These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are between you and Binder Community Limited (“Binder”, “we”, “us”, “our”), registered in England and Wales (company number 17058768), registered office 15 Montpellier Vale, London SE3 0TA. They govern your use of the Binder application, website and related services (the “Platform”).

By creating an account or using the Platform, you agree to these Terms. They incorporate our Acceptable Use rules (section 6), our Community Guidelines, our Privacy Policy, our Cookie Policy and (if you buy paid features) our payment terms in section 11.

You must be aged 18 or over and have legal capacity to enter into these Terms. The Platform is intended for users in the United Kingdom.

We use age-assurance measures that comply with the Highly Effective Age Assurance (HEAA) standard under the Online Safety Act 2023. We use Stripe Identity to verify age by checking a photographic identity document and a biometric liveness check at account creation. We may refuse, suspend or close accounts where we are not satisfied a user is aged 18 or over.

For the purposes of data-protection law, the biometric processing carried out by Stripe Identity is described in our Privacy Policy (Age Verification section). We rely on Article 9(2)(g) UK GDPR (substantial public interest: safeguarding) and our Appropriate Policy Document for that processing. Binder does not retain copies of your identity document or biometric data — only a confirmed 18+ status and verification date.

You must provide accurate registration information and keep it up to date. You are responsible for keeping your login details secure and for all activity on your account; tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorised use.

You may not share, sell or transfer your account, or create an account using false information or on behalf of someone else. If we have removed or banned an account, you must not create a new account to evade that action. To enforce this we may retain limited identifiers (such as email address or device identifiers) of removed accounts and refuse re-registration; see our Privacy Policy for further information.

You can delete your account or export a copy of your data at any time in Settings.

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Platform for your own personal, non-commercial use, in accordance with these Terms. We may update, change or withdraw features and will give reasonable notice of material changes that adversely affect you where we can.

You agree not to use the Platform to do, share or facilitate any of the following. We may remove Content and restrict accounts that breach these rules:

You keep ownership of your Content. By posting Content, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt (for example, to resize or format) and display it as needed to operate and promote the Platform, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and our User Generated Content Licence. This licence ends when you delete the Content or close your account, except for copies retained for safety or legal compliance reasons or in backups for a limited period.

You confirm that you own or have the rights to your Content and that it does not breach these Terms or anyone else’s rights. Images you upload are automatically scanned for illegal content before they are shown (see section 10).

We do not carry out background checks on users beyond age assurance and cannot guarantee any user is who they claim to be. Meeting other users in person is at your own risk; you are responsible for your own decisions about whether, when and how to meet anyone. Please read our Safety Guidelines first.

We provide reporting and blocking tools. If you are in immediate danger, contact the emergency services (999 in the UK). We are not responsible for the conduct of other users, whether online or offline. This does not affect our responsibility for our own acts or omissions as set out in section 12.

Our Privacy Policy explains in full how we collect and use your personal data, your rights, the lawful bases we rely on, and how to exercise your rights.

9.1 Special category data.Some information you may choose to share is ‘special category data’ under data-protection law — in particular information revealing your sexual orientation or gender identity, your religion or belief, or your health. You are never required to provide such information to use the Platform.

Where you choose to add this information through the Spectra/Dimension system, you give your explicit consent to our processing of it as described in the Privacy Policy (Article 9(2)(a) UK GDPR). You can withdraw consent for any individual attribute at any time in Settings; your data for that attribute will be excluded from processing immediately. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

9.2 Profiling and matching. We use an alignment engine to generate match scores between users. This engine processes your profile information — including, where you have given consent, your Spectra/Dimension attributes — to suggest connections. This is profiling within the meaning of Article 4(4) UK GDPR.

This profiling does not involve solely automated decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects on you (it is not subject to Article 22): a match suggestion is a recommendation, not a binding decision. The logic, significance and envisaged consequences of this processing are described in our Privacy Policy (Matching and Profiling section).

