🦉 Birdsoniq Legal
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Terms of Service — Birdsoniq

Last updated: 19 April 2026 Document version: 1.1

The complete history of modifications to these Terms of Service is publicly available on the document’s git repository: https://github.com/giovannisecci/birdsoniq-legal. Each previous version remains verifiable and downloadable.

Note on language: the Italian version of these Terms of Service (terms_of_service_it.md) is the authoritative version for legal purposes. This English version is provided for the convenience of international users. In case of discrepancies between the two versions, the Italian version prevails.

1. Introduction and acceptance

These Terms of Service (hereinafter “Terms”) govern the use of the mobile application Birdsoniq (hereinafter “the app”), developed and operated by Giovanni Secci (hereinafter “the Provider”). By downloading, installing or using the app, the user (hereinafter “User”) declares to have read, understood and fully accepted these Terms and the Birdsoniq Privacy Policy, which forms an integral part thereof.

If the User does not accept even one of these Terms, they are invited not to use the app and to uninstall it from their device.

2. Definitions

For the purposes of these Terms:

3. Description of the service

Birdsoniq is an application dedicated to birdwatching and the identification of bird species. The main features offered are:

The list of features may change over time based on app development. The Provider reserves the right to add, modify or remove features, subject to notice to the User in cases provided for by applicable law.

4. Requirements for use

4.1 Minimum age

The app is intended for Users aged 16 years or older. Installation and use of the app by persons under the age of 16 are not permitted.

4.2 Technical requirements

To use Birdsoniq, the User must have:

The Provider does not guarantee the correct operation of the app on modified devices (root, custom ROM), emulators or non-standard configurations.

5. User identity

Birdsoniq does not require registration, login, email or password. Each installation of the app is internally identified by an anonymous UUID (called “installId”) randomly generated at first launch and stored exclusively on the device.

The User acknowledges that, in the absence of an authentication system, each device constitutes a distinct identity from the system’s point of view, and that installing the app on a new device generates a new installId unrelated to the previous one. Features that depend on identity (personal history, Gold subscription, published community content) are tied to the individual device.

To manage User rights regarding personal data protection (access, deletion, etc.), please refer to the Privacy Policy, §9.

6. Gold Subscription

6.1 Features

The Gold Subscription is a paid service that unlocks some advanced app features, including:

The list of features included in the Gold Subscription may be updated over time. Any substantial changes (removal of previously included features) will be communicated to subscribers in advance, with the right for the User to withdraw pursuant to §6.4.

6.2 Price and payment methods

The Gold Subscription has a price of 10.00 euros including VAT, renewable annually (the price may vary over time; the applicable price is always the one indicated at the time of purchase on the Google Play purchase page).

The purchase is made exclusively through Google Play Billing. Google Ireland Limited acts as merchant of record for the transaction: this means that Google itself fully manages the payment, billing and VAT. The Provider does not collect or process data relating to the User’s payment method (credit card, PayPal account or other).

The commercial conditions of Google Play Billing (accepted payment methods, charging times, purchase receipt) are governed by Google Play’s terms of service: https://play.google.com/intl/en/about/play-terms/.

6.3 Duration and automatic renewal

The Gold Subscription has an annual duration and is automatically renewed upon expiry for subsequent periods of the same duration, unless cancelled by the User pursuant to §6.5.

Automatic renewal is a standard mechanism of Google Play Billing for subscriptions. Google notifies the User of the upcoming renewal a few days before expiry, according to its own policies.

6.4 Right of withdrawal

Pursuant to articles 52 et seq. of the Italian Consumer Code, the consumer User has the right to withdraw from the purchase of the Gold Subscription within 14 days of the date of conclusion of the contract, without the need to provide any reason.

Warning — waiver of the right of withdrawal for immediate performance. The Gold Subscription is a digital service that begins to be provided immediately upon purchase. Pursuant to art. 59(1)(o) of the Italian Consumer Code, the consumer User, by purchasing the Subscription, expressly declares to want to benefit from it immediately and consequently acknowledges that, once the execution of the service has begun with their consent, they lose the right of withdrawal pursuant to the same article.

The acceptance of immediate execution is implicit in the purchase action made through Google Play, which by providing the service immediately represents the consent to the execution.

If, nevertheless, the User wishes to request a refund within 14 days of purchase, they may turn to Google Play according to Google’s refund policies (https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/2479637). The Provider has no discretion over the granting of the refund within the first 48 hours of purchase, which are managed automatically by Google; however, it can evaluate subsequent refunds on a case-by-case basis, in agreement with Google.

