This document is available in English only for now. The English version is the official one; French and Arabic translations are being prepared.
PREAMBLE
These Terms of Use set out the terms governing access to and use of the Sawt application, a free civic platform dedicated to citizen participation and democratic transparency.
Any use of Sawt implies full acceptance of these Terms. A user who does not accept these terms must refrain from accessing the service.
ARTICLE 1: IDENTIFICATION AND OPERATING FRAMEWORK
Operator: An independent civic initiative based in Lebanon, operated by Anthony Moarbes and Maurice Abdo.
Contact details: contact@sawtlb.com
Data hosting: The service is built on Google Firebase infrastructure. Data is stored and processed on servers operated by Google, which may be located outside Lebanon. The service relies on Google's security infrastructure and contractual protections during such storage and transfer.
Legal framework: Law of the Republic of Lebanon. Any claim or dispute is subject exclusively to the Lebanese courts.
ARTICLE 2: NATURE AND PURPOSE OF THE SERVICE
2.1 Description of the service
Sawt is a free civic application that allows citizens to:
- Take part in votes on public-policy questions and on real parliamentary questions
- Access educational resources explaining institutions and rights (Civic Library)
- Consult aggregated statistics on citizen positions
- Compare aggregate citizen positions with the recorded positions of elected representatives and of the legislative assembly
2.2 Neutrality and informational purpose
Sawt remains strictly neutral in political terms. The application does not endorse any candidate, party, or political orientation. The service is intended exclusively for citizen information and civic education.
The data collected does not feed any campaign or political targeting, and is never sold for purposes of influence.
2.3 Limitation of legal value
The information published by Sawt is provided for informational and educational purposes. It does not constitute legal, electoral, or strategic advice. For any legal matter, the user must consult a qualified professional.
2.4 Accessibility and costs
The service is free and accessible anywhere an Internet connection is available. The user bears in full the costs of access (equipment, telecommunication services).
2.5 Guest mode
Sawt offers a guest mode that allows access to the service without creating an account, with the exception of voting, commenting, and submitting suggestions. Participation in these features requires the creation of an account.
ARTICLE 3: ACCOUNT CREATION AND MANAGEMENT
3.1 Registration
Access to participation features requires the creation of a free user account. When registering, the user must provide the following mandatory information:
- A valid and active email address
- A personal password
- A date of birth, confirming the user is at least 18 years of age
The following information may be provided, on a mandatory or optional basis as applicable, at registration or later:
- Full name
- Phone number (where phone verification is enabled; see Article 3.3)
- Region of residence (optional)
- Gender (optional)
- Preferred language
The user certifies the accuracy and currency of the information provided and its compliance with the law.
3.2 Responsibility for credentials
The user assumes full responsibility for the confidential safekeeping of their access credentials. Any use of the credentials is deemed to be the user's own act, except where Sawt is immediately notified of fraudulent access.
The user accepts full responsibility for any activity carried out under their account.
3.3 Verification measures
Sawt applies technical measures intended to protect the integrity of participation and to limit duplicate or fraudulent accounts. These measures may include verification of a phone number, and may be introduced, modified, or withdrawn over time as the service develops.
The user acknowledges that no verification measure can be fully effective, and that Sawt does not warrant that every account corresponds to a distinct individual.
3.4 Single-account obligation
The user undertakes to maintain a single active account. Sawt assumes no responsibility in the event of the use of multiple or concurrent accounts.
3.5 Deletion of the account and treatment of content
The user may request the deletion of their account at any time, free of charge and without justification, through the feature provided within the application or by contacting contact@sawtlb.com. Deletion is irreversible.
Upon deletion:
- The user's account and profile data are erased.
- The user's voting records and personal voting history are erased.
- Support requests submitted by the user are erased.
- Comments and citizen suggestions published by the user are retained, in anonymized form. The content remains visible on the platform, but the link between that content and the user's account is severed and cannot be restored.
- Aggregate results and statistics that already include the user's participation are not recalculated. These results are stored as historical totals and do not identify any individual.
The user acknowledges and accepts that content published publicly on the platform may remain available after deletion of the account, in the anonymized form described above.
ARTICLE 4: PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA
The processing of personal data is described in full in the Privacy Policy, which forms an integral part of these Terms. The following provisions summarise the essential points.
4.1 Data collected
Sawt collects and processes:
- Authentication data: email address, password (stored only in encrypted form by the authentication provider)
- Profile data: full name, and phone number where phone verification is enabled
- Demographic data: date of birth, selected language, and, on an optional basis, gender and region of residence
- Participation data: responses to votes and polls, comments, and suggestions
Sawt does not collect political affiliation, religion, or sect.
