Terms of Service - CertiPhoto

Version 1.8 and later (Last modified on March 8th, 2022)

Definitions

Application : the CertiPhoto mobile application and its whole pages and screens.
Service : providing certified pictures from an Android or iOS terminal.
Product : the service that you can subscribe via an integrated in-app purchase.
Publisher : the owner, creator and editor of the application, responsible for developing and publishing it.
User : anyone using the application and/or purchasing product in the application (currently, you).
Store : the online download platform used by the Publisher to deliver the application.

Preamble

These terms of service are written in French and English. Only the French text will prevail.

Using the application causes full acceptance of these terms, which you specifically recognized. You should make sure therefore that you read them carefully before using the application. Whenever the provisions of these terms changes, the application will be updated on the Store. You are responsible for reviewing these terms each time you update the application.

To use the application, you must be 18 years of age or over. If you are under 18 and you wish to use the application, you must get consent from your parent or guardian before doing so.

About the Publisher

CertiPhoto is developed and edited by Mr. Pascal Eric Mayani.

Head office : Les Algorithmes Thalès B, 2000 route des Lucioles, 06410 Biot Sophia Antipolis, France
Registration number : 43823333000028
E-mail : contact@certi.photo

Purpose of the application

The application is intented to produce certified pictures by establishing a irrefutable cryptographic evidence of a particular visual situation at a particular time - and at a particular place when the technical conditions allow it. To this end, pictures taken with the application are not altered in any way, except for compression and resizing purposes. Pictures obtained are then encrypted, geolocated as far as possible, securely stored on a remote server and then sent by email to the user along with a certificate. This certificate is a signed and tamper-proof PDF/A-3B document, timestamped by a notorious trusted Publisherity, and containing the unique fingerprint of the picture.

Legal value

Under current European Union law, according to the Regulation EU No 910/2014 on electronic identification, the workflow and cryptographic measures implemented by the application and certification servers give the produced certificates a probative legal value. This probative value only applies in the member countries of the European Union. You can use the application in a country outside the EU, but in such a case the Publisher does not guarantee the legal value of these certificates.

Service and products features

The access to the service is only available to account holders. You can create an account for free when you first open the application. You can use this account on any terminal but only one ONE terminal at a time.

Your account provides access to the service and is strictly personal and not transferable.

You can access the list of your certificates issued during the last 36 months.

The proper functioning of the service is subject to specific technical conditions. The terminal used:
- Must have an Internet AND mobile network carrier connectivity during the entire duration of use, anytime you want to take a certified picture;
- Must have enough remaining power;
- Must get a GPS signal (if the picture has to be geolocated, which is not necessarily mandatory to make a legal evidence);
- Must run an operating system explicitly supported by the Publisher, correctly configured and with no software that could parasitize the application.

Geolocation (hence the postal address deducted from it) is not always an exact science. Precision depends on your terminal exposure, GPS signal quality, satellites positioning and so on. Same logic applies on the postal address transposition, which has to be checked by the user before sending the certification request.

Each certification request upload data to the certifications servers, usually from 500KB to 2MB. The transfer fees, if any, are supported solely by the user.

Picture are compressed to the best size/quality ratio. An upload time from 5 seconds to 10 minutes is considered normal, depending on:
- How the smartphone is connected to the Internet (wifi, 3G, 4G...);
- The CPU and network bandwith available for the application;
- The certification servers load and availability.

Above 30 minutes limit the upload will be rejected by the certification servers.

The final step of the certification process is an email containing the PDF certificate. In some cases, this email may be considered junk: you must therefore check the filters and configuration of your email software. In the event that the email is not delivered, you must contact the Publisher via the application.

The secure timestamp is provided by a third party company. The timezone is provided by your smartphone. The PDF internal timestamp data is provided according to the RFC 3161 norm from UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) along with the offset relative to the timezone of the smartphone.

To gain access to all the specific data of this document, you need to open it with the latest Acrobat Reader software.

Prices

The prices listed in the application through the IAB subsystem ("In-App Billing") are shown in Euros including VAT. Since the application is intended for users throughout the European Union, the VAT rates are passed on to prices directly from the Store, and can therefore vary from one country to another.

The Publisher can offer custom prices to any customer at any time. In such a case a quotation will be sent to the user according to his needs. Some additional Terms of Service may then apply.