6.5 Subscription cancellation

The User may cancel the Gold Subscription at any time, with effect at the end of the current subscription period. Cancellation takes place exclusively through the settings of one’s Google Play account, following the procedure indicated by Google: https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/7018481.

The Provider cannot cancel on behalf of the User. In case of difficulty, the User can contact Google Play support.

Until the expiry of the period for which payment has already been made, the User continues to benefit from the Gold features. Upon expiry, the account is automatically returned to the basic level without further charges.

6.6 Refunds and commercial disputes

Refunds are fully managed by Google Play according to its own policies. The Provider does not directly process payments or refunds, and therefore does not have technical tools to issue them. For any dispute relating to payment or refund, the User must first contact Google Play support.

Should the User believe they have suffered a service failure dependent on the Provider (e.g. malfunction of the app, failure to provide a promised Gold feature), they may write to the email address indicated in §21. The Provider will evaluate each request and, if the complaint is found to be well-founded, will cooperate with the User in the refund procedure with Google Play.

7. Permitted and prohibited use

7.1 Personal use

The app is intended for personal, non-commercial use (except as provided for Host Mode in §9). The User undertakes to use Birdsoniq in a manner consistent with these Terms, applicable law and good morals.

7.2 Prohibited uses

The User undertakes to not:

7.3 Consequences of prohibited use

Violation of the provisions of this §7 entitles the Provider to suspend or terminate the User’s access to the app or parts thereof, as well as to remove non-compliant content published in the community, without notice, except as otherwise provided by mandatory provisions. In the most serious cases, the Provider reserves the right to take legal action.

8. User-generated content

8.1 Scope of User Content

For the purposes of these Terms, “User Content” consists exclusively of the textual and numeric metadata that the User chooses to publish through the community feature:

Photographs and audio recordings possibly used by the User for identification do not constitute User Content for the purposes of these Terms, as such files always remain on the User’s device and are never transmitted to the Provider or published in the community. Consistently, no provision of these Terms may be construed as a license, assignment or transfer of rights over User photographs or audio recordings.

The User retains all intellectual property rights on the published User Content. Birdsoniq does not claim ownership over such content.

8.2 License granted to the Provider on User Content

By publishing User Content (as defined in §8.1) in the community, the User grants the Provider a non-exclusive, free, worldwide, transferable and sub-licensable license to:

This license has a duration coinciding with the publication of the content in the app. The revocation of consent to community sharing or the deletion of the content by the User cause the license to cease for future content, but do not prevent the Provider from retaining backup copies for the time strictly necessary and for purposes of compliance with legal obligations.

8.3 User’s responsibility for Content

The User is solely responsible for the User Content they publish and declares:

The User shall indemnify the Provider from any claim, compensation request or legal action by third parties arising from the violation of the declarations in this paragraph.

8.4 Removal of content

The Provider reserves the right to remove or obscure User Content that it considers, at its sole discretion, to be in violation of these Terms, applicable law or good community practices, without notice. Where possible and appropriate, the User will be informed of the removal.

The User may at any time request the removal of their own User Content from the community by writing to the email address indicated in §21 and following the identification procedure via installId described in the Privacy Policy (§9).

9. Host Mode (hospitality establishments)

Host Mode is an additional feature designed for Users who manage hospitality establishments (bed & breakfasts, farmhouses, summer camps, associations, naturalistic guides) and who wish to use Birdsoniq in support of their professional or associative activity.

Activation of Host Mode involves:

Responsibility of the establishment manager. The User who activates Host Mode and allows guests or participants to use the app installed on the establishment’s device (shared tablet, etc.) is fully responsible:

The Provider does not carry out any checks on the establishments that use Host Mode, has no particular contractual relationships with them and does not guarantee the suitability of the app for specific commercial uses of the establishment. Host Mode is provided “as is” without guarantees other than those provided for the app as a whole.

10. Kids Mode

Kids Mode is a visually simplified and gamified interface of the app, designed for a more accessible and playful user experience. It can be activated from the app’s settings and protected by a 4-digit numerical PIN that prevents accidental exit from the mode.

Kids Mode is not intended for minors. As indicated in §4.1, the app is intended for Users aged 16 or over: Kids Mode is an interface option available to Users of any age provided that all are aged 16 or over.

Kids Mode does not collect or transmit additional data compared to the standard mode of the app. The PIN entered by the User is stored locally on the device in the form of a digest and never transmitted to external servers.

