Terms & Conditions
Last updated: 16 August 2026
These terms are the agreement between you and DiveBuddy. They cover what you can expect from us, what we expect from you, and — because this is a diving app — the limits of what DiveBuddy can safely be used for.
The short version: be decent to other divers. Never let anything in this app substitute for your training, your tables or your dive computer. You are responsible for your own safety underwater.
1. Who we are, and accepting these terms
DiveBuddy ("we", "us") operates the DiveBuddy app and the website dbuddy.app. We are based in Cyprus.
By creating an account you accept these terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not accept them, please do not use DiveBuddy.
2. Who can use DiveBuddy
- You must be at least 16 years old.
- You need one account, registered with details that are accurate — particularly your certification level, because other divers rely on it when deciding whether to dive with you.
- You are responsible for keeping your password secure and for everything done through your account.
- You may not use DiveBuddy if we have previously closed your account for breaking these terms.
3. Diving safety — please read this one
DiveBuddy is a social and record-keeping app. It is not a training agency, not an instructor, and not a dive computer.
- The planning tools are aids, not authorities. Nitrox limits, gas consumption, weighting, no-fly times and trip planning are estimates offered for convenience. Always verify them against your own training, your tables and your dive computer before you get in the water.
- Dive site information is community-contributed. Depths, conditions, hazards and access details are submitted by other users and may be incomplete, out of date or simply wrong. Check locally before diving anywhere new.
- We do not verify certifications. Anyone can type anything into their profile. Ask to see your buddy's certification card in person, exactly as you would if you had met at a dive centre.
- Meeting people is at your own risk. Arranging to dive with someone you met through the app is your decision and your judgement. Meet in public first, tell someone where you are going, and never dive with anyone you have doubts about.
- Never dive beyond your training and certification. No feature of this app changes that, and nothing in it should be read as encouragement to.
Scuba diving carries an inherent risk of serious injury and death. You dive at your own risk and remain solely responsible for your own safety and for the decisions you make.
4. Community rules
DiveBuddy has chat, profiles, trips and user-submitted dive sites. The rules below apply everywhere you can post, message or upload. Do not:
- Harass, bully, threaten or intimidate anyone.
- Post hate speech, or attack people over race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or age.
- Post sexual or explicit content, or approach anyone sexually who has not invited it. Anything sexual involving a minor will be reported to the authorities.
- Send spam, chain messages, advertising or unsolicited commercial offers, or recruit for other services.
- Impersonate another person, or claim certifications, qualifications or experience you do not hold.
- Share anyone else's private information — address, phone number, photographs or messages — without their permission.
- Post anything illegal, or use DiveBuddy to arrange anything illegal, including diving on protected wrecks or removing protected marine life.
- Knowingly submit false or dangerous dive-site information. Wrong depths and missed hazards get people hurt.
- Attempt to break, overload, scrape or reverse-engineer the service, or access anyone else's account.
5. Reporting, and what we will do
Every profile, message and dive site can be reported from inside the app, and you can block any user at any time. Reports reach us directly and we read all of them.
Where these terms are broken, we may — depending on how serious it is:
- Remove or edit the content in question.
- Issue a warning.
- Suspend the account temporarily.
- Close the account permanently and block the person from returning.
For serious breaches — threats, sexual content involving minors, anything that puts another diver in danger — we will close the account immediately and without warning, and we will involve the police where appropriate.
If you think we have got it wrong, email info@dbuddy.app and a person will look at it again.
6. Your content
Your dives, photos, trips, messages and dive-site contributions remain yours. By posting them you give us permission to store and display them inside DiveBuddy so the app can work — nothing more. We do not sell your content, and we do not use it for advertising.
You confirm you have the right to post what you post. Dive sites you contribute become part of the public catalogue that other divers rely on, and may remain there if you later close your account.
7. Other people's content and data
Dive-site data comes from OpenStreetMap contributors under the Open Database Licence, with some descriptions from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Weather and sea conditions come from Open-Meteo. We pass this on as we receive it and cannot guarantee it is accurate.
8. Availability, and changes to the app
DiveBuddy is free to use. We may add, change or remove features, and the service may be unavailable at times for maintenance or reasons outside our control. We do not guarantee uninterrupted access, and you should not rely on the app being reachable at a moment when your safety depends on it.
9. Our responsibility to you
We provide DiveBuddy with reasonable care, but we cannot promise it is free of errors, and we are not responsible for decisions you make underwater or for the conduct of other users you meet through it.
Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.
10. Closing your account
You can delete your account at any time in Settings, under Account. Deletion is immediate and permanent. If you would rather step away for a while, you can suspend the account instead and reactivate it by signing back in.
11. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms as the app develops. If a change materially affects your rights, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect. Continuing to use DiveBuddy after that means you accept the updated terms.
12. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Cyprus, and the courts of Cyprus have jurisdiction.
If you are a consumer, this does not take away the protection given to you by the mandatory consumer laws of the country you live in, and you may bring proceedings in your own country's courts.
13. Contact
Questions about these terms, or anything else about DiveBuddy: