BaseChat

Terms of Use

Last updated:

This English version is a convenience translation. In case of any discrepancy, the German version prevails.

Contents
  1. Definitions
  2. Overview
  3. User Consent
  4. Right of Use
  5. Code of Conduct
  6. Zero Tolerance for Objectionable Content
  7. Content Moderation
  8. Child Safety Standards (CSAE/CSAM)
  9. Reports
  10. Our Commitment
  11. Appeals Procedure
  12. Blocking
  13. Removal of Information
  14. Termination of Access
  15. Proprietary Information
  16. No Responsibility
  17. Security
  18. Interactions with Other Members
  19. External Links
  20. Payment Authorization
  21. Copyright Infringement
  22. Warranties and Liability
  23. Indemnification

Definitions

The term “you” refers to the user of this application and the associated services. As such, you have been granted the right to use this application in compliance with the terms of use described in detail below.

Mobile Trading GmbH (“BaseChat”) is the sole owner and operator of BaseChat (the “Service”). Within these Terms of Use, “we” and “our” refer to BaseChat or any successor, subsidiary, business unit or assignee of BaseChat. The term “Service(s)” refers to your use of the Service for any purpose.

Overview

This Terms of Use Agreement (the “Agreement”) sets out the terms that apply to your use of the app and all services offered by BaseChat. By completing the registration process, you agree to be bound by all terms of this Agreement. Please print a copy of this Agreement and keep it for your records. We reserve the right to change or supplement the terms applicable to your subscription at any time. Such changes take effect upon notice, which we may give by sending you a notification by email and publishing a revised Agreement in this app, which you can access at any time via the “Terms of Use” link. Your continued use of our Service after notice of such a change has been sent constitutes your consent to these changes, additions or deletions. You agree to review this Agreement periodically in order to be aware of such revisions.

User Consent

This Agreement constitutes your agreement with BaseChat regarding your use of the Service. You must agree to comply with all terms contained in this Agreement in order to become or remain an authorized user of the Service.

Right of Use

Your right to use the Service is subject to all limitations, conditions and restrictions established by us from time to time at our sole discretion. We may change, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the Service at any time, including the availability of features, databases or content of the Service. We may also restrict certain features and areas of the Service or limit your access to all or part of the Service without prior notice or liability and for any reason.

Code of Conduct

You agree to use the Service in accordance with the following code of conduct:

  1. You will treat all information made available to you through the Service as private and confidential and will not disclose this information to anyone without the permission of the person who provided it to you.
  2. You will not use the Service to engage in any form of harassment or offensive behavior, including but not limited to posting communications, images or recordings that contain libelous, defamatory or abusive statements, or racist, pornographic, obscene or otherwise offensive language.
  3. You will not use the Service to infringe the privacy rights, property rights or other rights of any person.
  4. You will not post messages, images or recordings, or use the Service in any manner, that
    1. infringes the rights of third parties or plagiarizes the works of third parties, including but not limited to copyrights, trademark rights, privacy or other personality or property rights; or
    2. is fraudulent or otherwise unlawful or violates any law.
  5. You will not use the Service to distribute, promote or otherwise publish material containing solicitations for donations, advertising or offers of goods or services.
  6. You will not use the Service to distribute or download viruses or malware of any kind, or to do anything else that could in any way harm the Service, the application, BaseChat, its systems or the systems of other members.
  7. You will not display or in any way transmit contact information, including but not limited to email addresses, pseudonyms or instant messaging contact details, telephone numbers, postal addresses, URLs and full names, in information publicly displayed in the app and its services.
  8. You will not access the Service, or allow it to be accessed, by automated means or bots, including but not limited to mass access such as in a denial-of-service attack. This restriction does not apply to legitimate search engine activity that does not place an unreasonable load on the Service.
  9. You will not use any third-party application, such as a smartphone app, a social media widget, another website or any other mobile, social media, web or desktop application, to access the Service unless that application is provided or approved by us. This restriction does not apply to a browser application that merely displays the pages of the Service in full and without modifying or rephrasing the content.

Zero Tolerance for Objectionable Content and Abusive Behavior

We maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards objectionable content and abusive behavior. The following is strictly prohibited anywhere within the Service, including public and private conversations, voice communication and all profile information such as names, photos and profile descriptions:

  1. any form of child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) and any child sexual abuse material (CSAM) – see Child Safety Standards;
  2. harassment, bullying, threats or intimidation;
  3. hate speech or discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, nationality or any other protected characteristic;
  4. sexually explicit, pornographic or obscene content;
  5. content that promotes or incites violence, self-harm, terrorism or unlawful acts;
  6. impersonation, spam, fraud or unsolicited commercial messages;
  7. sharing another person’s private or personal information without their consent;
  8. use of the Service by persons under 18 years of age.

