Terms and Conditions
Last Updated: 3 April 2026
Introduction
By downloading or using the KrugerGuide Application, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. Please read them carefully before using the Application. Unauthorised copying, modification, or extraction of source code from the Application is strictly prohibited. All trademarks, copyrights, database rights, and other intellectual property rights related to the Application remain the property of the Company.
Who We Are
Kruger Guide (Pty) Ltd is a company incorporated and registered under the laws of the Republic of South Africa.
- Registered name: Kruger Guide (Pty) Ltd
- Trading name: KrugerGuide
- Registered address: 17 Wexford Rd, Vredehoek, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
- Email: hello@kruger.guide
In these terms, "Company," "we," "us," or "our" refers to Kruger Guide (Pty) Ltd.
About KrugerGuide
KrugerGuide is a mobile application designed to enhance visitor experiences at Kruger National Park. Core features include:
- Offline Functionality: full offline map access for the park area
- Wildlife Database: species information including birds, mammals, and reptiles
- Multi-language Support: species names and search available in multiple languages
- Directions with GPS: directions for pre-populated routes provided with the app
- Community Platform: wildlife sighting sharing capabilities, including the ability to attach photographs to sightings
- Trip Reports: log sightings with locations, notes, and images
- Social Integration: account creation and login via Google and Apple Sign-in
The Company cannot be held responsible if the Application does not function at full capacity due to lack of internet access or if you have exhausted your data allowance. You are responsible for any data charges incurred, including roaming charges.
The Application utilises third-party services with their own Terms and Conditions:
Your Agreement with Us
Formation of Contract
By accessing, downloading, installing, or using KrugerGuide, you acknowledge and agree that:
- You have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions
- You have read and accept our Privacy Policy (incorporated by reference)
- You are entering into a legally binding contract with Kruger Guide (Pty) Ltd
- These terms constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Services
This agreement is formed when you click "Accept" or "Agree" during registration, download or install the Application, access or use any features, create an account or sign in, or continue using Services after being presented with these terms.
Capacity to Enter Agreement
You represent and warrant that:
- You are at least 18 years of age or the age of majority in your jurisdiction
- You have the legal capacity to enter into binding contracts
- You are not barred from using the Services under any applicable laws
- If accepting for an entity, you have authority to bind that entity
Minors: If you are under 18, you may only use our Services with parental or guardian consent and supervision. Parents/guardians are fully responsible for minor usage.
Updates and Modifications
We reserve the right to modify these terms at any time by posting revised terms within the Application and updating the "Last updated" date. Material changes (payment terms, liability limitations, dispute resolution, privacy practices) will be notified through the app interface or by email. Continued use after modification constitutes acceptance of the modified terms.
1. Using Our Services
Eligibility and Access
Age Requirements: Minimum age 18 years or age of majority in your jurisdiction. Minor usage only with parental/guardian consent.
Geographic Availability: Our primary market is South Africa. International access is available globally unless restricted. We make no representation that Services are appropriate, available, or legal in all locations. You must determine legality in your jurisdiction.
You may not access our Services if you are located in a country subject to South African or international sanctions, or are on any government restricted parties list.
Acceptable Use Policy
Our Services are designed exclusively for personal recreational use by park visitors, educational purposes related to wildlife observation, tourism and travel planning for Kruger National Park, non-commercial wildlife photography and documentation, and personal wildlife sighting records.
Image uploads: photographs attached to sightings are automatically compressed and resized upon upload. The Application does not store or transmit full-resolution versions of your images. Our servers are not intended to serve as a backup of your original photographs, and you are solely responsible for maintaining your own copies of original image files.
We monitor usage based on fair use limits for API calls, data downloads, sighting reports, photo uploads, and concurrent sessions. Exceeding these limits may result in temporary or permanent suspension of your account and device.
2. Your Account
Registration
To create an account, you must provide a valid email address and an authentication method (password or social login). You may register through direct registration (email/password), Google Sign-In, or Apple Sign-In.
Account Security
You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials, all activities occurring under your account, preventing unauthorised access, and immediately notifying us of any security breach at hello@kruger.guide. We are not liable for losses from unauthorised access resulting from your failure to maintain account security.
Username and Profile Standards
Usernames must contain only letters, numbers, underscores, or hyphens. They must be unique, must not impersonate others or contain profanity. We may reject or remove usernames that violate these standards at our sole discretion.
Account Suspension and Termination
We may suspend your account for suspected fraud, violation of these terms, excessive failed login attempts, unusual activity, non-payment, or legal compliance requirements. Permanent termination may result from repeated violations, severe violations (illegal activity, hate speech), fraudulent payment attempts, or creating multiple accounts to evade restrictions.
Upon termination: you lose access to all Services immediately, account data is deleted (subject to legal retention requirements), any prepaid subscription periods are forfeited, and you are prohibited from creating new accounts.
3. Payments and Subscriptions
Payment Processing
All payments are processed exclusively through the Apple App Store (iOS) and Google Play Store (Android). We do not directly handle payment information. Your financial data is managed entirely by these platforms.
