Terms of Service
Effective date: 1 September 2026
SOS Connect is not an emergency service. If you are in immediate danger or experiencing a life-threatening emergency, call 911 or your local emergency number. SOS Connect coordinates community relief. It does not dispatch emergency responders and cannot guarantee that any request receives a response.
1. Who we are and what these terms cover
SOS Connect (the "Service") is a disaster-relief coordination platform operated by SOS Global Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 33-2797387, 149 Weaver Blvd #127, Weaverville, NC 28787).
These terms govern your use of the Service — the website at sosconnect.org and the coordination tools it provides. By using the Service you agree to them.
2. The Service
The Service connects people affected by disasters with volunteers, relief partners, and coordinators. Requests for help are logged, routed, and tracked. Helpers and partner organizations respond as they are able.
SOS Global facilitates coordination. It does not employ, supervise, or vouch for individual helpers, and it does not itself provide relief goods or services unless expressly stated.
The Service is free to the people who use it to ask for or offer help, and it will remain so.
3. Eligibility and accounts
You must be at least 18 years old to create an account.
You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide and for everything done under your account.
Coordinators, partners, and volunteers agree to use access to other people's information only for coordinating relief — never for solicitation, recruitment, harassment, research, or any purpose outside the Service's mission. Access to a person's contact details is recorded, and misuse is grounds for immediate removal.
4. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- submit false or misleading requests, offers, or reports
- misrepresent your identity, affiliation, or capacity to help
- harvest, export, copy, or otherwise misuse personal information of people on the platform
- contact people you encountered through the Service for any purpose other than the relief being coordinated
- interfere with the operation or security of the Service
- use the Service for any unlawful purpose
We may suspend or remove accounts that put people at risk, and we will do so without notice where someone's safety is involved.
5. Volunteers and partner organizations
Volunteers and partner organizations act independently, at their own risk, and on their own judgment.
SOS Global does not perform background checks. Where the Service shows that an organization or person is "vetted," that reflects a coordinator's review of the information available to them at that time. It is not an endorsement, a certification, or a guarantee about any person or organization, and it should not be relied on as one.
Where the Service displays an SOS score, it reflects a record of coordination that was confirmed by the people who received help. It is a description of past activity, not a prediction and not a recommendation.
Use your own judgment before accepting help from, or providing help to, anyone you meet through this Service.
6. Requests made on behalf of others
A coordinator or partner may log a request on behalf of someone else. If you do this, you are confirming that the person asked you to, or that circumstances reasonably require it, and that the information you provide about them is accurate to the best of your knowledge.
The record belongs to the person it is about, not to the person who entered it. They may ask to see it, correct it, or have it removed.
7. Content you provide
You keep ownership of what you submit. You grant SOS Global the right to store, display, and process it as needed to operate the Service and coordinate relief.
Do not submit anything you do not have the right to share, and do not submit personal information about another person unless section 6 applies.
8. Partner organizations
Partner organizations connecting their own systems to the Service keep ownership of their data. We do not write to a partner's system of record, and we access only the information that partner has authorized for coordination.
9. Privacy
The Service handles sensitive personal information — names, contact details, locations, and the circumstances of people seeking help. How we collect, use, and protect it is described in our Privacy Policy.
10. Disclaimers
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied.
We do not warrant that requests will be answered, that information posted by users is accurate, or that the Service will be uninterrupted — particularly during the disasters it is built for, when networks fail and systems are under load.
11. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, SOS Global Inc., its directors, employees, and volunteers are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss or injury arising from interactions between users of the Service, from relief provided or not provided, or from reliance on information on the Service.
[For counsel: consider a liability cap and any jurisdiction-specific carve-outs, noting that the Service is provided free of charge.]
12. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless SOS Global Inc. from claims arising out of your use of the Service, your violation of these terms, or your violation of any rights of another person.
13. Termination
You may stop using the Service at any time.
We may suspend or terminate access at our discretion, including for conduct that violates these terms or endangers others.
Sections that by their nature should survive termination — disclaimers, limitation of liability, and indemnification — survive.
14. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms as the Service evolves. Material changes will be posted on this page with a new effective date. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated terms.
15. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Buncombe County, North Carolina.
[For counsel: confirm venue and consider whether an informal-resolution step is appropriate before litigation.]
16. Contact
Questions about these terms: team@sosconnect.org