Effective: 17 November 2022

Terms of Service

Introduction

wellwellwell investments (Pty) Ltd (“ESP”) built the ESP app as an Ad Supported app. The services are provided at no cost and is intended for use as is. 

ESP offers a website (https://esp.info/) and application (ESP) with loadshedding information and functionality through the app, allowing users within a community to communicate with each other. By registering, installing, accessing, or using our apps, services, features, software, or website, you agree to these terms. You should stop using all our services (including the website and app) if you do not agree with any of the terms. We may amend the terms from time to time and the latest version of the terms applicable at the time of using the service, will regulate your use of the service. If we make material amendments that will create obligations or risk for you, we will add a prominent notification on the website or app to indicate that the terms have been amended. 

Our services

• Providing load shedding information: This is our first priority. We provide information and updates on load shedding schedules in real time. 
• Connecting you with other people: If you choose to use the Community (“AskMyStreet”) functionality in the app, you may communicate with other ESP users through messages sent via the app.
• Third Parties: ESP may work with partners, service providers, and affiliated companies to help us provide ways for you to connect with their services. We use the information we receive from them to help operate, provide, and improve our services.
• Ways to improve our services. We analyse how you make use of ESP, in order to improve all aspects of our services. ESP uses the information it has and also works with partners, service providers, and affiliated companies to do this.
• Safety and Security. We work to protect the safety and security of ESP by appropriately dealing with abusive people and activity and violations of these terms when it comes to our knowledge. We take reasonable steps to prohibit misuse of our services, harmful conduct towards others, and violations of our terms and policies, and address situations where we may be able to help support or protect our community. We may develop automated systems to improve our ability to detect and remove abusive people and activity that may harm our community and the safety and security of our services. If we learn of people or activity like this, we will take appropriate action by removing such people or activity or contacting law enforcement. We may share information with other affiliated companies when we learn of misuse or harmful conduct by someone using our services.
• Enabling global access to our services. To operate our global service, we need to store and distribute content and information in data centres and systems around the world, possibly including outside your country of residence. This infrastructure may be owned or operated by our service providers or affiliated companies.

About our services

Registration: You must create a user account to register for our services through the app, providing accurate information, including  your current mobile phone number or email, and, if you change it, inform us so we may deregister the old account. You agree to receive text messages with codes to register for our services. We will use your personal information provided for registration and use of the services in connection with these terms, including the privacy policy.

Age: If you live in a country other than South Africa, you may only use our services if you are the minimum required age in your jurisdiction to sign up for and use the services (unless with consent of your guardian or parent). If you are a South African consumer, you must be 18 years old to use the services and agree to the terms, or do so with the consent of your guardian or parent. 

Devices And Software: You will need  certain device requirements, software, and data connections to use our services. You will also be required from time to time to manually or automatically download and install updates to our services to enjoy continued use. You consent to us sending you notifications via ESP from time to time, as necessary to provide our services to you.

Fees And Taxes: You are responsible for all carrier data plans, Internet fees, and other fees and taxes associated with your use of our services. 

Acceptable use of our services

Our Terms and Privacy Policy: You may only use our services according to these terms, our policies as implemented from time to time and communicated to you, and in accordance with applicable laws.  If you violate any of these and it comes to our knowledge, we may take action with respect to your account, including disabling or suspending your account temporarily or permanently and, if we do, you may  not create another account without our permission.

Lawful and acceptable use: You must access and use our services only for lawful, authorized, and acceptable purposes. You agree not to  use (or assist others in using) our services in ways that: (a) violate, misappropriate, or infringe the rights of ESP, our users, or others, including privacy, publicity, intellectual property, or other proprietary rights; (b) are illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, intimidating, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or instigate or encourage conduct that would be illegal or otherwise inappropriate, including promoting violent crimes; (c) involve publishing falsehoods, misrepresentations, or misleading statements; (d) impersonate someone; (e) involve sending illegal or impermissible communications, including but not limited to bulk messaging, auto-messaging, and the like; or (f) involve any non-personal use of our services.

Harm to ESP or our users: You may not (or assist others to) directly, indirectly, through automated or other means access, use, copy, adapt, modify, prepare derivative works based upon, distribute, license, sublicense, transfer, display, perform, or otherwise exploit our services in impermissible or unauthorized manners, or in ways that burden, impair, or harm us, our services, systems, our users, or others, including that you must not directly or through automated means: (a) reverse engineer, alter, modify, create derivative works from, decompile, or extract code from our services; (b) send, store, or transmit viruses or other harmful computer code through or onto our services; (c) gain or attempt to gain unauthorized access to our services or systems; (d) interfere with or disrupt the safety, security, or performance of our services; (e) create accounts for our services through unauthorized or automated means; (f) collect the information of or about our users in any impermissible or unauthorized manner; (g) sell, resell, rent, license, or charge for our services in an unauthorized manner; (h) distribute or make our services available over a network where they could be used by multiple devices at the same time, except as authorized through tools we have expressly provided via our services; or (i) create software or APIs that function substantially the same as our services and offer them for use by third parties in an unauthorized manner.