Subscription Types
- Premium Annual/Pro Subscription: 12 months, auto-renewal enabled by default, full access to all premium features
- Free Trial (when offered): new users only, one per account, automatically converts to paid subscription if not cancelled
- Free Version (while offered): perpetual with limited functionality
- Pro Access — Single Payment (while offered): perpetual access to all Pro features available at time of purchase. Additional features may require a new purchase. Features may be deprecated for all users in future
Auto-Renewal
By purchasing a subscription, you consent to automatic renewal, charges without further authorisation, renewal at the then-current price, and renewal occurring 24 hours before the period ends.
Cancellation and Refunds
To cancel, open your device's app store and navigate to subscription settings. Cancellation must be completed 24+ hours before renewal. Access continues until the end of the current paid period. No partial refunds for unused time. All refunds are processed through the app store of purchase.
After cancellation: premium features remain until period ends, account reverts to free version, and you lose access to sightings, check-ins, and roads driven data that relate to pro/premium content.
4. Intellectual Property Rights
Our Intellectual Property
Kruger Guide (Pty) Ltd owns or has licensed rights to all software code, database structures and content, user interface designs, visual content, text, algorithms, trademarks, and trade secrets. This intellectual property is protected under the South African Copyright Act 98 of 1978, the South African Trade Marks Act 194 of 1993, and international copyright treaties.
These terms do not transfer any ownership rights to you. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.
Your Licence to Use Our Services
Subject to your compliance with these terms, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable, limited licence to access and use our Services for personal, non-commercial use. You may not copy, modify, reverse engineer, distribute, sublicense, or use the Services for commercial purposes without written permission.
5. User-Generated Content and Media
5.1 Your Content Rights
You retain ownership of original content you create, including photographs you upload. You keep all copyright and other intellectual property rights and can use your content elsewhere.
5.2 Licence Grant to Us
By posting, uploading, or submitting content (including photographs attached to sightings), you grant us a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, non-exclusive, transferable, sublicensable licence to use, host, store, cache, reproduce, publish, display, perform, distribute, modify, adapt, translate, create derivative works from, and otherwise exploit your content.
This licence enables us to:
- Operate and provide the Services
- Display your sightings and Media to other users (anonymously)
- Include content in marketing, promotional, and editorial materials
- Improve and develop new features
- Create aggregate or anonymised data
- Comply with legal obligations
- Protect against security threats
Credit: Where we use your Media for marketing or promotional purposes, we will credit you as the contributor where reasonably possible.
5.3 Anonymous Sharing
Media shared through the community sightings feature is presented anonymously to other users. Only administrators can identify the contributor of any given Media, and only for the purposes of content moderation and platform integrity.
5.4 Your Sharing Preferences
You control whether your sightings and associated Media are shared with the community by toggling your sighting contribution status. When set to "not contributing," your sightings and Media are treated as private and are never sent to other users' devices. This is enforced at the server level through Firestore security rules.
5.5 Your Warranties
For all content you submit, you represent and warrant that:
- You own the content or have necessary rights to submit it
- Content complies with all applicable laws
- Content does not contain defamatory, infringing, obscene, or otherwise illegal material
- Content does not contain viruses or harmful code
- You have obtained consent from identifiable individuals in your content
- Content is accurate and truthful
- Images are original photographs — not AI-generated, AI-altered, or created using artificial intelligence or machine learning tools (including but not limited to AI image generators, deepfakes, or AI-based compositing)
5.6 Moral Rights
To the extent permitted by law, you waive all moral rights in your content, including rights of attribution and integrity. Where moral rights cannot be waived, you agree not to assert them against us.
6. Content Moderation
6.1 Pre-Publication Review
All user-submitted Media attached to public sightings undergoes mandatory human review before becoming visible to the community. No public Media is displayed without explicit administrator approval. Media starts in a "pending" state and remains invisible to other users until approved.
6.2 Our Moderation Rights
We have the absolute right, but not the obligation, to:
- Pre-screen content before it appears publicly
- Remove or disable access to any content for any reason
- Approve, reject, flag as graphic, or permanently remove Media
- Refuse to publish or distribute content
- Report illegal content to authorities
6.3 Graphic Content
Media that is legitimate but potentially sensitive (e.g., wildlife predation) may be flagged as "graphic" by administrators. Graphic-flagged content remains in the feed but is displayed with a blur overlay. Users must actively opt in to view graphic content. The image re-blurs when the user navigates away.
6.4 Community Reporting
Any authenticated user can report Media they find objectionable. Report categories include: Graphic Content, Irrelevant, and Offensive. Each user is limited to one report per Media item to prevent abuse. Reporters may provide up to 200 characters of additional context.
Media that receives multiple community reports exceeding a set threshold is automatically hidden and placed in a re-review queue for administrator assessment.
6.5 Audit Trail
All administrator moderation actions are permanently recorded in an audit trail, including the administrator's identity, timestamp, outcome, and any notes. All community reports are also preserved. These records cannot be deleted and ensure accountability and transparency in our moderation process.
