Legal

1. The service

Also Happened provides tools for submitting, storing, and publishing structured consumer reports and supporting evidence, and for viewing reports submitted by others. We host and display user submissions; we do not investigate them, verify them, or determine whether the conduct they describe occurred.

2. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and located in the United States to create an account. You are responsible for the accuracy of your account information and for activity that occurs under your account. One account per person.

3. Your submissions

By submitting a report, corroboration, or evidence file, you confirm that the information and evidence you have provided are truthful and accurate to the best of your knowledge. You retain ownership of your submissions. You grant Also Happened a non-exclusive license to host, store, reproduce, moderate, and (for content designated public under these terms) display them in connection with operating the service.

You agree not to submit content that you know to be false; content that discloses another private individual's identity or personal information; content unrelated to a consumer transaction you were party to; or material you do not have the right to share.

4. Publication and moderation

The headline and description you write are published after review, together with a neutral summary of the structured details you provided. We may decline to publish, or may unpublish, any submission that does not meet our moderation standards, using standardized reason codes. We are under no obligation to publish any submission. Publication is mechanical, not an endorsement; a published report remains an unverified allegation.

5. Evidence privacy

Evidence files are visible only to the account that uploaded them and to our moderators. Evidence files are never displayed on public pages, in any form, regardless of report status or any setting.

6. Anonymity and attribution

Reports are published without attribution by default. An optional per-report setting to display your username is described in the Privacy Policy; it is currently disabled. Corroborations are always displayed without attribution.

7. Withdrawal and retention

You may withdraw your report at any time. Withdrawing a report removes any public attribution to you. If other users have added published corroborations to your report, the post (including the content you wrote) remains publicly visible without attribution, because corroborating users retain an interest in the shared record; if no published corroborations exist, the post is removed from public view. You may likewise remove your own corroboration from a post at any time.

Withdrawal and removal change what is publicly displayed. Underlying records (including submissions, evidence files, and consent records) are retained in private storage for legal-compliance, audit, and dispute-resolution purposes, and may be produced in response to valid legal process.

8. No payment for removal

Also Happened does not accept payment, from any party, to remove, suppress, edit, or alter the presentation of any report. Removal decisions are made exclusively under the takedown process below and our moderation standards.

9. No legal advice; no outcome promises

Also Happened is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Information presented here is not a substitute for consultation with a licensed attorney. We make no representation that any report or collection of reports will result in any legal, regulatory, or other outcome.

10. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

[DRAFT: warranty disclaimer and limitation-of-liability language to be supplied by counsel. The service is provided "as is"; user submissions are the responsibility of the users who submit them.]

11. Termination, changes, governing law

We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms. We may update these terms; material changes will be announced on this page with a new effective date. [DRAFT: governing law, venue, and dispute-resolution provisions to be supplied by counsel.]

12. Contact

Questions about these terms: [email protected]

1. What we collect

Account data (email address, chosen username, password handled by our authentication provider); report content (the structured fields, headline, and description you submit, including your state-level location); evidence files you upload; records of actions you take on the service (for example signing in, or filing, withdrawing, or corroborating a report, recorded with the action and a timestamp, stored only in our own systems and never shared with analytics or advertising services); technical records (IP address and browser information captured with certain consent and audit records); and authentication cookies described below.

2. What is public

When a report is published: its headline and description, a neutral summary of its structured details, its state-level location, dates and amounts you reported, and aggregate counts. Published corroborations show state, date, amount, and an optional note, never the contributor's identity. Your username appears on a report only if you opt in for that specific report (this option is currently disabled); reports are otherwise anonymous, and a withdrawn report is always displayed without attribution.

3. What is never public

Evidence files, in any form, including their existence, names, or counts; your email address, IP address, or contact information; your city or street address (location is collected and displayed at state level only); and submissions that have not cleared review.

4. How we use your information

To operate the service: publishing and aggregating reports, moderation, transactional email about your own submissions (received, published, declined), detecting misuse of the platform (including duplicate-evidence detection), and compliance with legal obligations. We do not sell personal information and do not use it for third-party advertising.

5. Retention

Records are retained after withdrawal or removal from public view, as described in the Terms of Service (§7): submissions, evidence, and audit records remain in private storage for legal-compliance, audit, and dispute-resolution purposes. Consent records are retained permanently. You may delete your account from your dashboard at any time: deletion anonymizes your account (your email address is replaced with a non-identifying placeholder, your username is removed, and sign-in is permanently disabled) while underlying records are retained as described above. Published reports are displayed without attribution and remain published unless you withdraw them before deleting your account. Other questions: [email protected]. [DRAFT: data-subject request procedures to be reviewed by counsel.]

6. Service providers and disclosure

We use infrastructure providers to operate the service (database and authentication hosting, file storage, and email delivery), who process data on our behalf. We may disclose records in response to valid legal process, to enforce these terms, or to protect the rights and safety of users and the public.

7. Cookies

We set authentication cookies required to keep you signed in. They are not readable by page scripts and are not used for advertising or cross-site tracking. We do not use third-party analytics or advertising cookies.

8. Children

The service is not directed to anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

9. Changes and contact

Material changes to this policy will be announced on this page with a new effective date. Privacy questions: [email protected]

1. Who may submit a request

A company or individual named or identifiable in a published post, or their authorized representative, may request review of that post. Anyone may report a post that exposes a private individual's personal information.

2. What to include

Send to [email protected]: the URL of the post; the specific statements at issue; the basis for the request (for example, a materially false statement of fact, exposure of personal information, content concerning the wrong company, a court order, or an intellectual-property claim); and your relationship to the named party. Requests asserting falsity should identify what, specifically, is claimed to be false.

3. How requests are handled

We acknowledge requests, review the post and its evidence against our moderation standards, and either remove the post, correct its presentation, or decline with a brief explanation. Review is free of charge for all parties. Payment does not and cannot influence the outcome: we do not accept compensation to remove, suppress, or alter any report, and we do not offer paid programs of any kind to companies named in reports.

4. Copyright (DMCA)

[DRAFT: designated DMCA agent to be registered with the Copyright Office before launch; notice-and-counter-notice procedure to be supplied by counsel.] Copyright notices may be sent to [email protected] in the interim.