Cogar Terms and Conditions

Cogar is provided by Cogar Technologies Ltd (IE), under licence from Busy Little Pixels (NL).

Business Address: COGAR TEICNEOLAÍOCHTA, VENTURE HUB, 136 CAPEL STREET, DUBLIN, D01 T2C9, IRELAND

Irish Company number: 804159

Contact email: cabhair@cogar.ie

For the purposes of these Terms, “Cogar” refers to the Service and to the company or business operating it.

To use Cogar, you must be old enough to lawfully use online services in your country of residence and to agree to these Terms.

You must not use Cogar if:

• you are under 16 years of age;
• you are prohibited from using the Service under applicable law;
• your account has previously been suspended or removed for serious or repeated violations, unless we have given you written permission to return.

In some countries or regions, we may be required to verify or estimate your age, restrict access to certain features, or prevent access to the Service for users under 16 years of age. Where age verification or age assurance is required, we will aim to use methods that are proportionate and compliant with applicable law.

If you provide false age information, we may suspend or terminate your account.

To use some or all features of Cogar, you may need to create an account.

You agree that:

• the information you provide during registration is accurate and up to date;
• you will not create an account using false, misleading, or impersonating information;
• you will not use another person’s account without permission;
• you will not create or operate an account primarily through artificial intelligence, a bot, or another non-human system;
• you are responsible for keeping your login details secure;
• you are responsible for activity that occurs through your account, unless the activity results from our failure to protect the Service.

Cogar is intended for real people. Where we reasonably suspect that an account is not operated by a real person — including suspected bot, artificial intelligence, or automated accounts — we may suspend, restrict, or remove that account immediately, without prior notice and without obligation to provide an explanation or appeal.

To protect the Cogar brand, where we reasonably suspect impersonation or misrepresentation of Cogar, Cogar staff, or any related official entity, handles, emails, display names, or account identities in question may be changed, reset, or removed without prior notice.

If you believe your account has been compromised, you should contact us immediately at cabhair@cogar.ie.

If you use Cogar on behalf of an organisation, company, public body, school, media outlet, or community group, you confirm that you have authority to act on that organisation’s behalf.

“User Content” means anything you post, upload, send, publish, share, or make available through Cogar. This may include posts, profile information, images, video, audio, comments, messages, links, usernames, display names, feedback, and other materials.

4.1 You Own Your Content

You retain ownership of the content you create and share on Cogar. We do not claim ownership of your User Content.

4.2 Your Responsibility

You are responsible for your User Content and for making sure that you have the necessary rights, permissions, licences, and consents to share it.

You must not post or share content that:

• infringes someone else’s copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights;
• is illegal, abusive, threatening, harassing, defamatory, hateful, exploitative, or sexually explicit;
• includes full-frontal nudity;
• involves child sexual exploitation or abuse, terrorist content, serious threats, or other priority illegal content;
• contains malware, scams, spam, or deceptive material;
• violates our Community Guidelines / House Rules;
• breaches any applicable law or regulation.

4.3 Licence You Give Cogar

By posting or sharing User Content on Cogar, you grant us a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, host, store, reproduce, display, adapt, and distribute that content only as needed to:

• operate, provide, and improve Cogar;
• display your content to other users according to your settings and the functionality of the Service;
• resize, format, transcode, preview, or adapt content for technical reasons, such as showing it properly on different devices;
• moderate content and enforce our rules;
• investigate abuse, security issues, legal requests, or technical problems;
• promote Cogar, but only in a reasonable way that does not misrepresent you or your content.

We will not sell your User Content without your permission.

4.4 Public Content

Some parts of Cogar may be public or visible to other users, depending on the feature and your settings. You should assume that public posts, profile information, usernames, display names, and other public activity may be seen, copied, shared, quoted, screenshotted, indexed, or discussed by others.

We cannot control what other users do with content that you choose to make public.

4.5 Private Messages

Cogar may provide direct messages, group messages, or similar private communication features. We will treat private messages in accordance with our Privacy Policy. However, private messages may still be subject to moderation, reporting, legal obligations, safety reviews, or technical processing where necessary.

