Terms and Conditions

Last updated: September 9, 2026

Agreement and Scope

These Terms and Conditions (the Terms) govern your use of the official NAHPU application (the App) distributed by the NAHPU project. References to we, us, the NAHPU Team, or the NAHPU project mean the maintainers who publish the official App and website.

By downloading, accessing, or using the App, you agree to these Terms. If you use the App for an institution, employer, research team, or other organization, you confirm that you are authorized to accept these Terms on its behalf. If you do not agree, do not use the App.

These Terms apply to the official App on its supported platforms. They do not govern independently modified or redistributed versions of NAHPU, third-party services, or external websites. Their respective providers may impose separate terms.

What NAHPU Provides

NAHPU is a free, account-free field catalog for natural-history collection and biodiversity work. It can store records locally, capture or import media, exchange selected records, display maps and statistics, and create exports, backups, labels, and documents.

The App is a data-recording tool. It is not a permit, collection authorization, institutional accession, chain-of-custody system, permanent repository, or guaranteed archival service. Features may differ by platform, device, permission, and connectivity.

Eligibility and Organizational Use

You must be legally able to accept these Terms. If applicable law does not allow you to do so on your own, use the App only with authorization from a parent, guardian, institution, or other responsible party.

The App is intended for users aged 13 and older, or older where your country sets a higher age for consent, and it is not directed to children below that age. Where a minor uses NAHPU in a class, field course, or supervised project, the supervising adult or institution accepts these Terms and remains responsible for that use.

An organization that provides or manages a device, project, or dataset may apply its own policies to your use of NAHPU. You are responsible for following those policies in addition to these Terms.

Lawful, Safe, and Ethical Use

You may use NAHPU only in compliance with applicable law and with the rights of other people. You must not use the App to facilitate unlawful collecting, poaching, trafficking, trespass, harassment, surveillance, or other harmful activity.

NAHPU does not grant permission to access land, collect or handle organisms, take biological samples, transport or export material, use personal information, or disclose sensitive locality data. You are responsible for determining and following all applicable:

• collecting, research, access, import, export, and transport permits;
• animal-care, welfare, biosafety, biosecurity, and research-ethics rules;
• institutional, museum, funder, and data-management policies;
• obligations concerning protected species, protected areas, cultural heritage, and Indigenous or local communities; and
• privacy, confidentiality, copyright, database, and other intellectual-property requirements.

You remain responsible for field safety, risk assessment, specimen handling, and the conduct of your project. Do not rely on the App for emergency communications, navigation, life-safety decisions, or other high-risk uses in which a failure could cause injury or environmental harm.

Your Records, Media, and Files

We do not claim ownership of the records, media, files, or configurations that you enter, import, or create with NAHPU. You retain any rights that you already hold in that material.

You are responsible for ensuring that you have the rights, permissions, and lawful basis needed to record, copy, process, export, and share that material. This includes photographs, audio, video, personnel details, field notes, coordinates, third-party datasets, fonts, templates, and associated files.

You are also responsible for:

• the accuracy, completeness, and fitness of your records for their intended purpose;
• reviewing QR exchanges, imports, calculations, statistics, labels, documents, and exports before relying on or distributing them;
• deciding which records may contain confidential personal information or sensitive species localities; and
• choosing appropriate recipients, access controls, retention periods, and licenses for shared or published data.

NAHPU does not review, moderate, or take custody of your locally stored records.

Local Storage, Backups, and Data Loss

NAHPU primarily stores its database and managed files on your device. You are responsible for maintaining suitable backups and confirming that exported or restored files are complete and usable.

Deleting records or projects, removing app-managed files, uninstalling the App, losing or damaging a device, operating-system behavior, storage failure, or an unsuccessful import, export, migration, or restoration can result in permanent data loss. Files already exported, backed up, or shared outside NAHPU must be managed and deleted separately.

Privacy and Device Permissions

Our Privacy Policy explains how the App stores information, uses device permissions, and connects to optional third-party services. It forms part of these Terms.

You control what you record and share. Obtain any notices or consent required before entering another person’s information or capturing identifiable media. Use appropriate safeguards for personal information, unpublished research, permit details, and sensitive locality records.

Maps, Scanning, Sharing, and Other Third-Party Services

Some functions depend on your operating system or third parties. For example, an online basemap requests styles and tiles from OpenFreeMap, maps on macOS and Windows load their rendering library from the unpkg content delivery network whichever basemap you choose, Android QR and barcode recognition uses Google ML Kit, and exports or external links can be opened with file providers, cloud drives, browsers, email, or messaging apps. The Privacy Policy describes what each of these receives.

Third-party services are governed by their own terms, privacy practices, availability, and technical limits. We do not control and are not responsible for those services. Offline maps and local features may also contain errors or become outdated. You must independently confirm coordinates, boundaries, routes, taxonomic information, and other information used for field or curatorial decisions.

