Terms of use
These terms are the agreement between you and Kareem Jandali (the developer of Busted) ("we", "us") for using the Busted app. Please read them. By creating an account, you agree to them.
1. You must be 18 or older
Busted is only for adults. You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority where you live, if that's older) to use it. When you sign up you confirm you meet this age. We'll close any account we believe belongs to someone under 18.
2. What Busted is
Busted is a private app for friends who want to stay off porn together. You can be in up to 10 chats, with up to 20 people in each. Your streak counts the days since your last visit to a known porn site (or since you set Busted up). If Busted is off, or your phone doesn't check in, for more than 30 minutes, the app asks you why and whether you slipped; your chats see your answer. If you say you slipped, or don't answer within 24 hours, the streak starts again too. Time your phone was dead or restarting doesn't count. If Busted spots a visit to a known porn site on your own iPhone while it's on, the Busted bot posts a plain message in every chat you're in. Your friends (everyone you share a chat with) can see your streak, clean days and visits on the leaderboard. Each chat gets a morning report at 10 AM about the day before, and a weekly recap. You can confess a visit Busted missed or dispute a day with a detected visit, from today and the 5 days before (time with Busted off can't be disputed: you answer for it yourself). The friends you shared a chat with when it happened vote Guilty or Not guilty for 24 hours, and everyone in the chat can see who voted which way. If more than half of them vote guilty, the visit stands; otherwise it's removed and your streak is back. People can chat, share photos, GIFs and links, tag each other and react with emoji.
Detection is based on a list of known adult sites. It isn't perfect: it can miss sites, and it can occasionally flag something you didn't mean to visit (an ad or a link preview, for example). That's why disputes exist. Treat every alert as a heads-up between friends, not as proof of anything.
3. Your consent and your own phone
- You may only turn Busted on for your own iPhone, after reading and agreeing to the consent screen. Never install or turn on Busted on someone else's device, or try to monitor another person with it. That's a serious breach of these terms and may be illegal.
- You understand that your friends will see your alerts, streak, visits and reports, and that your chats will be told when you pause Busted, switch it off, or when your phone stops checking in. If you turn on the optional porn blocker, your friends will also see that it's on, each time it stops a site, and when you turn it off.
- You can pause Busted, turn it off, leave any chat or delete your account at any time. Our privacy policy explains what happens to your data.
4. Your account
You sign in with Apple. Keep your Apple ID secure; you're responsible for what happens on your account. Pick a display name that follows the chat rules below. Don't impersonate anyone or create accounts for other people.
5. Chats are private
Chats are invite-only. Only the people in a chat can see what happens in it. Treat what you see in Busted as private: don't screenshot, copy or share other people's alerts, streaks, names, reports or messages outside Busted without their permission. Don't share a chat's invite code with people the chat hasn't agreed to let in.
6. Chat rules
Busted is meant to be supportive and a bit of fun between friends. Be kind when someone slips. You must not use Busted to:
- harass, bully, threaten, intimidate or shame anyone;
- post hate speech, slurs, or attack anyone for their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or any other protected trait;
- post nude or sexual photos or other sexual content, share intimate images of anyone, or share explicit material or links to it (links to listed adult sites can't be sent or opened in Busted);
- post anything involving minors in a sexual way. We report this to the authorities;
- share anyone's private information, or pressure anyone to join, stay in a chat or keep Busted on;
- spam, scam, or promote anything;
- break the law, or encourage anyone else to;
- interfere with the app or our servers, or try to access data that isn't yours.
We filter names for slurs and offensive words, links to adult sites can't be sent, and pictures are checked for nudity on your phone, but no filter catches everything. You're responsible for what you post.
7. Reports, moderation and removal
You can report a message, a bot message or a person in the app, and you can block anyone in your chats. Blocking hides their messages and bot posts about them for you. We aim to review reports within 24 hours.
If someone breaks these terms, we may remove content, remove them from a chat, suspend or delete their account, and report illegal content to the authorities. Chat admins can also remove people from their chat. We decide what action to take; we'll act fairly but we don't have to give advance notice when safety is at risk.
8. No money, no gambling
Busted has no money in it. Streaks, badges and leaderboard positions have no cash value and can't be bought, sold, traded or redeemed. Don't use Busted for betting, wagers, prizes or any form of gambling, including side bets settled outside the app.
9. Not therapy or medical help
Busted is a social app for friends. It isn't therapy, counselling, medical treatment or a substitute for professional help, and it isn't designed to diagnose or treat any condition. If you're struggling with your mental health, compulsive behaviour or anything else, please talk to a doctor, a counsellor or a support service. If you're in crisis or at risk of harm, call your local emergency number (911 in Canada and the US) or, in Canada, call or text 9-8-8.
10. Your content
You own what you post (messages, photos, names, confessions). You give us a limited permission to store, resize, check and show it to the people in your chats, only so we can run Busted. This permission ends when the content is deleted, except where we must keep something by law. GIFs come from GIPHY and are subject to GIPHY's terms.
11. Our app
The Busted app, name and logo belong to us or our licensors. You may use the app for your own personal, non-commercial use under these terms and Apple's App Store terms. Open-source parts of the app are licensed under their own licences, listed in the app's Acknowledgements.
12. Ending your use
You can stop using Busted at any time and delete your account in the app (Me → Delete account). We may suspend or close your account if you break these terms, if the law requires it, or if we stop offering Busted. If we shut Busted down, we'll give reasonable notice where we can and delete user data as described in the privacy policy.
13. No guarantees
We work hard to make Busted reliable, but we provide it "as is" and "as available". To the extent the law allows, we don't promise that it will always work, detect every site, avoid every false alert, or be free of errors or interruptions. Busted doesn't block any website unless you turn on the optional porn blocker. The porn blocker is a best-effort tool: it only stops sites on Busted's list, it won't stop everything, and it may occasionally stop a site that isn't adult. Don't rely on it as your only protection, or to protect anyone else.
14. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, Kareem Jandali (the developer of Busted) and its people are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, reputation, relationships or goodwill, arising from your use of Busted or from anything other members post or do. Our total liability for any claim about Busted is limited to CAD $100. Some places don't allow these limits, so they may not all apply to you. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under consumer protection laws that can't be waived.
15. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. Any dispute will be handled by the courts of Ontario, unless the consumer laws where you live give you the right to go to your local courts.
16. Changes
We may update these terms. We'll change the date at the top, and if the change is important we'll tell you in the app before it applies. If you keep using Busted after that, you accept the new terms. If you don't agree, you can delete your account.
17. Contact
Questions about these terms: bustedapp.help@gmail.com
Kareem Jandali (the developer of Busted), Ontario, Canada