Terms of Service

Welcome to Zimmer Messenger. Zimmer Messenger is operated by ZimmerMessenger Inc., a Delaware corporation headquartered in California ("ZimmerMessenger Inc.," "Zimmer," "we," "us," or "our"). These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding legal agreement between you and ZimmerMessenger Inc. and govern your access to and use of the Zimmer mobile application, websites, and any related services we provide (together, the "Service"). By downloading, installing, accessing, or using Zimmer, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated here by reference. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Eligibility and age requirements

You must be old enough to use Zimmer under the laws of your country, and in all cases at least 13 years old. Because age-of-consent rules for online services differ by country, the following minimums apply:

• United States: You must be at least 13. We do not knowingly permit children under 13 to use the Service or knowingly collect their information, consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
• European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland: You must be at least 16, or the minimum age set by your country's law (which may be as low as 13). If you are below that age, you may use Zimmer only with the consent of a holder of parental responsibility.
• Elsewhere: You must meet the minimum digital-consent age in your jurisdiction, and never less than 13.

If you are a minor in your jurisdiction, you represent that your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms on your behalf. By using the Service you represent that you meet these requirements, that you have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms, and that you are not barred from using the Service under any applicable law.

2. Your account, registration, and data preservation

You can use Zimmer anonymously, or register with an email address, password, and phone number. If you register:

• You are responsible for keeping your password and device secure and for all activity that occurs under your account.
• You agree to provide accurate information and keep it current.
• You may not impersonate anyone or use another person's identifying information.
• You must notify us immediately if you suspect unauthorized access to your account.

You may delete your account at any time by emailing support@zimmermessenger.com. Account deletion is permanent.

3. Channels, ownership, and your content

Zimmer is organized around channels. Each channel has one or more broadcasters and any number of members. The broadcaster who creates a channel is the owner, administrator, and operator of that channel. Channels can be public (joinable by code, link, or QR) or private (joinable with a password the broadcaster sets). Broadcasters control channel settings, including whether replies go to them or the whole channel, whether members appear by username or anonymously, and whether private direct messages are enabled. Direct messages between two users are separate one-to-one conversations.

You retain ownership of the content you create — text, photos, videos, reactions, and other materials ("Content"). By posting Content, you grant Zimmer a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, transmit, cache, and display that Content solely to operate and improve the Service, and you grant other users of the relevant channel or conversation a license to receive and display your Content within Zimmer. You represent and warrant that:

• You own or have all rights necessary to post your Content and grant the licenses above.
• Your Content does not violate any law or any third party's rights (privacy, publicity, copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other).
• You are solely responsible for your Content and the consequences of posting it.

Zimmer is a neutral conduit for Content created by users. We do not endorse, and are not responsible for, any user Content, and we do not pre-screen it. You interact with other users and rely on their Content at your own risk.

4. Broadcaster responsibilities — you own and moderate your channel

If you create or are promoted to broadcaster of a channel, you are its owner, administrator, and the party responsible for everything that happens in it. As a broadcaster you acknowledge and agree that:

• You are responsible for actively monitoring and moderating your channel, including all Content posted by members, and for keeping it compliant with these Terms and all applicable laws.
• You are responsible for removing inappropriate, unlawful, or violating Content posted by others, and for removing, blocking, muting, or banning the members who post it. Zimmer gives broadcasters the tools to delete content, remove members, block users, and manage their channel; you are expected to use them promptly when you become aware of a problem.
• You are responsible for setting and protecting your channel's password (for private channels) and for any access you grant.
• You are responsible for the accuracy of your channel's name, description, and any commitments you make to members about its purpose.
• You will not operate a channel for any unlawful purpose, and you will cooperate with lawful requests relating to your channel.

You agree that you, and not Zimmer, are responsible and liable for the operation and moderation of channels you own, and you will indemnify Zimmer for claims arising from them as described in Section 20. Zimmer is not obligated to monitor any channel, but we may do so and may take action — including removing Content, removing members, or shutting down a channel — at any time, as described in Section 8.

5. Prohibited conduct and illegal activity

You agree that you will not, and will not allow or assist anyone else to, use the Service to do, facilitate, promote, or attempt any of the following. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive.

