Terms of use

Who may use Ghost Map

You must be at least 18 years old. One account covers an individual or a team. You are responsible for everyone who files or appears under that account. Do not share your login. Do not open an account for someone else without their knowledge.

Membership

Filing cases on the map, and posting on WHISPERS, requires an active membership. Every account may claim six (6) months of membership at no charge. No card is taken for that period, and it does not renew by itself. When it ends, membership stops until a paid year is purchased. The paid year is twenty-five US dollars ($25), and each renewal is the same twenty-five dollars, unless a different price is posted at checkout. One account covers an individual or a team. The free months can be claimed once per account.

Public browsing of the map, cases, Famous Haunts, the resources page, and WHISPERS does not require membership.

Paid membership is billed annually. Unless we say otherwise at checkout, a paid year renews at the then-current annual price until you cancel. Cancel before the renewal date to avoid the next charge. Cancellation stops renewal; it does not refund time already used.

If you request a refund within fourteen (14) days of a paid charge and you have not filed a public or unlisted case in that period, we will refund that charge. After you file, or after fourteen days, membership fees are not refundable except where the law requires it. Card payments are processed by Stripe. We do not store full card numbers.

We may suspend or end a membership for unpaid fees, for a breach of these terms, or to protect the map, other members, property owners, or the public. We may refuse an account. A permanent ban ends the membership, and we may refuse any later account from the same person.

WHISPERS

WHISPERS is the discussion board. Anyone may read it. Only a current member may post. A post is talk. It is not a filed case, and it is not a finding.

WHISPERS forbids hate speech. It forbids political discussion. Religious discussion is allowed only when it relates directly to a paranormal subject on that topic. Advertising and promotion are forbidden. Contact information of any type is forbidden on WHISPERS. Phone, email, address, and social handles belong on the investigator contact page, if the member chooses to publish them there.

Abuse of those rules is a permanent ban. We may remove a post that breaks them. Posts are public. The license in “What you file” covers a WHISPERS post, and hiding or removing one does not promise it is gone from every place it was already seen.

What you file

Cases, stills, summaries, narratives, equipment lists, conclusions, investigator names, team pages, WHISPERS posts, and links to audio, video, or PDFs are your content. You keep whatever copyright you already have. You may post the same material elsewhere.

By posting to Ghost Map you add that material to the database as a permanent record of the docket. Membership ending, an account closing, or a case being hidden from public view does not take it out of the database. A public site pin that other members have filed onto stays with that site.

You grant Ghost Map a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual license to host, reproduce, display, crop, thumbnail, and transmit that content on the service, and to use it to operate and promote Ghost Map — including the website, social accounts, press, and membership or investor materials. That license survives cancellation of your account. We do not sell your stills as stock photography. We do not claim we wrote your report.

You represent that you have the right to post what you post — including photos, names of people on the team, and any client material you choose to show. Do not upload photos of minors. Do not post another person’s private contact information. Do not post medical or financial data.

Short audio clips may be stored on Ghost Map: up to five per case, ninety seconds each, kept as a speech-quality MP3. Longer audio, and all video, stay links you host. Ghost Map does not store those files. Stills are stored here, up to eight per case, resized to a high-resolution web size (2560 pixels on the long side) and capped in file size. The license above covers a stored clip, a link, the label, and any still we hold. You are responsible for the host, the rights, and what plays when someone follows a link. A PDF report must be a public https link you control, or you use the on-site investigation sheet instead.

Public cases appear on the map and may be used in promotion. Unlisted cases are reachable by link and are part of the database; we will not put them in advertising unless you later make them public. Private cases are visible only to the filing account; they remain in the database under that account and are not used in promotion. Choose visibility with care. Once a public pin is indexed or shared, we cannot promise it will disappear from the internet.

You may ask us to hide a public case from the map. Hiding is not deletion. We may keep the record, and we may keep promotional pieces already made from it.

Locations and private residences

You must have a lawful right to be on a site before you investigate it and before you file it. Written permission, owner-present access, or genuine public access — not a pin on this map — is what authorizes entry. Ghost Map does not grant permission, book a location, or insulate you from trespass, privacy, or local ordinance claims.

