Terms of Use

Welcome to Sterling, operated by JEFGROWZZ LLC ("JEFGROWZZ," "we," "us," or "our"). These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Sterling mobile application, website, and related services (collectively, the "App").

Sterling is a social network organized around hubs. A hub is a community pinned to a place in the world. People can post in hubs, add value to those places, explore hubs nearby or around the world, watch Clips, and discover creators. Hub owners publish content that may be exposed across the App, including in Clips and Discovery.

By creating an account, accessing, or using the App, you agree to be bound by these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and our Community Guidelines. If you do not agree, you may not use the App.

2.1 Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use the App. The App is not directed to children. By using the App, you represent that you meet these requirements. We may ask you to confirm your age and may suspend or delete accounts that do not meet this requirement.

2.2 Account Registration

You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information when creating your account and profile. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account.

Notify us immediately at support@sterlingtheapp.com if you suspect unauthorized access to your account. You may not sell, transfer, or share your account.

2.3 Identity and Place

Do not impersonate another person, brand, or organization. Do not claim to own, represent, or be affiliated with a place, hub, or person unless that is true. Owning a hub does not mean you own the real-world location it is pinned to.

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to download and use the App on devices you own or control, solely for your personal or internal use of Sterling.

You may not:

• Copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, or sublicense the App
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code, except where the law does not allow this restriction
• Use the App to build a competing product or to scrape, harvest, or bulk-export data
• Bypass, interfere with, or disable security, rate limits, or access controls

4.1 Hubs

Hubs are communities pinned to places. People around a hub may post, comment, and add value there, subject to these Terms, the Community Guidelines, and any extra rules the hub owner sets that do not conflict with ours.

We may create, refuse, merge, transfer, limit, or close hubs. Hub names, pins, and visibility are features of the App, not property rights in land, venues, or trademarks unless you independently own those rights.

4.2 Hub Owners

Hub owners are the influencers of the platform. Content that gets exposed through Clips, Discovery, and similar surfaces is the hub owner's content, or content the owner chooses to push out. The aim of owning a hub is to grow it. A larger hub can mean farther reach for that owner's content.

Hub owners are responsible for the content they publish and for how they run their hubs, including moderation they perform. We may remove owner privileges, reassign a hub, or take other action if an owner violates these Terms or harms users.

Growing a hub does not justify fake members, bots, bought engagement, harassment, spam, or any other prohibited conduct.

4.3 Clips

Clips is Sterling's short-form video feed. Hub owners may push content into Clips. We decide what appears, how it is ranked, how long it stays available, and whether it is shown in other surfaces. Appearance in Clips is not guaranteed.

4.4 Discovery

Discovery may surface hubs, creators, and content to people who do not already follow them. Ranking and eligibility are determined by us and may change. We do not guarantee popularity, earnings, or placement.

Creators may earn, gain popularity, and appear in Discovery through features we offer from time to time. Earnings, eligibility, payouts, and program rules are not guaranteed and may depend on separate terms, tax information, identity checks, and payment partners.

Sterling Star is an application-based creator program. We may accept, waitlist, or reject applications, and we may change or end the program. Any revenue share, fees, or benefits are as we agree with you in writing or in-app. You are responsible for taxes on amounts you receive.

You will not manipulate Discovery, Clips, hub size, or payouts. We may withhold, reverse, or claw back amounts we reasonably believe were obtained through abuse, error, or violation of these Terms.

Some features, subscriptions, or programs may require payment. If you buy through the Apple App Store or Google Play, the purchase is processed by Apple or Google. Their terms, billing, cancellation, and refund rules apply to that purchase. We do not receive your full payment card number from those stores.

Paid access continues until you cancel according to the applicable store or, for purchases we bill directly, according to the instructions we provide. Fees are generally non-refundable except where the store, these Terms, or the law requires otherwise.

If you downloaded the App from the Apple App Store, you acknowledge that these Terms are between you and JEFGROWZZ LLC, not Apple. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support. In the event of a failure of the App to conform to an applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple may refund the purchase price for the App to you, to the maximum extent permitted by law. Apple has no other warranty obligation. Apple is a third-party beneficiary of the license in these Terms and may enforce it against you.

7.1 Your Content

You retain ownership of content you submit to the App ("User Content"), including posts, comments, photos, videos, Clips, messages, profile information, hub names and descriptions you create, and similar material.

By submitting User Content, you grant JEFGROWZZ LLC a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, adapt, publish, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, and otherwise use your User Content as needed to operate, promote, and improve the App. This includes showing your content in hubs, Clips, Discovery, search, and our marketing of Sterling. This license ends when your content is deleted from our systems, except for reasonable residual copies in backups, caches, or where retention is required by law or for safety, security, or dispute resolution.

