Photo Submission Terms & Contest Rules

1. Eligibility and Age Requirement

By submitting content, you represent that you are at least 18 years old, or that you are submitting with the involvement and permission of a parent or legal guardian.

No purchase or payment is required to participate. Void where prohibited by law.

2. Your Rights and Ownership

By submitting photos, you confirm that you own the rights necessary to submit them and to grant TailTracker permission to use them as described in these terms.

You retain ownership of your submitted photographs.

You also confirm that your submission does not knowingly violate the copyright, privacy, publicity, trademark, intellectual property, or other rights of any person, business, organization, or third party.

3. License Granted to TailTracker

By submitting photos or related submission content, you grant TailTracker a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, display, publish, distribute, resize, crop, format, adapt, and create derivative materials from the submitted content in connection with TailTracker’s mission and operations.

This license allows TailTracker to use approved submissions for contest administration, breed and species education, pet preparedness resources, recovery-awareness materials, community education, moderation, quality review, platform features, research, image analysis, recovery-support technologies, and related mission-aligned platform improvement efforts.

TailTracker does not sell submitted photographs to third parties for unrelated commercial AI training purposes.

4. Permitted Uses

Approved submissions may be used in places such as:

• TailTracker Community Pet Photo Contest materials;
• Breed and species directory pages;
• Preparedness guides and pet safety education resources;
• Lost pet recovery education and recovery-awareness materials;
• TailTracker websites, landing pages, social media, newsletters, or community showcases;
• Printed or digital materials for shelters, rescues, veterinary clinics, community partners, and educational outreach;
• Internal moderation, reference-library, research, quality-control, image-analysis, and platform-improvement workflows.

TailTracker does not guarantee that every submitted photo will be published, featured, selected, awarded, or used.

5. Contest Categories

The launch contest includes four categories:

• Best Breed Example — reference-quality breed photographs with clear lighting, standing posture, side profile facing left preferred, minimal distractions, and full-body visibility where possible.
• Best Mixed Breed — photographs celebrating individuality and mixed-breed pets.
• Best Puppy / Young Pet — photographs of pets under 1 year old, emphasizing curiosity and companionship.
• Most Unforgettable — exceptional photographs capturing personality, bond, presence, or spirit.

TailTracker may determine category fit, move entries between categories, decline entries, or create featured selections at its discretion.

6. Awards and Recognition

Selected featured entries may receive pet first-aid kits, preparedness recognition, featured placement opportunities, or other mission-aligned recognition items.

Prize availability, award quantity, category selections, eligibility, substitutions, timing, and fulfillment may vary. TailTracker may substitute an item of similar mission-aligned value if needed.

Recipients are responsible for any taxes, reporting obligations, delivery limitations, or other obligations associated with prizes where applicable.

7. Judging and Selection

Selected entries may be chosen based on photographic quality, category fit, clarity, composition, emotional impact, educational value, breed or species representation, privacy suitability, animal welfare standards, and overall presentation.

TailTracker reserves the right to determine eligibility, judging criteria, selection decisions, award eligibility, disqualification, and alternate selections at its discretion.

If a selected participant cannot be contacted within a reasonable period, TailTracker may select another entry.

8. Required Photo Safety Standards

Submitted photos must primarily feature the pet and must not include children or minors.

Please avoid photos containing identifiable private information or sensitive details, including house numbers, street addresses, license plates, phone numbers, school names or uniforms, financial information, medical information, or other information that could create privacy or safety risk.

Submissions must depict animals respectfully and humanely. TailTracker may reject or remove submissions showing unsafe handling, distressing animal situations, dangerous conduct, graphic content, or content inconsistent with TailTracker’s mission.

9. Lawful Content and Third-Party Rights

You agree to submit only lawful content. Submissions may not include stolen images, professional photographs you do not have the right to license, misleading content, impersonation, harassment, unlawful material, unauthorized third-party branding, copyrighted artwork, or other content that violates another person’s rights.

If you believe submitted content infringes your copyright, privacy, publicity, or other rights, contact TailTracker with enough detail for the matter to be reviewed.

10. Attribution Preferences

The submission form may allow you to choose a public attribution preference, such as pet name only, pet name with contributor first name, or anonymous/no public attribution.

