Terms of Service
These are the terms for using the Whereabouts app and the Whereabouts service, including the paid Whereabouts Plus subscription. They're written to be understood; if something isn't clear, write to us before you rely on it. By making an account or paying for Plus you agree to them.
What Whereabouts is
Whereabouts is an iPhone app and a service run by its developer (contact below). The app maps rooms, keeps a list of where things are, and guides a person who is blind or has low vision to them by voice. The service keeps your account and your rooms, shares rooms between phones, and sends photos to Claude, an AI service run by Anthropic, to name what's in them and read labels. The privacy policy says exactly what's kept and who handles it.
Your account
- An account is for one person, made with an email address you control. You're responsible for keeping your password to yourself and for what's done with your account.
- You must be at least 13 to make an account. If you're making one for someone else, you're agreeing to these terms on their behalf, and you should show them this page or read it to them.
- You can delete your account at any time in the app (gear icon, Account, Delete account). What happens to your data then is in the privacy policy.
What's free, what minutes are, and what Plus is
The app is free, and so is using the maps you have: finding your way to things, the phone's own detector, and reading. Every new account also maps for free for a limited time (one minute, unless a promo code gives more), with a limited number of photos for Claude.
Mapping minutes are how mapping is paid for after that: each minute bought gives your account one more minute of mapping a room with Claude (and looking inside drawers and closets), with the same allowance of photos and Claude's answers as the free minute. Minutes are bought as you need them, in any number, don't expire, and are your account's (and, like the free minute, your email's: an account deleted and made again with the same email keeps nothing).
Whereabouts Plus is a subscription for Find: it lets Claude find things the phone can't see and read labels, on your phone and in every room you share. Plus includes a generous monthly allowance of photos for Claude, shown in the app; it's there to keep the service affordable, and we may change it with notice. One subscription covers the rooms you share with your family. Plus doesn't include mapping minutes.
Paying for minutes and Plus
- Minutes and Plus are sold where the app shows Buy minutes and Get Plus buttons, at the prices shown there: minutes each, once; Plus monthly or yearly. Payment is taken by Stripe; we never see your card number.
- Minutes are credited to your account as soon as the payment goes through, and used up by your scans. Minutes you haven't used are refunded in full if you ask within 14 days of buying them; minutes used aren't.
- A subscription renews by itself at the end of each period until you cancel. We'll email you at least 30 days before any price change takes effect; if you don't want the new price, cancel before it applies.
- Cancel any time: in the app (Change or cancel Plus), or through the link in the emails Stripe sends you. Plus stays on until the end of the period you've paid for, and you're not charged again.
- Refunds for Plus. If Plus isn't what you expected, ask within 14 days of your first payment and we'll refund it in full. Later payments aren't refunded for the unused part of a period, except where the service didn't work as described, where the law gives you the right, or where we decide to. Write to us; we answer within two working days.
- Where Plus is bought through Apple's in-app purchase instead, Apple's terms and refund process apply to that payment.
- Promo codes give an account more mapping for nothing, or Plus. Each code is for one person or household, counts once per account, and may expire or be withdrawn. Codes posted publicly or sold may be cancelled.
Safety: what Whereabouts is and isn't
Whereabouts is a memory and a guide, not a mobility aid. It works alongside a white cane or a guide dog, never instead of them. It warns about what the camera sees, and it can miss things: a low step, a glass door, something at head height, a thing that moved since the room was scanned. On an iPhone without LiDAR it sees much less of what's in the way. You stay responsible for how you move and for your own safety, and you should use it at a pace at which your cane or dog can still do its job.
Claude can make mistakes when naming things and reading labels. Don't rely on a label read by the app alone for medicine, allergens or anything where a mistake could hurt you; check with a person or the original packaging.
Using it fairly
- Scan your own home, or places you have permission to scan. Don't use the app to photograph people, or places, that aren't yours to record.
- Don't try to get round the limits on the free minute, the minutes bought or Plus, to use the service's connection to Claude for anything but the app's own questions, or to reach the service other than through the app and the editor.
- Don't share your sign-in. Share rooms instead: that's what sharing is for.
- We can suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, or that's being used to harm the service or other people. We'll tell you why, unless the law stops us.
Your rooms and photos
Everything you scan, type and photograph stays yours. You give us permission to store it and to process it in order to run the service for you: to keep it in your account, to sync it to the phones you share a room with, and to send photos to Anthropic's Claude to be named and read, as the privacy policy describes. When you share a room with someone, you're choosing to show them everything in it. A space can be exported from the app as a file at any time, so your data is never locked in.
The service, and changes to it
We work to keep Whereabouts running and improving, but it's provided as it is, without a guarantee that it will always be available, error-free, or right for your needs. We may change features, limits or prices, with notice as above, and we may stop the service; if we do, we'll give you at least 60 days' notice by email and time to export your spaces. The app, the service and their names belong to the developer; these terms don't give you any rights in them beyond using them as described.
What we're responsible for
Nothing in these terms takes away rights the law gives you as a consumer where you live, or limits liability that can't legally be limited, such as for death or injury caused by negligence. Beyond that, and as far as the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect losses, lost data you could have exported, or losses that come from using the app as something it isn't (see Safety), and our total liability to you for anything connected with the service is limited to what you paid us in the twelve months before the claim.
Changes to these terms
When these terms change, the new version is posted here with its date. For a change that matters to what you pay or what you get, we email every account at least 30 days before it takes effect. Using the service after that date means you accept the new terms; if you don't, cancel Plus and delete your account before then.
Contact
Whereabouts is run by its developer. Questions about these terms, refunds and accounts: computervision226@gmail.com.