Tether is a private tool for keeping up with people you already know: your own contacts, synced across your devices, plus the contact card you share and the circles, directories, and events you take part in. There is no public feed and no people-search, so strangers cannot look you up. That shapes these guidelines: they exist to keep a small, closed network safe, not to police a public square.
These guidelines are part of the Terms of Service (Section 4.1), so breaking them is breaking the Terms. We change them the same way we change the Terms (Section 1.3).
Tether has zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive behavior. Whether it is a post, an event, a photo, or anything else you share, do not send or share content that is:
Do not try to slip past these rules with deliberate misspellings, coded wording, or other tricks meant to get around our filters. Do not use Tether to approach minors you do not know or to collect personal information from them. And do not use Tether for anything unlawful, or in a way that violates another person's intellectual property, privacy, or other rights.
Tether runs on trust: people share their live card with you because they believe it is safe in your hands. Treat the details you keep about others the way you would want yours treated. As a rule of thumb, keep only people you actually deal with, keep what you store about each of them to what a friend, relative, or colleague in your position would reasonably know, and have any consent the law requires.
These features exist so people who know each other can stay current. They must never become a way to keep watch on someone.
Stalking is not allowed in any form.
Sections 4.2, 4.3, and 6 of the Terms cover commercial use, license restrictions, and Tether's intellectual property.
You can report a person from their contact card or their card in a shared directory, a post from your feed, an event from its page, or a meal plan's organizer from the plan. When you report a person, you can block them in the same step. To report anything else, email [email protected]. Reports go to a moderation queue that a human reviews. We review reports promptly and aim to act on objectionable content within 24 hours, including by removing it and the account that posted it.
People who are not on Tether can reach us too. Write to [email protected] about a post, an event, a directory listing, or a shared card that concerns you and breaks these guidelines. Tell us what you saw and, if you know, whose account it came from, and we will review it the same way we review in-app reports. Requests to access or delete your own information follow the Privacy Policy.
If you believe someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first. We remove child sexual abuse material and report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, as U.S. law requires.
Please report honestly. False, repeated, or bad-faith reports, flags, appeals, or copyright notices are themselves a violation (copyright notices are covered in Section 9 of the Terms).
You can block anyone you meet through Tether: a connection, someone who sends you a request, a member of a shared directory, an event host, or a meal plan's organizer. Blocking is immediate and quiet — the other person is not notified. It ends any connection between you, removes their posts from your feed and yours from theirs, hides each of you from the other in shared directories, cancels any pending invitations between you, and stops them from finding you, sending you requests, or inviting you to events, directories, or meal plans. If you block a host whose event you're going to, you choose whether to leave that event. If you run a directory, you can also remove the person from it; a directory's owner and admins can always see and remove every member, whoever has blocked whom. Each block is yours: if you both block each other, lifting yours leaves theirs in place. Other guests at an event you both attend can still see you both on its guest list. You can manage blocked people in Settings → Privacy & sharing → Blocked.
We may investigate suspected violations. Depending on how serious a violation is, and whether it has happened before, we may remove content or data, restrict features, issue a warning, suspend or terminate the account, remove a directory, take legal action, or refer the matter to law enforcement. Serious harm can mean immediate action, and you may be responsible for damages your violation causes. We are not required to take any particular action in any individual case, and choosing one response does not give up any other.
When we act on your account we will tell you what we did and how to ask for a review, unless doing so would put someone at risk, break the law, or compromise our systems (Terms Section 12.3). We will tell people who reported a problem the outcome when we can do so without compromising someone's safety or privacy.
If you believe we made the wrong call, reply to the notice we sent you or contact [email protected]. A person will look at it again.
In the app: Settings → Help & Support.