Terms of Service

Definitions

1. Parties

   “You” and “your” refer to you, as a user of the Site. A “user” is someone who accesses, browses, crawls, scrapes, or in any way uses the Site. “We,” “us,” and “our” refer to ZimPlaza.

2. Content

   “Content” means text, images, photos, audio, video, location data, and all other forms of data or communication. “Your Content” means Content that you submit or transmit to, through, or in connection with the Site, such as ratings, reviews, compliments, invitations, check-ins, messages, and information that you publicly display or displayed in your account profile. “User Content” means Content that users submit or transmit to, through, or in connection with the Site. “ZimPlaza Content” means Content that we create and make available in connection with the Site. “Third Party Content” means Content that originates from parties other than ZimPlaza or its users, which is made available in connection with the Site. “Site Content” means all of the Content that is made available in connection with the Site, including Your Content, User Content, Third Party Content, and ZimPlaza Content.

Changes to the Terms of Service

Translation

Using the Site

1. Eligibility

   To access or use the Site, you must be 18 years or older and have the requisite power and authority to enter into these Terms. You may not access or use the Site if you are a competitor of ours or if we have previously banned you from the Site or closed your account.

2. Permission to Use the Site

   We grant you permission to use the Site subject to the restrictions in these Terms. Your use of the Site is at your own risk, including the risk that you might be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent, inaccurate, objectionable, or otherwise inappropriate.

3. Site Availability

   The Site may be modified, updated, interrupted, suspended or discontinued at any time without notice or liability.

4. User Accounts

   You must create an account and provide certain information about yourself in order to use some of the features that are offered through the Site. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account password. You are also responsible for all activities that occur in connection with your account. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account. We reserve the right to close your account at any time for any or no reason. Your account is for your personal, non-commercial use only. In creating it, we ask that you provide complete and accurate information about yourself to bolster your credibility as a contributor to the Site. You may not impersonate someone else (e.g., adopt the identity of a celebrity or your next-door neighbor), create or use an account for anyone other than yourself, provide an email address other than your own, or create multiple accounts. If you use a pseudonym, take care to note that others may still be able to identify you if, for example, you include identifying information in your reviews, use the same account information on other sites, or allow other sites to share information about you with ZimPlaza. Please read our Privacy Policy for more information.

5. Communications from ZimPlaza and other Users

   By creating an account, you agree to receive certain communications in connection with the Site. For example, you might receive compliments or friend requests from other Users. You may also receive our weekly e-mail newsletter about happenings in your neighborhood. You can opt-out of non-essential communications.

Content

1. Responsibility for Your Content

   You alone are responsible for Your Content, and once published, it cannot always be withdrawn. You assume all risks associated with Your Content, including anyone’s reliance on its quality, accuracy, or reliability, or any disclosure by you of information in Your Content that makes you personally identifiable. You represent that you own, or have the necessary permissions to use and authorize the use of Your Content as described herein. You may not imply that Your Content is in any way sponsored or endorsed by ZimPlaza. You may expose yourself to liability if, for example, Your Content contains material that is false, intentionally misleading, or defamatory; violates any third-party right, including any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right; contains material that is unlawful, including illegal hate speech or pornography; exploits or otherwise harms minors; or violates or advocates the violation of any law or regulation.

2. Our Right to Use Your Content

   We may use Your Content in a number of different ways, including publicly displaying it, reformatting it, incorporating it into advertisements and other works, creating derivative works from it, promoting it, distributing it, and allowing others to do the same in connection with their own websites and media platforms (“Other Media”). As such, you hereby irrevocably grant us world-wide, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, assignable, sublicensable, transferable rights to use Your Content for any purpose. Please note that you also irrevocably grant the users of the Site and any Other Media the right to access Your Content in connection with their use of the Site and any Other Media. Finally, you irrevocably waive, and cause to be waived, against ZimPlaza and its users any claims and assertions of moral rights or attribution with respect to Your Content. By “use” we mean use, copy, publicly perform and display, reproduce, distribute, modify, translate, remove, analyze, commercialize, and prepare derivative works of Your Content.

