Terms and Conditions

1. About AupairMe

AupairMe is an online platform designed to help au pairs and families find and connect with each other.

By creating an account or using AupairMe, you agree to these Terms and Conditions and our Privacy Notice.

2. Who may use AupairMe

You must provide accurate information when creating and using your account.

Au pairs registering on AupairMe must be at least 18 years old.

You may not create an account using another person's identity or deliberately provide false or misleading information.

3. AupairMe is a matching platform

AupairMe helps au pairs and families discover and contact potential matches.

AupairMe is not the employer of an au pair and is not a party to any employment agreement or other arrangement entered into between an au pair and a family.

Au pairs and families are responsible for deciding whether they are suitable for each other and for agreeing on matters such as:

• Duties and responsibilities
• Working hours
• Remuneration
• Leave
• Transport
• Start and end dates
• House rules
• Employment conditions

Users are responsible for ensuring that any arrangement they enter into complies with applicable South African law.

4. Profiles and information

You are responsible for the information you provide on AupairMe.

Information in your profile should be accurate, current and not deliberately misleading.

Do not upload or publish content that:

• Belongs to someone else without permission
• Is unlawful
• Is threatening, abusive or discriminatory
• Is fraudulent or deliberately misleading
• Contains unnecessary private or sensitive information about another person

You remain responsible for information and content you choose to provide.

5. Finding and contacting people

AupairMe provides tools that may help users find suitable au pairs or families.

Search results, matching suggestions, filters or recommendations are intended to assist users and are not a guarantee that a particular person or family will be suitable.

Users should use their own judgement before meeting, employing, working for or sharing additional personal information with another user.

6. Safety and verification

AupairMe may provide profile information, verification features or other tools intended to help users make informed decisions.

However, users remain responsible for conducting appropriate checks before entering into an arrangement.

Families should verify an au pair's identity, references, qualifications, driving licence or other relevant information where appropriate.

Au pairs should also satisfy themselves that a family and proposed working arrangement are genuine and suitable before accepting employment.

AupairMe cannot guarantee the identity, conduct, suitability, accuracy or reliability of every user.

7. Payments and paid services

Some AupairMe features may be free while others may require payment or a subscription.

Where a paid service is offered, the applicable price and what is included will be shown before payment.

Users are responsible for reviewing the applicable price and service before completing a purchase.

Any specific cancellation, renewal or refund conditions applicable to a paid product should be displayed as part of the purchase process.

8. Acceptable use

AupairMe may be used only for genuine participation in the AupairMe marketplace and for the purpose of finding, evaluating and connecting with suitable au pairs or families, as appropriate to your account.

You may not use AupairMe to:

• Harass, threaten, exploit or unlawfully discriminate against another person
• Commit fraud, impersonate another person or create misleading accounts
• Collect, use or repurpose user information for unrelated personal, commercial or business purposes
• Scrape, crawl, harvest, extract, download or systematically copy profiles, search results, photographs or other platform data
• Use bots, crawlers, scripts, browser automation, automated agents, artificial intelligence systems or other automated means to access, monitor, extract or reproduce AupairMe content or data without our prior written permission
• Build or enrich databases, directories, recruitment databases, contact lists, lead lists, mailing lists, datasets or competing services using information obtained through AupairMe
• Use information obtained through AupairMe for unrelated recruitment, solicitation, marketing, advertising, lead generation, data mining, profiling or similar activities
• Sell, license, publish, distribute, disclose or provide AupairMe platform data or another user's information to another person or business except where reasonably necessary for the intended matching process
• Use AupairMe content or data to train, develop, evaluate or improve artificial intelligence or machine-learning systems without our prior written permission
• Attempt to avoid these restrictions by using screenshots, manual copying, multiple accounts or other technical or non-technical methods
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to accounts, systems or restricted information
• Distribute malware or interfere with the operation, integrity or security of the service
• Use AupairMe for unlawful purposes

9. Platform data and personal information

Information made available through AupairMe, including profiles, profile photographs, descriptions, rates, availability, locations, experience, qualifications, education, preferences, family requirements, search results and other marketplace information, is made available only for the legitimate purpose of using the AupairMe service.

Access to this information does not give you ownership of it or a general licence to copy, collect, store, reproduce, publish, redistribute, exploit or use it for another personal, commercial or business purpose.

Where contact details or other personal information are made available to you through AupairMe, you may use that information only as reasonably necessary to communicate about a genuine potential au-pair placement or related arrangement. You may not use it for unrelated marketing, spam, lead generation, unrelated recruitment, resale, publication, harassment or the creation of contact databases.

These restrictions apply whether information is collected manually, by screenshot, by copying and pasting, or through automated or technical means.

10. Intellectual property and user content

The AupairMe name, logos, branding, website design, user interface, graphics, text, software, database structure and compilation, and other proprietary materials made available by AupairMe are owned by or licensed to AupairMe and are protected to the extent provided by applicable law.

Except for the limited right to use the service in accordance with these Terms, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, republish, distribute, commercially exploit or create a competing service from AupairMe's proprietary materials without our prior written permission.

You retain any rights you have in content that you create and submit to AupairMe. By submitting content, you grant AupairMe a non-exclusive licence to host, store, reproduce, display and otherwise use that content only as reasonably necessary to operate, secure, improve and provide the AupairMe service and to display your profile to appropriate users in accordance with the service and our Privacy Notice.

The fact that another user can view your content does not give that user ownership of it or permission to commercially exploit, republish or redistribute it outside the intended use of AupairMe.

11. Privacy

Your use of AupairMe is also governed by our Privacy Notice.

The Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, store and protect personal information in accordance with POPIA.

12. Account suspension and termination

We may suspend, restrict or terminate an account where we reasonably believe that:

• These Terms have been breached
• False or fraudulent information has been provided
• The account is being misused
• Platform data, personal information or intellectual property may have been copied, scraped, harvested, republished or otherwise misused
• Another user may be at risk
• The integrity or security of AupairMe may be affected

Where reasonably necessary, we may investigate suspected misuse, preserve relevant records or evidence, restrict access while we investigate, and take appropriate action to protect AupairMe, our users or our rights.

Users may also request deletion of their account.

13. Availability of the service

We aim to keep AupairMe available and reliable, but we cannot guarantee that the service will always be available or free from errors.

Features may be changed, improved, added or removed as the service develops.

14. Limitation of responsibility

AupairMe provides a platform for connecting au pairs and families.

We do not guarantee that a user will find an au pair, family, job or successful match.

We are not responsible for employment decisions, agreements or disputes between users, or for the conduct of users outside the AupairMe platform.

Nothing in these Terms is intended to exclude or limit any rights or liability that cannot legally be excluded under South African law.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time as AupairMe develops.

If we make changes, we will update the “Last updated” date on this page.

Continued use of AupairMe after updated Terms take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms, to the extent permitted by law.

16. South African law

These Terms and the use of AupairMe are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

17. Contact us

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us at hello@aupairme.co.za, or using the details on the Contact Us page.

Please also see our Privacy Notice.