Terms & Conditions

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

Karma Inc. ("karma", "we", "us"), a company incorporated in Delaware, USA, operates the website at www.karma-app.com (the "Site") and the karma mobile application (the "App"), together the "Services". By using the Site, joining our waitlist, or creating an account and using the App, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Services.

US mailing address: Karma Inc., 1272 S Governors Ave, Unit #2036, Dover, DE 19904, United States.

UK office: Karma US-UK Ltd, Workspace, Barley Mow Centre, Chiswick, London W4 4PH, United Kingdom.

How we handle your data is described in our Privacy Policy. Section 27 of these terms summarises what other users can see about you; the Privacy Policy is the fuller and governing description of how we collect, use, store, and share your information.

2. Eligibility and your account

• You must be at least 18 years old to use the Services.
• You may create only one account, for yourself, with accurate information, and you must keep it up to date. You may not impersonate anyone or let anyone else use your account.
• We ask users to verify their identity before connecting with others. You agree to complete verification honestly; accounts that fail or refuse verification may have limited access.
• Verification works in levels. Every account completes a basic check (phone or email, and a selfie liveness check). Some categories of help, and some partner activities, require a higher level of verification using a government-issued ID through a specialist third-party provider. You can choose to complete the higher level at any time; until you do, some requests and some helping opportunities will not be available to you.
• We may use the checks above, or other signals, to confirm that you are over 18, and we may ask you to verify your age again at any point.
• You are responsible for keeping your sign-in credentials secure and for all activity on your account. Tell us immediately at support@karma-app.com if you suspect unauthorised use.
• Joining the waitlist is free and does not create an account or any entitlement to access the App at launch or at any particular time. We may operate early access in stages, by region or otherwise, at our discretion.

3. What karma is, and what it is not

karma is a platform that connects people who need everyday help with nearby people willing to give it. We provide the introduction; we do not provide, supervise, or guarantee the help itself. In particular:

• Users are independent individuals acting voluntarily. No employment, agency, partnership, or contractor relationship is created between karma and any user, or between users, by using the App. karma is not an employment agency, an employment business, a staffing service, or a care provider.
• Help arranged through karma is a favour between users, and the App is free to use, with no payments, fees, or tips processed through it. karma points recognise kindness; they are not payment.
• You must not ask for, offer, or accept money or anything of value in exchange for help arranged through karma, whether inside the App or outside it.
• Identity verification confirms that a profile matches a government ID. It is not a background check and is not a guarantee of anyone's character, skills, or safety.
• Not every user has completed government-ID verification. Badges in the App show which level of verification a user has completed, and no badge at any level is a safety rating, a vetting decision, or an endorsement by us.
• Match suggestions (including AI-generated ones) are suggestions only. You alone decide whether to connect with, meet, or help another user.

4. How a karma request works

These terms refer throughout to the steps below, so it helps to set them out in one place. The flow may change as the App develops.

• You describe what you need in your own words. Our systems turn that into a short summary and a category, and you confirm it before anything is posted.
• Your request is posted, and people are notified. It appears on the board and in the feed, where other users can see it and offer to help. At the same time, the matching system picks likely helpers and notifies them directly. If nobody responds, it widens the search in stages.
• Your name and profile photo appear with your request, both in the notification and wherever it is shown in the App. Your address, exact location, and contact details are not shown at this stage.
• The first person to accept gets the match. Because only one person can be matched, a request can become unavailable within seconds. If you tap one that has already been taken, you'll be told it's no longer available — this is normal and is not an error.
• A private 1:1 chat opens between the two of you. This is the point at which the more detailed information needed to give the help — such as your address or exactly where to meet — is shared, by you, in the chat.
• The help happens between you. When it's done, the person who asked confirms it in the App, a karma point is awarded to the helper, and both people can leave feedback.

5. Meeting people and staying safe

karma brings people together in the real world, and you use it knowing that we do not control and are not responsible for the conduct of any user, online or offline. Use your own judgment: meet in public places when you can, tell someone where you're going, and don't share sensitive personal or financial information with people you've just met. If a situation feels wrong, leave. If there is an emergency, contact local emergency services first, then report the user to us. The App includes tools to report and block any user; we review reports and may investigate, restrict, suspend, or ban accounts, and cooperate with law enforcement where appropriate.

Think about what you put in a request. Requests are visible to other users alongside your name and photo, so don't include your home address, contact details, financial information, health details, or anything that signals that you are alone or vulnerable at a particular time or place. Share what a helper needs to know in the chat, after you've accepted them, rather than in the request itself.

