Terms of Use

1. Who May Use the Platform

Anyone may browse the hero directory and read published profiles without an account. To nominate, follow, send appreciation or gifts, submit creative content, vote or register for events, you need an account.

You must be at least 13 years old to hold an account. If you are under 18 you need the consent of a parent or guardian, who is responsible for your use of the platform.

2. Your Account

You may hold one account, and the information on it must be accurate. You are responsible for everything done through it. Keep your password to yourself, and tell us immediately if you believe someone else has access.

Creating accounts to evade a suspension, to cast extra votes, or to impersonate someone else is a breach of these terms. You may delete your account at any time from your settings.

3. Nominating a Hero

A nomination is a statement of fact about a real person, and we treat it that way. By submitting one you confirm that:

• You are nominating someone other than yourself. Self-nomination is not permitted, nor is asking another person to nominate you.
• The story is true to the best of your knowledge, and you have not exaggerated, invented or borrowed any part of it.
• The sources, documents, links and media you provide are genuine, and you are entitled to share them with us.
• You obtained the nominee's contact details lawfully and are sharing only what is needed for us to verify the story and reach them.

4. Review, Consent and Hero Profiles

Every nomination is reviewed by our team, who may ask you for more information, contact the nominee, and approve, reject or hold the nomination at their discretion. We do not have to give a reason for rejecting a nomination.

No hero profile is published without the nominee's consent. If the nominee declines, or cannot be reached, the nomination ends there. Once a profile is published the hero is invited to manage it; changes the hero makes to their profile, photos or videos are reviewed before they appear publicly.

5. Removing a Hero Profile

A hero may ask us at any time to hide or remove their profile, or particular content on it, and we will act on that request promptly. Anyone who believes a published profile is inaccurate, misleading or infringes their rights may report it, and we will review it.

We may also suspend or remove a profile ourselves where its story turns out to be untrue, where the hero's conduct is incompatible with public recognition, or where the law requires it.

6. Appreciation Messages

Appreciation messages are delivered privately to the hero. Appreciation is sent in words. You may sign a message with your name or send it anonymously. The hero decides whether to publish it on their public appreciation wall or keep it private, and may reply to you privately; a reply is visible only to you and is never published.

Messages must be sincere and respectful. We may hide any published message from the community, and act against an account that uses messages to harass, advertise or mislead.

7. Creative Content and Your Licence to Us

Creative submissions — artwork, drawings, designs, short films and other media made in honour of a hero — are reviewed before publication and may be declined without a reason being given. You must own the content or have the right to share it, and you must have the permission of anyone identifiable in it.

You keep ownership of everything you submit. By submitting it you grant Abtalona a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, adapt for formatting and distribute that content for the purpose of operating and promoting the platform and the hero it honours. The licence lasts as long as the content is on the platform, and ends when you or we remove it — save for copies retained in backups and for content others have already re-shared.

8. Community Voting

Voting campaigns — Hero of the Week, Hero of the Month, Hero of the Year and others — run for the dates and under the rules we publish for each campaign. You must be signed in to vote. Each campaign sets its own vote limit, shown on the campaign, and each member may cast up to that number of votes in it.

You must not manipulate a vote: no multiple accounts, automated voting, bought or traded votes, or organised schemes to inflate a result. We monitor voting activity, may void votes or disqualify a nominee where we find manipulation, and review results before announcing them. Whether a campaign's running totals are shown is set per campaign, and our decision on a campaign's result is final.

9. Events and Initiatives

Events and initiatives listed on the platform may be organised by us or by third parties, as shown on each event. Registering does not guarantee a place, and details such as date, time and location may change. Where an event is run by a third party, that organiser is responsible for it, and you take part under its own terms and at your own responsibility.

10. Digital Gifts

Digital gifts are no longer offered: appreciation on the platform is sent in words only. Any digital gift attached to an earlier appreciation message stays private until the hero publishes that message, has no monetary value, cannot be exchanged for money or transferred, and we may hide or remove it if it was sent in bad faith.

11. Community Conduct

The platform exists to honour people who have served their community. You agree not to:

• Post anything unlawful, defamatory, obscene, hateful, threatening, or that harasses, bullies or incites violence against any person or group.
• Post content that is offensive to the religion, values or public order of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or that breaches its laws.
• Submit false nominations, fabricate stories or evidence, or use a nomination or message to embarrass, mock or expose someone.
• Impersonate another person, a hero, an organisation, an official, or Abtalona itself.
• Post spam, advertising, chain messages, or links to malware or phishing.
• Upload anything you do not have the right to share, including photographs, footage or marks you do not own or have licence to use.
• Share another person's private information without their permission.
• Scrape, crawl, mirror, reverse-engineer, or use automated means to access the platform, its API or its data, except as a published interface expressly allows.
• Interfere with the platform's operation or security, or attempt to gain access to accounts, systems or data that are not yours.

12. Reporting and Moderation

Hero updates, photos, videos and creative submissions are reviewed before they become public. Appreciation messages, and any gifts attached to them, are published by the hero, not by us, and we may hide any of them afterwards.

If you see content that breaches these terms or the law, use the report option beside it or write to us. We review reports and may remove or hide content, warn the account responsible, or restrict it. If you believe content infringes your rights, tell us and we will review it.

13. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or close an account, remove content, or withdraw access where you breach these terms, where we are required to by law, or where continued access would put other users, heroes or the platform at risk. Where the circumstances allow, we will tell you why.

Sections 7, 14, 16, 17, 18 and 19 survive the end of this agreement.

14. Our Intellectual Property

The platform, its software, design, layout, text, graphics, the stories and videos our team prepares, and the Abtalona name and logo are owned by us or our licensors and are protected by intellectual property law. These terms give you a personal, revocable, non-transferable licence to use the platform for its intended purpose — and nothing more.

Names, logos and marks of organisations mentioned in hero stories belong to their respective owners and appear here for identification and editorial purposes only.

15. Third-Party Content and Links

Hero stories are verified against the sources available to us at the time of review, but they are accounts of real lives and we cannot warrant that every detail is complete or current. Some summaries, translations and narrations are produced with the help of AI tools and are reviewed before publication.

Links to external sites, including a hero's official social accounts, are provided for convenience. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices.

16. Disclaimers

The platform is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we exclude all warranties, conditions and terms implied by law, including any warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement. We do not guarantee uninterrupted access; features may be added, changed or withdrawn, and maintenance may take the service offline.

Recognition on Abtalona celebrates a person's contribution to the community. It is not an official honour, a certification, or an endorsement by Abtalona of every aspect of that person.

Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

17. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Abtalona is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss, nor for loss of profit, revenue, data, goodwill or opportunity, arising out of or in connection with your use of the platform.

Our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with these terms is limited to SAR 500.

18. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify Abtalona against any claim, loss, liability or reasonable cost arising from your breach of these terms, from a nomination, message or content you submitted, or from your unlawful use of the platform.

19. Governing Law and Disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with them falls to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of Riyadh.

We would rather resolve things directly. Contact us first and we will try to settle the matter before either side escalates it.

20. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms as the platform and the law change. The date at the top always reflects the current version. Material changes are notified in the app or by email before they take effect; continuing to use the platform afterwards means you accept them. If you do not, close your account.

21. Contact Us

Questions about these terms, or a request to remove a hero profile, go to support@abtalona.com.