TailTracker will make reasonable efforts to follow the selected attribution preference, but formatting, space, platform requirements, editorial context, moderation needs, or safety concerns may affect how attribution appears.

11. Privacy, Contact Information, and Communications

TailTracker may collect contact information such as email address or mobile phone number for submission administration, moderation questions, contest communication, award notification, and related operational purposes.

By participating, you consent to receive communications related to your submission, contest administration, moderation, awards, or related TailTracker program activity.

TailTracker’s handling of personal information is also subject to its Privacy Policy.

12. Image Metadata and Technical Processing

Uploaded images may contain embedded metadata such as camera information, timestamps, or location data. TailTracker may process submitted images to reduce privacy risk, including removing or minimizing embedded metadata where technically feasible.

TailTracker may resize, crop, compress, convert, review, moderate, tag, classify, or otherwise process images for display, safety, quality, education, research, reference, and platform-improvement purposes.

13. Moderation, Rejection, and Removal

TailTracker may review, reject, remove, hide, edit display formatting, decline publication, or disqualify any submission at its discretion.

TailTracker may reject, remove, or disqualify submissions that violate these terms, contest rules, community standards, privacy expectations, safety expectations, animal welfare standards, intellectual property rights, applicable law, or TailTracker’s mission standards.

14. Removal Requests and Continuing Uses

You may contact TailTracker to request review or removal of a submitted photo from future public use. TailTracker will evaluate removal requests in good faith.

Previously published, printed, distributed, cached, archived, syndicated, downloaded, or already-produced materials may continue to exist after a removal request.

15. Voluntary Submission and No Guaranteed Compensation

Submissions are voluntary. Unless TailTracker separately states otherwise in writing, no payment, royalty, or other compensation is owed for submitting a photo or for TailTracker’s permitted use of an approved submission.

16. Informational-Only Disclaimer

TailTracker educational and preparedness materials are provided for general informational purposes only. They are not a substitute for veterinary advice, emergency services, animal control guidance, legal advice, or professional recovery services.

17. No Warranty

The photo submission program, contest, related materials, platform features, and associated services are provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, to the maximum extent permitted by law.

18. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, TailTracker shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, punitive, or exemplary damages arising from participation in the photo submission program, contest, awards, or TailTracker’s permitted use of submitted materials.

19. Release, Indemnification, and Hold Harmless

You release and hold harmless TailTracker, its officers, directors, volunteers, employees, contractors, partners, affiliates, and representatives from claims, liabilities, damages, losses, or expenses arising from TailTracker’s permitted use of submitted materials under these terms.

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless TailTracker and its officers, directors, volunteers, employees, contractors, partners, affiliates, and representatives against claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising from:

• Your breach of these terms;
• Your submission of content you did not have the right to submit or license;
• Your violation of another person’s rights;
• False, misleading, unlawful, or inappropriate information submitted through the program.

20. Program Changes or Discontinuation

TailTracker may modify, suspend, or discontinue the photo submission program, contest, awards, categories, spotlight features, or related initiatives at any time without prior notice.

21. No Guarantee of Security

TailTracker uses reasonable safeguards to protect submitted information and images. However, no online transmission, storage system, or digital platform can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

22. Non-Confidential Submissions

Except for personal information handled under TailTracker’s Privacy Policy, submitted photos, stories, captions, and related content may be treated as non-confidential for review, moderation, publication, educational use, research, reference-library use, and permitted TailTracker purposes.

23. Governing Law and Venue

These terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

Any dispute arising from these terms or the photo submission program shall be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Massachusetts, unless TailTracker agrees otherwise in writing.

24. Electronic Acceptance

By submitting photos electronically through the TailTracker website or related digital systems, you acknowledge that your electronic acceptance of these terms constitutes a legally binding agreement equivalent to a handwritten signature.

25. Force Majeure

TailTracker shall not be responsible for delays, interruptions, failures, or inability to operate the photo submission program caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including natural disasters, technical failures, cyber incidents, service provider outages, governmental actions, emergencies, or other circumstances outside TailTracker’s control.

26. Severability

If any provision of these terms is found to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

27. Entire Agreement

These terms constitute the entire agreement between you and TailTracker relating to the photo submission program, unless TailTracker expressly states otherwise in writing.