3. Ownership

   As between you and ZimPlaza, you own Your Content. We own the ZimPlaza Content, including but not limited to visual interfaces, interactive features, graphics, design, compilation, including, but not limited to, our compilation of User Content and other Site Content, computer code, products, software, aggregate user review ratings, and all other elements and components of the Site excluding Your Content, User Content and Third Party Content. We also own the copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade names, and other intellectual and proprietary rights throughout the world (“IP Rights”) associated with the ZimPlaza Content and the Site, which are protected by copyright, trade dress, patent, trademark laws and all other applicable intellectual and proprietary rights and laws. As such, you may not modify, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works or adaptations of, publicly display or in any way exploit any of the ZimPlaza Content in whole or in part except as expressly authorized by us. Except as expressly and unambiguously provided herein, we do not grant you any express or implied rights, and all rights in and to the Site and the ZimPlaza Content are retained by us.

4. Advertising

   ZimPlaza and its licensees may publicly display advertisements and other information adjacent to or included with Your Content. You are not entitled to any compensation for such advertisements. The manner, mode and extent of such advertising are subject to change without specific notice to you.

5. Content Feeds

   We make some of the Site Content (“Feed Content”) available via Real Simple Syndication and Atom feeds (“Feeds”). You may access and use the Feeds in order to display Feed Content on your personal computer, website, or blog (“Your Site”), provided that (i) your use of the Feeds is for personal, non-commercial purposes only, (ii) your display of the Feed Content links back to the relevant pages on ZimPlaza’s websites, and attributes ZimPlaza as the source of the Feed Content, (iii) your use or display of the Feed Content does not suggest that ZimPlaza promotes or endorses any third party causes, ideas, websites, products or services, including Your Site, (iv) you do not redistribute the Feed Content, and (v) your use of the Feeds does not overburden ZimPlaza’s systems. ZimPlaza reserves all rights in the Feed Content and may terminate the Feeds at any time.

6. Other

   User Content (including any that may have been created by users employed or contracted by ZimPlaza) does not necessarily reflect the opinion of ZimPlaza. We reserve the right to remove, screen, edit, or reinstate User Content from time to time at our sole discretion for any reason or no reason, and without notice to you. For example, we may remove a review if we believe it violates our Content Guidelines. We have no obligation to retain or provide you with copies of Your Content, nor do we guarantee any confidentiality with respect to Your Content.

Restrictions

1. You agree not to, and will not assist, encourage, or enable others to use the Site to:

   1. Violate our Content Guidelines, for example, by writing a fake or defamatory review, trading reviews with other businesses, or compensating someone or being compensated to write or remove a review;
   2. Violate any third party’s rights, including any breach of confidence, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right;
   3. Threaten, stalk, harm, or harass others, or promote bigotry or discrimination;
   4. Promote a business or other commercial venture or event, or otherwise use the Site for commercial purposes, except in connection with a Business Account and as expressly permitted by ZimPlaza;
   5. Send bulk emails, surveys, or other mass messaging, whether commercial in nature or not; engage in keyword spamming, or otherwise attempt to manipulate the Site’s search results or any third party website;
   6. Solicit personal information from minors, or submit or transmit pornography; or
   7. Violate any applicable law.

2. You also agree not to, and will not assist, encourage, or enable others to:

   1. Violate the Terms;
   2. Modify, adapt, appropriate, reproduce, distribute, translate, create derivative works or adaptations of, publicly display, sell, trade, or in any way exploit the Site or Site Content (other than Your Content), except as expressly authorized by ZimPlaza;
   3. Use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application, or other automated device, process or means to access, retrieve, scrape, or index any portion of the Site or any Site Content;
   4. Reverse engineer any portion of the Site;
   5. Remove or modify any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notice that appears on any portion of the Site or on any materials printed or copied from the Site;
   6. Record, process, or mine information about other users;
   7. Access, retrieve or index any portion of the Site for purposes of constructing or populating a searchable database of business reviews;
   8. Reformat or frame any portion of the Site;
   9. Take any action that imposes, or may impose, in our sole discretion, an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on ZimPlaza’s technology infrastructure or otherwise make excessive traffic demands of the Site;
   10. Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Site, user accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Site through hacking, password mining or any other means;
   11. Use the Site or any Site Content to transmit any computer viruses, worms, defects, Trojan horses or other items of a destructive nature (collectively, “Viruses”);
   12. Use any device, software or routine that interferes with the proper working of the Site, or otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site;
   13. Use the Site to violate the security of any computer network, crack passwords or security encryption codes; disrupt or interfere with the security of, or otherwise cause harm to, the Site or Site Content; or
   14. Remove, circumvent, disable, damage or otherwise interfere with any security-related features of the Site, features that prevent or restrict the use or copying of Site Content, or features that enforce limitations on the use of the Site.
   The restrictions above only apply to the extent permissible under applicable law. Nevertheless, you agree not to act contrary to them (even if permissible under applicable law) without providing 30 days’ prior written notice to us here, together with any information that we may reasonably require to give us an opportunity to provide alternative remedies or otherwise accommodate you at our sole discretion.