4.2 Treatment of votes
Sawt records the user's participation in votes in association with their account. This is necessary in order to:
- Ensure that each account participates only once in a given vote
- Allow the user to consult and, where they choose, delete their own voting history
Votes are not published in a form that identifies the user. Results are displayed publicly only as aggregate totals. No other user can see how a given individual voted.
The user may delete their voting history at any time from within the application, and all voting records associated with the account are erased when the account is deleted.
The user acknowledges that the confidentiality of this data cannot be guaranteed in the event of a valid judicial order issued by a competent Lebanese authority, or in the event of a security incident occurring despite the measures described in Article 4.5.
4.3 Purposes of processing
The data is processed exclusively for:
- Administration of the user account
- Operation of the participation features
- Generation of aggregated statistics
- Detection and prevention of fraud or abusive use
- Response to support requests
- Compliance with valid Lebanese judicial orders
No other purpose is pursued.
4.4 Sharing and third parties
Personal data is never sold, and is never disclosed to commercial, political, or advertising third parties. Access to the infrastructure and the data is limited to:
- Google Firebase: technical hosting provider
- Lebanese judicial authorities: solely under an enforceable judicial order
4.5 Security
Sawt applies reasonable, industry-standard security measures, including encryption in transit, encrypted storage of credentials by the authentication provider, and access rules restricting who may read or write data.
No system guarantees absolute security. The user accepts the risks inherent in online transmission and digital storage.
4.6 User rights
The user has the rights of access, rectification, deletion, and objection regarding their personal data, as set out in the Privacy Policy. Most of these rights may be exercised directly within the application. For any other request, the user may write to contact@sawtlb.com.
ARTICLE 5: PROHIBITED CONDUCT, MODERATION, AND CONSEQUENCES
5.1 Prohibitions
The user undertakes not to:
- Create multiple accounts, or otherwise attempt to manipulate vote results
- Harass, threaten, or discriminate against other users
- Attempt unauthorized access to the infrastructure
- Use Sawt for commercial or political-campaign purposes without prior written permission from Sawt
- Publish or transmit illegal, defamatory, or violence-inciting content
- Publish content that is knowingly false, or that impersonates another person
5.2 Content moderation
Content published by users, in particular comments and suggestions, may be subject to moderation. Sawt reserves the right to review, hide, or remove any content that breaches these Terms, at its sole discretion and without prior notice.
The user may report content they consider inappropriate by contacting contact@sawtlb.com. Sawt endeavours to address reports within a reasonable time, without any guarantee as to timing or outcome.
Sawt does not systematically review content before publication and does not warrant that all content on the platform complies with these Terms or with applicable law. Content published by users represents the views of those users and not of Sawt.
5.3 Sanctions
Violation of these prohibitions may result in the immediate suspension or deletion of the account, without prior warning and without compensation.
ARTICLE 6: LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
6.1 "As is" provision
Sawt is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, no warranty of any kind is given, whether express or implied, including as to:
- The accuracy, completeness, currency, or reliability of the content and the infrastructure
- The absence of defects, errors, or vulnerabilities
- Continuous, timely, or uninterrupted accessibility
- Fitness for the user's particular uses or needs
- Non-infringement
6.2 Disclaimer of liability
Sawt is developed and maintained with care but, like any digital service, is not immune to imperfections or occasional incidents. Except for obligations that the law formally prohibits excluding, Sawt cannot be held liable for:
General damages:
- Loss or corruption of data
- Loss of revenue, profits, opportunities, or reputation
- Direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential damages, whether or not foreseeable
Technical malfunctions:
- Service interruptions, unavailability, degradation, or slowdowns
- Bugs, system errors, or anomalies
- Loss of data due to a technical malfunction, including the failure of any synchronisation or backup mechanism
Content and accuracy:
- Inaccuracy, incompleteness, or ambiguity of displayed information, despite the care taken in verifying it
- Errors in the user's understanding or interpretation of that information
- Inaccurate or incomplete data originating from official or third-party sources outside Sawt's control
- Any decision taken by the user, or by any third party, on the basis of information published on the platform
User-generated content:
- The content, accuracy, or legality of comments, suggestions, or other material published by users
- Any harm arising from interaction between users
Security and access:
- Fraudulent access to the user's account resulting from the user's failure to protect their credentials
- Security flaws that may be discovered after deployment
- Cyberattacks or intrusions occurring despite reasonable security measures
Third parties:
- The content, accuracy, availability, or legality of third-party sites linked from Sawt
- Attempts by other users to falsify or manipulate votes or polls
Force majeure:
- Any disruption due to war, civil unrest, natural disaster, failure of telecommunications or electrical infrastructure, governmental action or censorship, or any other event beyond Sawt's reasonable control
6.3 Liability cap
If, despite the foregoing provisions, a court determines that Sawt is liable, total cumulative liability, for all claims taken together, is limited to the amount paid by the user for the service. As Sawt is free of charge, this amount is zero.