Users who receive messages may report them, quote them, screenshot them, or share them outside Cogar. You should use private messaging responsibly.

4.6 Deleting Content

You may be able to delete some of your User Content through the app. If you delete content or delete your account, we will make reasonable efforts to remove or de-identify your content in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable law.

However, deletion may not be immediate or complete where:

• content has already been copied, quoted, screenshotted, cached, backed up, or shared by others;
• we need to retain limited information for legal, safety, security, fraud-prevention, or compliance reasons;
• retention is required to investigate rule violations, abuse, or legal claims.

4.7 Responsibility for User Content

You retain sole responsibility for any content you submit, post, or share on Cogar. We do not endorse, and expressly disclaim all liability in connection with, any user-generated content. By using this service, you agree to fully indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Cogar, its affiliates, and its employees from any claims, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including legal fees) arising from your content—including, but not limited to, claims of defamation, intellectual property infringement, or violation of any third-party rights. Furthermore, we reserve the right, but assume no obligation, to review, modify, or remove any content at our sole discretion and without prior notice.

Cogar is intended to be a safe and welcoming space for Irish-language users, learners, speakers, creators, organisations, and communities.

You agree to follow our Community Guidelines / House Rules. We may moderate content, accounts, groups, messages, or features where we believe there has been a violation of these Terms, our policies, or applicable law.

Moderation actions may include:

• removing or restricting content;
• adding warnings or labels;
• limiting reach or visibility;
• restricting access to features;
• suspending or terminating accounts;
• removing or suspending accounts where we reasonably suspect they are bots, artificial accounts, or otherwise non-human;
• reporting serious illegal content or offences to relevant authorities where appropriate or legally required.

We may use a combination of user reports, human review, automated systems, trusted flagger reports, law enforcement notices, and other safety signals to detect and respond to harmful, illegal, or prohibited content.

We prioritise action against serious illegal or harmful content, including child sexual exploitation and abuse, terrorist content, credible threats of violence, serious harassment, and other content that creates legal or safety risks.

We operate a zero-tolerance policy toward bad-faith actors. If we reasonably determine that an account is engaged in trolling, coordinated harassment, hate or extremist advocacy (including fascist content), inauthentic manipulation, spam operations, or other malicious behaviour, we may remove content, restrict features, or terminate the account immediately without prior notice.

Cogar may use feeds, search, recommendations, notifications, trending content, suggested accounts, location-based discovery, language-level preferences, or similar features to help users discover posts, people, groups, resources, events, media, or services.

These features may be influenced by factors such as:

• your selected language level or preferences;
• your activity on Cogar;
• content popularity or recency;
• accounts, topics, communities, or locations you interact with;
• safety, moderation, or quality signals;
• technical or editorial decisions made by Cogar.

We may update, test, adjust, or remove recommendation systems and discovery features at any time.

Where required by law, we will provide additional information about how recommender systems work and any choices you may have in relation to them.

Cogar may include links, previews, embedded references, logos, names, descriptions, or curated pathways to third-party websites, media, services, articles, videos, podcasts, organisations, events, apps, or other resources.

Third-party content remains the responsibility of the third party that provides it. Unless clearly stated otherwise:

• we do not own third-party content;
• we do not claim endorsement by third-party organisations;
• we do not guarantee the accuracy, availability, safety, legality, or quality of third-party content;
• your use of third-party websites or services is subject to their own terms, privacy policies, and rules.

Cogar uses PostHog in the app as a third-party analytics service to understand product usage and improve the Service.

When users share links to external websites, Cogar may display link previews, featured images, titles, descriptions, or other metadata supplied by those external sources (for example through Open Graph, oEmbed, or similar services). That preview content is fetched from third parties and is not uploaded or controlled by Cogar.

When users share URLs, preview cards may display meta images, featured images, thumbnails, or other preview visuals from those sources. Cogar is not responsible for those images — they are provided by other platforms or sources and may not reflect Cogar’s content policies.

