1. Who we are, and who these Terms cover
Yalu is operated by Yalu LLC, an Arizona limited liability company, at 4539 N 22nd St STE 7413, Phoenix, AZ 85016. These Terms are an agreement between you and us. By creating an account, you agree to them.
In these Terms, “Yalu”, “we” and “us” mean Yalu LLC and its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, successors and assigns, and each of their members, managers, officers, directors, employees, contractors and agents. Each of them is an intended third-party beneficiary of these Terms and may enforce them. “You” means the person using Yalu. Apart from those parties, these Terms create no rights for anyone else, and no other person may enforce them.
A Session is an in-person plan someone organises through Yalu. A Circle is a group of people you choose to share Sessions with. Yalu Plus is our paid subscription. Content means anything you post, send or upload, including Sessions, messages, photos, comments and profile details.
2. Who can use Yalu
You must be 18 or older. When you sign up, you confirm that you are. We do not verify your age, and we may suspend or close any account we believe belongs to someone under 18.
If you are 18 or older but under the age of majority where you live, your parent or guardian must review and agree to these Terms with you.
You may not use Yalu if we have previously closed your account for breaking these Terms or the Community Guidelines.
3. Your account
You sign in with your phone number. Keep your phone and your account secure, and tell us at support@yalu.co if you think someone else has access to it. You are responsible for what happens on your account.
Give us accurate information and keep it current. Do not impersonate anyone, do not create an account for someone else, and do not sell or transfer your account.
4. What Yalu is, and what it is not
Yalu helps people find each other and organise plans. That is all it does. We are not a party to anything that happens between you and another person, whether on Yalu or in the real world.
We do not employ, supervise or control the people who host or attend Sessions. Deciding whether to meet someone, and whether a Session is safe, is your decision and yours alone.
Content on Yalu is created by the people who use it. We do not endorse, adopt or vouch for anything anyone posts, says or promises here, and a Session appearing on Yalu is not a recommendation of it.
Parental control protections, such as computer hardware, software or filtering services, are commercially available and may help limit access to material that is harmful to minors. Current providers include Apple (Screen Time), Google (Family Link) and Microsoft (Family Safety).
5. The Community Guidelines apply
Our Community Guidelines set out what is and is not allowed on Yalu. They apply to everything you do here, and they apply as updated from time to time. Read them, because breaking them is the fastest way to lose your account.
Yalu has zero tolerance for objectionable content and for abusive users. We remove content that breaks these rules and take action against the accounts of people who post it, up to closing them.
6. Our enforcement and termination rights
We may remove or restrict any content, and warn, suspend or terminate any account that breaks these Terms or the Community Guidelines, at our discretion and without prior notice where the situation warrants it.
We close, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of people who repeatedly infringe copyright. Our Copyright policy explains how.
We have no obligation to monitor content or conduct, and any monitoring we do undertake creates no duty to do so in any other case. We may also remove content or suspend accounts to comply with the law, or to protect people from harm.
We may also close your account, or stop providing Yalu to you, at any time and for any reason, including where you have broken no rule at all. Where we can reasonably do so, we will tell you. If we close your account while you have a Yalu Plus subscription, that subscription is not cancelled by us closing the account: you must cancel it yourself in your App Store or Google Play settings, or you will keep being billed. See Yalu Plus subscriptions.
7. Your content, and the licence you give us
Your content is yours. To run Yalu we need permission to use it, so you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, display and distribute your content, and to make the technical changes needed to deliver it, for as long as you keep it on Yalu.
We may keep a copy of content after it is removed, for as long as we need it for safety, legal or moderation reasons, as our Privacy Policy describes. The licence above covers that copy while we keep it.
That licence exists only so the app can work: showing your profile to people who can see it, delivering your messages, displaying your Sessions. We do not sell your content, and we do not use it to advertise to anyone.
You promise that you own your content or have the right to post it, and that it does not break anyone else's rights or any law. If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them freely and without owing you anything.
If you believe someone has posted your copyrighted work, see our Copyright policy.
8. Third-party services
Yalu uses Google Maps to show maps and find places. By using those parts of the app, you also agree to the Google Maps End User Additional Terms of Service, including the Google Privacy Policy.
Yalu also relies on other providers to work. They are listed in our Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for third-party services we do not control.
9. App Store terms
The app is licensed to you, not sold. On iOS, that licence is governed by Apple's Standard Licensed Application End User Licence Agreement, available at apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula. On Android, that licence is governed by these Terms.
That agreement covers only your licence to install and run the app. As between you and Yalu, the Governing law and venue section of these Terms controls any claim relating to your access to or use of the Yalu service, including any claim that also touches the app licence.
10. Yalu Plus subscriptions
Your complimentary Plus period
Every new account gets 30 days of Yalu Plus free. This is not a purchase, and it is not an App Store or Google Play introductory offer. Unless and until you choose to buy a subscription, no payment method is collected, nothing is charged, nothing renews, and there is nothing to cancel.
When the 30 days end, your account simply returns to the free tier. You keep your account and everything in it, but you can no longer create Circles, make a Session visible only to your Circles, ask people to request approval before they join, or add extra location stops to a Session. Your Session and attendee limits also return to the free amounts.
If you buy a subscription
The current price and billing period are shown to you before you confirm the purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically at that price until you cancel.
Apple and Google bill you and process your payment, not us. Cancel at any time in your App Store or Google Play account settings. To avoid being charged for the next period, cancel at least 24 hours before the current one ends. Cancelling stops the renewal, and you keep Plus until the end of the period you have already paid for.
Refunds are handled by Apple or Google under their own terms. We cannot issue a refund for a purchase made through a store.
Buying during your complimentary period
You can subscribe at any time during your free 30 days. Billing starts when you buy, and your remaining free days are preserved: your paid period is added on top of them rather than replacing them. If you get a refund, we put you back where you would have been had you never purchased.