The App also includes an emergency button inside chat. Using it immediately freezes the conversation and flags it to our team for review. It is a way to stop a conversation and alert us; it is not a link to emergency services and does not summon help. In an emergency, always contact local emergency services first.

karma is not a crisis service, a medical service, or a mental health service. If a request appears to involve a crisis, self-harm, abuse, or similar, we may decline to match it and instead show information about professional services. That is not a judgement about you, and it does not replace professional or emergency help.

6. Your content

You keep ownership of the content you post on the Services: requests, offers, profile details, photos, and messages ("User Content"). You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, and adapt your User Content as needed to operate, moderate, promote your requests within, and improve the Services, ending when your content or account is deleted (except where retained for safety or legal reasons as described in the Privacy Policy).

To be clear about what "promote your requests within the Services" means in practice: it allows us to show your request, together with your name and profile photo, to other users of the App — on the board, in the feed, and in notifications sent to people the matching system selects — so that someone can offer to help. It also allows us to feature requests more prominently where that helps them get answered.

It does not allow us to publish your request outside the App, to sell it, or to show your address, exact location, or contact details alongside it.

Completed help is celebrated in the feed. When help is completed, we may show it in the feed as a completed moment, including the names and profile photos of the people involved and what the help was. This happens automatically and is part of how the App works. If you would rather a particular moment was not shown, tell us at support@karma-app.com and we will remove it.

You are responsible for your User Content. It must be yours to post, accurate, and lawful. We may remove or refuse any User Content that breaks these terms or puts anyone at risk, and we may review content that is reported to us.

7. Chat, messages, and moderation

A private 1:1 chat opens when a match is confirmed, and it exists for arranging and giving that help. So that you know exactly how it works:

• Messages are checked automatically as you send them. Before a message is delivered, our systems check it against a set of patterns — for example contact details, addresses, and prohibited language. If a message matches, it is blocked before it is sent and you'll be asked to edit it. This is automatic and applies to everyone.
• We may review chat content where it is reported, where the emergency button is used, or where our systems flag a safety concern. We do not read chats routinely for any other purpose.
• Chats change state. A chat may be locked (read-only) after feedback is given, frozen after an emergency report or a block, or removed if the helper cancels. Frozen and locked chats are retained for safety and legal reasons for the periods set out in our Privacy Policy, even where they are no longer visible to you.
• Don't use chat to work around these terms — for example by moving a conversation off the App in order to avoid its safety features, or to arrange payment.
• Chat is text-only at this stage. Don't rely on it as a record you control; keep your own copy of anything you need.

8. Feedback and ratings

• After help is completed, both people can leave feedback. Feedback should be honest, specific to the help given or received, and free of abuse or personal attacks.
• Negative feedback is never shown to the person it is about. It goes to us. It may affect that person's standing, how often they are matched, or whether we investigate their account.
• Feedback and ratings are used to rank and select candidates for future matches. They influence who is offered what, and we do not guarantee any level of matching, any number of matches, or any particular ranking.
• Giving neutral or negative feedback may close the chat. That is intentional.
• Deliberately false feedback, retaliatory feedback, or attempts to pressure someone into changing theirs are breaches of these terms.

9. Cancelling, no-shows, and requests that expire

Plans change, and cancelling is allowed. What it affects depends on when it happens.

• Before a match: you can cancel a request at any time with no consequence.
• Shortly after a match: if the person who asked cancels within the short grace period shown in the App, the request simply closes and no karma point is awarded.
• After the grace period, or close to a scheduled time: a karma point may still be awarded to the helper as a goodwill acknowledgement of their willingness. This is a discretionary award recognising kindness. It is not a fee, and it is not compensation for time, cost, or lost opportunity.
• If a helper cancels: no karma point is awarded, the chat is removed, and the request may be sent out again to other people. The person who asked is told only that the helper is no longer available.
• If nothing happens: a match may expire, and an open request may close automatically after the period shown in the App. A request that closes automatically may still result in a karma point being awarded.
• Repeated cancellations, no-shows, or unresponsive behaviour may reduce how often you are matched, and may lead to restriction or suspension.

10. karma points

karma points recognise kindness. They are a feature of the App, not money, and this section says exactly what that means.

