Terms & privacy
Last updated 12 October 2026. Plain language on purpose.
1. What spots.et is
spots.et (“we”, “us”), operated by Anwar Misbah, is a free map of places to go in Ethiopia — parks, cafés, restaurants, shops, stations, clinics and more. The people who use it add the places and keep them up to date. By using spots.et you agree to these terms. If you don’t agree, please don’t use it.
2. Browsing and accounts
- You can browse, search, save spots and get directions without an account.
- To add a spot or answer “Still here?”, you sign in with Telegram. You must be at least 13 years old.
- You are responsible for what is done with your account. One person, one account.
3. What you may add
Add only real, public places that people can actually visit, with honest details. Do not add:
- Private homes, or anything that reveals where a private person lives.
- Military, police, intelligence or other security-sensitive sites, or anything the law forbids publishing.
- Photos you didn’t take, or photos where a person can be clearly identified without their permission.
- Hateful, sexual, violent, defamatory or misleading content, fake places, spam or advertising disguised as a spot.
- Anything that breaks Ethiopian law or someone else’s rights.
We may hide, edit or remove any spot or photo, and suspend any account, at our discretion — including when the community flags it. Spots flagged as wrong by several people are hidden automatically.
4. Your content and the licence you give us
You keep ownership of the photos and text you add. By adding them, you give Anwar Misbah a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual licence to store, display, resize, adapt and distribute them as part of spots.et and in links and previews shared from it. Once a spot is added, its basic facts (name, location, category, tags) belong to the shared map and may stay after you leave, without your name attached.
You confirm that you have the right to give this licence for everything you add.
5. Accuracy and safety
Spots are added by the public. We don’t check every one, and places change. spots.et is provided “as is”, without warranties. Check before you go, especially opening hours, prices and anything to do with health, money or travel. In an emergency, call 907 (ambulance) or 991 (police) — not an app.
Directions open in your phone’s own maps app, and some spots link to the same place on Google Maps. Those are run by someone else under their own terms; their photos and reviews are theirs, not ours. A listing is not an endorsement, and we are not responsible for any place, business or service you visit. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for any loss arising from your use of spots.et.
6. Businesses and owners
If your business is listed and something is wrong, or you want it removed, email us. Being listed is free and does not mean we have any relationship with your business.
7. Reporting and takedown
Use “Something’s wrong” on any spot, or email hello@spots.et with the link and the reason. For copyright or privacy complaints, tell us what is yours or about you and where it appears. We aim to respond within 72 hours.
8. Privacy — what we collect and why
- From Telegram, when you sign in: your Telegram ID, name and username. Nothing else — we never see your phone number, contacts or messages.
- What you add: spots, photos, and your “Still here?” answers with the time you gave them.
- Your location: used on your device to show what’s near you. When you answer “Still here?”, it is sent once to check you are near the spot — we do not store it.
- Photos are re-encoded on your phone before upload, which removes hidden location data from the file.
- Saved spots stay on your device and never reach us.
- Cookies: one to keep you signed in and one to remember your language. No advertising or tracking cookies, no analytics that follow you, and we never sell your data.
- Infrastructure: our network provider (Cloudflare) and the map tile service process your IP address to deliver the site.
Spots you add are public, but your name is not shown on them. We keep your account until you ask us to delete it: email hello@spots.et from the email or Telegram account in question, and we will delete your account and detach your name from everything you added within 30 days. You may also ask to see or correct what we hold about you. We handle personal data in line with Ethiopia’s Personal Data Protection Proclamation.
9. Changes and ending
We may change spots.et or these terms. If a change matters, we’ll show it in the app before it applies; continuing to use spots.et means you accept it. You can stop using spots.et at any time.
10. Law
These terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Disputes go to the competent courts in Addis Ababa.