If you mark a site as a private residence, the public map uses a city-level pin rather than the exact coordinate. That is a privacy measure, not a guarantee. Do not publish street addresses, unit numbers, access codes, or anything that would let a stranger walk a family to their door. Do not file a private home to advertise a haunt or to punish an occupant.

A registered site is one pin. Later investigations by you or by another member attach to that site. Do not invent a second pin to dodge a record you dislike. Do not register a site you have not worked in order to squat the name.

Famous Haunts

Famous Haunts are place records Ghost Map keeps. The short note and the reported-encounter text are ours, written from public stories. They are not a member’s investigation, not a finding that a place is haunted, and not permission to go to the door. A member may later file a case on that pin. The case is the member’s. The place record stays ours.

A “More” link leaves Ghost Map. We do not control that page, and we do not adopt what it says.

No affiliation with investigators

Ghost Map has no affiliation with any investigator or team that posts to the site. Membership is a filing desk, not a partnership, franchise, employment, or joint venture. A public listing, a pin, a case, or a contact page is not a recommendation, a credential, a license, or a background check. We do not vet teams for skill, insurance, criminal history, or permission to enter property.

Before you contact any investigator, you should conduct appropriate research of your own. Get local reviews and referrals if you can. Any booking, payment, or investigation that follows is solely between you and that investigator. Ghost Map is not a party to it and is not responsible for their conduct on a site or with a client.

Contact pages and inquiries

Members may publish a contact page. Optional public email or phone is your choice. Inquiries submitted through the site are stored for the member. Do not use the inquiry form to harass a team or a household.

What the map is not

A filed case is a member’s account of a watch. Conclusions on Ghost Map (“activity claimed,” “inconclusive,” “natural explanation,” “follow-up”) are the filer’s labels. They are not our findings, not scientific proof, and not evidence we offer to a court, an insurer, a buyer, or a journalist. We do not verify phenomena. We do not endorse a team. Listing is not affiliation.

Do not treat the map as a tour guide for trespassing. Do not use it to frighten occupants, inflate a property rumor, or target a person.

The resources page lists outside sites — equipment, schools, tours, books, research, and video — for review. A listing is not a professional recommendation, and Ghost Map is not affiliated with those sites.

Advertisements

Ghost Map may show paid banners. An advertisement is the advertiser’s, not ours. It is not an endorsement, a credential, or an affiliation. The rate is the one posted on the site at the time. Advertisers are responsible for their own claims.

Conduct

You will not: file false locations or false dates; impersonate another team; scrape the service; run malware or spam; attempt to break into accounts; post illegal content; or use Ghost Map to plan harm. We may hide a case, a pin, a photo, a desk, or a WHISPERS post, with or without notice, when we believe these terms, the law, or someone’s safety requires it.

If you believe content infringes your copyright, write to legal@ghostmap.us with the URL, a description of the work, and a statement that you are the owner or their agent. We will review takedown notices in good faith.

Our service

We provide Ghost Map as-is. Maps, uptime, search, and storage can fail. Stills are stored so we can show a case; we are not a backup service. Keep your own copies of reports, photos, and links. We may change features, prices (on a future renewal), or these terms. Material changes will be posted on this page with a new effective date. Continued use after that date is acceptance.

Liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Ghost Map and its operator are not liable for: what happens on a site you investigate; disputes between teams, clients, or property owners; third-party audio/video hosts; or indirect, incidental, or consequential damages. Our total liability to you for a claim about the service is limited to the membership fees you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or fifty dollars, whichever is greater.

You will defend and hold us harmless from claims that arise from your content, your investigations, your contact page, or your breach of these terms — including trespass, defamation, privacy, and publicity claims.

Law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Venue for disputes is the state or federal courts sitting in Illinois, except where a consumer-protection statute in your place of residence requires otherwise.

If a section cannot be enforced, the rest still applies. These terms are the agreement between you and the operator of Ghost Map. They do not create rights for anyone else except as written.

Questions: legal@ghostmap.us