• Points are earned when help is confirmed as completed, and in the limited goodwill situations described in section 9. We decide how many points any action earns and can change that at any time.
• Points are a revocable, personal, non-transferable licence to ask for rewards we make available. The only way to move points to someone else is the in-App sharing feature described in section 11.
• We may adjust, reverse, withhold, or cancel points — including points already earned — to correct an error, to reverse something obtained in breach of these terms, or where required by law. Where we do this we keep a record of it.
• Points do not expire. They remain on your account for as long as your account is open, unless they are adjusted, reversed, or forfeited as described in this section.
• Points are forfeited, without compensation, if you manipulate or attempt to manipulate how they are earned — including fake or duplicated accounts, arranged or reciprocal "help" between people who did not genuinely need or give it, fabricated requests, or automated or scripted activity.
• Points are forfeited on suspension, termination, or deletion of your account, and are not refunded, transferred, or paid out in any form.
• We may change or end the karma points programme, or change what points can be used for, at any time. Where the change is significant and we can reasonably do so, we'll give notice and a period in which to use existing points.
• Nothing in this section affects a consumer's non-excludable statutory rights.

11. Rewards, redemption, and sharing points

karma points can be used with the brands and causes we partner with, and can be passed on to other people.

• Rewards come from third parties. Brands, retailers, and NGOs provide the rewards and set their own terms, which you accept when you redeem. Those terms also set out what information we pass to them so they can provide that reward — see section 27. We are not the supplier of any reward and we don't guarantee any reward's availability, quality, or continued existence.
• Availability is limited. Rewards have caps. A reward you can see may be taken by someone else before you confirm, in which case we'll tell you it's no longer available. Nothing you see in the App is an offer capable of acceptance until we confirm the redemption.
• Points spent are not refundable. Once a redemption is confirmed, the points are gone. If a reward genuinely cannot be fulfilled, we may at our discretion return the points or offer an alternative; that is a goodwill remedy, and your statutory rights against the supplier are unaffected.
• Codes and vouchers are single-use, personal to you, and non-transferable unless the reward says otherwise. They may carry their own expiry dates and conditions set by the brand.
• Fulfilment can take time. Some rewards are delivered instantly and some are processed by a partner. We'll show the status in the App.
• Sharing points with another user or a listed cause is a gift. It is voluntary, final, and cannot be reversed once confirmed. It is not a charitable donation by you for tax purposes and no tax receipt is issued. You cannot share points with anyone you have blocked or who has blocked you.
• Rewards vary by country and may change or be withdrawn. A reward available in one place may not be available in another.

12. Tribes

Tribes let you follow a brand, NGO, or public figure and receive what they send out — campaigns, calls for volunteers, and opportunities to help.

• Subscribing is free and you can unsubscribe at any time.
• Tribe content belongs to the organisation that publishes it, not to us. We review what is published, but reviewing is not endorsing. Any claim, offer, or opportunity in tribe content is the publisher's, and any dealings you have with them are between you and them.
• Some tribe opportunities have their own eligibility requirements — age, verification level, background checks, or similar — set by the organisation. Meeting them is a condition of taking part.
• Subscribing means you'll receive that tribe's notifications. Section 13 explains how to control notifications generally.

13. Notifications

• Notifications are how karma works. Matching relies on sending timely notifications to people who might help, and turning them off will mean you are rarely or never offered matches.
• Notifications about a request include the name and profile photo of the person who posted it, along with what they need and roughly how far away they are. They do not include an address, exact location, or contact details.
• Notifications are best-effort. They depend on your device, your network, your operating system, and third-party services. They can be delayed, duplicated, or not arrive at all, and a notification you do receive may already be out of date. Don't rely on a notification as a record of anything — the App is always the current position.
• Service and safety notifications are part of the Services and are not marketing. You can control marketing messages separately, in the App or by using the unsubscribe link.

14. Automated decisions and AI

Parts of the Services are automated. We think you should know where.

• We use AI to read what you write, summarise it, categorise it, and assess whether it is suitable for the App. You see and confirm the summary before anything is sent.
• An automated ranking decides who is offered the chance to help with a request, and in what order. Being ranked lower, or not being offered a match, is not a judgement about you as a person.
• Some requests are held for human review or declined automatically — for example those in categories we don't support, or those that appear to involve risk of harm.
• These systems can be wrong. If a request of yours is declined or held and you think that's a mistake, email support@karma-app.com and a person will look at it.
• AI output is not advice. It doesn't replace professional judgement of any kind.