11. Text messages and one-time codes
Yalu uses your phone number to sign you in. When you sign up or sign in, we send a one-time verification code by SMS through Twilio. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency depends on how often you sign in.
These are service messages, not marketing. You cannot opt out of them while you have an account, because the code is how you sign in. Yalu requires a US or US territory mobile number.
12. Meeting in person, and assumption of risk
Yalu exists to get people together in the real world. That is the point of it, and it carries risks no app can remove.
You should understand what that risk includes. People who meet through an app like Yalu have been assaulted, sexually assaulted, robbed, stalked, harassed, defrauded and injured, including by people who presented as ordinary and trustworthy beforehand. Alcohol and other intoxicants make each of these more likely. We are telling you this plainly because we cannot prevent it, and because you should decide whether to meet someone knowing it.
You knowingly and voluntarily assume all risk arising from your interactions with other people through Yalu, including at Sessions. To the fullest extent the law allows, you release Yalu from any claim, demand or damages of every kind, known or unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with those interactions, including claims for personal injury, death and property damage.
That release covers claims against us based on our own ordinary negligence in connection with those interactions, including claims that we designed or operated Yalu carelessly, that we failed to warn you about a person or a risk, that we matched or introduced you to someone, or that we did not act, or did not act quickly enough, on a report about someone.
It does not cover gross negligence, recklessness, or wilful misconduct by us, and it does not cover anything the law does not allow to be released. If a court decides part of this section cannot be enforced, the rest of it still applies.
Use your judgement. Meet in public the first time. Tell someone where you are going. Leave if something feels wrong. Report anyone who frightens or harms you. If you are in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first: Yalu is not an emergency service and cannot help you in an emergency.
13. Disclaimers and limitation of liability
Yalu is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that Yalu will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free, or that anything you find through it will meet your expectations.
In particular, and to the fullest extent the law allows, we make no warranty or representation about the conduct, character, identity, age, background, intentions or safety of anyone you encounter through Yalu, about the truth of anything they tell you, or about whether any Session or venue is safe, lawful, suitable or real.
Nothing in this section limits our liability for death or bodily injury. Those claims are excluded from the cap below.
For every other claim, to the fullest extent the law allows: we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill. Our total liability to you for all such claims together, regardless of the legal theory they are brought under, whether contract, tort, negligence, statute or anything else, is limited to the greater of five hundred US dollars ($500) or the total amount paid for Yalu Plus on your account in the twelve months before the claim arose.
Time limit for bringing a claim. Except for a claim for death or bodily injury, and except where the law does not allow this, any claim you have against us arising out of or relating to these Terms or to Yalu must be filed within one year after it arises. If it is not filed within that year, it is permanently barred.
Some states do not allow some of these exclusions or this time limit, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing here limits any liability that cannot be limited under the law that applies to you.
14. Availability, and changes to the service
Yalu is offered in the United States and its territories, and requires a US or US territory mobile number. We do not offer it anywhere else.
We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of Yalu at any time. We will try to give notice of significant changes, but we are not obliged to. We are not liable for any delay or failure caused by something outside our reasonable control, including natural events, outages, or the acts of third parties we depend on.
15. Governing law and venue
These Terms and any dispute between you and Yalu are governed by the laws of the State of Arizona, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, except as provided in the California paragraph below.
Except as provided in the California and Small claims paragraphs below, any claim, dispute or cause of action between you and Yalu arising out of or relating to these Terms, the Yalu service, your access to or use of the service, or your interactions with other users of the service, including Sessions arranged through the service, whether based in contract, tort, negligence, statute, fraud, misrepresentation or any other legal theory, must be brought and litigated exclusively in a state court located in Maricopa County, Arizona or in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. You and Yalu each consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts and waive any objection to venue in them, including any objection based on inconvenient forum.
Scope. These dispute resolution provisions apply only to disputes concerning the use, payment or provision of the Yalu service.
California. If you are a resident of California, or your claim arises in California, then to the extent your claim asserts rights under California law that California law makes non-waivable, California substantive law governs that claim and you may bring that claim in a court of competent jurisdiction in California. This paragraph controls over the governing law and exclusive venue paragraphs with respect to those claims. It does not otherwise limit them.
Small claims. Either party may bring an individual claim in any small claims court of competent jurisdiction, including in the county where you reside.
Severability. If any part of this section is held unenforceable as to a particular claim or party, that holding does not affect the rest of this section or these Terms, which remain in full force.
16. General terms
Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the rest stay in force, and the unenforceable provision is limited to the minimum extent necessary.
Survival. The following outlive the end of your account, whether you delete it or we close it: your content licence for content others still rely on, the assumption of risk and release in section 12, the disclaimers, liability limits and time limit for bringing a claim in section 13, the governing law and venue terms in section 15, and this section.
Entire agreement. These Terms, the Community Guidelines and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and Yalu about the service, and they replace anything said before. This does not displace Apple's Standard Licensed Application End User Licence Agreement, which continues to govern your licence to install and run the iOS app as described in section 9.
No waiver. If we do not enforce something, we have not given it up.
Assignment. We may assign these Terms, including to a successor entity on formation or in a sale of the business. You may not assign them.
17. Notices
We give you notice at the email address on your account, or through the app by in-app message or push notification. Notices are effective when sent. Keep your email address current.
Send notices to us at support@yalu.co, or by post to Yalu LLC, 4539 N 22nd St STE 7413, Phoenix, AZ 85016.
18. Changes to these Terms, and contact
We may update these Terms. When we make a material change, we will update the effective date at the top and, where the change matters to you, tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect. If you keep using Yalu after that, the updated Terms apply to you.
Questions about these Terms go to support@yalu.co.