Guidelines and Policies

1. Content Guidelines

   You represent that you have read and understood our Content Guidelines.

   1. General Guidelines

   ZimPlaza allows users to contribute different kinds of content, including reviews, photos, videos, events, votes, tips, direct messages, and more. Playing nice isn’t rocket science, but just in case, we’ve put together these general guidelines. Please also read the guidelines below for specific types of content that you might contribute to the site.

   • Inappropriate content: Colorful language and imagery is fine, but there’s no need for threats, harassment, lewdness, hate speech, and other displays of bigotry.
   • Conflicts of interest: Your contributions should be unbiased and objective. For example, you shouldn’t write reviews of your own business or employer, your friends’ or relatives’ business, your peers or competitors in your industry, or businesses in your networking group. Business owners should not ask customers to write reviews.
   • Promotional content: Unless you’re using your Business Owners Account to add content to your business’s profile page, we generally frown upon promotional content. Let’s keep the site useful for consumers and not overrun with commercial noise from every user.
   • Relevance: Please make sure your contributions are relevant and appropriate to the forum. For example, reviews aren’t the place for rants about a business’s employment practices, political ideologies, extraordinary circumstances, or other matters that don’t address the core of the consumer experience.
   • Privacy: Don’t publicize other people’s private information. Please don’t post close-up photos or videos of other patrons without their permission, and please don’t post other people’s full names unless you’re referring to service providers who are commonly identified by or commonly share their own full names.
   • Intellectual property: Don’t swipe content from other sites or users. You’re a smart cookie, so write your own reviews and take your own photos and videos, please!
   • Demanding payment: Beyond simply asking for a refund to remedy a bad experience, you should not use removing or posting your review as a way to extract payment from a business, regardless of whether you’ve been a customer.

   2. Review Guidelines

   The best reviews are passionate and personal. They offer a rich narrative, a wealth of detail, and a helpful tip or two for other consumers. Here are some additional thoughts for conscientious reviewers.

   • Personal experience: We want to hear about your firsthand consumer experience, not what you heard from your co-worker or significant other. Try to tell your own story without resorting to broad generalizations and conclusory allegations.
   • Accuracy: Make sure your review is factually correct. Feel free to air your opinions, but don’t exaggerate or misrepresent your experience. We don’t take sides when it comes to factual disputes, so we expect you to stand behind your review.
   • Review updates: Review updates should reflect a new experience or interaction with the business. Don’t tell the same old story you’ve already told. If you’d like to add new insight to an old experience, just edit your review instead of creating a new update.

   3. Photo and Video Guidelines

   Business photos and videos should be broadly relevant to the business and reflect the typical consumer experience (e.g., what the business looks like, what the business offers, etc.). If you post a photo or video that showcases a more unique personal experience with a business (e.g., your smiling group of friends at the bar, the fly in your soup), we may remove it from the photo gallery for the business, but it still may appear alongside your review if you write one about the business.

   4. User Profile Guidelines

   Don’t be shy — use your account profile to let people know who you are and what makes you tick. Users want to read reviews from people they know and trust (not those with profiles that are empty or laced with inappropriate content).

   5. Messaging Guidelines

   ZimPlaza has a handy messaging feature to keep you connected with your fellow ZimPlaza. First off, please don’t use this feature to harass other users or send other inappropriate content. Second, user accounts are for personal, non-commercial use only. Business owners should message reviewers using their free Business Owners Account. In order to do so, we ask that they upload a clear photo of themselves to help personalize their message.

   6. Business Owner Guidelines

   Business owners should be getting in on the act, too. Some words of wisdom:

   • From the Business: You can use the “From the business” tab to tell people a little something special about your business. Please keep it relevant: don’t use this feature to attack your competitors, reviewers, or ZimPlaza, and don’t use it to seed keywords or post special offers or promotions — we’ll remove them if we see them.
   • Public Comments: Direct messaging is often the best way to resolve a dispute with an unhappy customer, but business owners can also address issues publicly by posting a public comment. As with direct messaging, we ask that business owners upload a clear photo of themselves to help personalize their message. Don’t use public comments to launch personal attacks, advertise, or offer an incentive to change a review.
   • Video and Photos: Videos are a great way for advertisers to promote themselves on ZimPlaza. Be as creative as you can, but please keep it clean. We’re not big fans of imagery showing violence, drug use, nudity, near nudity, or suggestive acts. Also, please don’t use your video to disparage other businesses, users, or ZimPlaza; request or solicit reviews from users; or respond to user reviews.
   • Don’t ask for reviews and don’t offer to pay for them either: Please don’t ask your customers to review your business on ZimPlaza. Over time, solicited reviews create bias on your business page — a bias that savvy consumers can smell from a mile away.  You should also never offer compensation (discounts and freebies count too) in exchange for reviews.

2. Privacy

   You represent that you have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Note that we may disclose information about you to third parties if we have a good faith belief that such a disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (i) take action regarding suspected illegal activities; (ii) enforce or apply our Terms and Privacy Policy; (iii) comply with legal process or other government inquiry, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, judicial proceeding, or other legal process served on us; or (iv) protect our rights, reputation, and property, or that of our users, affiliates, or the public. If you use the Site outside of Zimbabwe, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in Zimbabwe.

3. Copyright And Trademark Disputes

   We do not take kindly to those who abuse the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that your copyright or trademark is being infringed on the Site, please send us a written notice with the following information:
   1. Identification of the copyrighted or trademarked work that you claim has been infringed;
   2. Identification of the allegedly infringing content, and information reasonably sufficient to permit ZimPlaza to locate it on the Site (e.g., the URL for the web page on which the content appears);
   3. A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the use of the content identified in your notice in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright/trademark owner, its agent, or the law;
   4. A statement by you that you attest, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright/trademark owner or authorized to act on the owner’s behalf; and
   5. Your physical or electronic signature, together with your contact information (address, telephone number and, if available, email address).
   At the same time, we do not take kindly to those who abuse the scope of their own intellectual property rights. If you believe that your content should not have been removed for alleged copyright or trademark infringement, you may send us a written counter-notice with the following information:
   1. Identification of the copyrighted or trademarked work that was removed, and the location on the Site where it would have been found prior to its removal;
   2. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have a good faith belief that the content was removed as a result of a mistake or misidentification. For trademark disputes only: information reasonably sufficient to explain why you believe you are not infringing the trademarked work;
   3. A statement that you consent either to the jurisdiction of (a) the Magistrates Court in which your address is located if you live in Zimbabwe, or (b) any judicial district in which ZimPlaza is located if you live outside Zimbabwe. Please also include a statement that you will accept service of process from the person who sent the original infringement notice to ZimPlaza, or an agent of such person;
   4. Your physical or electronic signature, together with your contact information (address, telephone number and, if available, email address).
   We will respond to all such notices and comply with applicable law. We reserve the right to remove content alleged to be infringing without prior notice and at our sole discretion. We also reserve the right to terminate a user’s account if the user is determined to be a repeat infringer.

