Content Rights

1. Overview

This Content Rights policy explains the ownership, usage rights, and licensing terms for all content created, uploaded, and shared through the PayMates application and services.

This policy applies to all users worldwide and is part of our overall commitment to transparency regarding your data and content.

2. Your Content Ownership

You retain full ownership of all content you create or upload to PayMates. This includes but is not limited to:

• Expense records and transaction details
• Receipt images and photographs
• Notes and descriptions
• Group names and descriptions
• Comments and messages
• Profile information and photos

PayMates does not claim ownership of any content you provide. Your content remains yours, and you are free to use it elsewhere.

3. License You Grant to PayMates

By uploading or creating content on PayMates, you grant us a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to:

• Store and host your content on our servers and authorized cloud infrastructure
• Display your content to you and other authorized users (e.g., members of your expense groups)
• Process your content to provide features (e.g., scanning receipts, calculating expenses)
• Backup and secure your content to ensure service reliability
• Transmit your content across networks and devices
• Sublicense to our authorized service providers (such as Google Cloud) solely to the extent necessary to provide the Service

3.1 Scope Limitation

This license is purely functional and exists only to enable us to provide the PayMates service to you. We will not use your content for:

• Advertising or marketing purposes
• Selling or licensing to third parties
• Any other purpose beyond providing the core Service

3.2 No AI/ML Training

WE DO NOT USE YOUR CONTENT TO TRAIN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE OR MACHINE LEARNING MODELS. Your expense data, receipt images, notes, and other personal content are never used to train, improve, or develop any AI/ML systems. The only processing we perform on your content is:

• Receipt text extraction using Google Cloud Vision API (processed in real-time, not retained for training)
• Expense calculations and analytics for your personal use

3.3 Duration

This license ends when you delete your content or close your account, except for:

• Content that has been shared with other users in groups (which they may retain copies of for their own records)
• Anonymized, aggregated data used for service analytics (which is not personally identifiable)
• Data retained for legal compliance purposes as described in our Privacy Policy

4. Receipt Images and Photo Content

4.1 Camera and Photo Library Access: PayMates requests access to your device camera and photo library solely to allow you to capture and upload receipt images for expense tracking purposes. We do not access your photos without your explicit action.

4.2 Processing: Receipt images you upload are processed using Google Cloud Vision API to automatically extract expense information (amounts, dates, merchant names). This processing:

• Is performed in real-time to extract text
• Does not retain images on Google's servers beyond processing
• Is NOT used to train any AI/ML models

4.3 Storage: Receipt images are stored securely in Google Cloud Storage with encryption at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.2+). You can delete receipt images at any time from within the app, and they will be permanently removed within 30 days (including backups within 60 days).

4.4 No Commercial Use: We do not use your receipt images for any purpose other than providing the expense tracking service to you. We do not sell, license, or share your images with third parties except our cloud infrastructure providers as necessary to store and process them.

5. Content Sharing with Other Users

5.1 Group Expenses: When you create or participate in expense groups, certain content becomes visible to other group members, including:

• Your name and profile picture
• Expenses you create or are part of
• Notes and descriptions you add
• Settlement information
• Receipt images attached to shared expenses

5.2 Removal from Groups: When you leave a group or are removed:

• Historical expense records you contributed may remain visible to other members for their financial record-keeping
• Your name will remain associated with historical expenses (unless you delete your account, in which case it will be anonymized)
• You can delete individual expenses you created before leaving the group
• Receipt images you uploaded may remain attached to shared expenses

5.3 User Consent: By creating or sharing content in a group, you consent to that content being viewable by all current and future members of that group for as long as the group exists.

5.4 Content Responsibility: When sharing content with groups, you represent that you have the right to share such content and that it does not violate any third-party rights.

6. PayMates Original Content

All content created by PayMates, including but not limited to:

• The PayMates application and software
• User interface designs and layouts
• Graphics, logos, and branding
• Help documentation and tutorials
• Marketing materials
• API specifications and documentation

is owned by PayMates Labs and protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.

You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or create derivative works from PayMates' original content without our express written permission.

