Terms & Services

Agreement to Terms

By downloading, installing, accessing, or using Heatwave ("the App," "the Service," "we," "us,"

or "our"), you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these

Terms of Service ("Terms"). These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you

and Heatwave. If you do not agree to all of these Terms, you must immediately cease using the

Service and delete the App from your device. Your continued use of Heatwave after any

modifications to these Terms constitutes your acceptance of such modifications.

Eligibility

Heatwave is strictly an 18+ platform. By creating an account, you represent and warrant that:

• You are at least eighteen (18) years of age

• The date of birth you provide during registration is accurate and truthful

• You have the legal capacity to enter into this binding agreement

• You have not been previously banned, suspended, or removed from Heatwave

• You are not prohibited from using the Service under the laws of the United States,

Canada, or any other applicable jurisdiction

Your date of birth is collected at account creation and used to verify age eligibility. Accounts

discovered to belong to individuals under the age of 18 will be terminated immediately, and all

associated content and data will be permanently deleted without notice. Providing a false date

of birth constitutes a material breach of these Terms and grounds for immediate account

termination.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your minor child has created a Heatwave account,

please contact us immediately at support@heatwavesocial.com.

Platform Nature & User-Generated Content Safe Harbor

Heatwave is a user-generated content ("UGC") platform. We provide the technology,

infrastructure, and platform through which users may create, upload, share, and interact with

content. It is important that you understand the following:

• Heatwave does NOT create, author, curate, endorse, verify, or assume responsibility for

any content posted by users

• Users are solely and entirely responsible for the content they create, upload, and share

on the platform

• The views, opinions, and statements expressed in user content do not represent, reflect,

or imply the views of Heatwave

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  • We act as an intermediary and host, not as a content creator, publisher, or editor of user

  content

  United States: Pursuant to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. Section

  230), Heatwave is not treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by users

  of the Service. We provide a platform for user expression and are not liable for content created

  by our users. Our voluntary content moderation efforts do not make us a publisher of user

  content.

  Canada: Heatwave operates as an intermediary hosting service. We are not responsible for the

  content created, uploaded, or transmitted by our users. Our moderation activities are

  undertaken voluntarily to maintain community standards and do not impose editorial control over

  user content.

  While we employ content moderation systems as described in these Terms, no moderation

  system is perfect, and the presence of moderation does not make us responsible for content

  that may evade detection. Users interact with other users' content at their own discretion and

  risk.

  Use License

  Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-

  transferable, revocable, non-sublicensable license to download, install, and use Heatwave on a

  personal device that you own or control, solely for your personal, non-commercial use. You

  expressly agree not to:

  • Copy, modify, adapt, translate, decompile, disassemble, reverse-engineer, or create

  derivative works of the App, its source code, or any underlying technology

  • Use any automated tools, bots, scrapers, crawlers, spiders, or data-mining software to

  access, interact with, or extract data from the Service

  • Use Heatwave for any commercial purpose, including advertising, solicitation, or

  promotion, without our prior written consent

  • Attempt to bypass, circumvent, disable, or interfere with any security features, including

  but not limited to Firebase App Check device verification, rate limiting, or content

  moderation systems

  • Create multiple accounts to evade bans, manipulate platform metrics, circumvent

  restrictions, or for any other purpose

  • Remove, alter, obscure, or deface any copyright, trademark, proprietary notice, or

  branding displayed on or within the App

  • Use the Service in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair our

  servers or networks

  • Sublicense, rent, lease, sell, or otherwise transfer your rights under this license to any

  third party

  This license is automatically revoked without notice if you violate any provision of these Terms.

  Upon revocation, you must immediately cease all use of the App and delete it from your

  devices.

  User Accounts

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  When you create a Heatwave account, you agree to the following:

  • Provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration, including your

  real date of birth, and update such information to keep it accurate

  • Create and maintain a strong, unique password and maintain the confidentiality of your

  account credentials

  • Accept full responsibility for all activity that occurs under your account, whether or not

  authorized by you

  • Not share your account credentials with any other person or allow any other person to

  access your account

  • Not create an account on behalf of another person or entity without their express

  authorization

  • Notify us immediately at support@heatwavesocial.com if you become aware of any

  unauthorized access to or use of your account

  We reserve the right to suspend, restrict, or permanently terminate any account for violation of

  these Terms, conduct that threatens the safety or integrity of the platform, suspected fraudulent

  activity, or as required by law. For non-CSAM violations, you may appeal a suspension or

  termination within fourteen (14) days by contacting support@heatwavesocial.com. CSAM-

  related terminations are immediate, permanent, and not subject to appeal. Account termination

  results in the permanent loss of all tokens, content, followers, and data associated with the

  account. We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this

  section.