• we are not responsible for featured images, titles, descriptions, or other metadata displayed in link previews from external sources;
• such preview content may be inaccurate, outdated, offensive, or otherwise unsuitable, and may change without notice;
• clicking a link takes you to the third-party site, which is governed by that site’s own terms and policies.

Cogar may curate links to Irish-language or culturally relevant content to help users discover useful resources. Curated linking does not mean that we republish, own, or control that third-party content.

If you are a rights holder and believe your rights are being infringed through Cogar, please contact us at eolas@cogar.ie with enough detail for us to review the issue.

Cogar, including its name, logos, branding, design, software, text, graphics, features, layout, databases, and other materials, is owned by us or licensed to us, unless otherwise stated.

You may not copy, modify, distribute, reverse engineer, scrape, resell, or exploit any part of Cogar except as allowed by these Terms, by applicable law, or with our written permission.

You may not use Cogar’s branding, logos, trade names, or visual identity in a way that suggests sponsorship, endorsement, partnership, or official approval unless we have given you permission.

If you send us ideas, suggestions, bug reports, improvements, feature requests, or other feedback, you agree that we may use them without payment or obligation to you.

You still own any underlying rights you may have in your feedback, but you grant us permission to use it to improve Cogar and related products or services.

You may report content, accounts, messages, or behaviour that you believe violates these Terms, our Community Guidelines / House Rules, or applicable law.

Reports may be submitted through in-app tools, email, or any other process we make available.

If we take action against your content or account, we may notify you where appropriate and where we are legally permitted to do so.

If your account or content is restricted, suspended, removed, or otherwise moderated, you may appeal by contacting us at cabhair@cogar.ie. Your appeal should include:

• your account details or handle;
• the content or decision you are appealing;
• why you believe the decision was incorrect;
• any relevant evidence or context.

We will review appeals in a reasonable manner. We may reject appeals that are abusive, repetitive, unfounded, incomplete, or submitted in bad faith.

If you are based in the EU or EEA, you may have additional rights under the Digital Services Act, including rights to internal complaint handling, out-of-court dispute settlement, and judicial remedy where applicable.

You may stop using Cogar at any time. You may be able to delete your account through the app or by contacting us.

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your account or access to features if:

• you violate these Terms or our policies;
• your conduct creates legal, safety, security, or reputational risk;
• we are required to do so by law, court order, regulator, platform provider, or other valid legal process;
• your account appears to be fraudulent, abusive, automated, compromised, or used for spam;
• we reasonably suspect the account is a bot, artificial account, or otherwise non-human;
• we reasonably determine that the account is being used in bad faith for trolling, coordinated harassment, extremist or fascist advocacy, inauthentic manipulation, or other malicious activity;
• continuing to provide access would harm Cogar, other users, or third parties.

Where we reasonably suspect that an account is a bot, artificial intelligence account, or otherwise non-human account, we reserve the right to remove, suspend, or restrict it immediately and at our sole discretion, even where we cannot fully confirm human ownership or operation.

In urgent safety or abuse situations, enforcement may be immediate and without prior notice.

After termination, some provisions of these Terms will continue to apply, including provisions relating to intellectual property, licences already granted, disclaimers, liability, disputes, and any obligations that by their nature should survive termination.

You must not use Cogar to:

• break the law or encourage others to break the law;
• harass, threaten, abuse, exploit, bully, or intimidate others;
• post sexually explicit material or full-frontal nudity where prohibited by our rules;
• share child sexual exploitation or abuse material, terrorist content, credible threats, or other serious illegal content;
• impersonate another person or organisation in a misleading way;
• spread malware, phishing attempts, scams, spam, or deceptive content;
• interfere with, overload, scrape, reverse engineer, or attack the Service;
• bypass moderation, security, rate limits, age restrictions, or access controls;
• collect personal data from other users without permission;
• use automated systems, bots, crawlers, or scripts without our permission;
• use Cogar in a way that harms the Service, users, or third parties.

Cogar is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We aim to provide a stable and useful service, but we do not guarantee that Cogar will always be available, uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or compatible with every device or operating system.

