Terms of Service
1. Who we are and acceptance of these Terms
These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a contract between you and Sorte Pty Ltd (ACN 104 880 346) as trustee for the dos Santos Family Trust (ABN 66 826 239 450), an Australian proprietary company ("Sorte", "we", "us"), the publisher of the DepthGaze application ("the App") and of this website. By accessing or using the App or this website, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the App or the website.
2. Description of service
DepthGaze is a native mobile application that provides real-time underwater visibility enhancement using your device's camera. The App processes camera frames locally on your device using classical computer vision techniques and does not transmit camera data to any server. DepthGaze is published by Sorte Pty Ltd, an Australian-registered company.
3. Use licence and intellectual property
You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence — revocable only as set out in Section 16 (Termination) — to use the App for personal use. Commercial use of the App (for example, in a charter, tour, hire, guiding or other business operation, or showing the App's output to paying customers) requires a separate written agreement with Sorte.
The App and this website, and everything in them — including the software, processing algorithms, shader pipelines, text, graphics, user interfaces, logos and design — are owned by or licensed to Sorte and are protected by intellectual-property laws. Other than the licence above, these Terms grant you no rights in them.
You may not:
- Copy, modify or create derivative works of the App, or reverse-engineer, decompile or disassemble it, except to the extent applicable law permits this notwithstanding these Terms (including statutory rights of interoperability, error correction and security testing).
- Redistribute, sublicence, or resell the App or its output in bulk.
- Use the App to infringe on any third party's intellectual property rights.
- Use the App for surveillance or any unlawful purpose.
4. User content
Photos and videos captured through the App remain your property. The App does not claim any ownership or licence over content you create. All processing happens locally on your device.
5. Not a safety device — critical
DepthGaze is a visual-observation application only. It is NOT a depth gauge, distance meter, navigation instrument, sonar, rangefinder, bathymetry tool, or safety device of any kind.
All output produced by the App — including but not limited to the Structure Map visualisation (formerly labelled "Structure visualisation"), Correction Strength slider, Auto-Calibrate Colour toggle, the Scene Conditions reading (labelled "Spot Score" in some versions of the App), captured photos and videos, processed preview imagery, and any on-screen badge, value, colour band, zone, contour line, or overlay — is a colour-processing estimate derived from camera imagery. It does not measure physical reality.
You must not use anything displayed by this App to decide whether to enter, move through, jump, dive, or position yourself or any object in or near water. Water conditions including turbidity, glare, light level, bottom reflectance, waves, colour cast, camera angle, and sensor noise cause the App to produce wildly inaccurate output without warning. A shallow area may appear deep, and a deep area may appear shallow.
By using the App you acknowledge that no information it provides is reliable for any safety-critical, navigational, diving, wading, swimming, jumping, anchoring, fishing-safety, rescue, commercial, or regulated purpose. You acknowledge these warnings and that decisions to enter, move through or interact with water are yours alone and must never be based on the App's output. This acknowledgement is a safety warning: it does not exclude or limit any right you have under a law that cannot be excluded (see Section 7).
In simple terms: DepthGaze helps you see and photograph what is under the surface, from above the water. It cannot tell you how deep water is or whether it is safe. Never use it to decide to get in.
6. Other estimates
In addition to the above, the App also provides non-safety-critical estimates including:
- Estimated water turbidity and clarity.
- Scene-quality readings (Scene Conditions, labelled "Spot Score" in some versions of the App).
- Smart Mode automatic mode selection.
These are also not scientifically calibrated instruments. Do not rely on them for navigation or safety-critical decisions.
7. Your statutory rights — these come first
Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, warranty, right or remedy conferred on you by law that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. Every other section of these Terms — in particular Sections 9 (No warranty), 10 (Limitation of liability) and 12 (Device thermal load) — applies only subject to this Section 7.
- Australia. Our App comes with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. You are entitled to a replacement or refund for a major failure and compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the App repaired or replaced if it fails to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure.
- United Kingdom. If you are a consumer in the UK, digital content must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described (Consumer Rights Act 2015). You have statutory remedies — including repair or replacement and price reduction — that these Terms cannot take away, and nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence, or for fraud.
