Terms of use

Sismos Venezuela is a free, private information service for the automated provision of seismic information and early warning notices for Venezuela and neighbouring regions.

The service serves solely to support your personal risk assessment. It replaces neither official warning systems nor your own safety measures.

Use is free of charge. There is no entitlement to the provision, continuation, availability or any particular functions of the service.

Sismos Venezuela is not an official warning service and is neither operated nor authorised by FUNVISIS or any state body.

In the event of an earthquake, only the instructions of the competent authorities are decisive.

All earthquake information and early warning notices are generated fully automatically by algorithmic evaluation.

As a rule, no manual review of individual alerts takes place before publication.

The calculations are based, among other things, on data from official seismological institutions and on measurements from voluntarily participating devices.

Due to physical, technical and communication-related constraints, earthquakes cannot be detected with complete certainty or in every case in time. We therefore give no warranty, in particular,

• that every earthquake is detected,
• that alerts are complete or free of errors,
• that alerts are delivered on time or at all,
• that up-to-date information is available at all times.

Delivery of notifications depends in particular on mobile networks, internet connections, operating systems and third-party services (e.g. Apple, Google, Mozilla or Telegram) and lies outside our sphere of influence.

The absence of an alert never means that there is no danger.

With the sensor function enabled, your device may record motion data and transmit it to Sismos Venezuela.

These measurements serve solely to improve automated detection methods.

Detection is based on statistical and algorithmic methods and may both produce false alarms and fail to detect actual earthquakes or detect them late.

Participation in the sensor network is voluntary and can be ended at any time.

Sismos Venezuela serves solely as an additional source of information.

Users remain responsible at all times for assessing their personal safety according to the specific situation and for following the instructions of the competent authorities.

Decisions to protect persons or property must not be made solely on the basis of this service.

We are liable in accordance with the statutory provisions.

For intent and gross negligence, as well as for damages arising from injury to life, body or health, we are liable without limitation.

In cases of slight negligence we are liable only for the breach of a material contractual obligation. Material contractual obligations are those obligations whose fulfilment makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose observance users may regularly rely.

In cases of slight negligence, liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this type of contract.

Liability for damages based solely on the fact that

• an earthquake was not detected,
• information or a notification was not transmitted, was transmitted late or incorrectly,
• technical systems of third parties (in particular mobile network operators, internet providers, Apple, Google or other push services) were unavailable,

exists only in accordance with the statutory liability provisions set out above.

Liability under mandatory statutory provisions, in particular under the German Product Liability Act, remains unaffected.

It is prohibited to:

• intentionally generate or transmit false sensor data,
• circumvent technical protection measures,
• impair the functioning of the service, or
• manipulate automated alerts.

In the event of abuse, individual functions or the entire access may be blocked at any time.

We may extend, change, restrict or permanently discontinue the service or individual functions at any time.

No claims against the provider arise from this.

German law applies.

Where mandatory consumer protection provisions of the state in which you have your habitual residence apply, these remain unaffected.

To the extent permitted by law, the place of jurisdiction is Leipzig.

Information on the nature, scope and purpose of data processing can be found in our privacy policy.