Terms of service

Version 1.1 · effective 19 October 2026 · replaces version 1.0 of 17 October 2026

1. Who we are

The service is provided by FlashAware (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2026/380675/07, a private company incorporated in South Africa with its registered office at 6 Rooikransie, Herolds Bay, George, Western Cape, 6529 ("FlashAware", "we"). Contact: hello@flashaware.com. These terms form the agreement between FlashAware and the organisation that opens an account ("you", "the customer"). The person accepting these terms confirms they are authorised to bind that organisation.

2. The service

FlashAware is a web-based information service (an advisory tool). It processes publicly available satellite lightning detections (EUMETSAT Meteosat Third Generation Lightning Imager Level-2 products) against the sites, radii and thresholds you configure, computes a projected risk state for each site (STOP, PREPARE, HOLD, ALL CLEAR, NO DATA FEED), and sends state changes to the recipients you list by email, SMS and WhatsApp, with a dashboard, map, replay and audit log. Features vary by plan as described on the pricing page at the time of purchase. FlashAware is not a weather forecasting service, does not issue weather warnings, and is not a certified or safety-critical system.

3. What the outputs are and are not

1. Projections, not forecasts. Every state, distance, trend and count the service shows is a projection computed from the satellite data available at that moment under the rules you configured. It describes what the data suggested; it does not predict where or when lightning will strike and it does not confirm that lightning is absent.
2. Latency. Satellite flash products are published in time windows. Alerts typically arrive 2 to 16 minutes after a flash is detected and may be later. The service is not suitable as the sole or primary trigger for any activity that needs sub-minute warning, such as blasting, crane lifts, aviation or water sports.
3. Detection is not guaranteed. Satellite instruments can miss flashes, position them several kilometres from the true location, or be unavailable. An ALL CLEAR means the configured conditions were met on the data available, not that no lightning is present or that it is safe to resume.
4. Your procedure governs. You must keep your own lightning safety procedure that works without FlashAware, and you decide what action to take. Your procedure, your safety officer, the 30/30 rule (shelter when the flash-to-thunder count is 30 seconds or less; wait 30 minutes after the last thunder), the rules of your sport or industry body, and any warning from the South African Weather Service take precedence over any FlashAware state. FlashAware may be used only as a supplementary input to that procedure.
5. Delivery dependencies. Alert delivery depends on third parties (mobile networks, WhatsApp/Meta, email providers) and on recipients' devices being on, charged, connected and reachable. We report delivery receipts where the channel provides them but we do not guarantee that any message is delivered, read or acted on.
6. NO DATA FEED. When the feed is stale or unavailable, sites show NO DATA FEED and no ALL CLEAR is issued. Treat outdoor activity as unsafe until the feed recovers and your own procedure says otherwise.
7. Reports and statistics. Exposure reports, digests, badges and any lightning statistics we publish are historical summaries of past detections. They are not predictions of future lightning at any place and must not be used as a safety assessment.
8. No professional advice. Nothing in the service is meteorological, engineering, safety, insurance or legal advice. The South African Weather Service is the national authority for weather warnings.

4. Your responsibilities

1. You are responsible for the accuracy of your site coordinates, radii, thresholds and recipient lists, for testing alerts after setup and after any change, and for keeping credentials confidential.
2. You must ensure that every recipient you add has agreed to receive operational alerts from your organisation, knows what each state means, and knows that the service is an advisory input to your procedure.
3. You are responsible for complying with the laws, standards and body rules that apply to your sites, including the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Mine Health and Safety Act, and the lightning policies of your school, federation or client, and for carrying your own insurance.
4. You may not resell the service, scrape it, probe its security, present its outputs as an official weather warning, or use it for any unlawful purpose. We may suspend accounts that threaten the service or other customers.

5. Trials and the free tier

Trials are free for the stated period and may be limited in sites, recipients and channels. The free tier provides reports and digests only and sends no live alerts. Free services are provided as they are, without any commitment to availability, and we may change or withdraw them on notice. Sections 3, 9, 10 and 11 apply to trials and free services, subject to section 12.

6. Fees, billing and renewal

1. Prices are shown on the pricing page in South African rand and include VAT where applicable.
2. Monthly plans are billed in advance and may be cancelled at any time from the dashboard; the service continues to the end of the paid month and no further charges are made.
3. Season passes run to 31 March following purchase (a pass bought between 1 April and 31 December ends the next 31 March; one bought between 1 January and 31 March ends on 31 March of the following year). A season pass does not renew: live alerts pause automatically at the end of the term, your sites and data are kept, and we may email you once before the next season to offer a new pass (you can opt out). Monthly plans continue month to month until cancelled. You may cancel a fixed-term plan early on 20 business days' written notice; a reasonable cancellation fee may apply as permitted by section 14 of the Consumer Protection Act.
4. Payments are processed by Paystack. Card details are held by Paystack, not by FlashAware. Invoices are issued for every payment.
5. SMS messages beyond the plan allowance are billed at the rate stated on the pricing page and itemised on your invoice.
6. If a payment fails we will notify you and retry; after 14 days of non-payment live alerts may be suspended until payment is made.