5.1 Unlawful and harmful activity

• Engage in, plan, promote, or facilitate any activity that is illegal under any applicable local, state, national, or international law.
• Harass, threaten, intimidate, stalk, dox, defraud, extort, or bully anyone.
• Publish content that is unlawful, defamatory, hateful, harassing, or that incites or threatens violence or terrorism.
• Create, request, share, or solicit any sexual content involving minors. We have zero tolerance for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and child exploitation. We report such material and the accounts involved to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and to law enforcement, and we cooperate fully with investigations.
• Buy, sell, trade, or facilitate the exchange of illegal goods or services, including controlled substances, weapons, stolen data or goods, counterfeit items, or human trafficking.
• Promote or facilitate terrorism, violent extremism, self-harm, or the exploitation or endangerment of any person.
• Distribute spam, scams, phishing, pyramid or "get-rich-quick" schemes, malware, ransomware, or other malicious or deceptive content.
• Infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of publicity, or other intellectual-property or proprietary right.
• Violate the privacy of others, including by collecting, scraping, harvesting, or publishing other users' personal information without consent.

5.2 Catch-all

Without limiting anything above, you may not use the Service for any purpose that is unlawful, fraudulent, deceptive, or harmful, or that violates any law, regulation, sanction, or legal obligation applicable to you in any jurisdiction in which you use the Service — whether or not it is specifically listed in these Terms. You are solely responsible for ensuring your use of the Service is lawful where you are.

6. Acceptable use — no attacks, automation, or misuse of the Service

The Service is provided for personal, lawful messaging. You agree that you will not:

• Use the Service for any purpose other than as expressly intended and permitted by these Terms.
• Interfere with, disrupt, disable, overburden, or impair the Service, our servers, or our networks, or attempt to do so — including through any denial-of-service (DoS) or distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, flooding, or sending more requests than a human could reasonably generate.
• Use any bot, script, crawler, spider, scraper, automated system, or other means to access, monitor, copy, harvest, or send Content through the Service, or to create accounts, send messages, or interact with the Service in an automated or bulk manner.
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any system or network, or breach, circumvent, or attempt to bypass any security, authentication, rate-limiting, or access-control measure, including the end-to-end encryption boundary.
• Introduce any virus, worm, malware, or other harmful code, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other users' accounts or data, or our systems.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to derive the source code, algorithms, or underlying components of the Service, except to the limited extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law.
• Resell, rent, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Service without our prior written consent.
• Remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary notices, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.

We may use technical measures to detect and prevent abuse, and we may rate-limit, throttle, suspend, or block any user, device, or network that we believe is engaged in any of the above.

7. End-to-end encryption

Zimmer encrypts the content of your messages with end-to-end encryption ("E2EE"). This means message content is encrypted on your device with keys we do not hold, and only the intended recipients can decrypt it. The following are end-to-end encrypted:

• Text in direct messages, private channels, and public channels, along with reply previews.
• Photos and videos (and their thumbnails) sent as messages, which are encrypted on your device before upload and decrypted on recipients' devices.

What this means for you — please read carefully:

• We cannot read your encrypted messages or media, and we cannot recover them if you lose access to your encryption keys (for example, by losing your device or resetting your password without an encrypted key backup, such as iCloud Keychain on Apple devices or an equivalent secure backup on Android).
• Because we cannot read encrypted content, we cannot proactively detect or remove it. If encrypted content violates these Terms, you must report it through the in-app reporting flow or by email; we can then act on the account or channel (suspend, ban, or remove it) based on metadata, but we cannot retrieve the underlying encrypted content.
• E2EE protects message content. It does not encrypt all metadata — such as who is communicating, timestamps, channel and account identifiers, device and delivery information, and similar data needed to operate the Service. See our Privacy Policy for exactly what is and isn't encrypted, what we store, and what we may disclose under legal process.
• For public channels, any member who joins receives the channel key and can read messages in that channel. E2EE prevents us (the server) from reading the content; it does not prevent other members of a channel from doing so.