Depending on their severity, violations lead to removal of the content, a warning, or a temporary or permanent suspension of the account. Any user can report violations and block other users at any time.

Content Moderation and Automated Review

We use a combination of automated tools and human moderation to proactively detect and remove prohibited content:

  • Automated review: Profile photos are reviewed automatically before they are published. Clearly prohibited content – such as nudity, graphic violence or images suggesting that a minor is depicted – is not published and is flagged for manual review.
  • Human moderation: Our moderation team reviews all automatically flagged content and every report submitted by users.
  • User reports: Any user can report profiles and individual pieces of content directly in the app (see Reports).

Possible measures include removal of content, warnings, temporary suspensions, permanent suspension of the account and – in the case of unlawful content – reporting to the competent authorities.

Child Safety Standards: Protection against Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE / CSAM)

These Child Safety Standards of Mobile Trading GmbH apply to the BaseChat app and all associated services. BaseChat enforces a strict zero-tolerance policy towards any form of child sexual abuse and exploitation. These standards apply to every area of the Service – public and private conversations, voice communication, photos and media, and all profile information.

Definitions

  • CSAE (Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation) means any conduct or content that sexually exploits, abuses or endangers a child – that is, any person under 18 years of age – including, for example, grooming, sexual extortion (sextortion), trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, or the sexualization of children.
  • CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) means any depiction – photo, video, audio, text, drawing, or edited, computer-generated or AI-generated image – that shows a minor engaged in sexual activity or in a sexualized manner. Producing, possessing and distributing such material is a criminal offense in Germany, in particular under Sections 184b and 184c of the German Criminal Code (StGB).

Prohibited content and conduct

The following is prohibited without exception:

  1. uploading, sharing, sending, requesting, offering or linking to CSAM, or pointing to where it can be found – including in private messages;
  2. grooming, i.e. contacting minors in order to build trust with the aim of later sexually abusing or exploiting them;
  3. sexualized communication with or about minors, including role play, “fantasies” or allegedly fictional content;
  4. sexual extortion (sextortion), in particular threatening to distribute intimate images of a minor;
  5. arranging meetings with minors for sexual purposes, and any form of human trafficking;
  6. content that trivializes, glorifies, normalizes or provides instructions for child sexual abuse;
  7. sharing personal data or images of minors for any of the above purposes.

These prohibitions apply regardless of whether content is described as a joke, fiction, a drawing or AI-generated.

Age requirement: 18+ only

The Service is intended exclusively for persons aged 18 and over. By registering, every user confirms that they are at least 18 years old. We do not knowingly collect data from persons under 18. If there are indications that an account belongs to a minor, the account is suspended immediately. Users can report a suspected minor at any time using the report function.

Detection and enforcement

  • Reports relating to the endangerment of minors are handled by our moderation team with the highest priority, ahead of all other reports.
  • Confirmed CSAE or CSAM content is removed immediately. The responsible accounts are permanently banned without delay, and re-registration is prevented as far as technically possible.
  • Evidence is preserved in accordance with legal requirements and is disclosed only to the competent authorities.

Reporting to authorities

We report CSAM and cases of CSAE to the competent law enforcement authorities – in Germany, the police or the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA) – and, where appropriate, to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) via its CyberTipline or to other competent regional bodies. We cooperate fully with authorities in their investigations.

What you can do

  1. Report suspicious profiles, messages or content directly in the app using the “Report” function and select the reason “Endangerment of minors” (see Reports).
  2. Block the person concerned (see Blocking).
  3. Never redistribute suspected CSAM – not even as a screenshot or as an attachment to a report sent to us. Forwarding it may itself be a criminal offense. Instead, describe where the content is located.
  4. If a child is in immediate danger, contact the police (110 in Germany) or the emergency number 112 right away.

Independently of BaseChat, you can also report child sexual abuse material to jugendschutz.net, the Internet-Beschwerdestelle (German internet complaints office) or the NCMEC CyberTipline.

Child safety point of contact

Mobile Trading GmbH has designated a child safety point of contact who is responsible for our CSAE and CSAM prevention practices and can speak to them. They can be reached by email at support@base-chat.de with the subject line “Child Safety”. This address is also open to authorities, organizations and persons without a BaseChat account.

Compliance with laws

We comply with all applicable child safety laws, in particular the German Criminal Code, the German Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media (JMStV) and Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on digital services (Digital Services Act). We review these standards regularly and adapt them to new legal requirements and risks.