7. Cooling-off and refunds

Live alerting starts as soon as you pay, at your request. Where the Consumer Protection Act or the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act gives you a cooling-off right, you may cancel within the statutory period and we refund the fees paid, less a pro-rata charge for the days of service already provided where the Act allows it. Email us to cancel. Apart from that, the credit in section 8 and the refund of the unused part of a fixed-term plan cancelled early under section 6.3, fees are not refundable.

8. Availability

We work to keep the dashboard and alert engine available, but we make no commitment to any level of availability, and the service depends on an upstream satellite data provider and on messaging networks we do not control. We may take the service down for maintenance, where possible outside South African daylight hours and with notice. If, for reasons within our control, the service is unavailable for more than 24 consecutive hours in a calendar month, you may ask within 30 days for a pro-rata credit of that month's fees for the period of unavailability. A credit is your sole remedy for unavailability or outages.

9. Warranties and disclaimers

We provide the service with reasonable skill and care. Beyond that, and to the fullest extent the law allows, the service, its outputs, reports and statistics are provided "as is" and "as available", without any warranty, express or implied. In particular we do not warrant that lightning will be detected, that any state is accurate, that alerts will arrive within any particular time or at all, that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that the service is fit for any particular purpose, including protecting life or property. Nothing in these terms excludes rights that the Consumer Protection Act gives you and that cannot be excluded.

10. Limitation of liability

1. To the fullest extent permitted by law, FlashAware's total liability to you and to anyone claiming through you, arising out of or in connection with the service in any 12-month period, whether in contract, delict or otherwise, is limited to the fees you paid for the service in that period or, where you paid no fees, to R1,000.
2. To the fullest extent permitted by law, FlashAware is not liable for indirect, special or consequential loss; for loss of profit, revenue, production, data, goodwill or business; for the cost of evacuations, stoppages, cancellations or delays; or for any loss arising from your reliance on a state, an alert, the absence of an alert, a delayed alert or a report.
3. Any claim against FlashAware must be brought within 12 months of the event giving rise to it, after which it lapses.
4. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for fraud, wilful misconduct or gross negligence, or any liability that may not be excluded or limited under the Consumer Protection Act (including sections 51 and 61) or other applicable law. Where the law allows a limit but not an exclusion, the limit in paragraph 1 applies.

11. Assumption of risk and indemnity

1. You acknowledge that lightning is inherently dangerous and unpredictable, that satellite detection has the limits described in section 3, and that you use the service at your own risk as one input to your own procedure.
2. You indemnify FlashAware, its directors and staff against all claims, losses, penalties and costs brought by or arising from your recipients, staff, members, pupils, contractors, visitors or any other person, in connection with your sites, your procedures, your configuration or your use of the service, except to the extent caused by our fraud, wilful misconduct or gross negligence.

12. Where the Consumer Protection Act applies

The Consumer Protection Act applies to this agreement only if you are a consumer under it: a natural person, or a juristic person whose asset value or annual turnover is below the threshold set under section 5(2)(b) of the Act (R2 million when these terms were written). Where it applies, nothing in these terms limits a right it gives you that cannot be excluded, and sections 3, 9, 10 and 11 apply to the extent it permits. Where it does not apply, these terms apply as written.

13. Data protection

We process personal information as described in our privacy notice. Where we process recipients' information on your instruction we act as your operator under POPIA; you warrant that you have a lawful basis to give us that information. We keep a record of who accepted these terms, when, and under which version.

14. Intellectual property and data

FlashAware and its software remain our property. Lightning data is © EUMETSAT and is used under its data policy. You own your configuration and may export your audit log at any time. We may use aggregated, de-identified usage and lightning statistics to improve and promote the service.

15. Suspension and termination

Either party may end the agreement as set out in section 6. We may suspend or end the service immediately for material breach, non-payment after notice, or where required by law. Organisation data is retained for 30 days after closure and then deleted, except where law requires longer retention. Sections 9 to 14 and 18 survive termination.

16. Changes

We may update these terms. We will give at least 30 days' notice by email of changes that reduce your rights; continued use after the effective date is acceptance. The version date appears at the top of this page. The dashboard asks an administrator to accept a new version, and no new plan can be bought until one has; payments already agreed, such as a monthly renewal or an invoice for a running Pro plan, continue in the meantime. For an organisation that was a customer before 19 October 2026, this version applies when its administrator accepts it or 30 days after we email notice of it, whichever comes first.

17. General

These terms, the pricing page and the privacy notice are the whole agreement between us. If any part is found unenforceable, the rest stands and the part is read down to the extent needed. A failure to enforce a term is not a waiver.

18. Law and disputes

South African law applies. We will try to resolve disputes informally first; failing that, the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction. Consumers also have the right to approach the National Consumer Commission or an accredited ombud.

19. Contact

FlashAware (Pty) Ltd (2026/380675/07) · 6 Rooikransie, Herolds Bay, George, 6529 · hello@flashaware.com