- European Union / EEA. If you are a consumer in the EU or EEA, you benefit from the mandatory conformity requirements and remedies for digital content under Directive (EU) 2019/770 as implemented in your country, and from the mandatory consumer-protection rules of the country where you live.
- New Zealand. If you are a consumer in New Zealand, the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 applies and nothing in these Terms contracts out of it.
- Everywhere else. You keep every consumer right the law of your country gives you that cannot be waived by contract.
In simple terms: the law where you live gives you rights we cannot take away — including, in many countries, a refund if the App has a major fault. The rest of these Terms never overrides those rights.
8. Pro upgrade, pricing and refunds
The App is free to download. An optional one-time Pro upgrade unlocks additional features.
- Billed by the app store. The Pro upgrade is an in-app purchase billed by Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play) as the merchant and seller of record. We never receive your card details or payment credentials.
- What "lifetime" means. Pro is a one-time purchase for the supported life of the App on your store account: there is no recurring fee, your purchase is restorable on that account, and we will not materially remove core purchased functionality while the App is distributed. It is not a promise that the App will be supported forever on every future device or operating system.
- Pricing. The price displayed in your local app store at the time of purchase is the final price you pay and includes any applicable taxes. Any launch or promotional price, and the conditions on which it ends (for example a time limit or a cap on the number of buyers), are stated where the price is shown.
- Refunds. Because the store bills the purchase, refunds are available through the store's own refund process under its policies (for example, Google Play's standard refund window; Apple's refund request process at reportaproblem.apple.com). Nothing in the stores' policies or in these Terms limits your non-excludable statutory rights against us — including, if you are in Australia, your Australian Consumer Law right to a refund for a major failure (Section 7). If a store refund is unavailable and the law entitles you to a remedy from us, contact support@depthgaze.com and we will provide it.
- EU/UK digital-content purchases. If you are in the EU or the UK, any right of withdrawal and your consent to immediate supply of digital content are handled by the store's purchase flow at the point of sale.
9. No warranty (subject to Section 7)
Consumers in Australia, the United Kingdom, the EU/EEA, New Zealand and elsewhere have statutory rights that cannot be excluded — including that the App will be of acceptable quality and fit for purpose. Nothing in this section excludes, restricts or modifies those rights (see Section 7).
Subject to Section 7, the App is provided "as is" and "as available". We do not promise that the App will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that any output, reading or estimate it produces will be accurate — Section 5 explains why its output must never be treated as accurate. SUBJECT ALWAYS TO SECTION 7, AND TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY THE LAW THAT APPLIES TO YOU, WE DISCLAIM ALL OTHER IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
10. Limitation of liability (subject to Section 7)
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for: death or personal injury caused by our negligence; fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; our wilful misconduct; or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited (see Section 7).
Subject to the paragraph above and to Section 7, Sorte and its directors, officers, employees and contractors are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profits, loss of revenue, loss or corruption of data, or loss of goodwill arising from or related to your use of, or inability to use, the App.
Subject to the first paragraph of this section and to Section 7, our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or in connection with the App or these Terms is limited to the greater of (a) the total amounts you paid for the App (including the Pro upgrade) and (b) AUD $100.
Each sentence and each part of this section applies separately and is severable: if any part of it is found unenforceable or unfair in your jurisdiction, that part is severed for you and the rest of this section continues to apply to the maximum extent the law of your jurisdiction permits.
Trustee capacity. Sorte enters into these Terms solely in its capacity as trustee of the dos Santos Family Trust and in no other capacity. Subject to Section 7 and to the first paragraph of this section, Sorte's liability under or in connection with these Terms or the App is limited to the extent to which Sorte is entitled to be, and is in fact, indemnified out of the assets of the Trust. This limitation does not apply: (a) to any liability that cannot lawfully be limited in this way; or (b) to the extent that Sorte's right of indemnity out of the Trust assets is reduced or lost as a result of Sorte's own fraud, negligence, wilful misconduct or breach of trust.