8. Our rights to moderate, remove, suspend, and terminate

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion and at any time, with or without notice or reason, to:

• Remove, disable, delete, or restrict access to any Content, channel, or account;
• Suspend, ban, or terminate any user, broadcaster, or channel;
• Reclaim or change channel codes or names; and
• Investigate suspected violations and take any action we consider appropriate, including reporting to law enforcement.

We may take these actions for any reason or no reason, including suspected violation of these Terms, legal risk, protection of other users or the public, or because continued provision of the Service is no longer commercially reasonable. We are not liable to you or anyone else for removing Content, channels, or accounts, or for suspending or terminating access. Sections that by their nature should survive termination will continue to apply.

9. No liability for lost messages, content, or history

The Service is not a backup, archival, or storage service, and we do not guarantee that any message, media, channel, or history will be stored, delivered, retained, or available. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not responsible or liable for any loss, deletion, corruption, failure to store, failure to deliver, or unavailability of any messages, media, Content, channels, encryption keys, or history, whether caused by you, another user, a broadcaster, a device, a third-party service, or us. You are responsible for keeping your own copies of anything important to you.

10. Assumption of risk, release, and hold harmless

You use Zimmer entirely at your own risk. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you knowingly and voluntarily assume all risks arising out of or relating to your access to or use of the Service, and you agree that the Zimmer Parties (as defined in Section 20) will not be liable to you for — and you hereby release, waive, and agree to hold the Zimmer Parties harmless from — any loss, damage, injury, claim, or harm of any kind, whether direct or indirect, arising out of or relating to:

• the loss, deletion, suspension, reclaiming, banning, or unavailability of any channel you own, operate, or belong to, or of your account, memberships, messages, media, encryption keys, history, or any paid feature or subscription;
• any action we take under Section 8, including removing Content, removing members, banning users, or deleting channels or accounts for any reason or no reason, with or without notice;
• the conduct, Content, or communications of any other user, broadcaster, or third party, including anything that is offensive, unlawful, harmful, defamatory, infringing, or that causes you loss or distress;
• any reliance you place on the Service or on any Content, or any decision you make or action you take based on the Service; and
• any interruption, outage, error, or bug; and
• any security incident, data breach, cyberattack, hacking, unauthorized access to or acquisition of data, loss or corruption of data, or any accidental or inadvertent disclosure of information, including any lapse in our compliance with these Terms or our Privacy Policy — in each case to the fullest extent permitted by law.

To the extent applicable law gives you non-waivable rights (for example, mandatory data-breach notification, or rights that cannot be limited in cases of gross negligence or willful misconduct), nothing in this Section removes those rights; this Section applies only as far as the law allows.

This release and hold-harmless is in addition to, and does not limit, the disclaimers in Section 18, the limitation of liability in Section 19, and the indemnification in Section 20. If you are a California resident, you expressly waive California Civil Code Section 1542, which provides: "A general release does not extend to claims that the creditor or releasing party does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release, and that, if known by him or her, would have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor or released party." You also waive any comparable law of any other jurisdiction.

11. Reporting and law-enforcement cooperation

You can report abuse, illegal content, or violations through the in-app reporting tools or by emailing support@zimmermessenger.com. We will review reports and may act as described in Section 8.

We comply with the law. We will preserve, access, and disclose information, and otherwise cooperate, when we believe in good faith that it is reasonably necessary to comply with a valid subpoena, court order, warrant, or other lawful request from law enforcement or a government authority, to comply with applicable law, to protect the safety of any person, to address fraud, security, or technical issues, or to protect our rights and property. The information we can provide is limited by what we actually hold and by our end-to-end encryption, as described in our Privacy Policy.

12. Premium features, purchases, and subscriptions

Some features (such as channel promotion or custom codes) may require an in-app purchase or subscription. Purchases made through Apple are processed by Apple under Apple's Standard Terms; purchases made through Google are processed by Google under the Google Play Terms of Service. Refunds are handled by the applicable app store (Apple or Google), not by Zimmer, except where we are required by law to provide them. Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled before the end of the current period through your Apple ID or Google Play account settings. As noted in Section 2, paid features and subscriptions tied to an unregistered, device-only account may be lost if you lose or reset your device or reinstall the app; register an account to protect them.