15. Community rules

karma works because people use it in good faith. You agree not to:

• harass, threaten, deceive, discriminate against, or harm anyone, or use the App to arrange anything unlawful or dangerous;
• use karma for dating or sexual purposes, commercial solicitation, advertising, recruiting, political campaigning, or spam;
• request or offer help involving anyone under 18 without a parent or guardian present, or allow anyone under 18 to use your account;
• post content that is illegal, hateful, sexually explicit, violent, or that infringes anyone's rights (including privacy and intellectual property);
• manipulate karma points, create fake accounts or requests, or misrepresent your identity, skills, or intentions;
• ask for, offer, or accept payment or anything of value for help arranged through karma, or use the App to advertise a business or paid service;
• use any bot, script, automation, or modified client to accept matches, respond to notifications, or interact with the Services;
• collect, copy, compile, publish, or re-share other users' profiles, photos, requests, or messages outside the App, or use what you see in the App to find, track, contact, or profile someone away from it;
• share, screenshot, or publish another person's private messages, identity, photo, or request without their consent;
• misuse the Services technically, including attempting unauthorised access, interfering with their operation, scraping at scale, reverse engineering the App except as the law allows, or using the Services to build a competing product.

16. The App, updates, and app stores

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to install and use the App on devices you own or control, for your personal, non-commercial use, in accordance with these terms and the rules of the app store you downloaded it from. The App may update automatically; some updates may be required for continued use. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the Services (or any feature, including the waitlist) at any time.

If you downloaded the App from Apple's App Store: these terms are between you and Karma Inc., not Apple. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the App and is not responsible for it, for any product claims, or for addressing claims relating to the App (including product liability, legal compliance, or consumer protection claims). If the App fails to conform to an applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price (if any); Apple has no other warranty obligation. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you. You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a US government embargo and are not on any US government restricted-party list.

17. Suspension, termination, and appeals

You can stop using the Services at any time and can delete your account in the App (Profile → Personal details → Delete account), or request deletion from our Delete account page if you no longer have the App. We may suspend or terminate your access, or remove content if we reasonably believe you have breached these terms, put another user at risk, or exposed us to legal liability; where fair and lawful to do so we will tell you why. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including sections 6, 10, 11 and 18–27) survive it.

Depending on what we find, we may warn you, limit features, hide content, restrict matching, suspend your account, or close it permanently. We aim to act proportionately, and to act faster where someone's safety is at stake.

If you think we've got it wrong, you can appeal. Email support@karma-app.com with your account details and what happened, and a person will review the decision. We aim to respond within a reasonable period and will tell you the outcome. Appealing does not stop us acting in the meantime where safety requires it.

Unused karma points are forfeited when an account is suspended or closed, as set out in section 10.

18. Intellectual property

The Services and everything in them, including the karma name, logo, ribbon motif, "do good, feel great, repeat", software, text, graphics, screenshots, and design, belong to us or our licensors and are protected by intellectual property laws. Apart from your User Content and the App licence above, nothing in these terms grants you any licence to our intellectual property. If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them without restriction or obligation to you.

If you believe content on the Services infringes your copyright, tell us at support@karma-app.com with enough detail to identify the work, where the content is, and your contact details, together with a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is unauthorised and that the information is accurate. We remove infringing content and may close the accounts of repeat infringers.

19. Third-party services and links

The Services rely on third-party services (such as app stores, push notification services, identity verification, and AI providers) and may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for third parties' content or practices; your use of them is at your own risk and subject to their own terms.

20. Disclaimers

The Services are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or uninterrupted availability. Content on the Site, including descriptions of features, statistics, partnerships, and imagery, is provided for information only and may change without notice. We make no warranty about any user, any User Content, the outcome of any match, or any help given or received through the Services.

21. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Karma Inc. will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or any loss of profits, data or goodwill, arising out of your use of the Services or reliance on their content. To the same extent, we are not liable for the acts or omissions of any user, including anything that happens during or after an in-person meeting arranged through the App. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Services is limited to $100 USD.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or limitation of certain liabilities, so some of the above may not apply to you. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded by law, including for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud. If you are a consumer, these terms do not affect your statutory rights.

22. Indemnity

If you are not a consumer, you agree to indemnify Karma Inc. against claims, losses, and reasonable costs arising from your User Content, your breach of these terms, or your misuse of the Services. If you are a consumer, this applies only to the extent permitted by the law of the country or state where you live.