In simple terms: we are responsible where the law says we must be — including if our own negligence injures you. What we limit is liability for indirect losses, and we cap what we owe beyond your legal rights at what you paid us or AUD $100, whichever is more. Because Sorte runs this business as trustee of a family trust, claims the law allows us to limit are met from the trust’s assets. Your Section 7 rights always come first.
11. Safety and terms acknowledgement
The App displays a safety and terms acknowledgement on first launch, after any data wipe or reinstall, and again whenever the safety notice or these Terms materially change (each version is numbered). You must scroll to the end of the notice and tap Agree & Continue to use the App. The version you accepted and the time of acceptance are recorded on your device and embedded in the metadata of photos you save (see the Privacy Policy, Section 5). Accepting confirms you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms — including specifically Section 5 (Not a safety device).
12. Device thermal load
Running DepthGaze continuously uses the camera sensor, GPU shader pipeline, and motion sensors of your device at levels comparable to a sustained video-recording session or graphically-intensive game. Your device may become noticeably warm during prolonged use, may reduce its own performance or brightness to manage heat, and may drain the battery faster than typical light usage. These are normal behaviours of modern phones under sustained camera + GPU load.
The App may display an in-app warning when the operating system reports that the device is running hot. Regardless of whether that warning appears, you are responsible for monitoring your own device and discontinuing use if it becomes uncomfortable to hold, if the display dims or colours shift automatically, or if you observe abnormal battery or performance behaviour.
To the extent permitted by law, and subject always to Sections 7 and 10 (including the carve-outs in the first paragraph of Section 10), we are not liable for loss arising from sustained use contrary to the warnings in this section. This does not exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded. If you are concerned about thermal load, limit each session to short intervals and allow the device to cool between uses.
13. Device permissions
The App may request access to:
- Camera — required for real-time image processing.
- Microphone — optional, for recording audio with video.
- Device orientation — for tilt-angle display.
- Ambient light sensor — for auto-brightness adaptation.
- Approximate or precise location — optional, for the Save Location With Photos feature only (a Pro feature). Off by default. See the Privacy Policy for how location data is handled.
You can revoke any permission at any time through your device settings.
14. Third-party services
The App does not use third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking services. The App's network use is limited to (a) the app store's standard billing check, made on each launch, of whether your account owns the Pro upgrade, and (b) the optional system-geocoder lookup when you use the Save Location With Photos feature, which is opt-in; both are described in the Privacy Policy. No camera frames, sensor data, or app-state data are sent to external servers during normal operation.
15. Changes to these Terms
We may change these Terms only for legitimate reasons: to comply with law, a regulator or an app store requirement; to address security or safety; to reflect changes or additions to the App; or to correct errors. Changes are not retrospective.
If a change is material, the App will present the updated Terms to you (each version is numbered) and ask you to re-accept them through the in-app acknowledgement described in Section 11 before you continue using the App. The effective date and version number at the top of this page always show the current revision. If you do not accept updated Terms, you must stop using the App.
Paid features. We will not materially remove functionality you have paid for. If we ever do, you will be entitled to a refund through the relevant app store's refund mechanism or, where that is unavailable, an equivalent remedy directly from us — in addition to, and never instead of, your statutory rights under Section 7.
16. Termination
You may stop using the App and uninstall it at any time.
We may suspend or terminate your licence to use the App only if: (a) you materially breach these Terms and, where the breach can be remedied, you fail to remedy it within a reasonable time after we notify you; or (b) we are required to do so by law or by an app store. If we terminate for any reason other than your material breach, your refund entitlements (Sections 8 and 15) and your statutory rights (Section 7) are preserved.
Sections 3 (intellectual property), 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 18, 20, 21 and 22 survive termination.
17. Age and eligibility
The App is not directed at children under 13. You must be at least 13 years old — or any higher minimum age required by the law of your country — to use the App. You must not use the App if you are barred from receiving it under the laws of the country in which you are resident or from which you use it.
18. Trade marks
DepthGaze™ and the DepthGaze logos are trade marks of Sorte Pty Ltd. You must not use them in a way that suggests endorsement by, or affiliation with, Sorte without our prior written consent. Nothing in this clause limits uses permitted by law, including accurately referring to the App by name. Unauthorised use may contravene consumer-protection law or constitute passing off.
