Terms of Service

Last updated 2026-05-20. By using MugShotter you accept these terms. The Data Sharing Agreement signed during firm onboarding takes precedence over any conflict here for processing of detainee data.

1. Eligibility

The service is provided exclusively to PSIRA-registered private-security firms operating in South Africa, and to their authorised employees. Individuals may register a "Personal" plan for evaluation and lookup of incidents they have themselves been involved in as a security operator.

2. Acceptable use

• Submit a face record only after lawful detention of a person on a site where you have arrest authority (Trespass Act 6 of 1959 + common-law arrest).
• Do not submit photographs of bystanders, employees, customers, or members of the public who have not been detained.
• Do not use the service for stalking, harassment, debt collection, or any purpose other than the lawful investigation and prevention of property crime.
• Display the capture-point notice (available at /popia/notice) at every site where you operate the bot.
• Brief your guards on this Agreement and the capture-point notice before granting them bot access.

3. Prohibited use

• Mass surveillance or scan-before-detention deployment.
• Sharing your account credentials or bot access with non-employees.
• Attempting to circumvent the cross-firm field-projection rules (we project only summary data cross-firm; do not screenshot and re-share internal notes).
• Reverse-engineering, decompiling, or attacking the service.
• Use by political parties, governmental agencies, intelligence services, or for any non-criminal-investigation purpose.

4. Subscription + payments

Pricing is in ZAR, monthly, billed in advance via our payment processor (Yoco). You may cancel at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. We do not refund partial months.

If your plan exceeds its monthly lookup quota (Personal plans), further lookups are paused until the next billing cycle or until you upgrade.

5. Suspension + termination

We may suspend or terminate any account for breach of these terms, breach of the Data Sharing Agreement, abusive use, or non-payment after a 7-day grace period. On termination your data is purged on the next retention run; you can request an earlier purge in writing.

6. Service availability

We aim for high availability but make no specific uptime warranty during the early-access period. Planned maintenance is announced in the admin dashboard.

7. Liability

To the extent permitted by South African law, our liability for any claim arising from your use of the service is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim. We are not liable for indirect, consequential, or punitive damages.

8. Indemnity

You indemnify MugShotter (Pty) Ltd against claims arising from your unlawful detention of any person whose photograph or incident you contribute, your failure to display the capture-point notice, or your breach of these terms.

9. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. The courts of the Western Cape have non-exclusive jurisdiction.

10. Changes

We may update these terms. Material changes will be notified to registered firm owners by email and posted here. Continued use after the change is acceptance.