Terms of Service
The rules of the game, and who is responsible for what.
Hidewire is a game you play by walking around real places with real people in them. These terms exist mostly to be clear about what that means and who is responsible for what.
1. Who can use Hidewire
You must be 13 or older. We ask for your date of birth once, and if you are under 13 we refuse the account and remember that refusal on the device.
If you are between 13 and 17, you get non-personalised advertising only, and we do not ask you to allow tracking.
Hidewire is available in the United States only for now.
2. You are responsible for where you go
This is the important one. Hidewire shows you places and gives you reasons to walk to them. It does not know whether the route is safe, whether the property is public, or what is happening at that location right now. You do.
You agree to stay on public property, obey the law, keep away from traffic, and stop playing the moment anyone with authority over a place asks you to.
You accept the risks that come with moving around in the physical world, including injury, and you accept them for yourself rather than for us. If you would not do it without the game, do not do it because of the game.
Do not play while driving. The app suspends itself above 10 mph, but that is a backstop and not a permission slip.
3. Photos
The game requires you to photograph where you are hiding. Those photos go to the seeker in your party, and to spectators if the host enabled that.
Do not photograph other people deliberately, do not photograph inside private spaces, and do not submit anything you would be uncomfortable having a friend see.
Photos are deleted permanently 24 hours after a round ends. They are not kept in your match history and they are not used to train anything.
You keep ownership of your photos. You give us permission to store and show them to your party for the duration described above, and nothing beyond that.
4. Fair play
Do not fake your location, modify the app, or submit photos you did not just take. We check for these and the checks are not advisory.
Accounts caught cheating lose their progress for the affected rounds and may be removed.
5. Purchases
Anything you buy is cosmetic or currency spendable on cosmetics. Nothing purchasable changes the outcome of a round. This is deliberate: in a game played with real bodies in real places, a purchasable advantage would be an incentive to take a real risk.
Purchases are handled by Apple or Google under their refund terms, not ours.
Any real-money purchase disables advertising on your account permanently.
6. Content and conduct
Every photo and every player can be reported from inside the app. Reports are reviewed within 24 hours.
You can block another player, and a blocked player cannot join a party you are in.
Harassment, sexual content, and content involving minors are grounds for immediate removal and, where applicable, a report to authorities.
7. Limitation of liability
Hidewire is provided as-is. To the maximum extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential damages, and our total liability is limited to what you have paid us in the last twelve months.
Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence on our part.
This section in particular has not yet been reviewed by a lawyer and will change before public launch.
8. Changes and contact
If these terms change in a way that matters, you will be asked to accept them again.
Questions go to hidewiresupport@gmail.com.