Legal

Terms and conditions of use

Last updated: September 20, 2026 · Versión en español

These Terms govern your use of the Kuides app and the kuides.com website; they are published at kuides.com/en/terms (Spanish original at kuides.com/terminos) and are accepted when you sign in to the app. By accepting these Terms and Conditions you accept their content in full, including Kuides' ownership of the non-sensitive data you enter (section 7) and the Privacy Notice.

1. Who provides the service

Kuides is operated by KUIDES, S.A.S., a Mexican company with tax ID (RFC) KUI260821TZ8, domiciled in Mexico City, Mexico (“Kuides”, “we”, “us”). These Terms govern your use of the app and its services (the “Service”).

2. What Kuides is (and what it is NOT)

Kuides is a community safety platform: users report georeferenced incidents, validate them among themselves and consult a risk map, routes, an SOS button, a trusted circle and lost-pet searches.

Kuides' information has two sources, always differentiated in the app: community reports and validations, and statistical and reference data published as open data by public institutions and open projects (see section 12).

Kuides is NOT an official emergency, public safety, surveillance or response service, and it is not affiliated with any authority. Community reports are not verified by authorities; public-source data are records with a cutoff date, and their use in Kuides does not imply any endorsement, participation or position by the institutions that publish them.

3. Territorial scope and coverage

Kuides is offered in every country. Reference-data coverage is complete in Mexico City and partial elsewhere (help points and public statistics in 36 countries); outside those areas the app works with whatever the community contributes. The SOS button dials the emergency number of the country the app detects (or the one you set in Profile); check that it is the right one for your location. The app is available in Spanish and English; server-generated notices (messages to guardians, notifications) go out in your profile's language when a translation exists and in Spanish otherwise.

4. Age requirements

To use Kuides you must be 16 years of age or older. By accepting these Terms you declare that you meet the minimum age. We may delete without prior notice the accounts of people who do not meet this requirement.

5. Your account

You can create your account with your phone number (verified with a one-time code delivered by WhatsApp or SMS) or by signing in with Google, Facebook or Apple. You are responsible for the activity carried out from your account and for providing truthful information. You can also explore as a guest: guests can only look at the map (they cannot report, vote, share location, register guardians or publish searches) and their sessions are deleted automatically after 30 days without use.

6. License to use

We grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, revocable and non-transferable license to use the app in accordance with these Terms. You acquire no ownership rights over the Service, its brand, its code or its content.

7. Content you contribute and data ownership

By using Kuides you contribute content to the community: reports, votes, photos of places, markers (pins) you place on the map, addresses, texts, messages to your circle and pet pages (“Your Content”).

Ownership of non-sensitive data. All data you provide in Kuides that is not sensitive personal data —Your Content (reports, votes, photos of places, markers, addresses, alias and pet pages), as well as zone risk indexes, report counts and patterns, usage statistics, heat maps and any derived metric or knowledge— is Kuides' property and stays with us. Kuides may host, display, reproduce, publish and exploit that content and data for any lawful purpose —including improving the Service and generating safety reports for the community— without time limit and even if you delete your account (in which case we keep it dissociated from your identity). The foregoing does not include third-party source data (section 12), which remains subject to its owners' licenses. We do not use Your Content for advertising or sell it to third parties.

Permanent archive without identity. So the map becomes more accurate over time, Kuides keeps a permanent copy of everything published in Alerts and on the map (reports with their category, approximate location, time, votes, outcome and photo of the place) and aggregated mobility patterns (how many people passed through a ~250 m area in each time slot, only when there are at least five), in an archive with no personal data: no account, alias, phone, device or exact address. That archive belongs to Kuides and is not deleted when you delete your account, because it can no longer identify you. Personal data, by contrast, is deleted or dissociated as the law requires when no longer needed for its purpose, within the periods of the Privacy Notice, or when you exercise your ARCO rights.

Sensitive personal data is processed in accordance with the Privacy Notice and is excluded from the above. None of this deprives you of the ARCO rights (access, rectification, cancellation and objection) the law grants you over your personal data, which you can exercise as explained in the Privacy Notice. By accepting these Terms and Conditions you accept this ownership.

Reported phone numbers. By reporting a number from which you received a suspicious call you state, under your own responsibility, that the call took place. A number is published only when several different accounts report it, without identifying who did, and its holder may request its removal from the app (“This number is mine”) or at [email protected]: it is hidden from the list immediately for 90 days while it is reviewed (Privacy Notice, section 9A). Falsely reporting a number, out of revenge or to harm someone, may lead to the suspension or cancellation of your account and to your legal liability —civil and, where applicable, criminal— towards the holder of the number and towards Kuides, which may cooperate with the competent authority when the law so requires.

8. Rules of conduct (acceptable use)

By using Kuides you agree not to:

• Post false, misleading or fabricated reports, or fake pet searches.
• Post defamatory or discriminatory content, content that harasses, threatens or incites violence, or unlawful content.
• Reveal third parties' personal data (address, phone number, license plates, identifiable photos) in order to expose, single out or pursue them (doxxing).
• Use the Circle, the SOS, location requests, sightings or other people's location to stalk, monitor or control them without their consent.
• Register as a guardian someone who does not want to be one, or use SOS and check-in alerts to annoy, harass or bombard someone with messages.
• Go to the location of a report to intervene, chase, “hunt” or confront someone, or call on others to do so. Kuides informs; it does not intervene or replace the authorities.
• Describe or single out people by their origin, skin color, nationality, religion or appearance. Kuides reports facts and places; it does not point at people.
• Use the Service for commercial, advertising or spam purposes.
• Attempt to breach, automate, overload or reverse-engineer the Service.

You are responsible for the content you post and for ensuring that it is lawful.

9. Moderation and content removal

We may review, hide or remove content that violates these Terms, and restrict, suspend or delete repeat-offender accounts, in accordance with our moderation policy. Anyone can flag a report as abuse or block its author from the app; with several flags the content is hidden pending human review. To report inappropriate content, write to [email protected].

10. Third-party data (guardians)

By registering another person as a guardian (name and phone number), you declare that you have a relationship with that person and their consent to include them and for Kuides to send them alerts if you trigger an SOS, a check-in is not confirmed or you ask for help during a companion call. That data is used only for that purpose (see the Privacy Notice).

That person can silence your alerts at any time —from you or from all of Kuides— through the link included in every alert (kuides.com/s/…) or by replying ALTO on WhatsApp, and you will not be notified: if your alerts are not reaching someone, it may be because of that decision. Registering guardians against their will or using alerts to harass is grounds for suspension.

11. SOS, alerts, circle and emergencies — read carefully

• Kuides does not replace 911 or any emergency service. In an emergency, call your country's emergency number first.
• The emergency call goes out from your own device through the phone's calling feature; Kuides does not place the call for you or contact authorities.
• Kuides is not a channel for filing complaints. Your report alerts the community, not the authorities, and does not replace a formal complaint before your local prosecutor's office or police. The app shows you how to file one (kuides.com/denunciar) and dials your country's emergency number.
• Kuides' server notifies your guardians and, if you have a paid plan, the people in your circle by WhatsApp, SMS and notification (if they also use Kuides), with your last known location; it does not dispatch help or guarantee that anyone will respond. If a guardian replies on WhatsApp, for the next 24 hours they may receive your updated location while the emergency lasts.
• Kuides does not offer real-time location. Circle positions are shown with their age (“X min ago”) and may be out of date; “live” mode shortens the interval for a limited time, but it is still a last known position.
• The Circle and live mode are turned on only by you, on yourself; nobody can turn them on remotely on another person. “Request location” only sends a request to the other person, who decides whether to share their location once, for one hour, or not at all. Members of a circle see each other on equal terms.
• “If something happens to me” card. It is optional. The information you enter in it (blood type, allergies, medications, who to call, where your documents are) is provided by you, under your own responsibility, and keeping it up to date is on you. Kuides is not a medical or emergency service: it does not verify that information, does not transmit it to emergency services or medical staff, and only shows it to the people in your circle when you trigger an SOS (or always, if you so choose). The SOS always dials your country's emergency number from your own phone.
• Kuides voice calls. If you turn on “Kuides calls you” or “Have Kuides accompany me”, Kuides will place automated calls (synthesized voice, no operator) to your verified number only when you activate those features: when a “Did you arrive OK?” expires unconfirmed, or when you start an accompanied route. You can turn them off at any time in Profile. They are an automated alert: no person attends you, they do not dial the authorities and they do not replace emergency services. Their cost is covered by your plan; Kuides may limit how many are placed per day to prevent abuse and does not guarantee that the call will go through (it depends on your carrier and coverage). If you press 2 during either call, or do not answer the “Kuides calls you” call within 3 minutes, your guardians are alerted as with any expired check-in. The companion call stays on the line for up to 20 minutes; pressing 1 ends it.
• Call alert and call silencing. They rely on the community list of reported numbers, which is not verified: they may warn you about a legitimate number or fail to warn you about a dangerous one. They never reject a call or delete it from your call log. Use your judgment and do not rely on them to decide whether to answer.
• We do not guarantee delivery of messages, notifications or alerts, since they depend on third parties (carriers, Meta, Google, Apple) and on connectivity, and there are anti-abuse limits. Do not rely exclusively on Kuides for your safety.

12. Data sources and third-party content

In addition to community content, Kuides incorporates data published by public institutions and open-data projects, under licenses that allow their use (for example, attribution licenses such as CC BY, government free-use terms and the Open Database License, ODbL). The list of sources, with their license and the credit each one requires, is published at kuides.com/fuentes and within the app (Profile → Data sources).

That data belongs to its owners and is used in accordance with their licenses; nothing in these Terms grants you rights over it or modifies those licenses. The indexes, transformations and visualizations Kuides produces from it are Kuides' own work and do not represent the official position of the institutions cited. Maps, place search and route calculation use Google services under Google's terms.