Keeping your account and information secure: You are solely responsible for keeping your device and your ESP account safe and secure, and you must notify us promptly of any unauthorized use or security breach of your account or our services. Also note that you should carefully consider what personal information you post through the app, as users will access it and, despite their obligation not to, may use it for purposes other than intended by you.

Reporting abuse: Should you use the AskMyStreet functionality of our app which allows users to communicate and share content within a community, we urge you to report any conduct or behaviour in breach of our acceptable use terms. The app provides for functionality to easily report suspected or actual breach. 

Licenses and Intellectual Property

Our Intellectual Property: All the intellectual property included in the services, website and app belongs to us or our licensors, and you will not acquire any rights to that intellectual property.

Your Rights: ESP does not claim ownership of the information that you submit for your ESP account or through our services and you accept full responsibility for all information and content shared with us or through the services. You must have the necessary authorisation and right to share information that you submit for your ESP account or through our services and you  grant us the rights and license to use information in the way intended through our services and as set out in our terms. You expressly grant ESP a free of charge, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works of, display, and perform the information (including the content) that you upload, submit, store, send, or receive on or through our services. 

Your License: you have a limited, revocable, non-exclusive and non-transferable license to use our services on these terms only. 

Indemnity

If anyone brings a claim ("Third Party Claim") against us related to your actions, use of the services, information shared, or content on ESP, you indemnify and hold ESP (includingour shareholders, directors and employees) harmless from and against all liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses of any kind (including reasonable legal fees and costs) relating to, arising out of, or in any way in connection with any of the following: (a) your access to or use of our services, including information provided in connection therewith; (b) your breach of our terms or of applicable law; or (c) any misrepresentation made by you. You will cooperate as fully as required by us in the defence or settlement of any claim by any third party.

Exclusion of liability

Our app is not affiliated with Eskom Holdings SOC Limited in any way. All information provided is publicly accessible and reasonably accurate to the best of our knowledge. You agree to use any data accessed through the app at your own risk, we take no responsibility for any inaccuracies or errors. 

We will use reasonable skill and care in providing our services to you and in keeping it a safe, secure, and error-free environment, but we do not guarantee that ESP will always function without disruptions, delays, or imperfections. You use our services at your own risk and subject to the disclaimers set out in these terms. We are providing our services on an "as is" basis without any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, and freedom from computer virus or other harmful code. We do not warrant that any information provided by us is accurate, complete, or useful, that our services will be operational, error free, secure, or safe, or that our services will function without disruptions, delays, or imperfections. We do not control and are not responsible for, controlling how or when our users use our services or the features, services, and interfaces our services provide. We are not responsible for and are not obligated to control the actions or information (including content) of our users or other third parties. We (including our subsidiaries, affiliates, and our and their directors, officers, employees, partners, and agents (together, the "ESP parties")) exclude any liability from any loss, claim, complaint, or cause of action, and all damages, relating to, arising out of, or in any way connected with your use of the services. 

Availability and termination of our services

Availability of our services: We are always trying to improve our services. That means we may add or remove our services, features, functionalities, and the support of certain devices and platforms. Our services may be interrupted, including for maintenance, repairs, upgrades, or network or equipment failures. We may discontinue some or all of our services, including certain features and the support for certain devices and platforms, at any time without notice. Events beyond our control may also affect our services, such as events in nature and other force majeure events.

Termination: Although we hope you remain a ESP user, you can terminate your relationship with ESP anytime for any reason by deleting your account. Please contact us to request account deletion.

We may also modify, suspend, or terminate your access to or use of our services anytime for actual or suspected unlawful conduct, including for fraud, or if we reasonably believe you violate or are about to violate our terms or applicable laws, or may create harm, risk, or possible legal exposure for us, our users, or others. The following provisions will survive any termination of your relationship with ESP: “Licenses”, “Exclusion of Liability”, “Indemnity”, “Other”, and “Availability and Termination of our Services”. If you believe yourccountt’s termination or suspension was in error, please contact us.

We may at any time and for any reason decide to terminate any or all parts of the services. 

