Terms of Service
1. Agreement to Terms & Eligibility
By creating an account, browsing, or using the Zinq mobile or web application ("Zinq", "the Service"), you confirm that you are at least 16 years of age and enter into a legally binding agreement with Ivan Kharitonenko, trading as Zinq, a sole trader established in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
If you do not agree to all provisions of these Terms of Service or are under 16 years of age, you must discontinue using the Service and delete your account immediately.
2. Zinq Is Free
Zinq costs nothing to use. There is no subscription, no paid tier, no advertising, and we do not ask for payment details at any point. If anything ever presents itself as a paid Zinq feature, it is not us.
Because we take no payment and supply no goods, EU consumer distance-selling rules on the right of withdrawal have nothing to operate on. You do not need a cooling-off period to stop using a free service: you delete your account, at any moment, for any reason, and that is the end of it.
We reserve the right to introduce paid features in future. If we ever do, existing functionality that you rely on today will not be moved behind a paywall without clear advance notice, and nothing will ever start charging you automatically.
3. Nature of the Platform & Our Safety Diligence
Software intermediary: Zinq provides software tools to facilitate introductions between independent individual runners and publish local running club schedules. Zinq is purely a digital communications tool and is NOT a sports club, coach, event organizer, employer, chaperone, or travel agency.
Our diligence: Zinq implements reasonable technical, moderation, and communication safeguards — including authenticated accounts, language screening, in-app messaging, bi-directional blocking, and rapid report triage — to foster a safe and respectful athletic environment. However, as an online platform, we cannot control, supervise, or physically inspect the conduct of independent individuals in the physical world.
Independent discretion: Zinq does not perform criminal background checks or physical fitness evaluations on users. We do not verify anyone’s identity, and you should not assume that another runner is who they say they are. Any run you arrange is undertaken entirely at your own independent discretion, judgment, and personal responsibility.
4. Assumption of Risk & In-Person Safety Protocol
Physical health & exertion: Running involves substantial physical exertion, cardiovascular strain, and inherent health risks. You are solely responsible for verifying that you are physically fit and capable of running before participating. Consult a qualified medical practitioner before beginning strenuous exercise.
Assumption of inherent outdoor risks: You voluntarily and expressly assume all risks associated with outdoor running and meeting strangers, including but not limited to uneven terrain, traffic, adverse weather, collisions, dehydration, physical injury, illness, and personal interactions.
Meet in public: You are meeting someone you may not know personally. Always meet in well-lit, open public areas with active foot traffic and visible surveillance — busy park entrances, metro stations, or popular city landmarks. Never agree to meet in secluded, isolated, or private residential areas for a first run.
Tell someone: Inform a trusted friend or relative of your planned route, meeting time, and partner. If at any moment you feel unsafe or uncomfortable, prioritise your safety and leave immediately, without obligation or hesitation.
5. Prohibition of Fraud, Staged Incidents & Collusion
Strict prohibition: You expressly agree not to stage, fabricate, simulate, or conspire with any other person (including existing acquaintances) to create false incidents, disputes, staged injuries, or fraudulent claims involving Zinq.
Consequences: Staging incidents, colluding to extort or threaten litigation against Zinq, or filing fabricated reports constitutes severe fraud, malicious abuse, and bad-faith breach of contract.
Legal action: Zinq reserves the right to pursue all available civil remedies, seek full recovery of legal fees, investigative costs, and damages, and refer any individuals engaging in fraud, collusion, extortion, or fabricated disputes to law enforcement for criminal prosecution.
6. Community Standards & Zero Tolerance
Strictly for running: Zinq is dedicated solely to athletic running partnerships and running club communities. It is NOT a dating service, romantic solicitation platform, or commercial marketing venue.
Zero tolerance for abuse: We enforce zero tolerance for harassment, stalking, intimidation, hate speech, discrimination, unsolicited sexual advances, threats, spam, fraud, or abusive conduct of any kind. Engaging in prohibited conduct will result in immediate, permanent account termination.
Punctuality & reliability: Misrepresenting your identity, age, or pace range is prohibited. If you cannot attend a scheduled run, notify your partner or cancel the proposal promptly in the app.
7. Termination
By you: You may stop using Zinq and delete your account at any time, without giving a reason and without any notice period, using the "Delete Account" button in your profile. Deletion is immediate and permanent — see the Privacy Policy for exactly what is erased.
By us: We may suspend or permanently terminate an account that breaches these Terms, in particular the community standards and anti-fraud provisions above. Where a breach is serious — harassment, threats, fraud, or anything endangering another runner — we will act immediately and without prior warning, because waiting would put someone at risk.
