Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of terms

By accessing or using GlobeIQ (the "Service") at globeiq.app, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use the Service. These terms apply to all visitors, users, and others who access the Service, whether as guests or signed-in account holders.

2. What GlobeIQ is

GlobeIQ is a free, browser-based geography game. Users identify countries from progressive hints and build a personal "atlas" of countries they've correctly guessed. The Service is provided for educational and entertainment purposes. We may add, modify, or remove features at any time without prior notice.

3. Accounts

You may use GlobeIQ as a guest without signing in. Optional accounts (via Google or email magic-link) allow your atlas and streak to sync across devices. You are responsible for maintaining the security of any third-party account (such as your Google account) used to access the Service. We do not store passwords directly; authentication is handled by our identity provider.

You agree to provide accurate information when signing up and to be responsible for all activity that occurs under your account. We reserve the right to terminate or suspend accounts that violate these terms or that we reasonably believe are being used abusively.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use automated tools, bots, or scrapers to interact with the Service in a way that imposes an unreasonable load on our infrastructure.
• Attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, or otherwise extract source code of the Service beyond what is publicly served to your browser.
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service or any related system without our prior written consent.
• Use the Service to violate any applicable law, regulation, or third-party right.
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers connected to the Service.

5. Intellectual property

All content on the Service — including the game design, hint progression, country facts compiled by us, illustrations, written explanations, and the GlobeIQ name and logo — is owned by GlobeIQ or its licensors. You are granted a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for personal, non-commercial purposes only. You may not reproduce, redistribute, or create derivative works from any part of the Service without prior written permission.

Country flag images and certain geographic data are sourced from public domain and openly-licensed datasets (including REST Countries and FlagCDN) and remain subject to their respective licenses.

6. Third-party services

GlobeIQ uses third-party services including Google Analytics, Google AdSense, Supabase (authentication and database), and Vercel (hosting). Your use of GlobeIQ may be subject to those providers' own terms and privacy policies. We do not control and are not responsible for the practices of those third parties. See our Privacy Policy for details on what data is collected.

7. Advertising

GlobeIQ displays advertisements served by Google AdSense and possibly other ad networks. We do not endorse advertised products or services. Clicking on an advertisement may take you to a third-party site whose content and practices are outside our control.

8. No warranty

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, or that the country information presented is complete or free of inaccuracies. Geographic and political facts change over time, and while we strive to keep data current, you should not rely on GlobeIQ as an authoritative reference for academic, legal, or commercial purposes.

9. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, GlobeIQ and its operators shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including loss of data, loss of profit, or loss of goodwill, arising out of or in connection with your use of the Service.

10. Changes to these terms

We may revise these Terms of Service from time to time. When we do, we'll update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the Service after the changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the revised terms.

11. Contact

Questions about these terms can be sent through our contact page.