7.2 Your Promises

You represent and warrant that:

• You own User Content or have all rights needed to grant the license above
• Your User Content does not infringe copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights
• Your User Content complies with these Terms and the Community Guidelines

7.3 Visibility

Content you post in a hub, in Clips, or on a public profile may be visible to other users and, in some cases, to people who do not have an account, depending on the feature. Direct messages are intended for the participants in that conversation. Do not post information you want to keep fully private.

7.4 Feedback

If you send ideas, suggestions, or feedback, you grant us a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to use them without restriction or compensation to you.

You must follow the Community Guidelines. Without limiting those guidelines, you may not:

• Harass, threaten, bully, or discriminate against others
• Post sexual content, nudity, or any content involving minors
• Post illegal content or use the App to commit or plan a crime
• Spam, scrape, or send unsolicited commercial messages, especially in hubs you do not own or in direct messages
• Impersonate others or misrepresent a place, hub, or affiliation
• Use bots, fake accounts, or coordinated inauthentic behavior to inflate hub size, views, or popularity
• Interfere with the App, other users, or our systems

Promoting your own hub and using official creator or monetization features is allowed if it is honest, non-deceptive, and not spam. Using other people's hubs, comments, or DMs as an ad channel is not.

We may, but are not obligated to, review, monitor, remove, restrict, or refuse User Content and accounts. Members may report content and users in the App.

We may:

• Remove or limit visibility of content, including Clips and Discovery placement
• Issue warnings
• Limit features, hub-owner tools, or monetization
• Suspend or permanently ban accounts
• Reassign or close hubs
• Preserve information and report activity to law enforcement where required or reasonably necessary

Enforcement is at our discretion. We may consider severity, context, harm, and prior conduct. Serious violations may result in immediate termination.

The App, including its design, software, branding, and original content (excluding User Content), is owned by JEFGROWZZ LLC and protected by intellectual property laws. "Sterling" and related logos are our trademarks. You may not use them without our written permission.

Copyright complaints are handled under our DMCA / Copyright Infringement Policy.

Map pins, place details, and third-party map data are provided for convenience and may be incomplete or outdated. Always verify information independently. Location sharing is optional through your device settings and is described in the Privacy Policy.

The App may link to or integrate third-party services, including mapping, payments, analytics, and app stores. We do not control those services. Your use of them is at your own risk and subject to their terms and privacy policies.

THE APP IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

JEFGROWZZ LLC does not guarantee:

• Uninterrupted, secure, or error-free operation
• That hubs, Clips, Discovery, or creator tools will be available or produce any result
• The accuracy of user-generated content, map data, or other people's claims
• Any level of earnings, popularity, hub size, or audience
• That a hub owner represents the real-world place pinned to that hub

You use the App and rely on information in it at your own risk.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, JEFGROWZZ LLC AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AFFILIATES WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE APP, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE APP WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US, IF ANY, IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations. In those jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless JEFGROWZZ LLC and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your use of the App, your User Content, your hubs, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any rights of another person or entity.

You may stop using the App and delete your account at any time in the App under Profile settings, Delete Account, or by contacting support@sterlingtheapp.com.

We may suspend or terminate your access at any time, with or without notice, if we believe you violated these Terms or that your use is harmful to JEFGROWZZ LLC, Sterling, other users, or the public. We may also discontinue the App or any feature.

After termination, your license ends. We may delete or retain User Content as described in the Privacy Policy. Sections that by their nature should survive, including licenses you granted that we need for residual copies, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and governing law, will survive.

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last Updated" date. For material changes, we will provide notice in the App or by email where reasonably possible.

Your continued use of the App after updated Terms take effect constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree, you must stop using the App and delete your account.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware and the United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, except where mandatory consumer protection laws in your jurisdiction provide otherwise.

Before filing a formal legal claim, you agree to contact us at support@sterlingtheapp.com and try to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days.

Except where prohibited, you and JEFGROWZZ LLC agree that disputes will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Delaware, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. You and we agree to bring claims only in an individual capacity, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, or representative proceeding, except where this waiver is unenforceable.

• These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and the Community Guidelines are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the App.
• If a provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
• Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.
• You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• You may not use the App if you are prohibited from receiving U.S. services, including under applicable export or sanctions laws.
• Headings are for convenience only.

Questions about these Terms, or reports of a violation, can be sent to:

We will respond within a reasonable timeframe.