Terms of Use

What Pothole Watch is

Pothole Watch lets you tell Ben’s Asphalt, a private paving company, about potholes on roads and parking lots. It is not a government service, and it is not affiliated with any police department, city, county, state or other public agency. It is not an emergency service. If a road hazard puts someone in immediate danger, call 911.

A report is not a guarantee of repair

We review the reports we receive, but we don’t promise to respond to, inspect or repair any pothole, or to do so by any particular time. Whether and when we act is up to us. Sending a report does not create a contract, a customer relationship or any duty on our part. The app doesn’t ask for your contact details, so we generally can’t update you about your report.

Public streets are the city’s responsibility

Public streets and roads are maintained by the city, county or state (for example, Caltrans), not by Ben’s Asphalt. We can repair them only when the responsible agency hires us. If the pothole is on a public street, please also report it to your city, for example through its 311 service, app or website. Reporting a pothole to us does not report it to the city.

Safety first

Never use Pothole Watch while driving. Pull over somewhere safe first, or let a passenger send the report. Don’t stand in traffic or on the roadway to take a photo, don’t enter private property without permission, and follow all traffic laws. You are responsible for your own safety while using Pothole Watch.

Acceptable use

Use Pothole Watch only to report real potholes and pavement problems, in good faith. You agree not to:

• send false, misleading or prank reports, or send the same report over and over;
• include faces, license plates, people’s names, addresses, phone numbers or other personal information in photos or notes (a photo of the pavement is all we need);
• send anything abusive, threatening, harassing, obscene, sexually explicit, hateful or illegal, or anything that infringes someone else’s rights;
• send links, advertising or spam;
• use bots, scripts or other automated means to send reports, or to access, scrape or overload Pothole Watch;
• try to get around rate limits, bot protection or other security measures, or access parts of the service you are not authorized to use;
• impersonate anyone, or suggest that Pothole Watch or Ben’s Asphalt is a government or law enforcement agency.

We may remove or refuse any report or photo, limit or block access to Pothole Watch, and report illegal content to the authorities, including to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) for content that appears to show child sexual abuse.

Your reports and photos

You keep any ownership rights you have in the reports, photos and notes you send (“your content”). By sending your content, you grant Ben’s Asphalt a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual and irrevocable license to use, copy, store, modify (for example, resize, crop, blur or re-encode), display and share your content, and to let our service providers do so for us, in order to review and repair potholes, contact property owners and managers, operate, secure and improve Pothole Watch, and as described in our Privacy Policy.

You confirm that you have the right to send your content and to grant this license, and that your content follows these terms. We don’t have to keep, use or display your content, and we delete it as described in our Privacy Policy. This license does not limit your privacy rights, including your right to ask us to delete personal information.

Automated photo screening

Photos are checked automatically before our staff see them. Automated checks can make mistakes. We may hold, blur or delete any photo, and a held photo may not reach our staff.

Our content and brand

Pothole Watch, including its design, text and software, and the Ben’s Asphalt name and logos belong to Ben’s Asphalt or its licensors. You may use Pothole Watch only as these terms allow. You may not copy, modify or reuse it, or use our names or logos, without our written permission.

Third-party services and links

Address search is provided by Geoapify, using map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Links to other services, such as Google Maps, Apple Maps or your city’s 311 website, are governed by those services’ own terms and privacy policies, and we are not responsible for them.

Disclaimers

Pothole Watch is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. We don’t promise that Pothole Watch will be available, error-free or secure, that locations, addresses or other information it shows will be accurate, or that any report will be received, reviewed or acted on.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Ben’s Asphalt and its owners, employees, contractors and service providers will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, arising from or related to Pothole Watch or these terms, even if we were told such damages were possible. Our total liability for any claim arising from or related to Pothole Watch or these terms is limited to $100.

Some laws don’t allow these limits, so they may not apply to you. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited under California law, such as liability for fraud, willful injury, gross negligence or violation of law.

Changes to Pothole Watch and these terms

We may change, suspend or stop Pothole Watch at any time. We may update these terms; when we do, we will post the new version here and change the “Last updated” date. If you keep using Pothole Watch after an update, the updated terms apply to you. Changes don’t apply to reports sent before the update.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute arising from or related to these terms or Pothole Watch will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Orange County, California, and you and we consent to their jurisdiction, except where the law gives you the right to bring a claim somewhere else.

General

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. If we don’t enforce part of these terms, that is not a waiver. These terms and our Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us about Pothole Watch. You may not transfer your rights under these terms; we may transfer ours, for example as part of a sale of our business. We provide these terms in English and Spanish. If the two versions differ, the English version controls.

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