Third party products or services

We may allow third party product and service suppliers to advertise products or services through our app. We are not the supplier of these products or services and do not take responsibility for the performance by these third parties. If you access and use any third party products or services, or enter into any agreements for the supply of third party products or services, you do that solely at your own risk and subject to the terms of the third party  product or service provider. 

Account and Personal Information deletion

You can request deletion of your account and personal information (meaning personal information or data as defined by applicable laws such as the Protection of Personal Act (“POPI”) or the GDPR), by contacting us at legal.account.deletion@esp.info, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your request, we will delete (and direct our service providers – where applicable - to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies. We may refuse your deletion request if the law allows or requires retention and retaining the information is necessary to:

• complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information;
• detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or report or assist authorities to prosecute those responsible for such activities;
• debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;
• exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law;
• enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us;
• comply with a legal obligation;
• make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

Also note that we do not control the deletion of information by other users with whom you may have engaged through our services and their use of your information previously provided, is out of our control. 

Other

• Unless a mutually executed agreement between you and us states otherwise, these terms make up the entire agreement between you and us regarding ESP and our services, and supersede any prior agreements.
• We reserve the right to designate in the future that certain of our services are governed by separate terms (where, as applicable, you may be required to separately agree to such terms).
• Our services are not intended for distribution to or use in any country where such distribution or use would violate local law or would subject us to any regulations in another country. We reserve the right to limit our services in any country.
• Any amendment to or waiver of our terms requires our express consent. You have the right to terminate your relationship with ESP at any time by requesting us to delete your account.
• We may assign our rights and obligations to any of our affiliates or in connection with a merger, acquisition, restructuring, or sale of assets, or by operation of law or otherwise, and we may transfer your information to any of our affiliates, successor entities, or new owner. In the event of such an assignment, these terms will continue to govern your relationship with such third party. We hope you will continue using ESP, but if you do not agree to such an assignment, you must stop using our services by requesting us to delete your account.
• Nothing in our terms will prevent us from complying with the law.
• Except as contemplated herein, our terms do not give any third-party beneficiary rights.
• If we fail to enforce any of our terms, it will not be considered a waiver.
• We always appreciate your feedback or other suggestions about ESP and our services, but you understand that you have no obligation to provide feedback or suggestions and that we may use your feedback or suggestions without any obligation to compensate you for them.

Privacy Policy

Introduction

This policy  informs visitors and users of our website and app regarding our policies in respect of  the collection, use, sharing and disclosure of personal information (“personal information” as defined in POPI). We are committed to privacy practices in compliance with POPI 

Information collection and use

In order to use our service, we may require you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information, and personal information, including but not limited to: name, mobile number, email address. We may also collect information through your social media accounts such as Facebook, Google and Apple accounts. If you use the Nearby location functionality, we collect your geolocation. If you use our AskMyStreetfunctionality, we collect your geolocation. The information that we collect will be retained by us and used as described in this privacy policy and our terms. 

We collect information directly from you when you provide information on registration or otherwise communicate with us or from your interaction with our services or when you use any features or resources available on or through our website or app.

If a user of our services, provides information through the app about you (as a third party), our platform collects the information from our user. Our user is however contractually bound to only share third party information with consent. 

All processing of personal information relates to the services we offer and enhancing your experience. Processing therefore includes any required use relating to your application, account, use of the services, analysing and monitoring use, product development, working with authorities or other relevant parties, reporting abuse or misconduct, and marketing. We do not sell personal information. 

Log Data

We want to inform you that whenever you use our service, in a case of an error in the app we collect data and information (through third party products) on your phone called Log Data. This Log Data may include information such as your device Internet Protocol ("IP") address, device name, operating system version, the configuration of the app when utilizing our service, the time and date of your use of the service, and other statistics. 

Cookies

Cookies are files with a small amount of data that are commonly used as anonymous unique identifiers. These are sent to your browser from the websites that you visit and are stored on your device's internal memory.

The service does not use these "cookies" explicitly. However, the app may use third party code and libraries that use "cookies" to collect information and improve their services. You have the option to either accept or refuse these cookies and know when a cookie is being sent to your device. If you choose to refuse our cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our service. 

Service Providers

We may employ third-party companies and individuals for the following reasons:

• to facilitate our service;
• to provide the service on our behalf;
• to perform services related to our service; or
• to assist us in analysing how our service is used and provide other support services to us.

These third parties have access to your personal information for the sole purpose to perform services to us or on our behalf. However, they are obligated in law not to disclose or use the information for any other purpose and they only process the information in terms of a contract with us

Disclosure of Personal information

Other than disclosure to service providers, we may disclose information if the law allows or requires it from us, including for example sharing with authorities, business partners in respect of our business or the services.

