Terms of Use

Last updated: 30 March 2026

These terms apply to your use of the Downshift mobile app and the website at dshft.com (together, “Downshift” or “the Service”).

By creating an account or using Downshift, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

We have written these terms in plain English wherever possible. Where legal precision requires specific language, we have kept it as clear as we can. These terms form a legally binding agreement between you and us.

1. Your Account

To use Downshift, you need to create an account using Apple Sign In, Google Sign In, or an email one-time passcode. You must provide accurate information during sign-up and keep it up to date.

You are responsible for keeping your account secure. This includes keeping your email account secure, since it is used for authentication. If you believe someone else has accessed your account, contact us immediately at help@dshft.com.

Age requirements: You must be at least 16 years old to use Downshift. We have set this minimum age because Downshift processes location data and user-generated content, and we believe users should be old enough to understand the privacy implications of sharing this information. If you are aged 16 or 17, you confirm that you have read and understood these terms, and that a parent or guardian is aware you are using the Service. We may ask you to verify your age at any time, and we may suspend your account if we have reasonable grounds to believe you are under 16.

One person, one account. Do not create multiple accounts, share your account with others, or transfer your account to someone else.

2. What You Can Do

Downshift lets you:

• Record journeys using your device’s GPS
• Upload photos of your journeys and vehicles
• Create a vehicle profile in your garage
• Follow other users and interact with their content
• Like and comment on journeys

We may add, change, or remove features over time. We will try to give reasonable notice for significant changes, but we are not obligated to maintain any specific feature.

3. Your Content

“Your content” means anything you create, upload, or share on Downshift — including journey data, photos, comments, your vehicle profile, and your profile information.

You own your content. We do not claim ownership of anything you post.

You give us a licence to use it. By posting content on Downshift, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable licence to host, store, display, reproduce, modify (for technical purposes such as resizing or format conversion), and distribute your content for the purpose of operating, promoting, and improving the Service. This licence continues for as long as your content is on Downshift and ends when you delete it, subject to:

• Reasonable backup and caching periods (typically up to 30 days)
• Any copies that other users may have made (e.g. screenshots) — we cannot control content once it has been viewed by others
• Aggregated or anonymised data derived from your content, which may be retained indefinitely

You are responsible for your content. You represent and warrant that:

• You have the right to post it (it is yours, or you have permission from the rights holder)
• It does not infringe anyone else’s intellectual property rights (copyright, trademark, patent, trade secrets)
• It does not violate anyone’s privacy or data protection rights
• It is not defamatory, obscene, or otherwise unlawful
• It is accurate (especially vehicle information)
• It complies with the Acceptable Use rules below

Content removal. We may remove or restrict access to content that violates these terms, applicable law, or that we are required to remove following a valid legal request. Where possible, we will notify you if we remove your content, with reasons.

4. Acceptable Use and Content Moderation

What you must not do

You agree not to:

• Post content that is illegal, abusive, threatening, defamatory, or discriminatory
• Harass, bully, or intimidate other users
• Impersonate another person or misrepresent your identity
• Post content that promotes, glorifies, or encourages dangerous or reckless driving
• Share content that sexualises minors, depicts child sexual abuse material (CSAM), or depicts gratuitous violence
• Post content that promotes terrorism, incites violence, or constitutes hate speech
• Use Downshift to spam, advertise, or promote commercial products without our permission
• Attempt to access other users’ accounts or private data
• Reverse-engineer, scrape, or interfere with the Service’s infrastructure
• Use automated tools (bots, scrapers) to interact with Downshift without our written permission
• Circumvent any security, rate-limiting, or access control measures
• Upload content that contains malware, viruses, or other harmful code
• Use Downshift in any way that could damage, disable, or impair the Service

How we moderate content

In accordance with the UK Online Safety Act 2023, we take the following approach to content safety:

• Reporting: Users can report content or accounts that they believe violate these terms. We provide in-app reporting tools to make this straightforward.
• Review: We review reported content promptly. Our target is to assess reports within 48 hours, though complex cases may take longer.
• Action: Where content violates these terms, we may remove the content, issue a warning to the user, restrict the user’s ability to post, temporarily suspend the account, or permanently ban the account. The action taken depends on the severity and frequency of the violation.
• Illegal content: We will remove illegal content as soon as we become aware of it. We will report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to the National Crime Agency (NCA) and cooperate with law enforcement as required.
• Appeals: If we take action against your content or account and you believe we made an error, you can appeal by contacting help@dshft.com. We will review your appeal and respond within 14 days. Appeals are reviewed by someone who was not involved in the original decision.
• Transparency: We may publish periodic transparency reports detailing the volume and types of content we have removed, in line with our obligations under the Online Safety Act.

