Terms of Service

These terms are an agreement between you and Jerk Alert LLC ("Jerk Alert", "we", "us") covering the Jerk Alert app and jerkalert.org (the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service, you accept them. If you don't agree, don't use Jerk Alert.

1. Who can use Jerk Alert

You must be at least 18. One account per person. You're responsible for everything done through your account, so keep your phone number current and don't let anyone else use it. We may refuse or close accounts at our discretion.

2. What Jerk Alert is

Jerk Alert is a community log of driving behavior. Members post Alerts (bad behavior) and Tips of the Hat (good behavior) about a license plate at a place and time, using a fixed list of categories and a 1–5 Jerk Level. There is no free-text field — you choose from structured options. Alerts are personal observations and opinions, not verified facts, and not statements by Jerk Alert.

4. What a report contains

A report is a plate, a state, a location chosen from our database, a category from a fixed list, and a 1–5 Jerk Level. There is no free-text field and no photo attachment — by design. Nothing you submit can name, describe, or picture a person.

5. Reporting, blocking, and enforcement

Every Alert has a Flag control, and every member can be blocked from your view. We review flagged content and aim to act — hiding it, deleting it, or banning the account — within 5 business days of the report. Content that reaches a flag threshold is hidden automatically pending review. If we remove something of yours you believe was fine, email support@jerkalert.org and a human will look again.

6. Removal requests

If you believe an Alert about your vehicle is false, harassing, or otherwise breaks these terms, email support@jerkalert.org with the plate and the date. We aim to review within 5 business days, with priority given to claims of harassment or safety risks.

Copyright — Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Jerk Alert accepts no photos, no video, and no free text, so member submissions cannot carry copyrighted material. If you nonetheless believe material on the Service infringes a copyright you own, send a written notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. § 512(c), to support@jerkalert.org with "DMCA" in the subject line.

To be effective, your notice must include: (1) your physical or electronic signature; (2) identification of the copyrighted work you claim was infringed; (3) identification of the material you claim is infringing, with information reasonably sufficient for us to locate it; (4) your name, address, telephone number, and email address; (5) a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (6) a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the owner's behalf. We remove or disable material identified in a valid notice, notify the member who posted it, and accept counter-notifications under 17 U.S.C. § 512(g). Accounts of repeat infringers are terminated. Knowingly material misrepresentations in a notice or counter-notification may make you liable for damages under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f).

7. Safety — this matters

Jerk Alert is a record, not a confrontation tool. Do not use it to follow, approach, confront, threaten, or retaliate against another driver, or to identify who owns a vehicle. Do not post while driving. If you are in danger, call your local emergency number, not us.

8. Your account and content

You keep whatever rights you have in what you post. You grant Jerk Alert LLC a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, and distribute what you post, in the app and on jerkalert.org, and to include it in aggregate figures such as a plate's Erk Meter. The license lasts as long as the content is on the Service — including in anonymized form after you delete your account — plus the 30-day moderation copy described in the Privacy Policy. You confirm you have the right to post it and that it doesn't break section 3. You can delete individual Alerts, or your whole account, from the app or from the deletion page. When you delete your account, your Alerts are anonymized unless you ask us to delete them.

9. Our rights

We may change, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service; remove content; and suspend or terminate accounts that break these terms, without notice where the situation calls for it. The Jerk Alert name, logo, mascot, and site design belong to Jerk Alert LLC — don't use them without written permission.

10. Free service, no ads

Jerk Alert is free, contains no advertising, and has no in-app purchases. If that ever changes, these terms will be updated first.

11. Disclaimers

The service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. Content is posted by members. Jerk Alert does not verify Alerts, does not endorse them, and makes no representation that any Alert is accurate, complete, or current. Do not rely on the service for decisions about a person's character, employment, insurance, or safety.

12. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Jerk Alert LLC and its members, officers, and contractors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, goodwill, or reputational harm, arising out of your use of the service or content posted on it. Our total liability for any claim relating to the service will not exceed one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).

13. Indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Jerk Alert LLC from claims, damages, and costs (including reasonable legal fees) arising from content you post or your use of the Service in breach of these terms.

14. Disputes — informal resolution, then binding individual arbitration

Please read this section carefully. It changes how claims between you and Jerk Alert LLC are resolved: it requires individual arbitration instead of a court trial, and it waives your right to a jury and to participate in a class action. It contains a 30-day opt-out.

Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Mexico, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this arbitration agreement.

Talk to us first. Before starting an arbitration or filing anything, email support@jerkalert.org describing the problem and what you want — most problems are solved in a day, and we ask for 60 days to try. If you're seeking removal of an Alert, this is faster than any legal process.

