Terms of use

Effective date: to be confirmed

These terms apply when you use Pearl, the web app at to be confirmed. Pearl is run by to be confirmed ("Pearl", "we"), a project of Victoria University, Kampala. By using Pearl, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use Pearl.

What Pearl is

Pearl helps you discover, understand and plan travel in Uganda. You can explore reviewed places, events, accommodation and services, ask Pearl questions, plan trips, and send enquiries to suppliers.

What Pearl is not

Pearl is an information and planning tool. It is not a travel agent, tour operator or booking platform.

• Pearl does not sell trips, rooms, tours, permits or tickets.
• Pearl does not show supplier prices, availability or ratings, and does not take payments.
• An enquiry is not a booking. Any booking, price, payment or service is agreed directly between you and the supplier.
• Pearl does not charge travellers for using it.

Information on Pearl

Pearl publishes only information its team has reviewed. Practical facts on Pearl show where they came from and when they were captured or last checked. Where Pearl doesn't have reliable information, it leaves it out rather than guessing.

Even so, details change. Opening hours, fees, events, road conditions and supplier offers can change without notice, and sources can be wrong. Check important details with the official source or the supplier before you travel or pay for anything. Official park and activity fees are shown with their source and tariff period; the authority that sets them has the final word.

Map locations marked as approximate have not yet been verified. Driving times come from a mapping service and are estimates. Where a route can't be verified, Pearl says so. Pearl does not show transport fares.

Ask Pearl

Ask Pearl uses artificial intelligence to answer questions from Pearl's reviewed listings. When it cannot answer from that material, it should say so.

AI can still make mistakes. It can misread a source or phrase something misleadingly. Treat Ask Pearl's answers as a starting point, check the sources it cites, and verify anything important. When you explicitly ask Pearl to plan or adjust a trip, its supported changes take effect immediately; the change card offers Undo until the trip changes again.

Do not put sensitive personal information in your questions. See the Privacy Policy for how questions are handled.

Enquiries and suppliers

Suppliers on Pearl, including accommodation providers, human guides and tour or travel companies, are independent businesses or individuals. They are not Pearl's employees or agents.

When you send an enquiry:

• Pearl's team reviews it and, if it can, passes it to the supplier you chose, with your consent. Pearl may ask you for more detail, decline to pass it on and tell you why, or suggest other suppliers. Pearl will not send it to a different supplier without your approval.
• Before passing on an enquiry, Pearl checks that the supplier is who they say they are, has a working contact channel and has agreed to receive enquiries. This is not an endorsement, a licence check or a guarantee of quality, unless Pearl says otherwise for a specific claim.
• Pearl does not guarantee that a supplier will reply, reply quickly, or offer what you asked for. If a supplier doesn't respond, you can tell Pearl from your enquiry's status page.
• Any agreement you make is between you and the supplier. Pearl is not responsible for the supplier's services, prices, conduct, cancellations or refunds.

Only send enquiries you genuinely intend to follow up, with your own contact details. Pearl limits how many enquiries one person can send in a day.

Guest use and accounts

You can use Pearl without an account. Pearl keeps your work under a guest session in your browser. If you clear your browser data before signing in, that work may be lost.

If you create an account:

• give accurate information and keep your password, passkeys and two-factor codes safe;
• you are responsible for activity on your account;
• tell us at to be confirmed if you think someone else has access to it.

You must be to be confirmed or older to create an account or send an enquiry.

You can ask us to delete your account at any time by emailing to be confirmed.

Sharing trips

If you create a share link to a trip, anyone with the link can view that trip. They cannot change it. You can revoke or replace the link at any time. Only share trips with people you trust, and don't put information you want to keep private into a trip's title.

Acceptable use

When using Pearl, you must not:

• break any law, or use Pearl to harass, threaten, deceive or harm anyone;
• send spam, false, or abusive enquiries, or enquiries using someone else's contact details;
• scrape, copy in bulk, or automatically collect Pearl's content or data, except as allowed by the content's licence;
• try to get around rate limits, access controls or security, or access data that isn't yours;
• try to make Ask Pearl produce harmful content, or use it to generate content for unrelated purposes at scale;
• interfere with Pearl's operation, for example by overloading it or introducing malicious code;
• pretend to be Pearl, Victoria University, a supplier or another person.

Pearl may limit, suspend or end your access if you break these terms or put others at risk.

Content and intellectual property

Pearl's design, software, name and logo belong to to be confirmed or its licensors.

Some listing text, facts and images come from other publishers and are used with attribution. Each card and page names its source. Sources include:

• Uganda Tourism Board and Explore Uganda (exploreuganda.com);
• Uganda Wildlife Authority, including its conservation tariff;
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre, whose material is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO);
• suppliers' own official websites, for their own offerings.

That content remains the property of its publishers. You may view and share Pearl pages for personal, non-commercial travel planning. Reuse beyond that must follow the original publisher's terms. to be confirmed

You keep ownership of what you write in Pearl, such as trip notes, questions and enquiries. You allow Pearl to store and use it to provide the service, as described in the Privacy Policy.

If you believe content on Pearl is wrong or infringes your rights, contact to be confirmed. Pearl can correct, mark as unavailable, or withdraw information.

Availability

Pearl is provided as it is. We work to keep it available and accurate, but we don't promise it will always be available, error-free, or cover every place in Uganda. We may change, pause or remove features at any time.

Limits on Pearl's responsibility

Nothing in these terms limits any right you have that cannot be limited under Ugandan law.

To the extent the law allows:

• Pearl is not responsible for losses that come from relying on information without checking it, from a supplier's services or conduct, or from events outside Pearl's reasonable control;
• Pearl is not responsible for indirect losses, such as missed trips or lost profits;
• because Pearl is free for travellers, Pearl's total responsibility to you for any claim is limited to to be confirmed.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as Pearl changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect. Continuing to use Pearl after that means you accept the new terms.

Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Uganda. If a dispute arises, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it. If we can't, the courts of Uganda will decide it. to be confirmed

Contact

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