Third-party source data is displayed as its source publishes it —with technical normalization and aggregation adjustments— and with the available cutoff date: it may be incomplete, out of date or contain errors, and it reflects records, not the totality of events. If you spot data from these sources that seems wrong, write to [email protected].

13. Lost Pets

By publishing a search you accept that the photo, name, species, description and approximate corner of the last sighting are made public on the map, on the printable poster and on the web page kuides.com/m/CODE, accessible without an account. Your phone number is not published; communication happens through sightings (“I saw them here!”), which anyone can send without identifying themselves and which come in flagged “unconfirmed”. Kuides does not offer or manage rewards and does not verify sightings; use your judgment when going to a location. Searches are archived automatically after 30 days if you do not close them. Publishing fake searches, searches for animals that are not yours, or searches for purposes other than finding the animal is grounds for removal and suspension.

13A. “They help here” seal (businesses)

A business can ask for its premises to appear on the map as a place where a person in danger can walk in, make a phone call and wait. The business owner requests it, Kuides verifies the premises' landline (by phone call) and cross-checks it against the public business registry or reviews it by hand, and for 30 days neighbors whose accounts are older than 30 days confirm from the location that it exists and that they were helped. Only then is it published, with the verification date, a “new” label for 90 days and a validity of 12 months.

The seal certifies “verified by Kuides”, not “safe place”: it is neither a safety guarantee nor a legal obligation of the business or of Kuides. Community “They did not help me” flags hide it and send it for review; a serious incident reported next to the premises does too. The business can leave the program at any time (the pin disappears that day) and Kuides may withdraw or deny the seal if it detects false data. The premises' name, address, opening hours and what it offers are made public; the phone number and the RFC are not.

14. Paid features (preparatory clause)

Today Kuides charges nothing and offers no in-app purchases. There are features in preparation (“Kuides Plus” and search “Boost”) which, while in beta, may appear for some people free of charge or with courtesy credits, at no cost. If we activate charges in the future: (a) they will be made exclusively through the app stores (Google Play / App Store) and their payment systems, under their refund policies; (b) we will update these Terms and notify you in the app before any charge exists; and (c) the essential safety features that are free today (SOS, alerts, map and basic circle) will remain available at no cost. Kuides stores no card or payment data.

Promo codes. Kuides may hand out codes that activate a plan for a limited time. Each code can be redeemed once per account (in the app or by sending it on WhatsApp from your verified phone), may have an expiry date and a maximum number of redemptions, has no cash value and cannot be exchanged for money, and does not replace a current paid plan of the same or a higher tier. Kuides may void codes obtained or used fraudulently.

15. No guarantee of accuracy

The Service, its community content and third-party source data are provided “as is” and “as available”. Reports reflect what other people contribute and may be inaccurate, out of date or wrong. Public-source data reflects records with a cutoff date and may not match the current situation. The risk map and routes are for guidance only. Do not make critical safety decisions based solely on Kuides. To the extent permitted by law, we do not guarantee accuracy, continuous availability or freedom from errors.

16. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Kuides shall not be liable for indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising from the use of or inability to use the Service, or for the acts or omissions of other users or third-party providers, or for the accuracy of community content or third-party source data. Nothing in these Terms limits liabilities that cannot be excluded under the law (including the rights granted to you by Mexico's Federal Consumer Protection Law or another consumer-protection rule of your country).

17. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to hold Kuides harmless from third-party claims arising from acts attributable to you through willful misconduct or negligence: breach of these Terms, the content you post or misuse of the Service. This clause does not apply to the extent that the Federal Consumer Protection Law or another non-waivable rule deems it invalid.

18. Suspension and termination

You may stop using Kuides and delete your account at any time (Profile → Privacy → Delete my account, or at kuides.com/eliminar-cuenta). We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these Terms or to protect users or the Service.

19. Privacy

The processing of your data is governed by the Privacy Notice, which forms part of these Terms.

20. Changes to the Service and to these Terms

We may modify the Service or these Terms. We will publish the current version at kuides.com/en/terms (Spanish original at kuides.com/terminos) and, if the change is significant, we will notify you in the app. Continued use after a change constitutes acceptance.

21. Intellectual property

Kuides, its name, logo and trademark (registered or pending before the IMPI, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property), its design and its code are the property of Kuides or its licensors. Do not use them without authorization.

22. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United Mexican States. For any dispute, the parties submit to the competent courts of Mexico City, without prejudice to the rights you may have as a consumer before PROFECO (Mexico's consumer protection agency) or your country's consumer authority, and to the jurisdiction of the authority currently in charge of personal data protection (in Mexico, following the 2025 reform, the Secretaría Anticorrupción y Buen Gobierno).

23. Contact

Support and content reports: [email protected] · Privacy / ARCO rights: [email protected]

By continuing in Kuides you accept these Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Notice.