Important! The Google and Apple IAB subsystems are not under the control of the Publisher, meaning he can NOT produce an invoice on their behalf. This page, among others, will give you more information.

All credits come with unlimited validity as long as the application is available on the Store.

The Publisher could change prices anytime, however the price on the date of the purchase shall only be applicable to the buyer.

Should the Service be definitely stopped, or the Publisher failed to fulfil its contractual obligations, you may ask for a unused credits refund by email request after a maximum delay of 30 days.

The Publisher can offer periodically free pictures (currently up to five each month, when the available credits are below this threshold) and remove this convenience without notice.

User's Liability

The Publisher grants you a personal and non-exclusive right to use the application for his own purposes. You are not allowed to make a financial profit from the application, except with the prior written permission of the Publisher.

You remain solely responsible for the pictures you take with the application. As a consequence, you need to make sure that your pictures does not abuses or infringes the law. The service processes pictures automatically and the Publisher is not 'a priori' informed about their content.

You agree, for security-related reasons, to use the most recent version of the application available from the official distribution channels (Play Store or App Store). For the same reasons, rooted devices are excluded except after a case-by-case analysis.

You undertakes to use the latest version of the application available on the Store, and use the service loyally within the strict purpose for which it was designed. You also undertakes to give, when creating or updating your account, your true identity and a valid e-mail address, otherwise the probative value of your picture certificates could be affected.

You are informed that any attempt to deceive the application, in order to produce in court a picture showing false facts, exposes you to prosecutions under art. 441-7 of the French Penal Code.

You must check the quality of each picture you take (brightness, framing, orientation, and so on) and ensure that the summary information are correct (date/time, location, comment), before starting the certification process. No claims will be accepted for any error or approximation which could have been avoided by your own attention.

You are not allowed to disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer, or otherwise attempt to gain access to the source code of the application. Every attempt to bypass security measures, either in the application or certification servers, will be detected and will result in the immediate closure of your account without notice, with no right to claim for any refund request. In addition, a complaint will be systematically filed under Art. 323-1 of the French Penal Code.

Publisher's Liability

The Publisher undertakes to use all reasonable means to provide the service to the user within the technical limits of the operated computer systems. Some of these systems are not under the control of the Publisher, in particular for the availability of third party services, such as the bandwidth of the hosting service or timestamp servers.

Due to the specificities of this type of service which is fully based on electronic solutions, the Publisher has an obligation of means. For example, in case of application or servers failure, either hardware or software-based, the Publisher will try to restore the service as soon as possible on a best effort basis, in the limit of his own time. This will not confer to the user a right to compensation for any reason whatsoever.

Limits of Liability

You agree to release the Publisher from any liability if, for any reason given by a judge or in case of overturned case-law, the evidence produced by CertiPhoto was deemed inadmissible despite all the technical measures involved.

Permanent Closure of Service

In the service has to be permanently closed, the subscription fees paid by the user may be subject to a refund for the unused credits, or prorated for the 1-year unlimited pack. The refund request must be notified by registered postal mail with acknowledgment of receipt within 7 days following the advice of permanent closure, which will take the form of an explicit update in the Store with 30 days notice.

Personal data / Privacy Policy

See this page.

Intellectual Property Rights

The "CertiPhoto" name and logos and all related names, trademarks, service marks, design marks and slogans are the trademarks or service marks of the Publisher.

All the pictures you take with the application remains your sole property, under your own Copyright.

If you're a professionnal, you grant the Publisher to use your logo on the app website with a link to your own website. You must therefore first ensure that you can give such a permission about the visual identity of your company. In case of conflict, the logo will be immediately removed upon simple request to the Publisher and all the associated accounts will be deleted.

Litigation / Applicable Law and Jurisdiction

The laws of France govern this terms of service and therefore your use of the application. However, depending on your nationality, your use of the application may also be subject to other national or international laws.

All disputes relating to these terms of service will be subject to the jurisdiction of the competent court of Grasse, France.

In case of dispute on the legal value of the picture certificates produced by the application, at the request of a judge and/or in the context of forensics expertise, the source code of the application software components, as well as its log files, will be opened so that the CertiPhoto information system can be audited. Security strings will be deciphered as well. This will be subject to a non-disclosure agreement. All costs incurred for this purpose remain the responsibility of the applicant.