NYC In Focus Policy
Last updated: September 11, 2026
These Terms of Service govern use of nycinfocus.com and the NYC In Focus iOS app, including journalism, events, culture, FREQ, maps, search, notifications, Neighborhood Chat, account features, reader submissions, and related services.
1. About NYC In Focus
NYC In Focus is a New York City news, visual journalism, events, culture, and local-information service operated by NYC In Focus LLC. By using the website or app, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the services.
2. Informational service — not emergency dispatch
NYC In Focus provides editorial, civic, event, cultural, map, FREQ, and community information. It is not an emergency-dispatch service, law-enforcement service, fire/EMS service, medical service, or official public-warning system.
Information may be delayed, incomplete, inaccurate, unavailable, or change after it appears. For emergencies call 911 and follow instructions from government agencies and other appropriate authorities.
3. FREQ, maps, events, and third-party information
FREQ, maps, events, culture listings, venue information, public records, agency information, community information, and other data may come from multiple public, licensed, editorial, or third-party sources. Dates, times, locations, classifications, access rules, and developing information may change.
You are responsible for confirming time-sensitive information with the applicable venue, organizer, agency, authority, or primary source before relying on it.
4. Neighborhood Chat
Neighborhood Chat is a user-generated community feature. Supported rooms may be readable across ZIP codes, but posting is limited to the ZIP NYC In Focus verifies the user is physically located in at the time of posting.
Posting requires Sign in with Apple and a NYC In Focus/Supabase account. Public Chat uses a community alias rather than exposing your Apple account information to other users.
Neighborhood Chat is not private messaging. Do not use it for confidential, emergency, medical, legal, financial, or other sensitive communications.
5. Community rules and moderation
Your use of Neighborhood Chat is also governed by the Community Guidelines. You may not post harassment, threats, hate content, unlawful content, sexual exploitation, doxxing or sensitive private information, impersonation, fraud, spam, malware, or content that violates another person’s rights.
NYC In Focus may use automated filters and human review, and may reject, remove, restrict, preserve for moderation, or otherwise act on content or accounts when reasonably necessary for safety, service integrity, legal compliance, or enforcement of these Terms and Community Guidelines.
6. Reporting and blocking
Users may report messages and block other community users. Reporting does not guarantee a particular outcome. NYC In Focus may review reports and take proportionate action based on context, evidence, safety, applicable law, and service rules.
7. Chat visibility and retention
Neighborhood Chat presents a rolling 24-hour conversation history. Ordinary message rows are generally retained for no more than approximately 72 hours before automated deletion.
Reported-content snapshots or other moderation records may remain longer when reasonably necessary for safety, abuse prevention, disputes, legal compliance, or service security, as described in the Privacy Policy.
8. Location
The app may use device location to position maps, verify the ZIP in which a user may post to Neighborhood Chat, and power optional Nearby FREQ alerts.
Nearby FREQ alerts are an optional setting and are off by default. Additional details about location collection, storage, and deletion are in the Privacy Policy.
9. Accounts, Sign in with Apple, and deletion
You are responsible for maintaining control of your Apple account and device. Do not attempt to bypass account, location, moderation, rate-limit, or access controls.
Signed-in users may delete their NYC In Focus Neighborhood Chat account from the app’s Settings. Account deletion is subject to limited lawful or safety-related retention described in the Privacy Policy.
10. Push notifications and alerts
Notifications are informational and may be delayed, duplicated, missing, or unavailable. Do not rely on NYC In Focus notifications for emergency warnings or guaranteed delivery.
You can change notification permission in iOS Settings and change supported NYC In Focus alert preferences in the app.
11. Search
Search features may submit search terms to server-backed services. Search results may be incomplete, approximate, delayed, or affected by source availability.
12. Editorial content
NYC In Focus publishes journalism, commentary, photographs, event information, public-records-based reporting, and civic information. We work to provide accurate and timely information but may update, correct, clarify, or remove material as appropriate.
Content is for general informational and editorial purposes and is not legal, financial, medical, tax, safety, or other professional advice.
13. Reader submissions and contact forms
You may submit tips, event information, corrections, licensing inquiries, support requests, or other material. By submitting material, you confirm that you have the right to share it and that doing so is lawful.
Submission does not guarantee publication, coverage, confidentiality, response, or acceptance.
14. Intellectual property
Original NYC In Focus text, images, video, graphics, branding, app design, software, data presentation, page layouts, captions, metadata, and other original material are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws and are owned by NYC In Focus LLC, Howard Weiss, or the credited rights holder, as applicable.
You may not copy, scrape, republish, redistribute, sell, reverse engineer, extract proprietary materials from, or create unauthorized derivative products from NYC In Focus except as permitted by law or written authorization.
15. Photo licensing
Photographs and other visual works are not free for reuse unless expressly stated. Editorial, commercial, broadcast, promotional, archive, social, machine-learning/training, and other uses may require separate permission or licensing.
16. Advertising, sponsorships, affiliate relationships, and payments
NYC In Focus may use advertising, sponsorships, affiliate links, promoted listings, subscriptions, reader support, in-app purchases, or other monetization. Paid relationships do not entitle a sponsor or advertiser to control independent editorial judgment.
Third-party payment, advertising, ticketing, or commerce providers may have their own terms and privacy rules.
17. Third-party services
NYC In Focus may use or link to Apple, Supabase, WordPress.com/Jetpack, maps, ticketing services, social networks, payment processors, analytics, venues, agencies, and other third-party services. NYC In Focus does not control their availability, security, content, or policies.
18. Prohibited use
You may not hack, scrape unlawfully, overload, disrupt, probe, circumvent access controls, harvest user data, impersonate others, distribute malware, spam, misuse location features, manipulate moderation systems, or use NYC In Focus to violate law or another person’s rights.
19. Availability and changes
Features may be added, changed, delayed, suspended, limited by location or account status, or discontinued. NYC In Focus does not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation.
20. Disclaimer of warranties
The services are provided “as is” and “as available” to the fullest extent permitted by law. NYC In Focus does not warrant that every item will be complete, accurate, current, secure, uninterrupted, or suitable for a particular purpose.
21. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, NYC In Focus LLC and its owners, personnel, contributors, and service providers are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or similar damages arising from use of or reliance on the services, third-party information, user-generated content, missed alerts, event changes, outages, or unavailable services.
22. Changes to these Terms
NYC In Focus may revise these Terms as the website, app, laws, or services change. The “Last updated” date identifies the latest version. Continued use after revised Terms are posted means you accept them to the extent permitted by law.
23. Contact
Questions about these Terms may be sent through the NYC In Focus Contact page: https://nycinfocus.com/contact/.