Appeal: If you believe your account was terminated in error, email hello@joinzinq.com. We will review the decision, tell you the substance of the reason, and reinstate the account if we got it wrong.
Survival: The provisions on liability, indemnification, and governing law survive termination.
8. Running Clubs, Third-Party Trademarks & Fair Use
Informational directory: Information regarding independent running clubs (meeting days, times, public Instagram handles) is compiled for community information purposes under nominative fair use. Zinq is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any listed independent third-party club.
Club management & de-listing: Authorized club organizers may claim their club listing in-app or request modifications or de-listing at any time by emailing hello@joinzinq.com.
Hosted club spaces: Admins and participants of hosted Zinq clubs must maintain civil conduct and uphold these Terms at all times.
9. Strava & Other Third-Party Trademarks
Zinq is an independent application. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Strava, Inc. "Strava" is a registered trademark of Strava, Inc., referred to here only to describe what Zinq does and does not do.
No Strava integration today: Zinq does not currently connect to Strava, import your activities, or read your pace from any external service. The pace range used for matching is the one you enter yourself. Where our marketing materials mention Strava, they describe a planned future feature and say so; treat any Strava capability as unavailable until it appears in the app itself.
10. User-Generated Content & Intellectual Property
Ownership: You retain full copyright and ownership of any profile photos, text, or bio content you submit to Zinq.
Your warranty: You represent and warrant that you own or hold all necessary licenses, rights, and model consents for all photos and text you upload, and that your content does not infringe any third-party intellectual property or privacy rights.
License to Zinq: You grant Zinq a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, display, and format your content solely to operate the Service in accordance with your privacy settings. This license ends when you delete the content or your account.
11. Prohibited Technical Activities & Anti-Scraping
You agree not to: (a) scrape, crawl, index, or harvest data or profiles from Zinq through automated means; (b) reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the matchmaking algorithms or codebase; (c) introduce viruses, bots, or malicious code; or (d) circumvent authentication mechanisms, rate limits, or security filters.
12. Digital Services Act & Notice-and-Takedown
Single point of contact: In compliance with Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act), our central contact point for users and EU authorities is hello@joinzinq.com, and communication may be in English or Dutch.
Notice and action: If you believe any content on Zinq is illegal, infringes your intellectual property, or violates community guidelines, report it via the in-app Report button or email hello@joinzinq.com. We investigate reports promptly and reserve the right to remove content and terminate infringing accounts.
Statement of reasons: Where we remove content or restrict an account, we will tell the affected user what was removed and why, and how to contest it, unless doing so would obstruct the prevention of a serious crime.
13. Limitation of Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable Dutch law (Boek 6 Burgerlijk Wetboek), Zinq and its operator shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, personal injuries, emotional distress, medical costs, property loss, or disputes arising out of your access to or use of the Service, or any interactions and in-person meetups with other users.
The Service is provided strictly on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory. Our total aggregate liability for all claims under any cause of action shall not exceed fifty euros (€50.00).
Nothing excluded that cannot be: None of the above limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our own negligence, for intentional misconduct or gross negligence (opzet of bewuste roekeloosheid), or for anything else that Dutch law does not permit to be excluded. Your mandatory rights as a consumer are unaffected.
14. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Zinq and its operator from and against any third-party claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and legal expenses arising out of or related to: (a) your use of or conduct on the Service; (b) any runs, meetups, or interactions you arrange with other users; (c) any content you upload; or (d) your violation of these Terms or applicable laws.
This does not apply to the extent a claim arises from our own breach, and it does not apply to you as a consumer where Dutch law does not permit it.
15. Changes to the Service and These Terms
Zinq is under active development. Features may be added, changed, or withdrawn, and the Service may be unavailable during maintenance or because of a failure outside our control. We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability.
We may amend these Terms. The date at the top of this document reflects the current version. For any material change we will give notice by email or in the app before it takes effect. If you do not accept the amended Terms, your remedy is to stop using Zinq and delete your account, which costs you nothing.
16. Governing Law, Jurisdiction, Language & Severability
Governing law: These Terms and any non-contractual obligations arising out of them are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Netherlands.
Informal resolution first: Before initiating legal action, both parties agree to attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute informally by contacting hello@joinzinq.com for a period of at least thirty (30) days.
Jurisdiction: Any unresolved dispute shall be submitted to the competent court in the Netherlands. If you are a consumer, this does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory rules of the country where you live, nor of your right to bring proceedings in the courts of that country.
Language: These Terms are published in English and Dutch. In the event of any discrepancy or dispute over interpretation, the English version prevails.
Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found to be unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
17. Contact
For any legal, privacy, or support inquiry regarding these Terms of Service or our Privacy Policy, contact us directly at hello@joinzinq.com.