Terms of use
Swoop is a shared map of hazards, built from what people report. These are the things worth agreeing on before you use it: what the map is and is not, how to behave on it, and who may post a photo.
The licence
Swoop is licensed to you, not sold, under Apple's standard end user licence agreement. Those terms cover your use of the app; this page adds to them and does not replace them.
Reports, not guarantees
Swoop shows what people have reported. A quiet stretch of map means nobody has reported anything there, not that nothing is there. A route that "avoids reported swoopers" avoids the ones that were reported, and birds, snakes and fallen branches do not read the map. Routes, "Lit" percentages and the position of anything on the map come from other people's reports and from public map data, and can be wrong, late or missing.
Use your own judgement on the path. Swoop is not a safety device, a warning system or a substitute for looking where you are going, and we are not responsible for what happens on a path because of what the map did or did not show.
Where the app gives turn-by-turn or real-time route guidance, Apple requires us to say this in Apple's own words, and we do: Your use of this real time route guidance application is at your sole risk. Location data may not be accurate.
On a bike
In Queensland it is an offence to hold or touch a phone while riding a bicycle. Swoop is built so you can leave the phone alone on a ride: the Live Activity on the Lock Screen shows the ride, and lights up with a sound when something reported is ahead. Set your route before you set off, and stop before you tap: a question on screen during a ride, such as "Still swooping?", can wait, because the summary at the end asks again, and the Live Activity's buttons are for when you have stopped. If anything seems to need a tap while you are moving, tell us and we will change it.
Reporting
Reports are the map, so they have to be honest. When you report, you agree that:
- You report what you saw, where you saw it, when you saw it. The app refuses reports older than a day and reports outside Brisbane for this reason.
- You do not report to harass anyone, mark someone's home, or make a path look dangerous or safe for reasons of your own.
- "Still swooping?" and "Cleared" answers are honest too: they are how the map stays current, and a false one keeps a hazard on the map or takes a real one off it.
- You do not use automated tools, scripts or more than one device to report, vote or rate. Reports are rate-limited, and an account that games them is banned.
Photos and other people's content
A photo on a report is seen by everyone who uses the app. By adding one you agree that:
- You are 16 or older. Younger people can use everything else in Swoop, but posting a photo that others can see is for people 16 and over.
- The photo is yours, and it is of the bird, snake, animal or hazard: no people who can be recognised, no number plates, no one's front door or window, nothing lifted from somewhere else.
- Nothing sexual, violent, cruel to an animal, abusive or unlawful. Nothing that encourages anyone to approach, feed, bait or harm a bird or a snake, or to disturb a nest: swooping birds are protected native animals in Queensland, and a report is a reason to go around, not to go closer.
- You give us a licence to show, store, resize and remove the photo as part of the map, and the right to keep it, with nothing that shows other people who took it, as part of the season's history. You keep ownership.
Anyone can flag a photo or a report from its place card. Two flags from established accounts hide it until a person has looked; a person can also remove it, and can ban the account that posted it. We act on reports of objectionable content within 24 hours, and you can reach a person at the address below. We also remove content on a lawful request. Nothing in Swoop lets people message each other, and there are no profiles, so there is nobody to block; flagging and banning are the tools.
Your account
There is no account to create: the app makes an anonymous one the first time you send us anything, such as a report or a route request, with no name, email or phone number on it. Delete My Data in the app's settings deletes it and what is linked to it, at any time; the privacy policy says exactly what goes. An account that breaks these terms can be banned, which means its reports and photos come off the map and that account can no longer post. Because accounts are anonymous, a ban is the whole of what we can do.
What you cannot do with the map
The map is for the people on the path. You may not scrape, copy or redistribute the reports, photos or routes in bulk, sell them, or use them to build another service, and you may not try to work out who made a report. If you want the dataset for research or for the public good, ask; the answer is often yes.
Data from others
The map and the routes are built on data from others, chiefly OpenStreetMap under the Open Database Licence, and on Apple Maps for the map itself. Those come with their own terms, and we pass their attribution on.
Availability
The app is provided as it is. The map, the routing service and the sign-in behind it can be down, slow or wrong, and we can change or stop any part of the app. We try hard to keep it up through swooping season, and we cannot promise it.
The law
These terms are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia. Nothing in them takes away any right you have under the Australian Consumer Law, or under the consumer law where you live.
Talk to us
swoop@edacity.com.au. A person reads it.
10 October 2026: "On a bike" names only what the app has today and says what can wait until you stop, the anonymous account starts with a route request as well as a report, and the account and photo sentences say what is kept with them.
6 October 2026: first version.