19. App store terms (Apple and Google)
If you downloaded the App from the Apple App Store, the following additional terms apply:
- Acknowledgement. These Terms are concluded between you and Sorte only — not with Apple. Sorte, not Apple, is solely responsible for the App and its content. These Terms do not provide usage rules for the App that conflict with the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions.
- Scope of licence. Your licence to the App is limited to a non-transferable licence to use the App on Apple-branded products that you own or control, as permitted by the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions (except that the App may be accessed and used by other accounts associated with you via Family Sharing or volume purchasing).
- Maintenance and support. Sorte is solely responsible for providing any maintenance and support services for the App. Apple has no obligation whatsoever to furnish any maintenance and support services for it.
- Warranty. Sorte is solely responsible for any product warranties, whether express or implied by law, to the extent not effectively disclaimed. If the App fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price of the App to you. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Apple has no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the App; any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses attributable to a failure to conform to a warranty are Sorte's responsibility — always subject to Section 7 (your statutory rights, including your Australian Consumer Law rights, are against Sorte and are not limited by this paragraph).
- Product claims. Sorte, not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claims by you or a third party relating to the App or your possession and/or use of it, including: (i) product liability claims; (ii) any claim that the App fails to conform to an applicable legal or regulatory requirement; and (iii) claims arising under consumer protection, privacy, or similar legislation.
- Intellectual property claims. In the event of a third-party claim that the App, or your possession and use of it, infringes that third party's intellectual property rights, Sorte — not Apple — is solely responsible for the investigation, defence, settlement and discharge of the claim.
- Legal compliance. You represent and warrant that (i) you are not located in a country that is subject to a comprehensive government embargo, or that has been designated by a relevant government as a "terrorist supporting" country; and (ii) you are not listed on any government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
- Developer contact. Questions, complaints or claims about the App should be directed to Sorte Pty Ltd, 17 First Street, North Moonta, South Australia, Australia, support@depthgaze.com.
- Third-party terms. You must comply with any applicable third-party terms of agreement when using the App (for example, your wireless data service agreement).
- Third-party beneficiary. Apple, and Apple's subsidiaries, are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms, and upon your acceptance of these Terms, Apple will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms against you as a third-party beneficiary of them.
If you downloaded the App from Google Play, your download and any purchase are also subject to the Google Play Terms of Service, and refunds for purchases billed by Google are available under the Google Play refund policies (Section 8). Nothing in those store terms or policies limits your non-excludable statutory rights against Sorte (Section 7).
20. Entire agreement, severability, survival and assignment
These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any applicable terms of Apple or Google governing your download or purchase of the App, are the entire agreement between you and Sorte concerning the App and this website, and supersede all prior agreements, undertakings or representations concerning that subject matter.
If any provision of these Terms (or part of one) is found by a court or regulator to be void, unenforceable or unfair in a jurisdiction, that provision or part is severed for that jurisdiction to the minimum extent necessary, and the remainder of these Terms continues in full force. Nothing in this clause asks a court to rewrite a term in our favour.
A failure by us to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. We may assign these Terms as part of a sale or restructure of our business, provided the assignment does not reduce your rights; you may not assign them without our written consent. Provisions which by their nature should survive (see Section 16) survive expiry or termination.
21. Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms are governed by the laws of South Australia, Australia. The parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts exercising jurisdiction in South Australia.
If you are a consumer, you also benefit from any mandatory provisions of the law of the country where you live. Nothing in this clause deprives you of the protection of those provisions, or of your right to bring proceedings — or defend proceedings brought against you — in the courts of the country where you live.
22. Complaints and contact
For questions or complaints about these Terms or the App, contact us first at support@depthgaze.com — we aim to respond within 30 days. If you are in Australia and we cannot resolve your complaint, you can contact the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) or your state or territory consumer-protection agency. If you are elsewhere, you can contact your local consumer-protection authority. Privacy complaints are handled as described in the Privacy Policy.