Terms of Service

1. Agreement and acceptance

These Terms of Service (Terms) are a contract between you and the GeoLayers operator identified below. By creating an account, subscribing, using GeoLayers Studio, using an API, downloading a marketplace item, or otherwise using a Service that links to these Terms, you agree to these Terms and the policies incorporated by reference.

If you use GeoLayers for an organization, you confirm that you are authorized to accept these Terms on that organization's behalf. In that case, you includes that organization where the context requires.

2. Related terms

The following documents form part of the agreement where relevant:

• Privacy Policy and POPIA Notice;
• Acceptable Use Policy;
• Subscription Terms and Refund & Cancellation Policy;
• Marketplace Terms;
• Developer & API Terms;
• Data Licensing;
• Responsible GeoAI Notice; and
• any order form, statement of work, Data Processing Addendum or enterprise agreement signed by the parties.

If a signed agreement expressly states that it overrides these online Terms, the signed agreement controls to the extent of the conflict.

3. Eligibility and authority

You must have legal capacity to enter into the agreement or use the Services under the authority of a person or organization that has that capacity. If you are using GeoLayers through a school, university, employer or other organization, that organization may impose additional rules on your use.

4. Accounts and security

You must provide accurate account information and keep it reasonably current. You are responsible for activities performed through your account by you or people you authorize.

You must protect passwords, authentication links, API keys and other credentials. Do not share server credentials in public repositories, client-side code or public documents. Notify GeoLayers promptly at info@geolayers.co.za if you reasonably suspect unauthorized access.

GeoLayers may require password resets, revoke credentials or temporarily restrict access where reasonably necessary to protect users, the Services or third parties.

5. Licence to use the Services

Subject to these Terms and your plan, GeoLayers grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable right to access and use the Services for lawful professional, organizational, research, educational or personal purposes.

You may not sell, sublicense, rent or commercially expose the GeoLayers software itself except through an expressly authorized integration, marketplace licence or written agreement. You may use permitted outputs in your own professional work subject to source-data, third-party and product-specific licences.

6. Your content and project data

You retain the rights you hold in content you upload or create. You grant GeoLayers a limited worldwide licence to host, copy, transmit, process, transform, render, cache, back up and otherwise handle that content only as reasonably necessary to provide, secure, maintain and support the Services, comply with your instructions and meet legal obligations.

You warrant that you have the rights and lawful authority needed to upload, process, share and publish your content. You are responsible for source-data licences, confidentiality obligations, personal-information requirements and permissions relating to your project.

Private project content is not made public merely because it is stored in GeoLayers. Publishing, public API, marketplace and share-link features may expose content to others and should be used deliberately.

7. Spatial, planning and professional outputs

GeoLayers provides GIS, planning, Earth observation, routing, statistics, machine-learning, digital-twin, automation and cartographic tools. Outputs depend on the quality, scale, date, coordinate reference system, completeness and assumptions of source data.

GeoLayers outputs are decision-support materials. Unless a separate written professional service engagement says otherwise, they are not a substitute for legal, cadastral, land-survey, engineering, environmental, planning, financial or other regulated professional advice or for an official decision by a competent authority.

You must verify material conclusions against authoritative data and applicable professional or statutory requirements before relying on them for high-consequence decisions.

8. GeoAI and predictive features

GeoAI, GeoML and automated features may generate inaccurate, incomplete, biased or outdated outputs. You remain responsible for human review, source verification and appropriate use. Do not present AI-generated content as an official determination unless a competent human has reviewed and adopted it in a context where that is legally permitted.

See the Responsible GeoAI Notice.

9. Third-party services, datasets and open-source components

The Services may use or link to third-party datasets, basemaps, imagery, APIs, libraries, cloud providers and websites. Those components may be governed by their own licences, privacy practices, attribution requirements, quotas and availability.

GeoLayers does not grant rights that belong to a third party. You must comply with applicable third-party terms when using their content or services through GeoLayers.

10. Subscriptions, trials and billing

Plan features, project limits, storage limits and prices are shown on the Pricing page. Subscription use is also governed by the Subscription Terms. Unless a signed organization agreement provides otherwise, the then-current pricing page and checkout/order information form part of your purchase terms.

Starter is currently offered as a 14-day trial. Professional is currently listed at R299 per month with the plan limits shown on the Pricing page. Organization arrangements are quoted separately.

Taxes, where applicable, will be handled as stated on the applicable invoice or checkout page.

11. Marketplace

Marketplace products may be subject to product-specific licences, third-party source licences and the Marketplace Terms. Buying or downloading a product does not transfer copyright unless the product terms expressly say so.

