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Terms of Service

Last updated 27 August 2026

Vaak is a public record, not a government service. Using it does not guarantee any institution will act. Recording that "no official response is on the record" is a statement about the record, not proof that nothing happened, an absence of a logged response is never treated as proof of inaction, and it is never presented as one.

Definitions

A few words carry a specific meaning throughout these terms.

  • Vāk. Speech as an act: a single piece of content you publish on Vaak to exercise your voice and press for something to change in the real world. Reporting a problem is one form it can take, not the only one; a vāk can equally testify in support of someone else's, propose what should happen, ask a question, back or oppose a proposal, correct the record, commit to (or verify) an outcome, or dispute one, under one of the intents the app defines.
  • Issue. The ongoing record Vaak builds around one civic matter, gathering the vāks and institutional responses that relate to it.
  • Institution. A government body or office with a presence on Vaak, onboarded by a platform moderator.
  • Office and officer. A role inside an institution, and the account holding it; an institution's admin grants these roles, and only a granted role lets an account speak or act with that office's authority.
  • Platform moderator. A Vaak staff account authorised to onboard institutions and to review reports under "Moderation and appeals" below.
  • The record. The append-only history of vāks, issues, responses, and moderation decisions that Vaak publishes and keeps.

Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to create a Vaak account. We do not knowingly let anyone under 18 register; see the Privacy Policy for what we do if we learn a child has an account.

Acceptance

By creating an account or using Vaak, you agree to these terms and to the Privacy Policy, which these terms incorporate by reference. If you are using Vaak on behalf of an institution or office, you are also agreeing on that institution's behalf, and confirming you are authorised to speak for it, official capacity is checked server-side, not just claimed.

Accounts and handles

You may use a pseudonym as your handle; Vaak is pseudonymous by default. We ask for one account per person: this is a conduct rule we enforce through moderation review, not a check our systems run automatically at signup. The one exception is civic identity verification (see the Privacy Policy), where a document-based check does dedupe. A small set of handles that could be mistaken for a platform or government account (for example admin, moderator, government, official) are reserved and cannot be self-registered. Institutions are onboarded by platform moderators, an institution's admin then manages its own offices and role grants from there; naming someone as an institution's admin requires that they already hold a registered Vaak handle, we check this before the institution is created.

Originating a vāk, an act that starts or advances the record rather than joining one already underway, requires civic identity verification; a pseudonymous handle you have not verified can still read, follow, and respond to what others have published. See the Privacy Policy for what verification involves and what we do (and don't) keep from it.

Your content and the licence you grant

You own what you post. By publishing a vāk, comment, or other content, you grant Vaak a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable licence to host, reproduce, and display it publicly as part of the civic record for as long as it remains part of that record, that display is the entire point of the platform. You are responsible for what you post. In particular, do not publish:

  • Content you do not have the right to share, including someone else's copyrighted work.
  • Private information about someone else (for example a home address, phone number, or ID number) that is not relevant to the civic issue you are raising.
  • Anything covered by "Acceptable use" below.

For a photo (JPEG/PNG) you upload, what gets published has embedded metadata such as GPS location removed; video, audio, and other files are stored and published exactly as uploaded, metadata included. See the Privacy Policy for how that works and what it means once a file is attached as evidence on a public vāk.

Persistence of the record

Vaak is built as an append-only record: nothing is erased from the underlying history of what was said and done, only marked. You can withdraw or supersede your own vāk at any time. Withdrawing marks it withdrawn and removes it from the public feed; superseding replaces it with a correction. In both cases the original stays reachable at its own link and stays part of the record's history, now labelled accordingly, rather than being deleted, this is what lets an institution's response (or the absence of one) stay provable over time. Do not publish something on the understanding that you can have it erased later rather than corrected. Files you attach are not automatically removed when the vāk they belong to is withdrawn or superseded, and can remain reachable at their own address for as long as the vāk stays public. If you need something removed for a reason beyond a normal correction, for example a safety concern or a legal requirement, contact us (below) and we will handle it directly.

