 in France, 16 in Germany and other countries that require a higher default age under the GDPR). If you are under 18, you represent that your parent or guardian has reviewed these Terms with you.
2. You may not use the Services if you are on a sanctioned-persons list maintained by the UN, EU, UK or U.S. government, or if you are located in a jurisdiction subject to U.S. or EU comprehensive sanctions.
3. Your account is personal and non-transferable. You are responsible for everything that happens on it.
4. Keep your account secure — don't share OTPs, device-link codes, or your Ed25519 private keys. We will never ask for them.
5. Provide accurate information (name, phone number, date of birth). We may verify the information you provide.
6. One person, one account. We may close duplicate accounts and pre-emptively block re-creation of previously banned accounts.

4. Acceptable use

4.1 Prohibited conduct

You agree not to use the Services to:

• Violate any law, regulation or third-party right.
• Harass, threaten, bully, impersonate, defame, stalk or dox another person.
• Post or solicit child sexual abuse material ("CSAM"), sexually explicit content involving anyone who is or appears to be under 18, or sexualised content depicting real people without consent.
• Post content that incites violence, promotes a designated terrorist organisation, or glorifies a mass-casualty event.
• Engage in coordinated inauthentic behaviour, platform manipulation, buying engagement, or using multiple accounts to mislead others.
• Distribute malware, phish credentials, bypass technical protection measures, or probe our infrastructure without written authorisation from security@gossipbuzz.app.
• Scrape, crawl or harvest content at scale; extract or reverse-engineer our services; create competing AI training datasets from user content.
• Sell, rent or transfer access to your account, engagement, or Yeti Coins to anyone else for real money outside the in-app wallet.
• Post sexually explicit content, extreme violence, gore or shock content in a place or format where other users are not expecting it.
• Use the platform for unlicensed financial services, pyramid schemes, unregulated gambling, or sales of regulated goods (weapons, controlled substances, etc.).

A more detailed enumeration lives in the Community Guidelines. Those Guidelines are binding and are incorporated by reference into these Terms.

4.2 Content standards

Content you post must be lawful in both your country and Nepal. You must hold the rights to anything you upload, or post under a valid licence or exception (fair use, fair dealing, parody, news reporting, etc.). You are responsible for securing releases from other people who appear in your uploads where local law requires it.

4.3 Automation & API access

Programmatic access is allowed only through the documented Gossip Buzz API under a separate Developer Agreement. Bots that post public content must identify themselves as bots on-profile. Automated abuse, rate-limit evasion, and scraping of non-public endpoints are prohibited.

4.4 Users under 18

If you are under 18, you agree to additional defaults designed to protect you: private profile by default, restricted discoverability, limits on direct messaging from non-followers, reduced visibility of your precise location, and a stricter content policy. These settings cannot be disabled below the applicable minimum age.

5. Your content & our license

5.1 License you grant us

You keep the rights to everything you post. To run the Services, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, transferable licence to host, store, cache, reproduce, publish, distribute, publicly display and perform, modify (for resizing, compression, translation and accessibility features), create derivative works from, and transmit your content, solely to operate, provide, promote and improve the Services. This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except to the extent:

• we need to retain it for safety or legal reasons (see Privacy Policy § Retention);
• you shared it with other users who have already stored or re-distributed it; or
• it has been incorporated into anonymised analytics or model training before deletion.

5.2 Ownership

Gossip Buzz, our logos, and all code, design, ranking algorithms and proprietary features remain our property or our licensors'. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership to you.

5.3 Feedback

If you send us feedback, suggestions or bug reports, we may use them without restriction. You waive any moral rights and any payment, attribution or approval requirement for that feedback.