Priority illegal content

We treat the following categories of content as requiring immediate removal without prior notice to the poster:

• Child sexual exploitation and abuse material
• Content promoting terrorism
• Content inciting violence against individuals or groups
• Content facilitating the sale of illegal drugs, weapons, or other prohibited items
• Intimate images shared without consent (“revenge porn”)
• Content that constitutes fraud or financial crime

5. Journey Data and Location

Downshift records GPS location data when you choose to record a journey. This data includes your route, distance, and duration.

Consent and control: Location recording only happens when you actively start a journey recording. Downshift does not track your location in the background or when you are not recording a journey. You can stop recording at any time. You control which journeys you share publicly and which you keep private.

Privacy masking: The first and last 200 metres of each journey are automatically hidden when shared publicly. This is designed to protect your home and frequent locations. However, you should be aware that:

• GPS data may still reveal patterns about your location over time
• Privacy masking cannot protect against all re-identification risks
• You should exercise your own judgement about what journey data to share

Speed data: Downshift captures speed as part of GPS data processing. This data is stored internally for journey accuracy and route processing purposes only. We do not display speed data to any user (including the journey owner), we do not rank users by speed, and we do not create speed-based leaderboards or comparisons. Downshift is not a tool for measuring, recording, or comparing driving speed. Speed data is not included in data exports.

GPS accuracy disclaimer: GPS data is inherently imprecise. Route, distance, and duration figures are approximations and should not be relied upon for any purpose requiring accuracy, including but not limited to navigation, insurance claims, legal proceedings, or vehicle odometer verification.

Your responsibility: You are responsible for recording journeys safely and legally. Do not interact with the app while driving. Set up your journey before you start driving and end it after you stop. You must comply with all applicable road traffic laws in your jurisdiction. We are not responsible for any fines, penalties, accidents, or injuries resulting from app usage while driving.

6. Photos and Media

You can upload photos to Downshift as part of your journey records, vehicle profile, and user profile. Photos are stored on our infrastructure.

By uploading a photo, you confirm that:

• You took the photo, or you have the right holder’s permission to share it
• The photo does not contain content that violates the Acceptable Use rules
• If the photo includes identifiable people, you have their consent to share it on a public platform
• The photo does not contain number plates or other identifying information that you do not have consent to share

We may process photos for storage (resizing, compression, format conversion) but we will not alter the substantive content of your photos. We do not use your photos to train machine learning models.

Takedown requests: If you believe a photo on Downshift infringes your copyright, depicts you without your consent, or otherwise violates your rights, you can request its removal by contacting help@dshft.com with:

• A description of the content and where it appears
• An explanation of why it should be removed
• Your contact details
• A statement that you believe in good faith that the content should be removed

We will review takedown requests within 7 days and notify both the requester and the uploader of the outcome.

7. Intellectual Property

Our intellectual property

The Downshift name, logo, visual design, user interface, and underlying software are our intellectual property (or licensed to us). All rights are reserved. You may not:

• Use the Downshift name, logo, or branding without written permission
• Copy, modify, or create derivative works of the app or its design
• Decompile, reverse-engineer, or disassemble the app’s software, except to the extent permitted by applicable law (including the Computer Programs Directive as retained in UK law)

Open source

Downshift uses open source components, each subject to their own licences. A list of third-party licences is available in the app settings.

Copyright infringement

If you believe that content on Downshift infringes your copyright, please notify us at help@dshft.com with:

• Identification of the copyrighted work
• Identification of the infringing content on Downshift
• Your contact information
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use is not authorised
• A statement that the information is accurate and that you are the rights holder or authorised to act on their behalf

We will respond to valid copyright notices within 14 days.

8. Third-Party Services

Downshift uses third-party services to operate. By using Downshift, you acknowledge that your data may be processed by these services in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which lists the specific services we use, what data they process, and the legal basis for each.

We choose our third-party providers carefully and enter into data processing agreements where required. However, we are not responsible for their service availability or their handling of data beyond what we control. If a third-party service experiences a data breach, we will notify affected users as described in our Privacy Policy.