Acceptable use

You may not use Vaak to:

  • Impersonate another person, or falsely claim to speak for an institution or office.
  • Harass, threaten, or target another person.
  • Knowingly post false or materially misleading claims presented as fact.
  • Spam the record, including posting the same content repeatedly or flooding an institution's queue in bad faith.
  • Attempt to bypass the verification, capacity, or moderation checks described in these terms.
  • Verify your civic identity with a document that is not your own.
  • Scrape, bulk-download, or programmatically collect content from Vaak outside the bulk-access programme described below.
  • Upload a file designed to run as a script, spread malware, or otherwise compromise Vaak or another user's device.

Moderation and appeals

Reports are reviewed by platform moderators against the categories above. We aim to acknowledge a report within 24 hours and resolve it within 15 days; a case that needs input from an institution or a slower investigation can take longer, and we will tell you if it does. A vāk found to violate these terms may be marked restricted: it is never silently removed, a notice explains why and the content owner can appeal within 14 days of the decision. Both the report and its resolution are part of the record.

Institutional and official accounts

An institution's presence on Vaak is registered only by platform moderators, who name the institution's own administrator; we check that the named administrator already holds a registered account before the institution is created, so a typo cannot silently strand an institution or leave its admin seat claimable by a stranger. That administrator can then add offices and grant roles to officers, and can revoke a role at any time, revoking takes effect immediately: console access and the ability to speak with that office's authority stop at once. Whether a specific account may act with an office's authority (an "official voice") is checked by the server on every write, not inferred from a claim in the app.

Programmatic and bulk access

Vaak's public record can also be read at scale, for example by a newsroom or a researcher, through a separate bulk-access programme granted individually by platform moderators. That access is narrower than a normal public link in what it exposes (see the Privacy Policy) and is governed by its own agreement at the time it is granted; nothing in these terms otherwise entitles you to bulk or automated access.

Intellectual property and rights complaints

Vaak's name, logo, and the software, design, and branding of the service, as distinct from the content users publish, belong to us or our licensors. These terms do not give you any right to use them beyond what normal use of the service requires.

If you believe something published on Vaak infringes your copyright or other rights, or is otherwise unlawful, write to our Grievance Officer at grievance@upturnbrands.com, with enough detail to locate the content (a link, and the right you say it infringes) and to verify who you are. We acknowledge complaints like this within 24 hours and act on them, including removing content where warranted, within the timeframe the law requires. A complaint made in bad faith, to silence legitimate civic speech, is itself a violation of these terms.

No warranty

Vaak is provided as-is. We work to keep the record accurate and the service available, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted access, and we are not responsible for the accuracy of content posted by other users or the actions (or inaction) of any institution.

Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, Vaak and the people who operate it are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the service, including lost profits, lost data, or reputational harm, even if we were told these were possible. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law, for example liability for fraud or wilful misconduct.

Indemnification

You agree to cover our reasonable costs and damages if a third party brings a claim against us because of content you posted in violation of these terms, or because your use of Vaak broke the law or someone else's rights.

Termination

You can stop using Vaak whenever you like. We can suspend or terminate your access if you violate these terms, generally through the same moderation and notice process described above; for account security or a legal reason we may need to act first and explain after. Because Vaak is an append-only record, closing your account does not remove what you already published under the licence above, it stays part of the record as described in "Persistence of the record," unless you separately ask us to remove it under the Privacy Policy's "Your rights, and where we are on the DPDP Act" section.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of India. Any dispute arising from these terms or your use of Vaak is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Mumbai, India.

General terms

If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Not enforcing a provision on one occasion is not a waiver of it. You may not assign your rights under these terms; we may, for example as part of a merger or a transfer of the service, and we will tell you if we do. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about using Vaak, and replace any earlier agreement on the same subject.

Changes to these terms

If we materially change these terms, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated terms.

Contact

Questions about these terms: grievance@upturnbrands.com. Vaak is operated by UpturnBrands Private Limited (CIN U70200MH2023PTC412035), a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013, with its registered office at 32, Dhavalgiri, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400067, India.