13. Intellectual property

Zimmer, the Zimmer name and logo, "Notifications That Matter™," and the Zimmer Messenger software are the property of ZimmerMessenger Inc. and are protected by intellectual-property laws. Except for the limited license to use the app under these Terms, we grant you no rights in the Service. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or create derivative works from the Service without our prior written consent.

14. Copyright and DMCA notices

If you believe Content on Zimmer infringes your copyright, send a notice to dmca@zimmermessenger.com with: identification of the work; identification and location of the allegedly infringing material; your contact information; a good-faith-belief statement; a statement under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate and you are authorized to act; and your physical or electronic signature. We respond to valid notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, may remove or disable access to allegedly infringing Content, and maintain a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of repeat infringers. If your Content is removed and you believe that was a mistake or misidentification, you may submit a counter-notice containing the information required by the DMCA. We may forward any notice or counter-notice (including the contact information it contains) to the other party.

15. Third-party services

The Service relies on third parties (including Apple, Google, Google Firebase, and OneSignal) and may contain links or content from third parties. We are not responsible for third-party services or content, and your use of them is governed by their terms and policies.

16. Advertising and commercial features

Zimmer does not currently display third-party advertising. We reserve the right to introduce advertising, sponsored content, promotional placements, or other commercial features at any time in the future, with or without prior individual notice except where notice is required by law. If we introduce advertising, we will update these Terms and our Privacy Policy, and we will never use the content of your end-to-end-encrypted messages or media to select or target advertising — we cannot, because we cannot read it. Nothing in these Terms or our Privacy Policy is a promise that the Service will remain free of advertising or commercial content.

17. International use, sanctions, and export

We aim to make Zimmer available broadly, but the Service may not be appropriate or available in every location, and you are responsible for complying with all local laws. You represent that you are not located in, and will not use the Service from, any country or region subject to a comprehensive U.S. government or other applicable embargo, and that you are not on any government list of prohibited, sanctioned, or restricted parties. You may not export or re-export the app except in compliance with applicable export-control laws.

18. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS, THAT MESSAGES OR MEDIA WILL BE DELIVERED, STORED, OR RETAINED, OR THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. ANY CONTENT POSTED BY USERS IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE USER WHO POSTED IT.

19. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL ZIMMERMESSENGER INC., ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF DATA, MESSAGES, CONTENT, PROFITS, REVENUE, GOODWILL, OR BUSINESS, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS, THE SERVICE, ANY USER CONTENT, OR ANY CONDUCT OF ANY USER OR BROADCASTER, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT, OR ANY OTHER THEORY, AND EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) USD $100. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of the above may not apply to you; in that case our liability is limited to the smallest amount permitted by law.

20. Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless ZimmerMessenger Inc. and its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, and licensors (the "Zimmer Parties") from and against any and all claims, demands, disputes, investigations, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses — including reasonable attorneys' fees and legal costs — arising out of or relating to: (a) your access to or use of the Service; (b) your Content; (c) any channel you own, operate, or moderate, and any Content or conduct within it; (d) your violation of these Terms or any applicable law or third-party right; or (e) your violation of the rights of any other user or person. We may assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification, in which case you agree to cooperate with us. This Section survives termination of these Terms.

21. Governing law and venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles, except where the mandatory consumer-protection laws of your country of residence require otherwise. For any dispute that is not subject to arbitration under Section 22 — including claims brought in small-claims court and claims for injunctive or equitable relief — you and Zimmer agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in San Diego County, California, and consent to personal jurisdiction there. Nothing here prevents either party from seeking injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction. If you reside in the EEA, UK, or another region whose laws grant you the right to bring claims locally, nothing in these Terms deprives you of that right.

22. Dispute resolution — binding arbitration and class-action waiver

(a) Informal resolution first. Before starting an arbitration, you and Zimmer agree to try to resolve the dispute informally for at least 60 days. Send a written Notice of Dispute to legal@zimmermessenger.com describing the dispute and the relief you seek. If the dispute is not resolved within 60 days, either party may begin arbitration.

(b) Agreement to arbitrate. You and Zimmer agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service (except as expressly carved out below) will be resolved by final and binding individual arbitration, rather than in court, administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect. The arbitration will be conducted in the English language, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this Section.