Binding individual arbitration. If we can't resolve it informally, any dispute, claim, or controversy between you and Jerk Alert LLC arising out of or relating to these terms, the Service, your account, or content posted on the Service — whether based in contract, tort, defamation, privacy, statute, or any other theory, and whether it arose before or after these terms took effect — will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, and not in court. The AAA's rules and forms are at adr.org. A single arbitrator decides the dispute, including any question about the scope, enforceability, or applicability of this arbitration agreement. The arbitration may be conducted by documents, telephone, or video at your election, or in person in the county where you live. The arbitrator's award is final and binding, and judgment on it may be entered in any court with jurisdiction. Nothing here prevents either of us from bringing a matter to the attention of a federal, state, or local agency.

Class-action and jury-trial waiver. Arbitration will be conducted only on an individual basis. You and Jerk Alert LLC each waive any right to a jury trial and any right to bring, join, or participate in a class, collective, consolidated, coordinated, mass, private-attorney-general, or other representative action, or to serve as a class representative or class member. Claims of more than one user cannot be arbitrated or litigated together. The arbitrator may award relief only in favor of the individual party seeking relief, and only to the extent necessary to resolve that party's individual claim. If a court decides this waiver is unenforceable as to a particular claim or a particular request for relief, that claim or request will be severed and heard only in the New Mexico courts named below, and the rest of this section continues to apply to everything else.

Exceptions. Either of us may bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies. Either of us may also go to court for injunctive or other equitable relief over misuse of intellectual property, unauthorized access to the Service, scraping, vote manipulation, or ban evasion.

Your 30-day right to opt out. You may reject this arbitration agreement by emailing support@jerkalert.org with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out" and the phone number on your account, within 30 days of first accepting these terms. Opting out affects nothing else in these terms, and we won't close your account for it.

If arbitration doesn't apply. If you opt out, or if this arbitration agreement is found not to apply to a claim, that claim will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in New Mexico, and you and we consent to that jurisdiction and venue.

Fees. Arbitration fees are governed by the AAA's Consumer Arbitration Rules; where those rules require it, we pay the filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees for claims under $10,000 that are not frivolous.

Mass filings. If 25 or more demands for arbitration raising similar claims are filed by or with the assistance of the same counsel or coordinated counsel, the AAA's Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules and its Mass Arbitration Fee Schedule apply.

If we change this section. If we materially change this section 14, the change applies only to claims arising after the new version takes effect, and you may reject the change using the opt-out above within 30 days of notice.

15. Apple App Store and Google Play

If you obtained the Jerk Alert app from the Apple App Store or Google Play, the following applies to that app and controls over anything inconsistent elsewhere in these terms:

• These terms are between you and Jerk Alert LLC only — not with Apple Inc. or Google LLC. Jerk Alert LLC, not the store, is solely responsible for the app and its content.
• Your license is a non-transferable license to use the app on any device you own or control, as permitted by the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions or the Google Play Terms of Service, whichever applies.
• Apple and Google have no obligation to furnish any maintenance or support for the app. Support requests go to support@jerkalert.org.
• If the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price (the app is free, so any refund is zero). To the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation whatsoever, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, or expenses attributable to a failure to conform to a warranty are Jerk Alert LLC's responsibility.
• Jerk Alert LLC, not Apple or Google, is responsible for addressing any claim by you or a third party relating to the app, including product-liability claims, claims that the app fails to conform to a legal or regulatory requirement, claims under consumer-protection or privacy law, and any claim that the app or your use of it infringes a third party's intellectual property rights.
• You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated as "terrorist supporting", and that you are not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• Apple Inc. and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you as a user of the app. Google LLC is likewise a third-party beneficiary to the extent required by the Google Play Terms of Service. You acknowledge that you have read, understood, and accept this.

16. Law enforcement and legal process

We may preserve, and disclose, account and report data — including your phone number, timestamps, connection and device information, and the contents of Alerts and Tips of the Hat — when we reasonably believe we are required to do so by a subpoena, court order, search warrant, or other valid legal process, or where disclosure is reasonably necessary to investigate a violation of these terms, to establish or exercise our legal rights, to defend against a legal claim, or to prevent imminent harm to any person. Jerk Alert LLC reserves the right to cooperate with law enforcement in those circumstances. Where the law permits and it isn't a safety risk, we try to notify the affected member first. This section does not require us to keep data for any longer than our Privacy Policy states, and it does not make our records a verified account of anyone's driving.

17. Changes to these terms

We'll post the updated terms with a new date and, for material changes, notify you in the app before they take effect. Continuing to use Jerk Alert after that means you accept them.

18. Miscellaneous

If a provision is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Our not enforcing a provision isn't a waiver of it. Sections 11–14 and 16 survive the closure or deletion of your account. You may not assign these terms or transfer your account; we may assign these terms as part of a sale, merger, or reorganization of Jerk Alert LLC. These terms, plus the Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between us about the Service.

Contact

Jerk Alert LLC, a New Mexico limited liability company · support@jerkalert.org