9. Premium Features

We may introduce premium features or subscription tiers in the future. If we do:

• Free features available at the time you created your account will remain free, unless we give at least 90 days’ notice
• Premium subscriptions will be managed through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, and their refund policies will apply
• You can cancel a subscription at any time through your device’s app store settings
• We will clearly distinguish between free and premium features

10. Platform Availability

We aim to keep Downshift available and reliable, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free access. The Service may be temporarily unavailable due to:

• Scheduled maintenance (we will try to give advance notice via the app or our social media channels)
• Unscheduled maintenance or emergency fixes
• Third-party service outages beyond our control
• Force majeure events (natural disasters, acts of government, etc.)

We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from Service unavailability.

11. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms from time to time. When we do:

• Material changes: We will notify you at least 30 days in advance through the app (via an in-app notification), by email, or both. Material changes include changes to your rights, our liability, how we handle your content, or any change that could significantly affect your use of the Service.
• Minor changes: For clarifications, formatting, or changes that do not materially affect your rights, we may update the terms and note the change in the “Last updated” date.
• Your options: If you do not agree with material changes, you may delete your account before the changes take effect. Your continued use of Downshift after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

We will maintain an archive of previous versions of these terms, available on request.

12. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

• Downshift is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement
• We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, or that any data (including GPS data) will be accurate or reliable
• We are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of, or inability to use, the Service
• Our total aggregate liability to you for any claims arising from or related to the Service is limited to the greater of: (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months immediately preceding the claim, or (b) GBP 100

Preserved consumer rights: Nothing in these terms excludes or limits:

• Our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence
• Our liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation
• Our liability for breach of the terms implied by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (including sections relating to digital content)
• Any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law

Your statutory rights as a consumer are not affected by these terms.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to:

• Your use of the Service in violation of these terms
• Your content, including any claim that your content infringes a third party’s intellectual property or other rights
• Your violation of any applicable law or regulation
• Your use of location data recorded through the Service

This indemnification obligation does not apply to the extent that the claim arises from our own negligence, wilful misconduct, or breach of these terms. Nothing in this section requires you to indemnify us for losses arising from our failure to comply with our obligations under applicable data protection law.

14. Account Suspension and Termination

You can leave at any time

You can delete your account through the app settings at any time. When you do:

• Your profile, journeys, photos, and social activity will be removed from public view immediately
• Your personal data will be deleted in accordance with our Privacy Policy (within 30 days, with backup retention of up to 90 days)
• You can request a data export before deleting your account

We can suspend or terminate your account

We may suspend or terminate your account if:

• You materially or repeatedly violate these terms
• We are required to do so by law, regulation, or a court order
• Your account has been inactive for more than 24 months (we will notify you by email before doing so)
• We discontinue the Service (see below)

Suspension process: For non-urgent violations, we will generally:

1. Notify you of the violation and give you an opportunity to remedy it
2. If the violation continues or is serious, suspend your account with an explanation
3. For permanent termination, provide at least 14 days’ notice where possible, during which you can export your data

Exceptions: We may suspend or terminate your account immediately and without prior notice for:

• Posting illegal content (as defined in Section 4)
• Activity that poses a safety risk to other users
• Activity that could create legal liability for us
• Fraud or other criminal activity

Appeals

If your account is suspended or terminated and you believe this was an error, you can appeal by emailing help@dshft.com within 30 days. Your appeal should explain why you believe the decision was wrong. We will review your appeal and respond within 14 days. Appeals are reviewed by someone who was not involved in the original decision.

Service discontinuation

We may discontinue the Service with at least 90 days’ notice. If we do, we will:

• Notify all users by email and in-app notification
• Provide a way for you to export your data (journey records, photos, profile information)
• Continue to handle your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy after shutdown

15. Disputes and Governing Law

These terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes arising from or in connection with these terms or your use of the Service will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

Informal resolution first: If you have a complaint or dispute, please contact us first at help@dshft.com. We will make a genuine effort to resolve it directly. Most issues can be resolved informally within 14 days.

Nothing in this section limits your right to bring a claim in the courts of your country of residence if you are a consumer, or to refer a complaint to the relevant regulatory authority.

16. General Provisions

• Entire agreement: These terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding your use of the Service.
• Severability: If any provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.
• No waiver: Our failure to enforce any provision of these terms does not constitute a waiver of that provision or our right to enforce it in the future.
• Assignment: We may assign our rights and obligations under these terms to a third party (for example, in connection with incorporation or a change of business structure). You may not assign your rights under these terms without our written consent.
• Third-party rights: These terms do not confer any rights on any third party under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

17. Contact

If you have questions about these terms:

• Email: help@dshft.com
• Website: dshft.com

These terms were last reviewed on 30 March 2026.