Terms of Service

Last updated: October 1, 2026

Welcome to SoKal. SoKal is a service operated by JAMES B FLORENCE. References in these Terms to "SoKal," "we," "our," or "us" refer to JAMES B FLORENCE, the legal operator of the SoKal service. By using our mobile application and services, you agree to these Terms of Service. Please read them carefully.

Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using SoKal, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not use our services.

Description of Service

SoKal is a social calendar application that helps you coordinate plans with friends. Our services include calendar management, event sharing, friend connections, and activity suggestions.

Account Registration

To use SoKal you must create an account. You can do that with an email address and password, with Sign in with Google, with Sign in with Apple, or with a phone number verified by a one-time code — any one of them is enough. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and for all activity under it, and you must provide accurate and complete information when creating it.

User Conduct

You agree not to:

• Use the service for any unlawful purpose
• Harass, abuse, or harm other users
• Impersonate any person or entity
• Share false or misleading information
• Attempt to access other users' accounts without permission
• Interfere with the proper functioning of the service
• Use automated systems to access the service without permission

Content

You retain ownership of content you create or share through SoKal. By posting content, you grant us a license to use, display, and distribute that content in connection with our services. You are responsible for the content you share and must have the right to share it.

Device Permissions

SoKal may request access to certain device features, including your camera, contacts, calendar, photo library (for both selecting and saving photos), and push notifications. Each permission is optional and requested only when needed for a specific feature — selecting a profile picture or uploading to a photo dump uses the read permission; downloading a photo from a shared dump to your device uses the save permission. You can manage these permissions at any time in your device settings. For details on how we use each permission, see our Privacy Policy.

Calendar Sync & Event Classification

SoKal offers optional integration with third-party calendar services (Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Microsoft Outlook). When you connect a calendar, you acknowledge and agree to the following:

• SoKal will import your calendar events and automatically classify them into categories (e.g., travel, outing, errand) to power features like availability detection and activity suggestions.
• Classification is performed automatically and conservatively. SoKal is more likely to leave an event unclassified than to classify it incorrectly.
• Unclassified events are never visible to other users — they are used only to determine your availability.
• By default, your travel and outing events appear in your connections' activity feeds. All other classified types (work, errand, exercise, online, blocked time, life moments) are hidden from feeds by default.
• When a connection views your calendar directly, the default level shows event titles and times. Exact locations are hidden — except for travel events, where the destination city is shown.
• You may change which event types appear in feeds, change the calendar detail level (for everyone or per connection), override visibility on individual events, review or change any event's classification, or disconnect your calendar entirely to remove all imported event data.
• For full details on how we handle your calendar data, see our Privacy Policy.

Photo Dump Content

SoKal's "photo dump" feature lets you create a shared photo collection tied to a travel event. By uploading a photo to a dump, you confirm and agree to the following:

• You have the right to upload it. You confirm that you own or otherwise have the right to upload the photo and to share it with the other dump members.
• Prohibited content. You may not upload photos containing nudity, sexual content, graphic violence, illegal content, hate speech, content depicting minors in any sexualized or exploitative context, or any material that violates these Terms, applicable law, or any third party's rights.
• Automated moderation. Uploaded photos are automatically scanned for prohibited content before they are stored. Photos that fail this scan are rejected and not added to the dump. Accounts that repeatedly attempt to upload prohibited content may be suspended or terminated.
• Per-dump limit. Each user may upload a maximum of 10 photos to any given photo dump.
• Your responsibility. You are solely responsible for the photos you upload. SoKal is not responsible for, and does not endorse, the content of photos shared by other users in any dump.
• License. You retain ownership of the photos you upload. By uploading, you grant SoKal a limited, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, transmit, and display the photo to the other members of the same dump solely for the purpose of providing the photo dump feature. This license ends when you delete the photo or your account.
• Downloads by other members. Other dump members can save copies of your photos to their own device using the in-app download button. Once a photo has been saved to another member's device, SoKal cannot recall it. Only upload photos you are comfortable having other dump members keep.

Text and WhatsApp Messaging

Brand / Sender: JAMES B FLORENCE (operator of the SoKal service)

Programs: SoKal Friend Invitations, SoKal Event Invitations (which includes updates and cancellations for an event you were invited to), and SoKal Verification Codes.

Channels: SMS for numbers in the United States and Canada (+1); WhatsApp for numbers in all other countries. The recipient’s country decides this, not us, and the content is the same on either channel.

Program description: JAMES B FLORENCE, doing business as SoKal, sends transactional messages on behalf of SoKal users and, for verification codes, at your own request. A friend invitation names the person inviting you and links to the app. An event invitation contains the event name, date and a link to view details and RSVP; if that event is later changed or cancelled you receive one further message saying so. A verification code is a single six-digit code, sent only when you ask to sign in with your phone number. None of these are marketing messages, and you will never receive one that was not triggered by a specific action.

Message frequency: Varies, and is driven entirely by other people’s actions and by changes to events you were invited to. There are no recurring, scheduled, promotional or marketing messages of any kind. In practice most recipients receive fewer than five messages per month, but an event that is rescheduled several times will generate an update message each time.

Message and data rates: Message and data rates may apply. Contact your wireless carrier for details about your text messaging plan. SoKal does not charge any fees for SMS messages.

Opt-out: Reply STOP to any message. The opt-out is recorded against your phone number, so it covers SMS and WhatsApp together and applies to every program above, including verification codes — which means opting out will prevent you signing in by phone. You will receive one confirmation and nothing after that. Reply START or YES to a later invitation to opt back in.

Help: For help or questions about SMS messages, reply HELP to any message from SoKal, or contact us at team@sokal.app.

Sample messages (the actual templates):

• Friend invitation: “SoKal: James invited you to connect on SoKal, the social calendar app. Download to add them: https://sokal.app/download. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Msg&data rates may apply.”
• Event invitation: “You’ve been invited to Beach Day by James. View details: https://sokal.app/i/abc123 Reply YES to receive updates about this event. Msg & data rates may apply.”
• Event update: “James updated ‘Beach Day’: ‘moved to Saturday’. View: https://sokal.app/i/abc123”
• Event cancellation: “James cancelled ‘Beach Day’. This event is no longer happening.”

Consent: By giving your phone number to a SoKal user — for example by being a contact in their phone — you may receive a friend invitation or an event invitation when that user invites you through the app, plus update or cancellation messages for an event you were invited to. Verification codes rest on a separate basis: you receive one only by asking to sign in with your own number. Consent is not a condition of purchase or of using any SoKal service.

Carriers: Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. SoKal is not responsible for messages not delivered due to carrier issues.

Privacy: Phone numbers are used solely to deliver the messages described above. We do not sell, rent or share your phone number with third parties for marketing purposes. Delivery involves our messaging provider Twilio, and for the WhatsApp channel, WhatsApp/Meta as the network carrying the message. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Privacy

Your use of SoKal is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which describes how we collect, use, and protect your information.

Intellectual Property

SoKal and its original content, features, and functionality are owned by SoKal and are protected by international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.

Termination

We may terminate or suspend your account at any time, without prior notice, for conduct that we believe violates these Terms or is harmful to other users, us, or third parties, or for any other reason at our discretion.

You may delete your account at any time from within the app. Upon deletion, your data will be permanently removed from our servers.

Disclaimers

SoKal is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. We do not guarantee that the service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free.

Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, SoKal shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the service.

Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. We will notify users of significant changes. Your continued use of SoKal after changes constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms.

Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United States, without regard to conflict of law provisions.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at team@sokal.app