The Provider assumes no responsibility for improper use of Kids Mode, including the delivery of the app to users under the age of 16.

11. AI identification — limits and responsibilities

Birdsoniq uses artificial intelligence models to suggest the identification of bird species from photographs and audio recordings. The User acknowledges and accepts the following:

11.1 Probabilistic nature of identification

Identification results are probabilistic suggestions based on statistical machine learning models. Each result is accompanied by a confidence index expressed as a percentage. Identification models may be wrong, even significantly, especially in the case of:

11.2 No scientific or professional guarantee

Birdsoniq’s identification results do not constitute certified scientific identification nor can they replace the opinion of an expert professional ornithologist, an accredited research entity or a competent authority. The User must not use the app’s results as the sole basis for critical decisions, including, by way of example but not limited to:

For uses that have scientific, environmental or legal relevance, the User is required to have the identification validated by a competent expert.

11.3 Exclusion of liability

The Provider provides the app and its identification models “as is”, without any express or implied warranty of accuracy, completeness, correctness or suitability for a specific purpose. Use of the identification results takes place at the User’s sole risk.

12. Intellectual property of the app

12.1 Software ownership

The Birdsoniq app, in its entirety — including source code, user interface, logos, names, original images, original informational texts, databases structured by the Provider — is the exclusive property of Giovanni Secci and is protected by Italian, European and international legislation on copyright and industrial property.

Downloading and installing the app grant the User a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable license of use to use the app under the terms and for the purposes provided for by these Terms. No other rights are granted to the User.

12.2 Artificial intelligence models

The machine learning models used by the app for identification are:

These models are used under their respective public distribution licenses (Creative Commons and equivalent open-source licenses) and remain the property of their respective owners. Birdsoniq does not claim any ownership rights over these models.

12.3 Content from open sources

Scientific data, encyclopedic descriptions, fallback photographs, distribution maps and audio recordings from the integrated scientific sources (GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia, Xeno-canto, IUCN Red List, eBird) remain the property of their respective authors and owners, and are used under their respective Creative Commons or equivalent licenses. For details, see §13 and the corresponding section of the Privacy Policy.

13. Trademarks and attributions

“Birdsoniq” is an unregistered trademark in use by Giovanni Secci. The registration request as a trademark may be in progress; until its completion, the trademark nevertheless enjoys the protection provided by Italian legislation on unregistered trademarks.

The names “Xeno-canto”, “GBIF”, “iNaturalist”, “Wikipedia”, “Wikimedia Commons”, “IUCN Red List”, “eBird”, “Cornell Lab of Ornithology”, “Google”, “Firebase”, “Google Play”, “BirdNET”, “EfficientNet”, “Android” and any other name of service, product or third-party organization cited in the app or in these Terms are registered trademarks or unregistered trademarks of their respective owners. Their use within Birdsoniq has exclusively identifying function of the source or descriptive function of the service, without any affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement by the respective owners.

14. Optional integrations with third-party services

Birdsoniq offers optional integrations with some third-party services (in particular: eBird and IUCN Red List) which require the User to enter their own free API key.

The User acknowledges that:

15. Limitation of liability

15.1 To the extent permitted by law

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Provider provides the app “as is” and “as available”, without any express or implied warranty, including — by way of example but not limited to — warranties of merchantability, fitness for a specific purpose, absence of errors or defects, continuity of service, absence of viruses or malfunctions, accuracy of data or results provided by the artificial intelligence models.

15.2 Mandatory consumer rights

The provisions of §15.1 do not prejudice the mandatory rights recognized to the consumer by applicable legislation, in particular by the Italian Consumer Code (Legislative Decree 206/2005) and by the European legislation on digital services (EU Directive 2019/770). In case of conflict between the clauses of these Terms and such mandatory rights, the latter prevail.

15.3 Excluded damages

Without prejudice to cases of willful misconduct or gross negligence, and without prejudice to the mandatory rights of the consumer, the Provider is not liable for any indirect, consequential, incidental, punitive or special damages — including, by way of example, loss of data, loss of profits, reputational damage, damages deriving from the use or inability to use the app.

15.4 Quantitative limit

In any case, and unless otherwise provided by mandatory law, the Provider’s overall liability towards the User for any damage is limited, for the User holding a Gold Subscription, to the amount actually paid by the User for the subscription in the last 12 months; for the basic (free) level User, to zero euros.

15.5 Force majeure

The Provider is not responsible for missed performances due to force majeure events (including, by way of example: natural disasters, cyber attacks, interruptions of the Google Cloud infrastructure or other service providers, Internet network interruptions, orders from the authority).