If our service providers or business partners are located cross border, we may share the information cross border, but at all times in compliance with the POPI requirements for cross border sharing of information. 

Security

We value your trust in providing us your personal information, thus we are striving to use commercially acceptable means of protecting it. But remember that no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure and reliable, and we cannot guarantee its absolute security. 

We implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures in accordance with POPI, designed to protect personal information against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, disclosure, access and other unlawful or unauthorised forms of processing.

Links to Other Sites or Apps

This service may contain advertisements of third party products or services or links to other sites. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that site or app. Note that these external sites or apps are not operated or controlled by us. Therefore, we strongly advise you to review the privacy policies of these websites or apps before using it. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites, apps or services and how they process your personal information. 

Children's Privacy

Our services are not aimed at minors and we do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from minors. All personal information of minors provided to us, must be provided with the consent of a guardian or parent.  

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. Thus, you are advised to review this page periodically for any changes. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. These changes are effective immediately after they are posted on this page.

User Generated Content Policy

Non-compliance to these policies will lead to the takedown of content, and potential account suspension and/or termination. We utilise a combination of automated moderation and user generated reporting to moderate content on the ESP platform. 

Your rights

You have the following rights in relation to your personal information, but note that they are not absolute and may be limited under POPI. This means we may not be able to honour your requests in all instances, but if the law allows or requires us to do so, we will: 

• right of access: you  have the right to be informed of and you may request a copy of the  personal information records that we hold;
• right to rectification: you may request that we amend or update your personal information if our records are inaccurate or incomplete;
• right to erasure: you may request that we delete your personal information;
• right to restrict processing: you may request that we temporarily or permanently stop processing your personal information;
• right to object: you may object to us processing your personal information, including to object against processing for direct marketing purposes (in which case we will stop marketing); and

• right not to be subject to automated decision-making: where a decision that has a legal or other significant effect is based solely on automated decision making, including profiling, you may request that your personal information not be processed in that manner.

Where you have provided consent for us to process your personal information, you may also withdraw your consent. Note however, we may continue to process your personal information if another legal justification exists for the processing despite the fact that you have withdrawn your consent.

Retention of information

We take reasonable steps to ensure that we only process personal information for the period necessary for the purposes set out in this policy, including any period necessary to establish, exercise or defend any legal rights.

We therefore retain personal information in accordance with the required retention periods in terms of any laws that require specific retention periods, or otherwise in terms of POPI or for legitimate business purposes. We may retain information indefinitely in a de-identified format for research and statistical purposes, which may include for example statistics of how you use the website, app and services. 

Security breach

We will report any security breach to the applicable regulatory authority in terms of POPI and to the data subjects whose personal information is involved in the breach. If you want to report any concerns about our privacy practices or if you suspect any breach regarding your personal information, please send an email to legal@esp.info.

Lodging a complaint

If you want to raise any objection or have any queries about our privacy practices, you can contact our information officer D Wells on legal@esp.info.

You also have the right to formally lodge a complaint as follows:

Useful Content

ESP aims to provide a platform to create useful content for the users and limit the use of the app

• Useful content: you may not share content that is offensive, spammy or adds no value to the users on the platform, considering the purpose of the services to predominantly provide information in respect of load shedding and related matters. 
• Advertising: Advertising and other paid promotional material should not exceed your independant, editorial content. We do not allow content that conceals or misrepresents sponsored content as independent, editorial content. Sponsorship, including, but not limited to, ownership or affiliate interest, payment, or material support, should be disclosed to users. The subject of sponsored content should not focus on the sponsor without clear disclosure.
• Personal or confidential Information: you may not add or share any personal or confidential information of third parties without their express consent. 
• Intellectual Property: you may not infringe anyone’s intellectual property rights and must respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. 
• Adult content: you may not share content that features sexual imagery. ESP is not a platform for adult content.
• Violent and other hateful content: you may not share content that incites or glorifies violence, any hateful or harassing activity, including based on any of the discrimination grounds set out in our Constitution or presents a threat to another person or group of persons.

Although we do not have any obligation to monitor user content, we have the right to do so and any meaningless or offensive content as determined in our sole discretion, may be taken down without notice and the user account may be terminated immediately and without notice. 

Law and Jurisdiction

These terms and all obligations connected to them or arising from them will be governed and interpreted in terms of the laws of the Republic of South Africa. All users submit to the jurisdiction of the South African courts. 

Contact Us

If you have any questions or suggestions about our terms & Privacy Policy, please contact us at legal@esp.info.