1. Acceptance of Terms
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Dowser walking discovery app, the Dowser WearOS companion, and the website at dowser.buildaffect.com (together, the "Service"), all operated by Ayten ("we", "our", or "us") from the District of Columbia, United States.
By accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
2. Description of the Service
Dowser is a walking discovery app. You select a theme, the Service generates a scored walking route to an interesting destination near you, and you navigate to it using a directional arrow and haptic feedback. By default no map is shown.
The Service offers fourteen themes covering different walking moods: cafes, culture, nightlife, outdoors, food, shopping, scenic, wellness, crafts, drinking, family, history, markets, and romance.
You should understand that:
- Routes are algorithmically generated suggestions, not guaranteed paths.
- Venue availability, hours, prices, and conditions can change at any time and are outside our control.
- The Service requires an active internet connection for route generation and active GPS for navigation.
- Dowser is a discovery tool, not a turn-by-turn navigation app, a safety device, or an emergency service.
3. WearOS Companion
The Dowser WearOS app is a free companion to the phone app. It requires a paired Android phone running Dowser; it does not function as a standalone product. Settings and route state are synchronised locally between the paired watch and phone.
4. Accounts and Authentication
You must sign in with an email and password or with a Google account to use the Service. By creating or using an account, you agree to:
- Provide accurate information
- Keep your sign-in credentials secure
- Notify us promptly of any unauthorised access
- Accept responsibility for all activity under your account
One account per person. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.
5. Acceptable Use
You may use the Service for personal, non-commercial walking discovery, for rating destinations, and for syncing preferences between Dowser and the Ayten travel itinerary app.
You agree not to:
- Use the Service for any commercial purpose without our prior written permission
- Scrape, crawl, or otherwise harvest data from the Service or its APIs
- Resell, redistribute, or sublicense any data obtained from the Service, including destination data, route data, or recommendation outputs
- Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the underlying algorithms or source code
- Abuse rate limits, attempt to overload our systems, or interfere with the Service or its providers
- Impersonate another person or misrepresent your identity
- Use the Service in any jurisdiction or location where walking activity, GPS use, or use of the Service is restricted by law
- Use the Service in any way that violates applicable law, regulation, or third-party rights
6. Walking and Personal Safety
By using the Service you acknowledge that:
- You are solely responsible for your own safety while walking any route.
- You will obey all traffic laws and pay attention to your surroundings, especially at crossings and in traffic.
- You will not stare at your device while walking. Dowser is designed precisely so that you do not have to.
- Routes may pass through areas you do not know. You must use your own judgement about whether any given route, area, or time of day is appropriate for you.
- Dowser does not screen routes for crime, hazards, surface conditions, accessibility, or any other risk factor.
7. Intellectual Property
The Service — including the Dowser app, the WearOS companion, the website, the underlying algorithms and infrastructure, the user interface, the design, and the Dowser brand — is owned by Ayten and is protected by intellectual property laws.
You retain rights to the user-generated content you submit, including your destination ratings, your "Signal" votes for cities and locales, and any free-text feedback. By submitting that content, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, and use it for the purpose of operating, securing, and improving the Service and the related Ayten preference system.
Point-of-interest data within the Service is sourced from third-party providers and is subject to those providers' terms.
8. Pricing
The Service is currently offered free of charge. We reserve the right to introduce paid features, subscriptions, or other monetisation in the future. Where we do, we will give reasonable advance notice in-app and on this page, and any paid feature will be subject to additional terms presented at the time of purchase.
9. Third-Party Services
The Service depends on third-party providers including Firebase (Google), Mapbox, Google Places, and Amazon Web Services. Outages, errors, rate limiting, or policy changes by these providers can affect the Service. Your use of features powered by these providers is also subject to their own terms and policies.
10. Disclaimer of Warranties
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY. AYTEN AND ITS SUPPLIERS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, AND QUIET ENJOYMENT.
Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, we specifically disclaim any warranty that:
- Routes will be safe, pleasant, accessible, lawful for you, or suitable for your circumstances
- GPS coordinates, headings, distances, or arrival detection will be accurate
- Venue information will be current, complete, or correct
- Recommendations will match your preferences
- Locale or city data will be complete or up to date
- The Service or any third-party API it depends on will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free
You assume all risk associated with using walking directions outdoors and with your reliance on any output of the Service.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of these exclusions may not apply to you. In that case, the excluded warranties apply only to the minimum extent required by law.
11. Limitation of Liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL AYTEN, ITS AFFILIATES, OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, GOODWILL, DATA, OR USE, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE, THESE TERMS, OR YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
The Service is offered free of charge. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms is zero United States dollars (US $0). Where applicable law requires a non-zero cap, our total aggregate liability is limited to the greater of (a) US $0 or (b) the amount you actually paid us for the Service in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim, which today is US $0.
Without limiting the foregoing, we are not liable for any injury, accident, property damage, harm, loss, or harassment arising from following a Dowser route, from any venue you visit, from inaccurate or stale venue information, from third-party API outages or errors (including Mapbox, Google, Firebase, or AWS), from any recommendation we make, or from any locale data inaccuracy.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In those jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the minimum extent required by law.
12. Indemnity
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Ayten and its affiliates, officers, employees, and suppliers from and against any claims, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your use of the Service, your user-generated content, or your violation of these Terms or applicable law.
13. Termination
You may stop using the Service at any time by uninstalling the app and may request deletion of your account and personal data as described in the Privacy Policy.
We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without cause and with or without notice, including for violation of these Terms. Upon termination, your right to use the Service ends. Sections 5 (Acceptable Use) through 16 (Governing Law and Forum), and any other provision that by its nature is intended to survive termination, will continue in effect.
14. Changes to the Service and to These Terms
We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time. We may also update these Terms. Material changes will be announced in-app and reflected on this page with a new "Last updated" date. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.
15. Severability and Waiver
If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be deemed a waiver of that right or provision.
16. Governing Law and Forum
These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service are governed by the laws of the District of Columbia, United States, without regard to its conflict of law principles. The exclusive forum for any such dispute is the federal or local courts located in Washington, District of Columbia, and you and we consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.
17. Entire Agreement
These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Ayten regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreement on that subject.
18. Contact
Questions about these Terms should be sent to:
Email: privacy@ayten.app