1. Provision of Software "As Is" & Absolute Warranty Disclaimer

PopiScan (accessible via popiscan.co.za) and all accompanying source code, scripts, computer vision models, documentation, and user interfaces are provided to you free of charge on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis, without warranties, guarantees, or conditions of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory, or collateral.

To the fullest extent permissible pursuant to applicable South African and international law, the authors, contributors, developers, domain owners, and hosting operators explicitly disclaim all warranties of any kind, including but not limited to:

• Implied Warranties: Any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, title, or quiet enjoyment.
• Operational Warranties: Any warranty that the software will be uninterrupted, error-free, compatible with all devices or operating systems, secure, or free from functional defects.
• Regulatory & Legal Adequacy: Any warranty that reliance upon or utilization of this software satisfies the statutory obligations of a Responsible Party under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, the Children's Act 38 of 2005, or common-law rights to privacy and dignity.

2. Operational Assistance Utility Only — Not Legal Advice

PopiScan is an open operational utility engineered to aid workflow tracking (matching event photos against locally supplied consent rosters and applying client-side visual redactions).

PopiScan is NOT a law firm, certified compliance auditor, or statutory information officer. Under no circumstances does your access to or use of PopiScan constitute the provision of legal advice, legal opinions, statutory audit services, or any professional fiduciary relationship:

• Compliance badges (such as "Compliant", "Passed", or "Verified") and audit certificates generated by this software reflect only the automated heuristic rules evaluated against the records you uploaded.
• Generated reports, audit logs, and certificates do not carry official statutory weight, are not endorsed by the Information Regulator of South Africa, and do not confer regulatory immunity or legal defense in legal or administrative proceedings.
• For any questions concerning lawful data processing, legitimate interest, or compliance with Sections 11, 14, 19, or 35 of POPIA, you must consult an admitted attorney or certified South African privacy practitioner.

3. Inherent Algorithmic Limits & Probabilistic Computer Vision

You acknowledge and understand that client-side facial detection, feature tracking, and image analysis algorithms operate on statistical heuristics and mathematical approximations. They are fundamentally probabilistic and cannot achieve absolute certainty:

• False Negatives (Undetected Faces): The scanner may fail to detect faces that are turned away from the camera, partially occluded, heavily shadowed, poorly illuminated, low resolution, motion blurred, wearing sunglasses, masks, religious headwear, or located in crowded background groups.
• False Positives (Incorrect Flags): The scanner may identify inanimate objects, textures, foliage, or clothing patterns as human faces.
• Matching Uncertainties: Local roster matching relies on localized feature comparison. Differences in age, hair style, angle, facial expression, and image quality can result in inaccurate matches or false non-matches.

Mandatory Human Review: Because automated algorithms cannot guarantee exhaustive detection, you must always perform rigorous human visual review before publishing, printing, distributing, or publicly uploading any event photos.

4. Sole Legal Responsibility of the User ("Responsible Party")

Under Section 1 of POPIA, the individual, school, business, institution, or organization that determines the purpose of and means for processing personal information is the Responsible Party.

You, as the user and Responsible Party, retain 100% of the legal duty, liability, and operational accountability for:

• Consent Verification (Section 11): Ensuring that verifiable, informed, and specific consent has been lawfully obtained from all adult subjects depicted in media prior to public distribution.
• Protection of Minors (Section 35): Ensuring that strict, formal written consent has been executed by a competent person (parent or legal guardian) prior to processing or publishing the personal or biometric information of any child under 18 years of age.
• Consent Roster Accuracy: Maintaining the veracity, currency, and accuracy of your consent records, opt-outs, and restriction notices.
• Media Publishing Decisions: Every decision to publish, share, crop, redact, withhold, or delete an image rests solely with you. The use of PopiScan's redaction tools (blurring, masking, pixelation) does not relieve you of the obligation to verify that identifying traits have been adequately neutralized.

5. Comprehensive Limitation of Liability & Statutory Fine Exclusion

To the maximum extent permitted under applicable law, in no event shall the authors, contributors, developers, domain registrants, or infrastructure hosts of PopiScan be liable to you or any third party under any legal theory—whether in contract, delict (tort), negligence, strict liability, breach of statutory duty, or otherwise—for:

• Regulatory Penalties & Fines: Any administrative enforcement notices, penalties, or statutory fines imposed by the Information Regulator of South Africa, including administrative fines under Section 109 of POPIA (up to R10,000,000).
• Civil Claims & Compensation: Any civil actions, demands for compensation, damages, or settlements brought by data subjects, parents, guardians, or employees under Section 99 of POPIA for privacy infringement, unlawful distribution of images, or emotional distress.
• Consequential & Incidental Damages: Any loss of reputation, commercial goodwill, business interruption, loss of profits, loss of data, or operational delays.
• Litigation Expenses: Any attorneys' fees, legal defense expenditures, discovery costs, or expert witness expenses incurred in connection with privacy disputes or regulatory proceedings.

6. Zero-Knowledge Client-Side Architecture & Zero Data Processing

PopiScan is intentionally engineered with a zero-knowledge, client-side sandbox architecture specifically to ensure the operators never possess or process your sensitive data:

• Zero Network Ingestion: Photographs dropped or selected in the scanner are decoded and processed entirely within your web browser's local RAM via HTML5 Canvas and WebAssembly. No image files or biometric vectors are transmitted across the internet to our servers or any third-party cloud API.
• Zero Server Database: No subject names, student identifiers, consent statuses, or reference photos are stored on remote servers. All persistence occurs strictly within your browser's private localStorage cache.
• Zero Telemetry & Cookies: The site uses no marketing trackers, external analytics, surveillance pixels, or fingerprinting scripts.

Because the operators of PopiScan never receive, access, view, hold, or process your images or subjects, the operators do not act as an "Operator" or "Processor" on your behalf under Section 1 and Section 20 of POPIA. You retain exclusive custody and control of your data at all times. The full client-side code is publicly open for independent audit on GitHub under GPLv3.

7. User Indemnification & Explicit Acceptance of Terms

By accessing, loading, browsing, or utilizing PopiScan (popiscan.co.za), you explicitly acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by these Terms and Disclaimer in full.

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the authors, developers, and hosts of PopiScan against any claims, regulatory proceedings, liabilities, losses, costs, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from:

• Your use or misuse of the software;
• Your publication, distribution, or handling of any event photographs;
• Any breach by you or your organization of POPIA, the Children's Act, or common-law rights; or
• Any dispute between you and any depicted data subject or guardian.

If you do not agree with any provision of this Legal Disclaimer & Terms of Use, you must immediately cease using PopiScan and close this browser window.