English · Deutsch · Français · Español · العربية

Terms of Use

Version 2026-11-01

These Terms are the agreement between you and Ladder. We have tried to write them in plain words. Please read them: they explain what you can expect from us and what we expect from you.

1. Who we are

Ladder is run by JAIN GEOGO VALAVI, JÖLLENBECKER STR 1, 33613 BIELEFELD, Germany ("Ladder", "we", "us"). You can reach us about anything at support@ladder.ink. More details are on our legal notice: ladder.ink/imprint

2. What is part of this agreement

• These Terms of Use.
• Our Community Guidelines (ladder.ink/guidelines). They explain what is not allowed on Ladder and how reporting and moderation work.
• If you use a business account: our Business Terms (ladder.ink/business-terms).
• Our Privacy Policy (ladder.ink/privacy) explains how we handle your data. It is information for you, not a contract you sign.

By creating an account you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use Ladder.

3. Adults only (18 and over)

• Ladder is only for people aged 18 and over.
• When you create an account we ask for your date of birth. We check it once and do not keep it. We only record that you confirmed you are 18 or older, and when.
• If an account tells us it belongs to someone under 18, we lock it. A locked account is signed out and hidden, and it cannot be used until our support has cleared it. If we learn in another way that an account belongs to someone under 18, we may lock or close it.

4. Your account

• Give correct information when you sign up. Keep your password and your phone safe. You are responsible for what happens in your account.
• One person, one personal account. Do not pretend to be another person or a business.
• Do not sell, rent or give your account to anyone else.
• If you think someone else is using your account, change your password and write to support@ladder.ink.
• You can sign up with an email address and password, or with Google or Apple. If you use Google or Apple, their own terms also apply to that sign-in.

5. What Ladder does

Ladder helps you meet and talk with people near you and find local businesses. Ladder includes:

• Nearby: when you switch visibility on, you can see other visible people who are near you right now, and they can see you.
• Hello requests: a first message to someone you do not know yet. They decide whether to accept.
• Chats: messages, photos, videos, voice messages, documents, contacts and locations. You can set messages to disappear after a time you choose.
• View-once photos and videos: they can be opened once and are then deleted.
• Voice and video calls.
• Statuses that disappear after 24 hours, and posts that stay until you delete them.
• Live chat: a public chat with the people around you.
• Businesses nearby: pages, offers, events and "Live" updates of local businesses.

Ladder is free for personal accounts. We may change, add or remove features to improve Ladder, keep it safe or follow the law. If we remove an important feature you rely on, we will tell you in good time where we can. Some features may not be available in every country.

6. Location, visibility and "near you"

• Nearby features only work when you have switched visibility on and allowed location access on your phone. You can switch visibility off at any time.
• Ladder never shows anyone a distance to you or your position on a map. Other people only see that you are near them.
• When you switch visibility off or log out, your stored position is deleted. It is also deleted when it is 30 minutes old.
• If you send your location in a chat, the person you send it to sees that exact place. Only send it to people you trust.
• The Privacy Policy explains all of this in detail.

7. Messages, calls, view-once and statuses

• Messages are delivered to the person you send them to. Your chats are protected on the way by encryption between your phone and our servers. They are not end-to-end encrypted: our servers can technically read them, but we do not look at them, except when you or the other person reports a message to us, or when the law requires it.
• Disappearing messages and view-once media are deleted from our servers as described in the Privacy Policy. We cannot stop the other person from taking a photo of their screen with another device. On Android, Ladder blocks screenshots of view-once media; on iPhone this is not fully possible.
• Calls are carried by our call provider. We do not record calls.
• A status is shown to the audience you choose for 24 hours and then disappears.

8. Live chat

• Live chat messages are public to the people near where they were written, for 4 hours.
• No links in Live chat. Do not post personal details of other people, ads or spam.
• Business accounts can post in Live chat only within limits, and their messages are labelled.

9. Your content

• What you post or send stays yours. We do not claim ownership of it.
• You give us a limited permission (licence) to use your content only as far as we need to run Ladder: to store it, copy it to our servers, adapt its format (for example resize or compress a photo or video), and show or deliver it to the people you chose. This permission is non-exclusive, free of charge and worldwide (our servers and providers are in several countries). We may let our service providers use it only to do this work for us.
• We do not use your content for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not use it to train AI models.
• The permission ends when your content is deleted, except for copies we still need for a short time (for example in backups that are overwritten), copies that other people have kept or forwarded, and copies we must keep by law or for a report (see the Privacy Policy).
• You are responsible for your content. Only share what you have the right to share, and do not break other people's rights (for example their copyright, privacy or image rights).