We may update, modify, suspend, remove, limit, or discontinue features at any time. We may also introduce new features, beta features, paid features, subscriptions, advertising, sponsorships, or commercial partnerships in the future.

Where a change materially affects your rights or obligations, we will try to provide reasonable notice where required or appropriate.

Some Cogar features may be offered as beta, test, experimental, pre-release, or early-access features.

These features may be incomplete, unstable, unavailable, changed, or removed without notice. You use beta features at your own risk. Feedback from beta users may be used to improve Cogar.

Cogar may in the future include paid services, subscriptions, donations, advertising, sponsorships, promoted content, offers, merchandise, or partnerships.

If we introduce paid features, additional terms may apply. We will make pricing, billing, renewal, cancellation, and refund information available where required.

Sponsored, promoted, or commercial content should be identified where required by law.

If you download Cogar through the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, TestFlight, Google Play testing, or another app distribution platform, your use of the app may also be subject to that platform’s terms, policies, and rules.

The app store provider is not responsible for Cogar, our content, our support, or our handling of your data, except as required by its own terms or applicable law.

You agree to comply with any applicable third-party platform rules when downloading, installing, updating, or using Cogar.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Cogar is provided without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory.

We do not guarantee that:

• the Service will meet your expectations;
• the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free;
• content on the Service will be accurate, complete, lawful, or reliable;
• harmful, offensive, or unwanted content will never appear;
• defects or errors will always be corrected;
• third-party content, links, or services will be available, safe, or accurate.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any rights you have under applicable law that cannot legally be excluded or limited.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Cogar and its owners, directors, employees, contractors, affiliates, and service providers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, loss of data, loss of goodwill, business interruption, or claims arising from user content or third-party content.

Our total liability for claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be limited to the amount you paid to us for the Service in the 12 months before the claim arose.

This limitation does not apply where liability cannot legally be limited or excluded, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, intentional misconduct, or other rights protected by mandatory law.

Where permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Cogar, its owners, directors, employees, contractors, affiliates, and service providers from claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, and expenses arising from:

• your use of Cogar;
• your User Content;
• your violation of these Terms or our policies;
• your violation of applicable law;
• your infringement of another person’s rights;
• misuse of your account caused by your failure to keep your login details secure.

We reserve the right to handle the defence of any claim that is subject to indemnification. You agree to cooperate with us where reasonably required.

These Terms are governed by the laws of Ireland and applicable European Union law, unless mandatory consumer protection laws in your country of residence require otherwise.

If a dispute arises, you agree to contact us first at cabhair@cogar.ie so that we can try to resolve the issue informally.

If the dispute cannot be resolved informally, it will be handled by the competent courts of Ireland, unless applicable law gives you the right to bring proceedings in another jurisdiction.

Nothing in these Terms limits your right to contact a regulator, consumer protection authority, data protection authority, Digital Services Coordinator, or court where applicable law gives you that right.

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make changes, we will update the “Last updated” date above.

If changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to notify you, such as through the app, website, email, or another appropriate method.

Your continued use of Cogar after updated Terms take effect means you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using Cogar.

If any part of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts will continue to apply.

Our failure to enforce any part of these Terms does not mean we waive our right to enforce it later.

You may not transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our permission. We may transfer our rights or obligations as part of a merger, acquisition, restructuring, sale of assets, legal requirement, or transfer of the Service to another operator.

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines / House Rules, and any other policies referenced in them, form the agreement between you and us regarding your use of Cogar.

For questions about these Terms, contact us at:

Email: cabhair@cogar.ie

Company: Cogar Technologies Ltd (IE), under licence from Busy Little Pixels (NL)

Address: COGAR TEICNEOLAÍOCHTA, VENTURE HUB, 136 CAPEL STREET, DUBLIN, D01 T2C9, IRELAND

For moderation, safety, or content reports, contact:

Moderation / Safety Email: cabhair@cogar.ie

For copyright, trademark, or rights-holder concerns, contact:

Rights / Legal Email: eolas@cogar.ie