6. AI, bots & machine-learning features

• We use machine learning for feed ranking, trending detection, search, safety classifiers and, in certain labelled features, content suggestions. Models are trained on public content, aggregate engagement signals, and licensed datasets. We do not train general-purpose models on the content of private end-to-end encrypted messages.
• Some public content is authored by disclosed Bot accounts. Bot accounts must comply with these Terms and carry a "Bot" label on their profile.
• Output from AI features may be inaccurate, out of date, or inappropriate. You are responsible for reviewing AI-assisted drafts before posting.

7. Intellectual property & DMCA

We respect intellectual property. If you believe content on Gossip Buzz infringes your copyright, trademark or other IP right, send a notice to our designated agent:

A valid US DMCA notice must include the elements required under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3). Knowingly misrepresenting that content is infringing exposes you to liability under § 512(f). For repeat infringers we will terminate accounts under § 512(i).

Counter-notices can be sent to the same address. Users outside the US may use equivalent mechanisms under their local copyright law; we implement the EU Copyright Directive (Art. 17) notice-and-action system for EEA users.

8. Subscriptions, Yeti Coins & payments

8.1 Plan tiers

Gossip Buzz offers three subscription tiers: Free, Basic and Pro. Current limits and pricing are displayed in the app at Settings → Subscription and may change with 30 days' notice. Paid plans renew automatically until cancelled; you may cancel at any time from the same screen.

8.2 Yeti Coins (Ɏ)

• Yeti Coins are an in-app utility credit used to unlock certain features (over-quota posting in Circles, cheers/tips to creators, promoted content).
• Yeti Coins have no cash value outside the Services, cannot be redeemed for cash (except where required by law), do not earn interest, and are not transferable to another person's account outside the documented transfer feature.
• Unused Yeti Coins expire 24 months after purchase unless otherwise required by local law.
• Coins purchased in promotional packs or earned through rewards may have separate expiry and non-refundability terms that will be disclosed at the point of purchase.

8.3 Refunds & cancellation

Except where required by local law:

• Subscription fees are non-refundable for the current billing period once paid.
• Yeti Coin purchases are non-refundable once credited to your wallet.

Consumer-law exceptions: in the EU/EEA and UK you have a 14-day right of withdrawal under the Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU) unless you expressly waived it when purchasing digital content. Similar rights apply in other jurisdictions — see the regional annexes.

8.4 Taxes

Prices may be displayed exclusive or inclusive of VAT / GST / sales tax depending on your region. You are responsible for any taxes, duties or levies imposed by your jurisdiction that are not included in the displayed price.

9. Creator, business & circle-owner terms

• Business profiles must represent a real entity and include accurate contact information. We may verify you.
• Circle owners are responsible for moderating their circles. They may configure daily buzz caps and per-buzz coin costs; members accepting those terms when posting agree to be charged in Yeti Coins for over-cap posts, with the proceeds credited to the circle owner's wallet.
• Creators who receive cheers or revenue share agree to comply with the Creator Payouts Policy (KYC, tax forms, minimum payout thresholds, payout holds for fraud review).

10. Safety, enforcement & appeals

We enforce these Terms, the Community Guidelines and applicable law through a mix of automated systems and human review. Depending on the severity and recurrence of a violation we may:

• Remove or age-gate specific content;
• Limit distribution (reduce reach, remove from recommendations);
• Apply feature restrictions (e.g. temporary mute, disabling of creation);
• Suspend or terminate accounts;
• Report to law enforcement where legally required (including CSAM referrals to NCMEC or the INHOPE network).

You may appeal moderation decisions at appeals@gossipbuzz.app or in-app at Settings → Help & Feedback → Appeal. EEA users may also refer disputes to a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body under the Digital Services Act.

11. Encrypted messaging

Your Gossip (chat) messages are end-to-end encrypted. You acknowledge that:

• We cannot read the content of your messages and therefore cannot restore or recover them if you lose your device or keys.
• We cannot unilaterally moderate the content of encrypted messages — but abusive behaviour reported by a recipient can still lead to account-level enforcement.
• Exporting certain cryptographic software may be regulated (e.g., US EAR, Wassenaar Arrangement). You agree not to use the Services in violation of those laws.