6.6 Copyright Infringement Claims
If you believe content infringes your copyright, send written notice to hello@kruger.guide including identification of the copyrighted work, identification of the infringing material, your contact information, a statement of good faith belief, a statement of accuracy, and your signature. We will terminate accounts of repeat copyright infringers in appropriate circumstances.
7. Prohibited Activities
You may not:
- Misuse our systems: use bots, scrapers, or automated tools; attempt unauthorised access; interfere with security features; create unauthorised databases; exceed fair use limits
- Harm others: share others' personal information; harass, bully, or threaten users; impersonate any person or entity; spread malware; engage in illegal activities
- Violate our rights: copy or redistribute our software; reverse engineer our systems; remove copyright notices; use our content commercially without permission
- Breach security: probe for vulnerabilities; bypass access restrictions; share accounts or passwords; use others' accounts
- Abuse the reporting system: file false or malicious reports against content; attempt to weaponise the community reporting mechanism
- Submit prohibited Media: upload images containing pornography, illegal content, content promoting harm to wildlife, content you do not have rights to, content designed to harass or harm other users, or AI-generated or AI-altered images
Violations may result in immediate termination and legal action. Accounts that violate content submission standards — including uploading AI-generated images, prohibited content, or content you do not have rights to — may be permanently banned from the Application without prior warning, at our sole discretion. Permanent bans result in the immediate and irreversible termination of your account and loss of access to all Services, including any paid subscriptions.
8. Privacy and Data
Our Privacy Policy explains what data we collect, how we use your information, your privacy rights, and how to control your data. By using our Services, you accept our Privacy Policy.
Data locations: Belgium, United States, Netherlands, and other locations.
Using our Services constitutes consent to international data transfer. We implement reasonable protections but cannot guarantee absolute security.
9. Service Availability
We strive for reliable service but cannot guarantee uninterrupted access, may experience technical issues, reserve the right to modify or discontinue features, and provide the Services "AS IS" without warranties.
We rely on third parties to provide certain information and accept no liability for any loss resulting from reliance on the functionality of the Application. We may update the Application at any time and reserve the right to modify or charge for services at any time, with clear communication of any charges.
10. Disclaimers and Liability
Service Disclaimer
THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." We expressly disclaim all warranties, including merchantability, fitness for purpose, accuracy, uninterrupted operation, and security from unauthorised access.
Limitation of Liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages; lost profits, data, or opportunities; service interruptions or data loss; third-party actions or content; or damages exceeding amounts paid to us in the past 6 months.
Content Disclaimer
We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy of user-submitted content, including photographs attached to sightings. Users view community content at their own risk. While we moderate content before publication, we cannot guarantee that all inappropriate content will be identified and removed.
Your Indemnification
You agree to defend and hold harmless Kruger Guide (Pty) Ltd from claims arising from your use of the Services, your content or contributions (including Media), violation of these terms, infringement of others' rights, and any illegal or harmful actions.
11. Dispute Resolution
Governing Law: These terms are governed by the laws of South Africa, without regard to conflict of law principles.
Resolution Process:
- Informal Resolution (Required): Contact us with your concern. Good faith negotiation for 30 days.
- Binding Arbitration: If informal resolution fails — venue in Cape Town, South Africa; English language; one neutral arbitrator; each party bears own costs.
Intellectual property claims, injunctive relief, and criminal matters go directly to South African courts. You may only resolve disputes individually — no class actions or representative proceedings permitted.
12. General Terms
- Electronic Communications: By using our Services, you consent to electronic delivery of notices and digital signatures
- Assignment: We may transfer our rights to successors. You cannot transfer your rights without our written consent
- Severability: If any provision is deemed invalid, the remaining terms continue in full effect
- Entire Agreement: These terms constitute the complete agreement, superseding all prior understandings
- Waiver: Our failure to enforce any provision does not waive our right to enforce it later
- Force Majeure: We are not liable for delays or failures due to circumstances beyond our reasonable control
13. Termination
We may suspend or terminate your account for any violation of these terms, suspected fraud, to protect our Services or users, for extended inactivity, or at our discretion.
Upon termination: your access ends immediately; we may delete your content (including Media); you remain liable for prior use; payment obligations survive; you cannot create new accounts.
When you delete your account from within the Application, all associated media files are deleted from Firebase storage.
14. Contact Information
Kruger Guide (Pty) Ltd
17 Wexford Rd, Vredehoek
Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
Email: hello@kruger.guide
We aim to respond within 4 business days but cannot guarantee response times. Urgent matters should be clearly marked.
15. Special Provisions
California Residents
California users with unresolved complaints may contact the California Department of Consumer Affairs, Complaint Assistance Unit, 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834. Phone: (800) 952-5210.
International Users
Comply with your local laws. Accept South African jurisdiction. Acknowledge cross-border data transfer.
Business Users
If using for an organisation: you warrant authority to bind the organisation, the organisation accepts these terms, and you remain personally responsible for your use.
BY USING KRUGERGUIDE, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS.
