These terms are the agreement between you and Innovesting OÜ for the use of the VesselSOS app and this site. Section 01 is the one that matters most on the water — read that even if you skip the rest.
VesselSOS is an aid. It is not a rescue service, and it does not replace a VHF radio, an EPIRB or PLB, a life jacket, a flare, or a call to your local emergency number.
The app depends on things we do not control: your phone’s battery, its GPS receiver, mobile coverage at your position, and the networks that carry the call or message. Any one of them can fail at sea. Plan your safety equipment as if the app were not there, and treat it as the backup that happens to always be in your pocket.
The app covers the maritime rescue centers of Europe’s seas — the Baltic, the North Sea and Norwegian Sea, the Atlantic coasts and islands, the Mediterranean and the western Black Sea (30 countries; not Russia, Belarus or Ukraine) — and picks the responsible one from your position using approximate area boundaries. In the United Kingdom it dials 999, as HM Coastguard asks; in Malta, 112; in Albania, 125 (the national sea emergency line). In United States waters — the coasts, the Great Lakes and inland lakes and rivers of all 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam — it dials 911 (from app version 1.4) and, on the coasts and the Great Lakes, also shows the responsible Coast Guard sector. In Australian waters — the coast, bays, rivers and lakes, including Tasmania, the Torres Strait and Lord Howe Island — it dials 000, and in New Zealand waters, including lakes, rivers and the Chatham Islands, it dials 111; in both, the call script asks for Police (from app version 1.5). On European lakes and rivers and outside these areas it shows the nearest center and 112 — use the local emergency number there. Phone numbers come from each authority's official pages and can change. Tapping “Yes, a life is in danger” dials the rescue center immediately. You remain the master of your craft: every decision on the water is yours, and the app’s suggestions do not replace your judgment or your duties under maritime law.
You need to be at least 16 years old in the European Union, or 13 elsewhere, and able to enter into this agreement. By installing the app you accept these terms; if you do not accept them, delete the app.
The app is for recreational and small-craft use. It is not certified equipment for commercial shipping under SOLAS or GMDSS, and it must not be relied on as the sole means of distress alerting on a vessel where the law requires certified equipment.
The app is only as good as what you put in it. Craft name, type, length, color, MMSI, call sign and the number of people aboard go straight into the call script and MAYDAY text you read to a rescue center. Keep them current, and update the number of people aboard before you leave the dock. The phone number on your account must be your own. Emergency contacts are someone else’s personal data — add them only with their knowledge. Anyone who has your live tracking link can see your position until the trip ends, so share it with care.
Position, the emergency call and the filled-in MAYDAY are available without paying. We will not put a paywall in front of a distress call.
While the app is in beta (iOS, via TestFlight), Plus is free with an account and nothing is billed. Features may change and beta data may be reset; we tell you in the app before anything that affects your data.
When paid plans launch (Plus first; Pro comes later), prices shown to consumers will include VAT. Subscriptions will be sold and billed by the Apple App Store (and Google Play once the Android app exists), renew automatically for the same period, and be charged to that store account. The exact price and period are shown before you confirm.
Cancel any time in your App Store or Google Play subscription settings; the subscription runs to the end of the paid period. Because those stores are the seller, refunds and the EU right of withdrawal for digital content are handled through them — Apple Support or Google Play’s refund form. Write to support@vesselsos.com if you get stuck and we will help you push it through.
Sending a knowingly false distress alert puts rescuers at risk and is a criminal offense in most countries, Estonia included. Do it and we close your account, and we cooperate with the authorities.
Also not allowed: reverse-engineering or copying the app, automated access, reselling it or presenting it as your own service, and using it to track another person without their knowledge.
We work to keep the service running, but we do not promise uninterrupted availability. Maintenance, network outages, store policy changes and the limits of mobile coverage all interrupt it. The app is designed so that position, the call script and the MAYDAY text work on the device even with no connection — that is the part we care about most. The live tracking link, SMS login and uploading your position need a data connection; positions recorded without one are sent when it returns. The return-time check is a notification on your own phone: today nobody is alerted automatically if you do not answer or your phone is off — automatic messages to your contacts are coming later.
The app is provided as it is. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for loss caused by an alert that did not arrive, a position that was inaccurate, rescue-center data that had changed, a dead battery, a lost signal, or a decision you made using the app. Our total liability is limited to what you paid us in the twelve months before the claim.
Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law — including death or personal injury caused by our negligence, intent, gross negligence, or a consumer’s statutory rights.
The app, its name and its design belong to Innovesting OÜ. You get a personal, non-transferable license to use it. Rescue-center numbers come from each national authority's official pages and the area boundaries in the app are approximate. Maps on the tracking page © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) and OpenSeaMap (CC BY-SA); their terms apply to that content.
We may change these terms; if a change matters to you we tell you at least 30 days before it takes effect, and you can stop using the app. You can end the agreement by deleting your account. We may suspend an account that breaches section 05.
Estonian law applies and the courts of Estonia have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer in the EU, this does not take away the protection of the mandatory law of your own country, and you may use your national consumer dispute body — in Estonia the Consumer Disputes Committee (tarbijakaitse.ee).
Innovesting OÜ aims to meet WCAG 2.1 level AA in the VesselSOS app and on this site, in line with the European Accessibility Act. In an emergency app this is not a formality: the emergency button is large and reachable one-handed, every control is at least 44 by 44 points, text scales with your system setting, contrast is tested against the AA thresholds, and color is never the only way information is conveyed.
Known gaps we are working on: screen-reader labels on the map of the web tracking page are incomplete, and the coordinate readout in the app is not yet announced automatically when it updates.
If something is unusable for you, write to support@vesselsos.com. We answer within one working day and treat accessibility bugs as safety bugs.
Photos on this site come from Wikimedia Commons and are used under their licenses: