Terms of Use

Welcome to Pearls!

These Terms of Use (or “Terms”) govern your use of Pearls, except where we expressly state that separate terms (and not these) apply, and provide information about the Pearls Service (the “Service”), outlined below. When you create a Pearls account or use Pearls, you agree to these terms. 

These Terms of Use therefore constitute an agreement between you and My Little Pearls LLC.

ARBITRATION NOTICE: YOU AGREE THAT DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND US WILL BE RESOLVED BY BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND YOU WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT OR CLASS-WIDE ARBITRATION. WE EXPLAIN SOME EXCEPTIONS AND HOW YOU CAN OPT OUT OF ARBITRATION BELOW.

The Pearls Service

We agree to provide you with the Pearls Service. The Service includes all of the Pearls products, features, applications, services, technologies, and software that we provide to advance Pearls mission: To bring you closer to the people and things you love. The Service is made up of the following aspects:

• Offering personalized opportunities to create, connect, communicate, discover and share. We offer you an account to help you send messages into the future and to create, share, grow your presence, and communicate with people on and off Pearls. We also want to strengthen your relationships through shared experiences that you actually care about. So we build systems that try to understand who and what you and others care about, and use that information to help you create, find, join and share experiences that matter to you. Part of that is highlighting content, features, offers and accounts that you might be interested in, and offering ways for you to experience Pearls, based on things that you and others do on and off Pearls.
• Fostering a positive, inclusive, and safe environment.
  We develop and use tools and offer resources to our community members that help to make their experiences positive and inclusive, including when we think they might need help. We also have teams and systems that work to combat abuse and violations of our Terms and policies, as well as harmful and deceptive behavior. We use all the information we have-including your information-to try to keep our platform secure. We also may share information about misuse or harmful content with law enforcement. 
• Developing and using technologies that help us consistently serve our growing community.
  Organizing and analyzing information for our growing community is central to our Service. A big part of our Service is creating and using cutting-edge technologies that help us personalize, protect, and improve our Service on an incredibly large scale for a broad global community. Automated technologies also help us ensure the functionality and integrity of our Service.
• Ensuring access to our Service.
  To operate our global Service, we must store and transfer data across our systems around the world, including outside of your country of residence. The use of this global infrastructure is necessary and essential to provide our Service. 
• Connecting you with brands, products, and services in ways you care about.
  In the future, we may use data from Pearls, as well as from third-party partners, to show you ads, offers, and other sponsored content that we believe will be meaningful to you. And we try to make that content as relevant as all your other experiences on Pearls.
• Research and innovation.
  We use the information we have to study our Service and collaborate with others on research to make our Service better and contribute to the well-being of our community.

How Our Service Is Funded

As of now Pearls is a completely free service, free of any advertisements or paid content. In the future Instead of paying to use Pearls, by using the Service covered by these Terms, you acknowledge that we can show you ads that businesses and organizations pay us to promote on and off the Pearls platform. We may use your personal data, such as information about your activity and interests, to show you ads that are more relevant to you.

In the future we may show you relevant and useful ads without telling advertisers who you are. We won’t sell your personal data. We will allow advertisers to tell us things like their business goal and the kind of audience they want to see their ads. We will then show their ad to people who might be interested.

We may also provide advertisers with reports about the performance of their ads to help them understand how people are interacting with their content on and off Pearls. For example, we may provide general demographic and interest information to advertisers to help them better understand their audience. We won’t share information that directly identifies you (information such as your name or email address that by itself can be used to contact you or identifies who you are) unless you give us specific permission. 

You may see branded content on Pearls posted by account holders who promote products or services based on a commercial relationship with the business partner mentioned in their content. 

The Privacy Policy

Providing our Service requires collecting and using your information. The Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and share information across the Pearls . It also explains the many ways you can control your information, including in the Pearls Privacy and Security Settings. You must agree to the Privacy Policy to use Pearls.

Your Commitments

In return for our commitment to provide the Service, we require you to make the below commitments to us.

Who Can Use Pearls. We want our Service to be as open and inclusive as possible, but we also want it to be safe, secure, and in accordance with the law. So, we need you to commit to a few restrictions in order to be part of the Pearls community.

• You must be at least 13 years old.
• You must not be prohibited from receiving any aspect of our Service under applicable laws or engaging in payments related Services if you are on an applicable denied party listing.
• We must not have previously disabled your account for violation of law or any of our policies.
• You must not be a convicted sex offender.

How You Can’t Use Pearls. Providing a safe and open Service for a broad community requires that we all do our part.

• You can’t impersonate others or provide inaccurate information.
  You don’t have to disclose your identity on Pearls, but you must provide us with accurate and up to date information (including registration information), which may include providing personal data. Also, you may not impersonate someone or something you aren’t, and you can’t create an account for someone else unless you have their express permission.
• You can’t do anything unlawful, misleading, or fraudulent or for an illegal or unauthorized purpose.
• You can’t violate (or help or encourage others to violate) these Terms or our policies.
• You can’t do anything to interfere with or impair the intended operation of the Service.
  This includes misusing any reporting, dispute, or appeals channel, such as by making fraudulent or groundless reports or appeals.
• You can’t attempt to create accounts or access or collect information in unauthorized ways.
  This includes creating accounts or collecting information in an automated way without our express permission.
• You can’t sell, license, or purchase any account or data obtained from us or our Service.
  This includes attempts to buy, sell, or transfer any aspect of your account (including your username); solicit, collect, or use login credentials or badges of other users; or request or collect Pearls usernames, passwords, or misappropriate access tokens.
• You can’t post someone else’s private or confidential information without permission or do anything that violates someone else’s rights, including intellectual property rights (e.g., copyright infringement, trademark infringement, counterfeit, or pirated goods).
  You may use someone else’s works under exceptions or limitations to copyright and related rights under applicable law. You represent you own or have obtained all necessary rights to the content you post or share. 
• You can’t modify, translate, create derivative works of, or reverse engineer our products or their components.

Permissions You Give to Us. As part of our agreement, you also give us permissions that we need to provide the Service.

• We do not claim ownership of your content, but you grant us a license to use it.
  Nothing is changing about your rights in your content. We do not claim ownership of your content that you post on or through the Service and you are free to share your content with anyone else, wherever you want. However, we need certain legal permissions from you (known as a “license”) to provide the Service. When you share, post, or upload content that is covered by intellectual property rights (like photos or videos) on or in connection with our Service, you hereby grant to us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings). This license will end when your content is deleted from our systems. You can delete content individually or all at once by deleting your account. To learn more about how we use information, and how to control or delete your content, review the Privacy Policy.
• Permission to use your username, profile picture, and information about your relationships and actions with accounts, ads, and sponsored content.
  You give us permission to show your username, profile picture, and information about your actions (such as likes) or relationships (such as follows) next to or in connection with accounts, ads, offers, and other sponsored content that you follow or engage with that are displayed on Pearls Products, without any compensation to you. For example, we may show that you liked a sponsored post created by a brand that has paid us to display its ads on Pearls. As with actions on other content and follows of other accounts, actions on sponsored content and follows of sponsored accounts can be seen only by people who have permission to see that content or follow. We will also respect your ad settings.
• You agree that we can download and install updates to the Service on your device.

Additional Rights We Retain

• If you select a username or similar identifier for your account, we may change it if we believe it is appropriate or necessary (for example, if it infringes someone’s intellectual property or impersonates another user).
• If you use content covered by intellectual property rights that we have and make available in our Service (for example, images, designs, videos, or sounds we provide that you add to content you create or share), we retain all rights to our content (but not yours).
• You can only use our intellectual property and trademarks or similar marks with our prior written permission.
• You must obtain written permission from us or under an open source license to modify, create derivative works of, decompile, or otherwise attempt to extract source code from us.

Content Removal and Disabling or Terminating Your Account

• We can remove any content or information you share on the Service if we believe that it violates these Terms of Use, or we are permitted or required to do so by law. We can refuse to provide or stop providing all or part of the Service to you (including terminating or disabling your access to the Pearls Products) immediately to protect our community or services, or if you create risk or legal exposure for us, violate these Terms of Use or our policies, if you repeatedly infringe other people’s intellectual property rights, or where we are permitted or required to do so by law. We can also terminate or change the Service, remove or block content or information shared on our Service, or stop providing all or part of the Service if we determine that doing so is reasonably necessary to avoid or mitigate adverse legal or regulatory impacts on us. If you believe your account has been terminated in error, or you want to disable or permanently delete your account email hello@pearls-app.com. When you request to delete content or your account, the deletion process will not begin sooner than 30 days after your request. It may take up to 90 days to delete content after the deletion process begins. While the deletion process for such content is being undertaken, the content is no longer visible to other users, but remains subject to these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. After the content is deleted, it may take us up to another 90 days to remove it from backups and disaster recovery systems.
• Content will not be deleted within 90 days of the account deletion or content deletion process beginning in the following situations:
  • where your content has been used by others in accordance with this license and they have not deleted it (in which case this license will continue to apply until that content is deleted); or
  • where deletion within 90 days is not possible due to technical limitations of our systems, in which case, we will complete the deletion as soon as technically feasible; or
  • where deletion would restrict our ability to:
    • investigate or identify illegal activity or violations of our terms and policies (for example, to identify or investigate misuse of our products or systems);
    • protect the safety and security of our products, systems, and users;
    • comply with a legal obligation, such as the preservation of evidence; or
    • comply with a request of a judicial or administrative authority, law enforcement, or a government agency;
  • in which case, the content will be retained for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which it has been retained (the exact duration will vary on a case-by-case basis).
• If you delete or we disable your account, these Terms shall terminate as an agreement between you and us, but this section and the section below called “Our Agreement and What Happens if We Disagree” will still apply even after your account is terminated, disabled, or deleted.

Our Agreement and What Happens if We Disagree

Our Agreement.

• If you use certain features or related services, you will be provided with an opportunity to agree to additional terms that will also become a part of our agreement. If any of those terms conflict with this agreement, those other terms will govern.
• If any aspect of this agreement is unenforceable, the rest will remain in effect.
• Any amendment or waiver to our agreement must be in writing and signed by us. If we fail to enforce any aspect of this agreement, it will not be a waiver.
• We reserve all rights not expressly granted to you.

Who Has Rights Under this Agreement.

• Our past, present, and future affiliates and agents, including My Little Pearls LLC, can invoke our rights under this agreement in the event they become involved in a dispute. Otherwise, this agreement does not give rights to any third parties.
• You cannot transfer your rights or obligations under this agreement without our consent.
• Our rights and obligations can be assigned to others. For example, this could occur if our ownership changes (as in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets) or by law.

Who Is Responsible if Something Happens.

• Our Service is provided “as is,” and we can’t guarantee it will be safe and secure or will work perfectly all the time. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE ALSO DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
• We also don’t control what people and others do or say, and we aren’t responsible for their (or your) actions or conduct (whether online or offline) or content (including unlawful or objectionable content). We also aren’t responsible for services and features offered by other people or companies, even if you access them through our Service.
• Our responsibility for anything that happens on the Service (also called “liability”) is limited as much as the law will allow. If there is an issue with our Service we can’t know what all the possible impacts might be. You agree that we won’t be responsible (“liable”) for any lost profits, revenues, information, or data, or consequential, special, indirect, exemplary, punitive, or incidental damages arising out of or related to these Terms, even if we know they are possible. This includes when we delete your content, information, or account. Our aggregate liability arising out of or relating to these Terms will not exceed the greater of $100 or the amount you have paid us in the past twelve months.
• You agree to defend (at our request), indemnify and hold us harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including without limitation, reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, arising out of or in any way connected with these Terms or your use of the Service. You will cooperate as required by us in the defense of any claim. We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, and you will not in any event settle any claim without our prior written consent.

How We Will Handle Disputes.

• Except as provided below, you and we agree that any cause of action, legal claim, or dispute between you and us arising out of or related to these Terms or Pearls (“claim(s)”) must be resolved by arbitration on an individual basis. Class actions and class arbitrations are not permitted; you and we may bring a claim only on your own behalf and cannot seek relief that would affect other Pearls users. If there is a final judicial determination that any particular claim (or a request for particular relief) cannot be arbitrated in accordance with this provision’s limitations, then only that claim (or only that request for relief) may be brought in court. All other claims (or requests for relief) remain subject to this provision.
• Instead of using arbitration, you or we can bring claims in your local “small claims” court, if the rules of that court will allow it. If you don’t bring your claims in small claims court (or if you or we appeal a small claims court judgment to a court of general jurisdiction), then the claims must be resolved by binding, individual arbitration. The American Arbitration Association will administer all arbitrations under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. You and we expressly waive a trial by jury.
  The following claims don’t have to be arbitrated and may be brought in court: disputes related to intellectual property (like copyrights and trademarks), violations of our Platform Policy, or efforts to interfere with the Service or engage with the Service in unauthorized ways (for example, automated ways). In addition, issues relating to the scope and enforceability of the arbitration provision are for a court to decide.
  This arbitration provision is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act.
  You can opt out of this provision within 30 days of the date that you agreed to these Terms. To opt out, you must send your name, residence address, username, email address or phone number you use for your Pearls account, and a clear statement that you want to opt out of this arbitration agreement, and you must send them here:

MY LITTLE PEARLS LLC
461 SANDY CREEK RD STE 41092 FAYETTEVILLE, GA 30214 

• Before you commence arbitration of a claim, you must provide us with a written Notice of Dispute that includes your name, residence address, username, email address or phone number you use for your Pearls account, a detailed description of the dispute, and the relief you seek. Any Notice of Dispute you send to us should be mailed to 

MY LITTLE PEARLS LLC
461 SANDY CREEK RD STE 41092 FAYETTEVILLE, GA 30214 

•  Before we commence arbitration, we will send you a Notice of Dispute to the email address you use with your Pearls account, or other appropriate means. If we are unable to resolve a dispute within thirty (30) days after the Notice of Dispute is received, you or we may commence arbitration.
• You will pay all arbitration filing fees, administration and hearing costs, and arbitrator fees for any arbitration we bring or if your claims seek less than $75,000 and you timely provided us with a Notice of Dispute. For all other claims, the costs and fees of arbitration shall be allocated in accordance with the arbitration provider’s rules, including rules regarding frivolous or improper claims.
• For any claim that is not arbitrated or resolved in small claims court, you agree that it will be resolved exclusively in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California or a state court located in Los Angeles County. You also agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of either of these courts for the purpose of litigating any such claim.
• The laws of the State of California, to the extent not preempted by or inconsistent with federal law, will govern these Terms and any claim, without regard to conflict of law provisions.

Unsolicited Material.

We always appreciate feedback or other suggestions, but may use them without any restrictions or obligation to compensate you for them, and are under no obligation to keep them confidential.

Updating These Terms

We may change our Service and policies, and we may need to make changes to these Terms so that they accurately reflect our Service and policies. Unless otherwise required by law, we will notify you (for example, through our Service) before we make changes to these Terms and give you an opportunity to review them before they go into effect. Then, if you continue to use the Service, you will be bound by the updated Terms. If you do not want to agree to these or any updated Terms, you can delete your account from the Pearls app.

Effective Date: May 13th, 2024.

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Community Guideline 

We want Pearls to be an authentic and safe place for inspiration and expression. Help us foster this community. Post only your own photos and videos and always follow the law. Respect everyone on Pearls, don’t spam people or post nudity.

Pearls is a reflection of our diverse community of cultures, ages, and beliefs. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the different points of view that create a safe and open environment for everyone.

We created the Community Guidelines so you can help us foster and protect this amazing community. By using Pearls, you agree to these guidelines and our Terms of Use. We’re committed to these guidelines and we hope you are too. Overstepping these boundaries may result in deleted content, disabled accounts, or other restrictions.

In some cases, we allow content for public awareness which would otherwise go against our Community Guidelines – if it is newsworthy and in the public interest. We do this only after weighing the public interest value against the risk of harm and we look to international human rights standards to make these judgments.

• Share only photos and videos that you’ve taken or have the right to share.
  As always, you own the content you post on Pearls. Remember to post authentic content, and don’t post anything you’ve copied or collected from the Internet that you don’t have the right to post. 
• Post photos and videos that are appropriate for a diverse audience.
  We know that there are times when people might want to share nude images that are artistic or creative in nature, but for a variety of reasons, we don’t allow nudity on Pearls. This includes photos, videos, and some digitally-created content that show sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of fully-nude buttocks. It also includes some photos of female nipples, but photos in the context of breastfeeding, birth giving and after-birth moments, health-related situations (for example, post-mastectomy, breast cancer awareness or gender confirmation surgery) or an act of protest are allowed. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is OK, too.
  People like to share photos or videos of their children. For safety reasons, there are times when we may remove images that show nude or partially-nude children. Even when this content is shared with good intentions, it could be used by others in unanticipated ways.
• Foster meaningful and genuine interactions.
  Help us stay spam-free by not artificially collecting likes, followers, or shares, posting repetitive comments or content, or repeatedly contacting people for commercial purposes without their consent. Don’t offer money or giveaways of money in exchange for likes, followers, comments or other engagement. Don’t post content that engages in, promotes, encourages, facilitates, or admits to the offering, solicitation or trade of fake and misleading user reviews or ratings.
  You don’t have to use your real name on Pearls, but we do require Pearls users to provide us with accurate and up to date information. Don’t impersonate others and don’t create accounts for the purpose of violating our guidelines or misleading others.
• Follow the law.
  Pearls is not a place to support or praise terrorism, organized crime, or hate groups. Offering sexual services, buying or selling firearms, alcohol, and tobacco products between private individuals, and buying or selling non-medical or pharmaceutical drugs are also not allowed. We also remove content that attempts to trade, co-ordinate the trade of, donate, gift, or ask for non-medical drugs, as well as content that either admits to personal use (unless in the recovery context) or coordinates or promotes the use of non-medical drugs. Pearls also prohibits the sale of live animals between private individuals, though brick-and-mortar stores may offer these sales. No one may coordinate poaching or selling of endangered species or their parts.
  Remember to always follow the law when offering to sell or buy other regulated goods. Accounts promoting online gambling, online real money games of skill or online lotteries must get our prior written permission before using any of our products.
  We have zero tolerance when it comes to sharing sexual content involving minors or threatening to post intimate images of others.
• Respect other members of the Pearls community.
  We want to foster a positive, diverse community. We remove content that contains credible threats or hate speech, content that targets private individuals to degrade or shame them, personal information meant to blackmail or harass someone, and repeated unwanted messages. We do generally allow stronger conversation around people who are featured in the news or have a large public audience due to their profession or chosen activities.
  It’s never OK to encourage violence or attack anyone based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disabilities, or diseases. When hate speech is being shared to challenge it or to raise awareness, we may allow it. In those instances, we ask that you express your intent clearly.
  Serious threats of harm to public and personal safety aren’t allowed. This includes specific threats of physical harm as well as threats of theft, vandalism, and other financial harm. We carefully review reports of threats and consider many things when determining whether a threat is credible.
• Maintain our supportive environment by not glorifying self-injury.
  The Pearls community cares for each other, and is often a place where people facing difficult issues such as eating disorders, cutting, or other kinds of self-injury come together to create awareness or find support. 
• Encouraging or urging people to embrace self-injury is counter to this environment of support, and we’ll remove it or disable accounts if it’s reported to us. We may also remove content identifying victims or survivors of self-injury if the content targets them for attack or humor.
• Be thoughtful when posting newsworthy events.
  We understand that many people use Pearls to share important and newsworthy events. Some of these issues can involve graphic images. Because so many different people and age groups use Pearls, we may remove videos of intense, graphic violence to make sure Pearls stays appropriate for everyone.
  We understand that people often share this kind of content to condemn, raise awareness or educate. If you do share content for these reasons, we encourage you to caption your photo with a warning about graphic violence. Sharing graphic images for sadistic pleasure or to glorify violence is never allowed.

Help us keep the community strong:

• Each of us is an important part of the Pearls community. If you see something that you think may violate our guidelines, please help us by using our built-in reporting option. We have a global team that reviews these reports and works as quickly as possible to remove content that doesn’t meet our guidelines. Even if you or someone you know doesn’t have a Pearls account, you can still file a report. When you complete the report, try to provide as much information as possible, such as links, usernames, and descriptions of the content, so we can find and review it quickly. We may remove entire posts if either the imagery or associated captions violate our guidelines.
• You may find content you don’t like, but doesn’t violate the Community Guidelines. If that happens, you can unfollow or report the person who posted it. If there’s something you don’t like in a comment on one of your posts, you can report that comment.
• Many disputes and misunderstandings can be resolved directly between members of the community. If one of your photos or videos was posted by someone else, you could try commenting on the post and asking the person to take it down. If that doesn’t work, you can file a copyright report. If you believe someone is violating your trademark, you can file a trademark report. Don’t target the person who posted it by posting screenshots and drawing attention to the situation because that may be classified as harassment.
• We may work with law enforcement, including when we believe that there’s risk of physical harm or threat to public safety.

For more information, check our Terms of Use.

Thank you for helping us create our Pearls community,

The Pearls Team

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