Exports and Standards

NAHPU can produce tabular data, Darwin Core packages, backups, labels, statistics, and other documents. These functions are conveniences, not a certification that an output is complete, error-free, legally sufficient, or accepted by a museum, repository, funder, journal, regulator, or data portal.

Standards, schemas, and receiving systems can change. Review exported fields, units, identifiers, relationships, media, coordinates, and sensitive content before submission or publication. You are responsible for meeting the rules of the receiving organization and for retaining authoritative source records.

No Professional Advice

The App and its documentation provide general technical and workflow information. They are not legal, permitting, safety, medical, veterinary, animal-care, taxonomic, curatorial, or data-governance advice. Seek qualified professional or institutional guidance when needed.

Open Source and Intellectual Property

NAHPU-developed software is made available under the MIT License. The MIT License governs copying, modifying, merging, publishing, distributing, sublicensing, or selling copies of the software it covers. Merely using the official App does not transfer ownership of your records to us.

These Terms do not replace or restrict rights granted by an applicable open-source license. If these Terms conflict with an open-source license for a particular component, that license controls for that component. Third-party libraries, fonts, map data, and other materials may be subject to their own licenses and attribution requirements.

The NAHPU name, logo, website content, and other project materials may be protected by copyright, trademark, or other laws. No trademark or branding license is granted except with express permission or as allowed by law.

App Stores

If you obtain NAHPU through the Apple App Store, Google Play, or another distributor, its terms and policies also apply. The distributor is not responsible for NAHPU’s maintenance or support except where its terms or applicable law say otherwise. If a mandatory distribution term conflicts with these Terms, the distribution term controls only to the extent required.

The official App is currently provided without an account, advertising, subscriptions, or in-app purchases. Your device, network, storage, cloud, or other third-party provider may still charge its own fees.

Updates, Availability, and Support

We may add, change, suspend, or discontinue features, platform support, documentation, or distribution of the App. An update may be required for compatibility or security. We do not promise that every feature, file format, third-party integration, or online service will always remain available.

We may provide documentation, community assistance, or email support, but do not guarantee a particular response time or resolution. Discontinuing support or distribution does not remotely delete records stored on your device.

Disclaimer of Warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by law, NAHPU and its documentation are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied. This includes warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, reliability, availability, security, compatibility, and freedom from data loss or defects.

The MIT License contains an additional warranty disclaimer for the software it covers. Nothing in these Terms excludes a warranty or consumer right that applicable law does not allow to be excluded.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the NAHPU project, its contributors, and maintainers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for loss of data, specimens, research time, revenue, reputation, or opportunity arising from or related to the App.

This limitation includes losses connected with inaccurate records or outputs, device or storage failure, fieldwork interruption, unauthorized disclosure, third-party services, permit or regulatory noncompliance, or inability to use the App.

NAHPU is provided free of charge. To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability for all claims relating to the App, taken together, will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid for the App, which is nothing, and fifty United States dollars (USD 50).

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that applicable law does not allow to be limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you are responsible for claims, demands, losses, and costs, including reasonable legal fees, that a third party brings against the NAHPU project, its contributors, or its maintainers because of your use of the App. This includes claims arising from the records, media, and files you enter, export, or share; from a missing or exceeded permit, licence, or authorization; from your disclosure of personal information or sensitive locality data; and from your breach of these Terms or of applicable law.

This does not apply to claims caused by our own acts or omissions, and nothing in this section requires you to cover liability that applicable law does not allow to be shifted. If you use the App for an institution, employer, research team, or other organization, this section applies to that organization.

Ending Use

You may end your use of NAHPU at any time by stopping use and uninstalling the App. Before uninstalling, export any records you want to keep. Ending use does not remove files or copies previously exported, backed up, or shared.

Provisions that by their nature should continue—including those concerning ownership, licenses, warranty disclaimers, liability, and disputes—survive the end of your use. Rights granted by open-source licenses remain governed by those licenses.

Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms to reflect changes to the App, law, distribution, or third-party services. The updated version will be posted on this page with a revised date. Where required by law, we will provide additional notice or seek consent. If you do not agree to updated Terms, stop using the App.

Disputes and General Terms

Please contact us first so that we can try to resolve a concern informally. Nothing in these Terms prevents either party from using courts, regulators, consumer-protection bodies, or other remedies available under applicable law.

If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect to the extent permitted by law. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, applicable open-source licenses, and mandatory distribution terms form the agreement governing their respective parts of your use of the App.

Translations are provided for convenience. If a translation conflicts with the English version, the English version controls to the extent permitted by law.

Contact Us

For questions or suggestions about these Terms, contact support@nahpu.app.