16. Indemnification

The User undertakes to indemnify and hold the Provider harmless from any claim, request, legal action, costs (including reasonable legal fees) that third parties should advance as a consequence of:

17. Changes to the Terms

The Provider reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time, to take into account changes in applicable law, in the app’s functionality, in integrated third-party services or in case of operational needs.

Changes to the Terms take effect upon publication of the new version of the document. The date of the last update is indicated at the top of the document.

Substantial changes (in particular: changes that affect the User’s obligations, the subscription price, the features included in the subscription) will be communicated to the User with at least 30 days’ notice through an in-app notice on the next launch of the app. In such cases, the User will have the right to withdraw from the Gold subscription with proportional refund of the remaining unused period, according to the methods provided for by applicable law.

The complete history of the versions of the Terms of Service is publicly available on the document’s git repository at the address indicated at the top of this document.

Main changes in version 1.1 (19 April 2026): update of the definition of “User Content” (§2 and §8.1) and of the relevant license regime (§8.2) to reflect the transition to a “metadata-only” community architecture: User photographs and audio recordings are no longer transmitted to the Provider or included in User Content, and always remain on the device. Updated sections: §2, §3, §6.1, §7.2, §8.1, §8.2, §8.3.

18. Suspension and termination of the service

18.1 By the User

The User may cease the use of the app at any time by uninstalling it from their device. The User with a Gold Subscription may cancel the subscription as provided for in §6.5.

18.2 By the Provider

The Provider reserves the right to suspend or terminate the User’s access to the app in the following cases:

In case of termination for reasons attributable to the User, no refund is due, except as provided by mandatory consumer legislation.

18.3 Complete cessation of the service

The Provider reserves the right to cease the provision of the Birdsoniq service, in whole or in part, with at least 60 days’ notice to Users through in-app notice and publication on the birdsoniq.app website. In this case:

19. Applicable law and competent court

19.1 Applicable law

These Terms are governed by Italian law. The mandatory provisions more favourable to the consumer User possibly provided by the legislation of their state of residence remain firm, pursuant to EU Regulation no. 593/2008 (Rome I).

19.2 Competent court

For disputes that may arise between the Provider and a consumer User (pursuant to art. 3 of the Italian Consumer Code), the court of the consumer’s place of residence or elected domicile has exclusive jurisdiction, as provided for by art. 66-bis of the Italian Consumer Code. This provision is mandatory.

For disputes that may arise with Users who do not qualify as consumers (e.g. professionals or companies), the court of Nuoro, Italy has exclusive jurisdiction.

19.3 Alternative dispute resolution

Before taking legal action, the Provider encourages the User to attempt an amicable resolution of the dispute by writing to the email address indicated in §21. The Provider undertakes to respond and to evaluate the dispute in good faith within 30 days.

The consumer User resident in the European Union can also make use of the ODR platform (Online Dispute Resolution) of the European Commission for the online resolution of disputes: https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

20. Miscellaneous

20.1 Assignment

The Provider may assign these Terms, in whole or in part, to third parties (for example in case of assignment of the activity or corporate transformation), giving notice to the User. The User cannot assign the rights and obligations deriving from these Terms without the written consent of the Provider.

20.2 Severability clause

Should one or more provisions of these Terms be considered null, invalid or inapplicable by a competent court, the remaining provisions will continue to be fully effective. The null provisions will be replaced, to the extent possible, by valid provisions that come as close as possible to the Provider’s original intent.

20.3 Waiver

The failure by the Provider to exercise a right or power provided for by these Terms does not constitute a waiver of such right or power, and does not prevent the Provider from exercising it at any subsequent time.

20.4 Complete agreement

These Terms, together with the Birdsoniq Privacy Policy, constitute the complete agreement between the User and the Provider regarding the use of the app and replace any previous agreement, verbal or written, between the parties.

20.5 Language

This document is drafted in Italian (terms_of_service_it.md), which prevails in case of discrepancies with respect to translations into other languages. The English translation is provided for the convenience of international Users.

21. Contacts

Provider: Giovanni Secci Address: Via Baccarini, 08100 Nuoro (NU), Italy Email (support, complaints, copyright, legal matters): giovannisecci72@gmail.com VAT number: [IT______ — pending activation]

For any matters relating to these Terms of Service, the use of the app or the subscription, the User may write to the email address indicated above. The Provider undertakes to respond within a reasonable time (usually within 10 working days).

End of document.