Reports

BaseChat has a reporting function built directly into the app. Users can report any other user and any individual piece of content at the place where it is displayed. Reports are treated confidentially: the reported person is not told who reported them.

What can be reported

  • profiles, including name, profile photo and profile description;
  • individual messages in private and public conversations;
  • photos and other media;
  • behavior in voice communication.

How to report a user or content

  1. Report a user: Open the user’s profile, tap the menu (⋯) and select “Report”.
  2. Report a message or content: Press and hold the message or content and select “Report”.
  3. Select a reason, e.g. harassment, hate speech, sexual content, spam or fraud, endangerment of minors, person under 18, or other, and add a description if needed.
  4. Submit the report. If you wish, you can block the user in the same step.

Reporting by email

In addition, you can reach our moderation team at any time via the in-app support form or by email to support@base-chat.de – even without a BaseChat account. Please include the username, a description of the incident and, if known, the date and time. Never attach suspected CSAM (see Child Safety Standards).

If there is an immediate threat to life or limb, please contact the police (110 in Germany) or the emergency number (112) right away.

Our Commitment

  • Our moderation team reviews every report within 24 hours. Reports relating to the endangerment of minors are handled with priority.
  • If a violation is confirmed, we remove the content in question and suspend the responsible account temporarily or permanently, depending on the severity. Permanently banned users lose access to the Service.
  • In the case of serious or repeated violations, we reserve the right to terminate an account without prior notice.
  • We report unlawful content, in particular CSAM, to the competent authorities.
  • Where possible, we inform the reporting person of our decision.

Appeals Procedure

If content of yours has been removed or your account has been suspended, you can file an appeal within 30 days via the support section or by email to support@base-chat.de. Appeals are reviewed by a different moderator who was not involved in the original decision, and you will receive a reasoned notification of the outcome.

Blocking

Any user can block any other user at any time, free of charge and without giving a reason.

How to block a user

  1. Open the user’s profile or your conversation with them.
  2. Tap the menu (⋯) and select “Block”.
  3. Confirm your choice. When reporting a user, you can also block them in the same step.

Effect of a block

  • The block takes effect immediately.
  • The blocked user can no longer contact you or send you messages.
  • The blocked user’s content is hidden from you, and their audio is muted where applicable.
  • The blocked user is not notified of the block.

You can lift a block at any time in the settings under “Blocked users”. Please note: blocking does not replace a report. If a user violates these Terms of Use, please also report them so that our moderation team can take action.

Removal of Information

We do not and cannot review all profiles, public postings, messages or other materials posted or sent by users of the Service. We are not responsible for the content of these profiles, public postings, messages or other materials. We reserve the right, but are not obliged, to remove, move or modify profiles, public postings, contributions and other materials that we, in our sole discretion, consider to violate the code of conduct defined above or other policies applicable to content, or to be otherwise unacceptable. You are solely responsible for the content of profiles, public postings, contributions and other items that you upload to the Service.

Termination of Access to the Service

We may, at our own discretion, terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Service at any time, with or without notice, for any reason, including but not limited to a breach of this Agreement. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, fraudulent, abusive or otherwise unlawful activity that could impair other persons’ use of the Service or the internet may, at our sole discretion, constitute grounds for terminating your access to all or part of the Service, and you may be referred to the competent law enforcement authorities.

Proprietary Information

The Service contains information that is the property of us, our partners and our users. We claim full copyright protection for the Service. Information published by us, our partners or users of the Service may be protected, regardless of whether or not it is marked as our or their property. You agree not to modify, copy or distribute this information in any way without first obtaining the express written permission of the owner of this information.

No Responsibility

You acknowledge that we are not responsible for any interruption or suspension of the Service, regardless of the cause of such interruption or suspension.

Security

Your account is private and may not be used by anyone other than you. You are responsible for any use of or activity on the Service by persons using your password, including but not limited to the use of your password by third parties.

Interactions with Other Members

YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER MEMBERS. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT BaseChat CURRENTLY DOES NOT CONDUCT CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS ON ITS MEMBERS. BaseChat also does not inquire into the background of its members or attempt to verify the statements of its members. BaseChat makes no representations or warranties as to the conduct of members or their compatibility with current or future members. BaseChat reserves the right to conduct criminal background checks or other screenings (such as searches of sex offender registries) at any time using available public records.

IN NO EVENT SHALL BaseChat BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, GENERAL, SPECIAL, COMPENSATORY, CONSEQUENTIAL AND/OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR CONDUCT OR THE CONDUCT OF ANY OTHER PERSON IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THE SERVICE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO BODILY INJURY, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS AND/OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES RESULTING FROM COMMUNICATIONS OR MEETINGS WITH OTHER REGISTERED USERS OF THIS SERVICE OR WITH PERSONS YOU MEET THROUGH THIS SERVICE. YOU AGREE TO TAKE REASONABLE PRECAUTIONS IN ALL INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER MEMBERS OF THE SERVICE, PARTICULARLY IF YOU DECIDE TO MEET OFFLINE OR IN PERSON. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT BaseChat MAKES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES REGARDING YOUR COMPATIBILITY WITH THE PERSONS YOU MEET THROUGH THE SERVICE. YOU MUST NOT SHARE YOUR FINANCIAL INFORMATION (E.G. YOUR CREDIT CARD OR BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS) WITH OTHER MEMBERS.

Confirmation of Payment Authorization

If paid memberships are not cancelled or continue to be used, this confirms that BaseChat is authorized to charge the credit card provided. BaseChat may submit these charges for payment, and you are responsible for these charges. This does not limit BaseChat’s right to demand payment directly from you. Your charges may be payable in advance, when due, upon use, or in accordance with the terms described when you originally signed up for paid subscriptions.

Copyright Infringement Claims

If you believe that any material or content distributed by BaseChat constitutes copyright infringement, please provide us with the following information: an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner; a description of the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed; a description of where in our app the material you believe to be infringing is located; your address, telephone number and email address; a written statement that you believe in good faith that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and a statement, made in awareness that a false statement is punishable (under penalty of perjury), that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability

You understand and agree that you use BaseChat and the associated services at your own risk. BaseChat’s services are provided “as is”, without representations or warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of title, non-infringement of third-party rights, or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, except for warranties that cannot be excluded by law.

BaseChat offers online dating services and tools for singles and other people with similar interests, as well as discussion forums and comment features for subscribers, via BaseChat.com, the BaseChat app and other distribution channels. BaseChat makes no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the information contained on BaseChat and does not adopt it as its own. Due to the large number of sources from which the content distributed by BaseChat originates, there may be delays, omissions or inaccuracies in such content. You acknowledge that any use of the Service is at your own risk. We make no warranty as to the accuracy or reliability of member profiles, advice, opinions, statements or other information displayed, downloaded or distributed through the Service by BaseChat, our partners, any user of the Service or any other natural or legal person or organization. You acknowledge that you rely on such opinions, member profiles, advice, statements or information at your own risk. Your continued use of the Service, now or after the publication of a notice of any change to this Agreement, constitutes your binding acceptance of this Agreement or of its subsequent amendment.

You hereby acknowledge and agree that BaseChat, its officers, employees, agents and third-party content providers and licensors shall not be liable to you or any third party for any losses arising from your use of, or reliance on, the content distributed via BaseChat, nor for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential damages or any other damages arising from the use of, or inability to use, the BaseChat service or from the breach of any warranty, or caused by failure of performance, errors, omissions, interruptions, deletions, defects, delays in operation or transmission, computer viruses, communication line failures, theft or destruction, or unauthorized access to and/or alteration of the BaseChat.com website and the BaseChat application, regardless of whether such claims are based on contract, tort, negligence, strict liability or any other legal ground, and regardless of whether BaseChat has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Some jurisdictions restrict the permissibility of such a limitation of liability; in that case, the provisions of this section may not apply to you. Notwithstanding the foregoing, our liability is in any event limited to an amount of USD 100.00.

Indemnification

You hereby agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless BaseChat and all officers, directors, owners, agents, information providers, affiliates, licensors and licensees (collectively the “Indemnified Parties”) from any liability and all costs, including but not limited to reasonable attorneys’ fees, incurred by the Indemnified Parties in connection with claims arising from a breach of this Agreement or of the foregoing representations, warranties and obligations. You must cooperate as fully as reasonably required in the defense of any such claim. BaseChat reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter for which you owe indemnification.

Furthermore, unless prohibited by law, as a condition of using the Services you agree that all disputes and claims arising out of or in connection with our Services will be resolved individually and without recourse to a class action. You further agree that, notwithstanding any statutory provisions to the contrary, all claims arising out of or in connection with the use of the Services must be asserted within one (1) year of their arising, failing which they are permanently barred. The fact that either party exercises any right provided for herein in any way does not constitute a waiver of any other right under this Agreement.

Should any provision of this Agreement be deemed unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or deleted to the minimum extent necessary so that this Agreement otherwise remains in full force and effect. This Agreement is not assignable, transferable or sublicensable without the prior written consent of BaseChat. BaseChat may assign this Agreement in whole or in part. No agency, partnership, joint venture or employment relationship is created by this Agreement. The headings are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. All notices under this Agreement must be in writing and are deemed duly received when they have been received electronically.