(c) Class-action and jury-trial waiver. You and Zimmer agree that each may bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not preside over any form of class or representative proceeding. You and Zimmer waive any right to a jury trial.

(d) Exceptions. This Section does not require arbitration of: (i) an individual claim brought in small-claims court that qualifies to be heard there; or (ii) a claim for injunctive or other equitable relief to stop actual or threatened infringement, misappropriation, or violation of intellectual-property rights or unauthorized access to the Service.

(e) 30-day right to opt out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement within 30 days of first accepting these Terms (or of this Section first applying to you) by emailing legal@zimmermessenger.com with your name and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out has no effect on any other part of these Terms.

(f) Mass and coordinated filings. If 25 or more similar arbitration demands are submitted by or with the coordination of the same or coordinated counsel, the demands will be administered in staged batches to promote efficiency, and applicable limitation periods and filing deadlines are tolled until each batch proceeds.

(g) Severability of this Section. If the class-action waiver in (c) is found unenforceable as to a particular claim or request for relief, that claim or request will be severed and brought in court, while all other claims will still proceed in arbitration. If any other part of this Section is found unenforceable, the remainder will continue to apply.

(h) Residents outside the United States. If you reside in the EEA, UK, or any other jurisdiction whose law restricts or prohibits pre-dispute binding arbitration or class-action waivers for consumers, this Section applies to you only to the extent permitted by that law, and you retain any non-waivable right to bring claims in your local courts.

23. General terms

Severability and waiver. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, that provision will be limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions will stay in full effect. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it.

Entire agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and Zimmer about the Service and supersede any prior agreements on that subject.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or any rights under them without our prior written consent. We may freely assign or transfer these Terms — including to an affiliate, a newly formed entity (such as our LLC), or a successor in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets — without restriction.

Force majeure. We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform resulting from events beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labor disputes, government action, outages or failures of the internet, networks, hosting providers, or other third-party services.

Electronic communications and notices. You consent to receive communications from us electronically — in the app, by email (if you provided one), or by posting to our website — and you agree that electronic communications satisfy any legal requirement that a communication be in writing.

No third-party beneficiaries. Except for the Zimmer Parties (Section 20) and Apple and Google (Section 25), these Terms create no third-party beneficiary rights.

Survival. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination — including Sections 9, 10, and 17 through 23 — will continue to apply after these Terms or your access to the Service ends.

24. Changes to these Terms

We reserve the right to change, modify, add to, or remove any part of these Terms at any time and for any reason, in our sole discretion. If we make material changes, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you inside the app or by email (if you've provided one), and, where required by law, before the changes take effect. The "Last updated" date above always reflects the current version. Your continued use of the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms. If you don't accept them, you must stop using the Service. We may also change, suspend, limit, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time, with or without notice, and without liability to you.

25. Apple and Google Play required terms

If you obtained Zimmer through Apple's App Store, you acknowledge that:

• These Terms are between you and ZimmerMessenger Inc., not Apple. Apple has no responsibility for the Service or its content.
• Your license to use the app is limited to use on Apple-branded devices you own or control, as permitted by the App Store Terms.
• Apple is a third-party beneficiary of these Terms and may enforce them against you.
• If the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, who will refund the purchase price (if any); beyond that, Apple has no warranty obligation.
• Apple is not responsible for addressing any claims relating to the app, including product-liability, legal/regulatory, or intellectual-property claims.
• You are not located in a country subject to a U.S. government embargo and are not on any U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

If you obtained Zimmer through the Google Play Store, you acknowledge that:

• These Terms are between you and ZimmerMessenger Inc., not Google. Google has no responsibility for the Service or its content.
• Your use of the app must comply with the then-current Google Play Terms of Service.
• Google is not responsible for providing support or maintenance for the app.
• Google is not responsible for addressing any claims relating to the app, including product-liability, legal/regulatory, consumer-protection, or intellectual-property claims.
• Google is a third-party beneficiary of these Terms to the extent they concern your use of the app obtained through Google Play, and may enforce them against you.

26. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email support@zimmermessenger.com. For legal notices and dispute notices, email legal@zimmermessenger.com. For privacy questions, email privacy@zimmermessenger.com. For copyright notices, email dmca@zimmermessenger.com.