12. Third-party services

The Services may include links to, or integrations with, third-party websites and services. We are not responsible for the availability, content or practices of those services, and your use of them is at your own risk and subject to the third party's own terms.

13. Suspension & termination

You may stop using the Services at any time. We may suspend or terminate your account (in whole or in part) if:

• You breach these Terms or any policy they incorporate;
• We are required to do so by law;
• Continued access would create a significant risk of harm to users, third parties or us.

On termination, your licence to use the Services ends immediately; sections that by their nature should survive (IP, indemnity, liability, arbitration, governing law, disclaimers) survive termination.

14. Disclaimers

To the extent permitted by law, the Services are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied — including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, or that the Services will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure. Consumer-law warranties that cannot be excluded apply in their statutory form (see regional annexes).

15. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

• Neither party will be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary or punitive damages, lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, or goodwill, arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Services, even if advised of the possibility.
• Our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services is capped at the greater of (a) USD 100 or (b) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.
• These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law (e.g. death, personal injury caused by our negligence, fraud, or statutory consumer-law liability).

16. Indemnity

If you are using the Services on behalf of a business, you agree to indemnify and hold Gossip Buzz, its affiliates, officers, employees and agents harmless from any claim, liability, damage, loss or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your content, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right. Consumer users are not subject to this indemnity beyond what local law allows.

17. Governing law & dispute resolution

Except as set out in the regional annexes below, these Terms are governed by the laws of Nepal, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Courts located in Kathmandu, Nepal have exclusive jurisdiction. Consumer-law protections in your country of residence remain available where mandatory.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may change these Terms. Material changes will be announced in-app or by email at least 30 days before they take effect (shorter where required by law or urgent safety/regulatory reasons). Continued use after the effective date means you accept the updated Terms. If you do not accept, you must stop using the Services.

19. Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, the Community Guidelines and any additional terms we reference form the entire agreement between us.
• Assignment. You may not assign your rights under these Terms without our consent. We may assign our rights and obligations in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganisation, or sale of assets.
• Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remainder continues in force.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce any right is not a waiver of that right.
• Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delays caused by events outside reasonable control.
• Language. The authoritative version of these Terms is the English version. Translations are provided for convenience.

20. Contact

Questions? Write to legal@gossipbuzz.app or post to: Gossip Buzz Pvt. Ltd., Darchula, Nepal.

Annex I — European Union & EEA

• Consumer rights. Nothing in these Terms limits your rights as a consumer under mandatory EU consumer-protection law, including the Consumer Sales Directive (EU) 2019/771 and the Digital Content Directive (EU) 2019/770.
• Withdrawal right. You have 14 days to withdraw from a paid subscription starting on the day the contract is concluded, unless you expressly consented to immediate performance and acknowledged loss of the right (Art. 16(m) Directive 2011/83/EU).
• Online Dispute Resolution. The European Commission provides an ODR platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.
• Digital Services Act. We publish our DSA point of contact at dsa@gossipbuzz.app. We offer internal complaint-handling under Art. 20 and you may refer unresolved disputes to a certified out-of-court dispute-settlement body.
• Governing law. For EEA consumers, these Terms are also subject to the mandatory law of the country of your habitual residence, and you may bring a claim before the courts of that country.
• Trusted Flaggers. We process notices submitted by DSA-designated Trusted Flaggers with priority.

Annex II — United Kingdom

• Your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 remain unaffected, including the right to a refund, replacement or repair of digital content that is not of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, or as described.
• Online dispute resolution is available via gov.uk/consumer-complaints.
• For UK consumers, the courts of England and Wales have non-exclusive jurisdiction alongside the courts of your place of residence.

Annex III — United States

A. Binding arbitration

If you reside in the US (including its territories), you and Gossip Buzz agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, or by JAMS under its Streamlined Rules, at your election. Arbitration will take place in the U.S. county of your residence or another mutually convenient location; you may appear by phone or video.

B. Class-action waiver

You and Gossip Buzz waive the right to a jury trial and to bring or participate in a class action, collective action or representative action. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims.

C. 30-day opt-out

You can opt out of arbitration within 30 days of first accepting these Terms by emailing arb-optout@gossipbuzz.app with your full name, account username and a clear statement that you decline arbitration. Opting out does not affect other parts of these Terms.

D. Small-claims exception

Either party may bring an individual action in small-claims court instead of arbitration, for claims that qualify.

E. State-specific notices

• California. If you are a California resident, see the Privacy Policy § 15.3 for your privacy rights. California Civil Code § 1789.3 complaint address: California Department of Consumer Affairs, 1625 N. Market Blvd., Suite N-112, Sacramento, CA 95834.
• New Jersey. The portions of these Terms limiting our liability or your rights do not apply to the extent prohibited by New Jersey law.
• Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, Delaware, Iowa, Tennessee, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey. See the state-specific disclosures in the Privacy Policy.

F. Governing law (US disputes)

For US disputes, these Terms are governed by the Federal Arbitration Act and, where state law applies, the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles.

Annex IV — India

• These Terms are additional to, and do not override, your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
• In accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and any amendments, we publish our Grievance Officer's contact details at grievance-in@gossipbuzz.app.
• Grievances will be acknowledged within 24 hours and resolved within 15 days.
• For disputes not resolved through the grievance mechanism, Indian courts at Kathmandu's equivalent forum do not apply; Indian users retain the ability to approach the Consumer Commission at their place of residence.

Annex V — Nepal

• These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, including the Muluki Civil Code, 2074 (2017), the Electronic Transactions Act, 2063 (2008), and the Consumer Protection Act, 2075 (2018).
• Complaints may be filed with the Department of Supplies and Consumer Protection or — for cyber matters — with the Nepal Police Cyber Bureau.
• Content removed under Nepali law will be logged in our public Transparency Report.

Annex VI — Asia-Pacific

• Australia. The Australian Consumer Law provides guarantees that cannot be excluded. You may be entitled to a repair, replacement or refund for a major failure and compensation for reasonably foreseeable loss.
• Singapore. The Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act and the Lemon Law apply to paid digital content. Disputes may be referred to the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE).
• South Korea. The Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, the Content Industry Promotion Act and the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection apply. Our Korean Agent for Users (국내대리인) contact is available on request.
• Japan. The Specified Commercial Transactions Act and the APPI apply. Subscription agreements can be cancelled in accordance with Article 15-3 of the Specified Commercial Transactions Act.
• Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia. Local consumer-protection statutes apply in their mandatory form and take precedence over inconsistent terms.

Annex VII — Brazil & Latin America

• Brazil. The Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet (Marco Civil da Internet, Law 12.965/2014), the Consumer Defence Code (CDC, Law 8.078/1990) and the LGPD apply. Disputes with Brazilian consumers are resolved in the consumer's domicile, and non-English versions of these Terms, where published, will be the operative version for Brazilian consumers if Portuguese is provided.
• Mexico. LFPC and LFPDPPP apply. PROFECO has jurisdiction over consumer disputes.
• Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru. Respective consumer and data-protection laws apply and override inconsistent terms.

Annex VIII — Middle East & Africa

• United Arab Emirates. Federal Decree-Law 45/2021 (Personal Data Protection) applies; disputes are resolved through the competent courts at the user's emirate of residence.
• Saudi Arabia. The Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) applies. Content must also comply with the Anti-Cyber Crime Law.
• Turkey. KVKK applies; Turkish users may approach the KVKK for data-protection complaints.
• South Africa. POPIA and the Consumer Protection Act apply.
• Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana. National Data Protection Acts (NDPA 2023; DPA 2019; DPA 2012) apply. Registered Data Protection Officers and local contacts are available on request.