Suggestions and Improvements

Third Parties

Indemnity

Disclaimers and Limitations of Liability

1. THE SITE IS MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU ON AN “AS IS”, “WITH ALL FAULTS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS, WITH THE EXPRESS UNDERSTANDING THAT THE ZIMPLAZA ENTITIES MAY NOT MONITOR, CONTROL, OR VET USER CONTENT. AS SUCH, YOUR USE OF THE SITE IS AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK. THE ZIMPLAZA ENTITIES MAKE NO CLAIMS OR PROMISES ABOUT THE QUALITY, ACCURACY, OR RELIABILITY OF THE SITE, ITS SAFETY OR SECURITY, OR THE SITE CONTENT. ACCORDINGLY, THE ZIMPLAZA ENTITIES ARE NOT LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE THAT MIGHT ARISE, FOR EXAMPLE, FROM THE SITE’S INOPERABILITY, UNAVAILABILITY OR SECURITY VULNERABILITIES OR FROM YOUR RELIANCE ON THE QUALITY, ACCURACY, OR RELIABILITY OF THE BUSINESS LISTINGS, RATINGS, REVIEWS (INCLUDING THEIR CONTENT, ORDER, AND DISPLAY), OR METRICS FOUND ON, USED ON, OR MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SITE.
2. THE ZIMPLAZA ENTITIES MAKE NO CLAIMS OR PROMISES WITH RESPECT TO ANY THIRD PARTY, SUCH AS THE BUSINESSES OR ADVERTISERS LISTED ON THE SITE OR THE SITE’S USERS. ACCORDINGLY, THE ZIMPLAZA ENTITIES ARE NOT LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE THAT MIGHT ARISE FROM THEIR ACTIONS OR OMISSIONS, INCLUDING, FOR EXAMPLE, IF ANOTHER USER OR BUSINESS MISUSES YOUR CONTENT, IDENTITY OR PERSONAL INFORMATION, OR IF YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE WITH ONE OF THE BUSINESSES OR ADVERTISERS LISTED OR FEATURED ON THE SITE. YOUR PURCHASE AND USE OF PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OFFERED BY THIRD PARTIES THROUGH THE SITE IS AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK.
3. THE ZIMPLAZA ENTITIES EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES AS TO THE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OFFERED BY BUSINESSES LISTED ON THE SITE, AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE PROVIDED TO YOU BY A REPRESENTATIVE OF ONE OF THE ZIMPLAZA ENTITIES SHALL CREATE A REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY.
4. YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE RIGHT AND REMEDY IN CASE OF DISSATISFACTION WITH THE SITE, RELATED SERVICES, OR ANY OTHER GRIEVANCE SHALL BE YOUR TERMINATION AND DISCONTINUATION OF ACCESS TO, OR USE OF THE SITE.
5. THE ZIMPLAZA ENTITIES’ MAXIMUM AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR LOSSES OR DAMAGES THAT YOU SUFFER IN CONNECTION WITH THE SITE OR THESE TERMS IS LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID, IF ANY, BY YOU TO THE ZIMPLAZA ENTITIES IN CONNECTION WITH THE SITE IN THE 12 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACTION GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY.
6. THE ZIMPLAZA ENTITIES DISCLAIM LIABILITY FOR ANY (i) INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY, RELIANCE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, (ii) LOSS OF PROFITS, (iii) BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, (iv) REPUTATIONAL HARM, OR (v) LOSS OF INFORMATION OR DATA.

Choice of Law and Venue

Termination

1. You may terminate the Terms at any time by closing your account or discontinuing your use of the Site. Please review our Privacy Policy for information about what we do with your account when terminated.
2. We may close your account, suspend your ability to use certain portions of the Site, and/or ban you altogether from the Site for any or no reason, and without notice or liability of any kind. Any such action could prevent you from accessing your account, the Site, Your Content, Site Content, or any other related information.
3. In the event of any termination of these Terms, whether by you or us, Sections 1, 5, 6, 10 – 14 will continue in full force and effect, including our right to use Your Content as detailed in Section 5.

General Terms

1. We reserve the right to modify, update, or discontinue the Site at our sole discretion, at any time, for any or no reason, and without notice or liability.
2. We may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the Terms by email, regular mail or communications through the Site.
3. Except as otherwise stated in Section 10 above, nothing herein is intended, nor will be deemed, to confer rights or remedies upon any third party.
4. The Terms contain the entire agreement between you and us regarding the use of the Site, and supersede any prior agreement between you and us on such subject matter. The parties acknowledge that no reliance is placed on any representation made but not expressly contained in these Terms.
5. Any failure on ZimPlaza’s part to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. The failure of either party to exercise in any respect any right provided for herein shall not be deemed a waiver of any further rights hereunder.
6. If any provision of the Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, then only that provision shall be modified to reflect the parties’ intention or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that the Terms shall otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable.
7. The Terms, and any rights or obligations hereunder, are not assignable, transferable or sublicensable by you except with ZimPlaza’s prior written consent, but may be assigned or transferred by us without restriction. Any attempted assignment by you shall violate these Terms and be void.
8. The section titles in the Terms are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.