23. General

• Severability. If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect, and the unenforceable part is replaced with a valid one that comes closest to its intent.
• Entire agreement. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us about the Services.
• Assignment. You may not transfer your rights under these terms; we may assign ours as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• No waiver. If we don't enforce a provision, that isn't a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Notices. We may notify you via the App, the email on your account, or the Site.
• Events outside our control. We are not liable for failure or delay caused by something beyond our reasonable control, including outages at the third-party services the App depends on.
• Third-party rights. Nobody other than you and us can enforce these terms, except Apple as described in section 16.

24. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The current version will always be posted here with its date. For material changes we will give you reasonable advance notice in the App or by email; continued use of the Services after changes take effect means you accept the updated terms. If you don't accept them, stop using the Services and delete your account.

25. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, and the state and federal courts located in Delaware have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute relating to the Services, except that if you are a consumer, you keep the benefit of any mandatory protections and forum rights of the country or state where you live.

26. Contact

US mailing address: Karma Inc., 1272 S Governors Ave, Unit #2036, Dover, DE 19904, United States.

UK office: Karma US-UK Ltd, Workspace, Barley Mow Centre, Chiswick, London W4 4PH, United Kingdom.

Email: support@karma-app.com

27. Extra: what other people can see about you

This section is a plain summary of how your personal information appears to other users inside the App, and to the brands, NGOs, and public figures whose content you interact with. It sits here because it's the question people ask most often. It is a summary only — our Privacy Policy is the full and governing description of what we collect, why, how long we keep it, who we share it with, and what rights you have.

• Your help request Visible to other users of the App, on the board, in the feed, and in notifications. Shown with your name, your profile photo, what you need, and roughly how far away you are. Write it on the basis that other users will read it.
• When someone accepts A private chat opens between the two of you. This is where the practical detail is shared — where to meet, your address if the help needs it, how to reach you. You choose what to share and when.
• Your profile photo Shown with your requests, with your profile, and in completed help moments in the feed. It is not published on the public web, and we remove location data embedded in photos when you upload them.
• Your location Used to find people near you and to work out distances. Other users see an approximate area or a distance band. Your exact position and your address are not shown with your request — they are shared by you, in the chat, after you've accepted someone.
• In the feed Completed help appears as a moment in the feed, showing the names and photos of the people involved and what the help was. This happens automatically. Email us if you'd rather a particular moment wasn't shown and we'll remove it.
• Feedback you give Never shown to the person it's about, and never attributed to you publicly.
• When you interact with a brand's or an NGO's content Tapping into an event, answering a poll, or responding to a moment is recorded, but the organisation does not see who you are. They receive counts and totals only — how many people responded, how a poll broke down — with no names, photos, or profiles attached. Your interactions are used inside the App to personalise what you're shown.
• When you redeem an offer We share only what the brand or NGO needs in order to provide that particular reward. What that is depends on the reward — some need nothing beyond a redemption reference, others need a name or an email address to issue or honour it. Each offer's own terms, shown before you confirm, set out what is shared for that reward. We don't share your requests, messages, location, or karma balance.
• When you share karma points If you share with another person, they can see that it came from you, along with your name and profile photo. If you share with a cause, the organisation does not receive your name, photo, or any other personal information — your share is counted towards their total only.
• Tribes you join The brand, NGO, or public figure running a tribe does not see who its members are. They see how many members they have and how many people responded to what they sent, with no names, photos, or profiles attached. Joining a tribe means you receive what they publish; it doesn't hand them your details.
• Finding people you know If you choose to let karma find people you know, we take the phone numbers in your contacts, scramble them on your device into one-way codes, and compare those codes against karma users to see who is already here. We do not store your contacts or their phone numbers, the codes are discarded as soon as the comparison is done, and we don't contact anyone in your address book. This is entirely optional and you can turn it off at any time. The Privacy Policy explains how the codes are protected.
• Never shown to other users Your email address, phone number, date of birth, ID documents or verification images, exact home location and address, payment or bank details, karma balance, and who you have blocked. Your address and contact details are only ever shared by you, in a chat, after you've accepted someone's help.
• People you block Blocking is one-directional and quiet. The other person is not told. They will not be matched with you again or be able to message you.
• After you delete your account Your profile stops being visible to other users and your requests are taken out of public view. Some records are kept in anonymised form, including your completed help history, our record of karma awarded and spent, and anything we're required to keep for safety or legal reasons. The Privacy Policy sets out what is kept and for how long.

If something here doesn't match what you're seeing in the App, or you want to know what we hold about you, email support@karma-app.com.