6.4 Indemnity
The user agrees to defend, indemnify, and hold Sawt and its operators harmless from any liability, claim, action, demand, cost, or damage brought by third parties or arising from:
- The user's breach of these Terms
- The user's violation of applicable law
- Content published by the user
- Damage caused by the user's conduct or use of the service
- The user's infringement of the rights of others
6.5 Time limit for claims
Any claim arising from or relating to the use of Sawt must be brought within one (1) year of the event giving rise to it, to the extent permitted by Lebanese law. Claims brought after that period are waived.
ARTICLE 7: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
7.1 Code and infrastructure
The source code of Sawt, the user interface, the algorithms, and all technical elements are the exclusive property of Sawt and protected by applicable copyright law.
The user may not:
- Reproduce, copy, modify, or adapt the code
- Reverse-engineer, decompile, or disassemble the application
- Extract components to create a competing application
- Use the code for commercial purposes
7.2 Civic Library
The educational content (Civic Library) is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
The user may:
- Read, copy, translate, and adapt the content
- Republish and remix the content, subject to clear attribution to Sawt
The user may not:
- Use the content for commercial purposes without prior written permission
- Claim authorship of the content
- Apply additional legal or technological restrictions that limit what the license permits to others
7.3 Content published by users
By publishing a comment or suggestion on the platform, the user grants Sawt a free, non-exclusive, worldwide licence to host, display, reproduce, translate, and distribute that content in connection with the operation and promotion of the service, including after the user's account has been deleted, in the anonymized form described in Article 3.5.
The user warrants that they hold the necessary rights to the content they publish.
ARTICLE 8: MODIFICATIONS TO THE SERVICE
8.1 Operational modifications
Sawt reserves the right to modify, improve, temporarily suspend, or permanently terminate the service or any of its features at any time, without prior warning, without justification, and without compensation.
8.2 Modifications to the Terms
Sawt may modify these Terms at any time. Modifications take effect upon publication.
For substantial modifications, Sawt will notify active users by email or by in-app notification at least once.
Continued use after a modification constitutes acceptance. A user who refuses a modification may delete their account free of charge.
ARTICLE 9: EXTERNAL LINKS
Sawt may contain hyperlinks to third-party sites, including those of the Lebanese Parliament, the government, civil-society organisations, and the press. Sawt does not control these external sites and assumes no responsibility for their content, accuracy, legality, or availability. The presence of a link does not imply endorsement.
ARTICLE 10: GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION
10.1 Governing law
These Terms in their entirety are governed by Lebanese law and interpreted in accordance with the principles of that law.
10.2 Exclusive jurisdiction
Any legal action, claim, or dispute is subject exclusively to the Lebanese courts. The user accepts the territorial and subject-matter jurisdiction of the Lebanese courts and waives any other jurisdiction.
10.3 No class action
The user expressly waives any participation in a class action, group claim, or collective proceeding against Sawt. Claims must be brought individually.
10.4 No arbitration
The user waives any right to arbitration. Disputes are resolved under Lebanese law and before the Lebanese courts only.
ARTICLE 11: SEVERABILITY
If any provision of these Terms is declared invalid, void, or unenforceable by a judicial decision or a competent authority, that provision is removed from the contract and, where possible, replaced by a valid provision reflecting its original intent as closely as possible. The remainder of the Terms remains fully in force.
The removal of a clause does not constitute a waiver by Sawt of its other rights, nor does it invalidate the user's remaining obligations.
ARTICLE 12: ENTIRE AGREEMENT
These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between the user and Sawt concerning the service. No prior representation, expectation, or promise, whether written, verbal, or implied, binds the parties outside of these documents.
ARTICLE 13: ACCEPTANCE
By creating an account or using Sawt, you fully and unreservedly accept all of these Terms.
Version: 1.1 Effective date: [DATE TO BE SET AT PUBLICATION] Next revision: [ONE YEAR AFTER EFFECTIVE DATE]
© 2026 Sawt. All rights reserved.
These Terms are provided in English, French, and Arabic. In the event of any discrepancy between versions, the [LANGUAGE TO BE CONFIRMED WITH LAWYER] version prevails.