7. Your Responsibilities

By uploading content to PayMates, you represent and warrant that:

• You own or have the necessary rights to the content you upload
• Your content does not violate any third-party rights (copyright, trademark, privacy, etc.)
• Your content does not contain illegal material
• You have obtained all necessary permissions for any content featuring other individuals
• Your content is accurate to the best of your knowledge
• Your content does not contain malware, viruses, or harmful code

Violation Consequences: If we receive a valid complaint that your content violates third-party rights or these Terms, we may:

• Remove or disable access to the offending content
• Notify you of the complaint
• Suspend or terminate your account for repeated or severe violations
• Cooperate with law enforcement if required

8. Copyright Infringement (DMCA)

PayMates respects intellectual property rights and complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA").

8.1 Filing a DMCA Notice

If you believe content on PayMates infringes your copyright, please provide our designated copyright agent with a written notice containing:

• A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or authorized agent
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed
• Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and information sufficient to locate it
• Your contact information (address, phone number, email)
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner
• A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner

8.2 Counter-Notification

If you believe your content was wrongly removed due to a DMCA notice, you may file a counter-notification containing:

• Your physical or electronic signature
• Identification of the material that was removed and its location before removal
• A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief the material was removed by mistake or misidentification
• Your name, address, phone number, and consent to jurisdiction of the federal court in your district
• A statement that you will accept service of process from the original complainant

Upon receipt of a valid counter-notification, we will forward it to the original complainant and restore the content within 10-14 business days unless the complainant notifies us of court action.

8.3 Designated Copyright Agent

PayMates Labs
Attn: Copyright Agent
Email: copyright@paymates.app

8.4 Repeat Infringers

PayMates maintains a policy of terminating the accounts of users who are repeat copyright infringers in appropriate circumstances.

9. Exporting Your Content

You have the right to access and export your data at any time:

• In-App Export: Use the app's export features in Settings to download your expense data in standard formats (CSV, PDF)
• Data Request: Contact privacy@paymates.app to request a complete copy of all your data in a machine-readable format

This ensures you always have access to your financial records, even if you choose to stop using PayMates.

10. Content Deletion

10.1 Individual Content: You can delete individual expenses, receipts, or other content at any time through the app. Deleted content is removed from active systems immediately and from backups within 60 days.

10.2 Account Deletion: When you delete your account, we will delete all your personal content within 30 days, except:

• Content required for legal or regulatory compliance (e.g., financial records for up to 7 years)
• Content necessary for fraud prevention and security purposes
• Anonymized, aggregated data used for service analytics

10.3 Shared Expense Records: In shared groups:

• Basic expense records (amounts, dates, descriptions) may be retained for other users' financial record-keeping
• Your personal information (name, profile picture) will be anonymized or replaced with "Deleted User"
• Receipt images you uploaded to shared expenses may remain for other users' records unless they delete the expense

10.4 Backup Retention: Backups containing deleted content are automatically purged within 60 days of deletion.

11. Third-Party Content and Services

PayMates may display content from third-party services (e.g., advertisements from Google AdMob). This third-party content:

• Is governed by the respective third party's terms and conditions
• Is not endorsed by PayMates
• Is the sole responsibility of the third party providing it

PayMates is not responsible for third-party content, including its accuracy, legality, or appropriateness.

12. Anonymized and Aggregated Data

We may create anonymized, aggregated data from your content for the following purposes:

• Service improvement and feature development
• Usage analytics and statistics
• Industry trend analysis

Anonymization Standards: Anonymized data cannot be used to identify you personally. We remove or hash all personally identifiable information, including names, email addresses, account IDs, and any unique identifiers.

We retain a perpetual, royalty-free license to use such anonymized, aggregated data even after you delete your account.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Content Rights policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes via:

• Email notification
• In-app notice
• Updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this page

Continued use of PayMates after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. If you do not agree with changes, you should stop using the Service and delete your account.

14. Questions

If you have questions about content rights, please contact us at:

PayMates Labs
General Inquiries: support@paymates.app
Privacy & Data Requests: privacy@paymates.app
Copyright Matters: copyright@paymates.app