12. Developer services

Use of APIs, SDKs, OGC services, webhooks and developer tools is subject to the Developer & API Terms, documented rate limits and credential rules.

13. Acceptable use

You must comply with the Acceptable Use Policy. In particular, you may not use GeoLayers to unlawfully access systems or data, interfere with platform integrity, bypass access controls, distribute malicious code, violate third-party rights or process data you are not authorized to process.

14. Intellectual property

GeoLayers software, branding, site design, documentation, original content and original platform components are protected by intellectual-property law. Except for the limited rights expressly granted in these Terms, no right in GeoLayers intellectual property is transferred to you.

Third-party open-source software remains licensed under its applicable open-source licence.

If you provide feedback or suggestions, you grant GeoLayers permission to use that feedback without restriction or payment, provided GeoLayers does not thereby acquire ownership of your pre-existing confidential material or project content.

15. Confidentiality

Where either party receives non-public information that is clearly confidential or would reasonably be understood to be confidential, the receiving party should use reasonable care to protect it and use it only for the relationship, except where disclosure is authorized or legally required.

This clause does not replace a separate NDA or enterprise confidentiality agreement.

16. Service availability and changes

GeoLayers aims to provide a reliable service but does not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free availability. Maintenance, security events, provider outages, internet failures, beta features and factors outside GeoLayers' control may affect access.

Features may be added, changed or retired. GeoLayers will use reasonable efforts to avoid materially reducing a paid subscription without notice where practicable. Enterprise service levels, if any, must be set out in a signed agreement.

17. Beta, preview and experimental features

Features marked beta, preview, experimental or similar may be incomplete, change without notice and provide lower reliability or support. Do not use them as the sole basis for critical operational decisions unless you have independently validated the output and accepted the risk.

18. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Services at any time and may cancel a paid subscription in accordance with the Subscription Terms and applicable law.

GeoLayers may suspend or terminate access where reasonably necessary because of material breach, non-payment, unlawful use, security risk, abuse, repeated policy violations, legal requirements or discontinued service. Where practicable and appropriate, GeoLayers will provide notice and an opportunity to remedy a remediable breach.

On termination or expiry, access may become read-only or limited as described for the applicable plan. You should export important project data before an account is closed. Data may later be deleted according to retention practices and legal obligations.

19. Consumer rights

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits rights or remedies that cannot lawfully be excluded under the Consumer Protection Act, ECTA or other applicable law. Where a consumer has a statutory cooling-off, cancellation, refund, warranty or disclosure right, that right prevails over inconsistent wording in these Terms.

20. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Services are provided on an as available basis. GeoLayers does not warrant that every dataset, model, prediction, route, zoning reference, map, API or third-party service is complete, current, error-free or fit for every purpose.

Additional limitations are described in the Disclaimer.

21. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, GeoLayers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of goodwill, loss of opportunity or loss arising solely from reliance on unverified analytical outputs or third-party datasets.

Where liability cannot lawfully be excluded, it is not excluded. Nothing in these Terms is intended to exclude liability for fraud, wilful misconduct, gross negligence where such exclusion is prohibited, or another liability that applicable law requires to remain.

For claims arising from a paid Service and where limitation is permitted by law, GeoLayers' aggregate contractual liability for the event giving rise to the claim will not exceed the fees actually paid by the affected customer for that Service during the six months immediately preceding the event, unless a signed agreement provides a different cap. This cap does not limit any non-excludable statutory right.

22. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you are responsible for losses, claims or costs arising from your unlawful content, your infringement of third-party rights, your misuse of public publishing/API functions, or your material breach of these Terms. This clause does not require a consumer to indemnify GeoLayers where such an obligation would be prohibited or unfair under applicable law.

23. Electronic communications

You agree that GeoLayers may provide notices electronically through email, the website, the account interface or another reasonable electronic channel. Keep your account email current. Electronic records may be retained as evidence of transactions and communications as permitted by law.

24. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Before starting formal proceedings, the parties should first attempt in good faith to resolve a dispute by contacting info@geolayers.co.za.

Subject to any consumer right to approach a statutory body or other mandatory forum, the courts of South Africa with jurisdiction over the dispute may hear proceedings arising from these Terms.

25. Changes to the Terms

GeoLayers may update these Terms for legal, security, commercial or product reasons. Material changes to active paid relationships will be communicated by a reasonable method and will take effect as stated in the notice, subject to applicable law.

26. General

If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply to the extent legally possible. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign the agreement without GeoLayers' consent where consent is legally permitted to be required; GeoLayers may assign it as part of a bona fide reorganization, sale or transfer of the business, subject to applicable law.

27. Contact

General and legal enquiries: info@geolayers.co.za
Telephone: +27 74 379 6476
Website: geolayers.co.za