  Community Guidelines

  By using Heatwave, you agree not to post, share, upload, transmit, or send any content that:

  • Is illegal under the laws of the United States, Canada, or the jurisdiction in which you

  reside

  • Depicts, promotes, distributes, or solicits child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in any

  form — this results in an immediate, permanent ban with no appeal, preservation of all

  evidence, and mandatory reporting to law enforcement agencies including NCMEC and

  the Canadian Centre for Child Protection

  • Promotes, glorifies, or materially supports terrorism, terrorist organizations, or violent

  extremism

  • Contains credible threats of real-world violence, bodily harm, or death against any

  individual, group, or institution

  • Constitutes targeted harassment, sustained bullying, cyberstalking, or doxxing

  (publishing private or identifying information without consent)

  • Promotes, glorifies, encourages, or provides instructions for self-harm, suicide, or eating

  disorders

  • Contains hate speech targeting individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, national

  origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status,

  or any other protected characteristic

  • Infringes upon the intellectual property rights, copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade

  secrets, or other proprietary rights of any third party

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  • Constitutes spam, scams, phishing, pyramid schemes, or other deceptive or fraudulent

  communications

  • Contains malware, viruses, trojans, worms, ransomware, or any other malicious software

  or links designed to harm devices, data, or systems

  • Impersonates any person, entity, or organization, or falsely states or misrepresents your

  affiliation with any person, entity, or organization

  We reserve the right to remove any content and to ban, suspend, or restrict users who violate

  these Community Guidelines, with or without prior notice. The severity of enforcement action will

  be proportionate to the violation and may include warnings, temporary suspensions, permanent

  bans, or law enforcement referral.

  Content Moderation

  Heatwave employs automated content moderation systems to help maintain community

  standards and comply with applicable laws. By using the Service, you acknowledge and

  consent to the following:

  Automated Systems: Image and video uploads are screened using AI-based classifiers,

  including NudeNet and AWS Rekognition, for explicit imagery, violence, CSAM, and other

  prohibited content. Content is analyzed before it becomes publicly visible and may be approved,

  flagged for human review, or rejected automatically. Text content, including Unlock Chat

  messages, is screened using the OpenAI Moderation API for hate speech, threats, harassment,

  self-harm content, violence, and child exploitation material. Messages that fail moderation

  screening are not delivered.

  Limitations of Automated Moderation: No automated system is perfect. AI classifiers may

  produce false positives (incorrectly flagging permissible content) or false negatives (failing to

  detect prohibited content). The presence of automated moderation does not guarantee that all

  prohibited content will be detected or removed. We continuously work to improve our

  moderation systems but cannot warrant their accuracy or completeness.

  Human Review & Appeals: If you believe your content was incorrectly flagged or removed by

  automated systems, you may request human review by contacting us at

  support@heatwavesocial.com. We review all appeals in good faith. If automated systems

  repeatedly flag content that human review determines is permissible, we will work to adjust our

  systems accordingly. We retain final discretion over all content moderation decisions.

  Your consent to automated content moderation, including the processing of your content by AI

  systems, is a condition of using Heatwave. If you do not consent, you must not use the Service.

  Flame System

  Heatwave features a "flame" system as its core content interaction mechanic. Posts are initially

  blurred, and users "flame" a post to reveal its content. By using the flame system, you

  acknowledge and agree to the following:

  • Flames are a social interaction mechanism, not a currency, asset, or item of monetary

  value

  • Flame counts are publicly visible on posts and cannot be hidden

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  • You may unflame (remove your flame from) a post at any time, which will re-blur the post

  for you

  • A post becomes "globally unlocked" (unblurred for all users) when it reaches a

  community-determined flame threshold; however, individual users must still flame the

  post themselves to view the content, even after global unlock

  • The flame system is a core feature of Heatwave, and participation in it is inherent to the

  user experience

  • We reserve the right to adjust flame thresholds, mechanics, algorithms, and related

  features at any time and at our sole discretion, without prior notice

  Tokens & In-App Purchases

  Heatwave offers virtual tokens ("Tokens") that provide platform convenience and access

  features within the Service. Tokens are digital items that exist solely within the Heatwave

  ecosystem. By purchasing or using Tokens, you agree to the following:

  Nature of Tokens: Tokens are virtual items that provide access to premium platform features,

  including the ability to instantly unlock a post for personal viewing without waiting for the

  community flame threshold to be reached. Tokens do NOT constitute a purchase of, ownership

  of, license to, or any rights in the underlying content of any post — content remains solely

  owned by its creator. Tokens provide access to a platform service (instant personal viewing

  access), not ownership or intellectual property rights to any content.

  Purchasing Tokens: Tokens are purchased exclusively through the Apple App Store or Google

  Play Store. All payment processing is handled by Apple, Google, and our payment partner

  RevenueCat — Heatwave never directly receives, processes, stores, or has access to your

  payment card details, bank account information, or other financial credentials. Prices are

  displayed in your local currency and must be confirmed through your device’s native payment

  system before any purchase is completed. All Token transactions are processed server-side for

  security and integrity.

  No Monetary Value: Tokens have no real-world monetary value whatsoever. Tokens cannot be

  exchanged for cash, fiat currency, cryptocurrency, or any other form of payment. Tokens cannot

  be transferred, gifted, traded, or sold to other users. Tokens cannot be redeemed outside of

  Heatwave. Token spending actions, once processed server-side, are non-reversible.

  Refund Policy: Token purchases are generally non-refundable once completed. For unused

  Tokens, refund requests may be submitted through Apple’s or Google’s respective refund

  processes, subject to their policies. If a verified technical error causes an incorrect Token

  deduction, contact us at support@heatwavesocial.com and we will investigate and correct any

  confirmed error. Refunds required by mandatory consumer protection laws in your jurisdiction

  will be honored.

  Account Termination: If your account is terminated for violating these Terms (involuntary), all

  remaining Tokens are permanently forfeited with no refund or compensation. If you voluntarily

  delete your account, all remaining Tokens are permanently forfeited with no refund or

  compensation. We recommend you exhaust your Token balance before deleting your account

  or refrain from purchasing Tokens if you intend to leave the platform.

  Changes to the Token System: We reserve the right to modify Token pricing, earning rates,

  spending options, and the features accessible with Tokens at any time. We will provide