10. Rules for everyone

You must follow our Community Guidelines and the law. In short, you must not:

• harass, threaten, stalk, bully or blackmail anyone;
• post or send anything illegal, hateful, violent or sexual content involving minors;
• send sexual content to people who did not ask for it;
• pretend to be another person or business;
• use Ladder to find out where a person is against their will, or try to work out anyone's position;
• spam, run scams or post links where they are not allowed;
• collect other people's data, or use bots, scrapers or modified apps;
• try to break, overload or get around the security of Ladder;
• use Ladder after we have closed your account for breaking these Terms.

11. Blocking and reporting

• You can block anyone. Blocking removes the messages, hello requests and follows between you, for both of you, and you no longer see each other.
• You can report a person, a post, a comment, a status, a message you received, a Live chat message, a business or a business post. Use Report in the app, or write to support@ladder.ink.
• The Community Guidelines explain what happens after a report.

12. What we may do when rules are broken

• If content or behaviour breaks these Terms, the Community Guidelines or the law, we may remove the content, limit features, hide an account, or suspend or close an account.
• We decide case by case and in proportion: we consider how serious the problem is, whether it happened before, and the rights of everyone involved, including freedom of expression.
• When we restrict your content or your account, we tell you by email: what we did, why, which rule or law it is based on, and how you can challenge it. We may not do this where it would put someone at risk, or where the law or an authority forbids it.
• You can appeal any decision by writing to support@ladder.ink within 6 months. A person (not only an automated system) will look at it again and tell you the result. You can also go to court, and in the EU you may use a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body.

13. Business accounts

Business accounts are for real businesses. The Business Terms (ladder.ink/business-terms) apply to them in addition to these Terms. Business accounts have their own rules, for example: no messaging people first, follow-back only, and audio-only calls. No links in offers, events, posts or Live chat. The paid business plan is processed by Stripe. Personal accounts are free.

14. Meeting people

Ladder connects you with people you may not know. We do not check who people are. Take care: meet in public places, tell a friend where you are going, and do not send money to people you have only met online. If someone puts you in danger, contact your local police first.

15. Availability

We work to keep Ladder running and safe. Like any online service, it can sometimes be unavailable, slow, or have errors, for example during maintenance or because of problems with our providers or your network. We cannot promise that it will always be available.

16. Our responsibility (liability)

• We are fully responsible for damage that we cause on purpose or through gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, under product liability law, and wherever the law does not allow responsibility to be limited.
• For simple negligence we are only responsible if we break a duty that is essential for this agreement (a duty that makes Ladder possible at all and that you can normally rely on). In that case our responsibility is limited to the damage that was typical and foreseeable when you started using Ladder.
• We are not responsible for what other users say, post or do, or for meetings between users, unless we are responsible under the rules above (for example because we did not act after being told about illegal content).
• Nothing in these Terms limits your rights as a consumer under the mandatory law of the country where you live.

17. Ending your use and deleting your account

• You can stop using Ladder at any time. You can delete your account in the app (Settings, Account, Delete account) or at ladder.ink/delete-account. What is deleted, and what stays, is explained in the Privacy Policy.
• We may end this agreement with at least 30 days' notice by email, for example if we close Ladder or a feature in your country.
• We may suspend or close an account at once for a serious reason: for example serious or repeated breaking of these Terms or the law, danger to other people, or when the law requires it. Section 12 applies (reasons and appeal).

18. Changes to these Terms

• We may need to update these Terms, for example when Ladder gets new features, when the law changes, or to make them clearer. Each version has a date.
• When a change matters for you, the app shows you the new version and asks you to accept it before you continue. If you do not accept it, you can delete your account, or write to us. We will not use a change to take away rights you already have.

19. If you got Ladder from Apple's App Store

• This agreement is between you and Ladder, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for Ladder or its content.
• Apple has no duty to provide maintenance or support for Ladder.
• If Ladder does not work as promised, you can tell Apple, and Apple may refund the purchase price (Ladder is free, so there is normally none). Apple has no other warranty duty for Ladder, as far as the law allows.
• Apple is not responsible for claims about Ladder (for example product liability, legal compliance, consumer protection or intellectual property claims). We handle those as described in these Terms.
• You confirm that you are not in a country under a US government embargo and not on a US list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• Apple and its subsidiaries can enforce this section as third-party beneficiaries.

20. Law and courts

• These Terms are governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.
• If you are a consumer, you also keep the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live, and you can bring a claim in the courts of that country.
• We are not obliged and not willing to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.
• If one part of these Terms is invalid, the rest stays valid.

21. Languages

These Terms are written in English. Translations are there to help you understand them. If a translation says something different, the English version applies, unless the law of your country says otherwise.

22. Contact

Questions about these Terms: support@ladder.ink.