Terms of use

Ubonile is a service of AINEXIM (Pty) Ltd, registration number [CIPC registration number], of [Registered address]. In these terms, "we" and "us" mean AINEXIM (Pty) Ltd, and "you" means anyone who uses the website, the progressive web app or the mobile app.

By using Ubonile you agree to these terms, our community rules and our privacy page. If you do not agree, please do not use it. You do not need an account to look at a request or to answer one.

Ubonile lets a victim of crime or an investigating officer ask one question: were you near this place at this time, and did you see or record anything? It passes what people send to the investigating officer, and nobody else.

• We are not the police. We are not part of the South African Police Service, we do not work for it, and we do not use its branding. Nothing here replaces opening a case or following police procedure.
• We are not an emergency service. If someone is in danger, call 10111. Nobody here watches for emergencies.
• We promise nothing about results. We cannot promise that anyone will answer, that an officer will act, that anyone will be safe, that a case will be solved or that evidence will be accepted in court.
• It is free. People who ask, answer, follow an area or own a camera, and investigating officers, never pay. Evidence, and access to it, is never sold.

You sign in with a one-time code sent to your phone or email. You are responsible for what happens on your account, so keep your phone and your codes to yourself. Tell us if you think someone else has used your account.

If you answered a request, you get a receipt code. It is the only way back to your answer. We cannot recover it, and we cannot look it up, because for an anonymous answer we do not know who you are.

Officers and staff sign in with a password and an authenticator app, and their sessions end after 30 idle minutes.

• Tell the truth. Only ask about something that happened to you, to your family, or that you are authorised to ask about.
• Follow the community rules. In particular, do not name anyone, accuse anyone, or describe people by nationality, race or group.
• A person reads every request before it goes public. We may change a few words, ask you to change something, hold the request for an investigating officer, or refuse it. We will tell you why.
• Some requests wait until a verified officer approves them: someone who may still be held, a missing person, anyone under 18, and a sexual offence. Domestic violence never creates a public request, and we point you to people who can help now.
• A request is live for 30 days. An officer can extend it to 90. You can pause or close it at any time.
• If you add a case number and an officer, give us true details. We verify the officer ourselves, by phoning the station on the number published in the SAPS directory, and a case number alone gives no access.

• You decide what to send, and you can send nothing. Nobody has to answer.
• Send only what you recorded or saw yourself, or what you have the right to share. If your camera clock may be wrong, say so.
• Footage can show more than you expect: a gate, a street, a car, your face. Before you upload, we explain who can see what. Please read it.
• You choose how much of your identity to give us: none, a way to reach you that stays hidden, or your name for a statement. You can withdraw an answer until an officer has opened it.
• Nobody is paid for an answer, and no reward is offered through Ubonile.

We ask, and you choose. We do not scan, we do not connect to your camera, we do not watch a live feed and we do not use face or number plate recognition. You look at your own recorder and decide each time whether to send anything.

Following an area means we may tell you about nearby requests and verified alerts, within the limits on how often and at what hours that you set. You can stop at any time.

• You get access to a case only after we have verified you, and only for that case. Access lasts 90 days and can be renewed. We verify you again every 12 months, or sooner if you change station.
• Use what you receive only to investigate the case. Do not try to find out who a contributor is unless the contributor has agreed to release their identity for this case.
• Everything you open is logged with the time, and the person who asked can see when you first opened evidence.
• We can suspend access at once if we think it is being misused.
• You may need permission from the South African Police Service to use an outside platform. Getting that permission is your responsibility, not ours.

A community policing forum, neighbourhood watch, estate, security company or non-profit can ask for a verified badge, an area feed, a join link and reach figures. We may refuse or withdraw a badge.

Partners share requests as they are, with the partner's code on the link. Partners never see evidence, and we do not track individual people through a partner link. Core partner tools are free. We may later offer paid tools to security companies and estates, such as private incident registers. Evidence will never be part of those.

• Make a false request or alert, or one meant to harm, harass or mislead someone.
• Use Ubonile to find, follow or hurt a person, including a person who has fled from you.
• Try to identify a contributor, pressure one, or get around the rule that evidence goes only to the verified officer.
• Upload malware, or anything unlawful, including sexual images of anyone under 18.
• Break or probe our security, overload the service, or scrape it.
• Pretend to be a police officer, or to be someone else.

If you do, we can remove what you posted, stop your account, and tell the police or a court when the law allows or requires it.

What you send is yours. By sending it you allow us to store it, encrypt it, convert a copy so that an officer can watch it, record its fingerprint, and pass it to the verified investigating officer for the case. You allow us to keep a record of those steps. We use it for nothing else, and we do not publish it.

We may remove or quarantine anything that breaks these terms or the law.

An anonymous clip is a lead, not proof. South African courts generally want to know where footage came from, and the State often has to call the person who recorded it or an expert to show that it is genuine.

So we promise a clean chain of custody: each file's fingerprint at intake, and a log of everything done to it. We also give officers a way to reach the source, if the contributor agrees. We do not promise that any file is genuine, accurate or admissible in court.

An alert is general advice for an area. It comes from a verified investigating officer or from a published SAPS statement, and a second person at Ubonile approves it before it appears. It lasts 7 days. Alerts can be wrong. When one is, we correct or retract it and send the correction to the same people. Do not rely on an alert as your only protection.

We work to keep Ubonile available, and we are building toward 99.5% availability during the pilot. We may change it, pause it or stop it, for example for maintenance or for safety. We will say so when we can.

Outside providers are involved only in drawing maps, delivering push notifications and delivering messages, as our privacy page explains. There are no outside scripts, fonts or trackers.

We take care over the service and over your information. Even so, and as far as the law allows, we are not responsible for loss that comes from relying on a request, an alert or a result, from something another person sends or says, or from a delay or fault we could not reasonably have avoided. Nothing in these terms limits a responsibility that the law does not allow us to limit.

We may change these terms. If a change matters, we will say so at the top of this page and tell people with an account. If you keep using Ubonile after that, you accept the change.

You can stop using Ubonile and delete your account at any time. We can end or limit your use if you break these terms.

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa. [Court or forum with jurisdiction, to be confirmed by the attorney]

Questions about these terms: [Contact email].