You have the right to object to profiling at any time by contacting us or using the Privacy Controls in Settings; we will give effect to your objection unless we have compelling legitimate grounds that override it.

9.3 Age verification — biometric processing. As described in section 3, we use Stripe Identity for age verification. This involves processing of biometric data (a liveness check) and a photographic identity document by Stripe, acting as our processor. This processing is authorised under Article 9(2)(g) UK GDPR (substantial public interest: safeguarding: OSA 2023 compliance) and our Appropriate Policy Document under DPA 2018 Schedule 1. Binder retains only a confirmed 18+ status and verification date; underlying biometric and document data is held by Stripe under its own retention controls. Our Appropriate Policy Document is available on written request.

To keep the Platform safe we may review, moderate, restrict, remove or refuse Content, and warn, suspend or close accounts, where we reasonably consider these Terms, the law or our Community Guidelines have been broken, or to protect users. We use a combination of automated tools and human review, including:

Where we take action that significantly affects you, we will, where appropriate, tell you the reason and give you a way to request human review and to challenge the decision. We may act without prior notice where necessary, for example to deal with illegal content or an immediate safety risk.

You can close your account at any time in Settings.

Some features may be offered for a fee. If you buy a paid feature or subscription: the price, billing frequency and key terms will be shown before you buy; subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled, and we will tell you how to cancel; you may have a statutory right to cancel within 14 days under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 (which you may lose for digital services begun immediately with your acknowledgement); and payments are processed by our payment provider — we do not store your full card details.

Nothing in these Terms limits our liability where the law does not allow it. We do not exclude or limit liability for: death or personal injury caused by our negligence; fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or any rights you have as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Subject to the above: we provide the Platform with reasonable care and skill but do not guarantee it will always be available, uninterrupted or error-free; we are not responsible for the conduct of other users or for what happens when you meet others (see section 8); we are not liable for losses that are not reasonably foreseeable, or for indirect, consequential or business losses; and where we are liable to you, our total liability is limited to the greater of fees you have paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or £100.

You are responsible for your own Content and conduct and for using the Platform in line with these Terms. If you break these Terms and cause us loss, you may be responsible for that loss to the extent it results from your breach and was reasonably foreseeable.

We may change these Terms from time to time, for example to reflect changes in the law, the Platform or our practices. If we make material changes, we will give reasonable notice (through the Platform or by email) before they take effect, and where a change affects consent-based processing we will ask you to review and accept it. If you do not agree to a change, you can close your account.

If you have a problem, please contact us first (section 17) so we can try to resolve it informally. If we cannot resolve a dispute, you may bring a claim in the courts as set out in section 16. Nothing in these Terms requires you to give up your right to take a dispute to court.

These Terms and any dispute arising from them are governed by the law of England and Wales. You and we agree that the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction, although if you live in another part of the UK you may also bring proceedings in your local courts as the law allows.

These Terms and the documents they incorporate are the whole agreement between us about the Platform. If a term is invalid, the rest continue to apply. If we do not enforce a term, that is not a waiver. We may transfer our rights and obligations and will tell you if we do (without affecting your rights); you may not transfer yours without our consent. No third party has rights under these Terms (Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 excluded).

Contact:

Binder Community Limited, 15 Montpellier Vale, London SE3 0TA.

Binder Community Limited is a user-to-user service regulated under the Online Safety Act 2023. We have: carried out a Children’s Access Assessment (outcome: children are prevented from accessing the Platform through our HEAA measures); adopted Highly Effective Age Assurance (HEAA) measures (Stripe Identity: photographic ID + biometric liveness); implemented proactive CSAM detection (Microsoft PhotoDNA, fail-closed) and report confirmed matches to the National Crime Agency (CEOP) as soon as reasonably practicable and within 24 hours of confirmation, as required by section 67 of the OSA 2023; and produce and maintain an Illegal Content Risk Assessment. These documents are available on written request.