stitch/ Terms of Service / Places Business TermsPlaces Business Terms
Effective Date: July 14, 2026 - Last Updated: July 14, 2026
These terms apply if you create a Places Business Account or use Stitch's Places tab to add, claim, verify, or manage a place. They supplement, and are part of, our general Terms of Service.
1. About These Terms
These Places Business Terms ("Business Terms") are a supplement to, and are incorporated into, Stitch's general Terms of Service. They apply specifically to the Places tab and to anyone who creates a Places Business Account, adds or claims a place, requests ownership verification, edits place details, uploads owner photos, or otherwise uses Stitch's business/place-management tools ("Places Business Tools"). If you only search for and view places as a customer or browser, the general Terms of Service and Privacy Policy already cover you, and Section 9 of these Business Terms (Reviews, Ratings & Photos) applies to any review, rating, or photo you contribute. You do not need a Places Business Account to search Places, view a place profile, get directions, leave a review, or upload a customer photo. If there is a conflict between these Business Terms and the general Terms of Service on a matter specific to Places, these Business Terms control. On everything else - account eligibility, acceptable use, disclaimers, liability limits, arbitration, and regional provisions - the general Terms of Service continue to apply in full.
2. A Places Business Account Is Not Legal Verification
A Places Business Account is a lightweight, mandatory profile required before you can add, claim, verify, or manage a place on Stitch. Creating one requires only a contact name, a role (owner, manager, employee, agency, or other), a contact email, and, optionally, a contact phone number, organization name, website, and city/state. We do not collect and will not ask you for tax identification numbers, Social Security numbers, Employer Identification Numbers (EINs), articles of incorporation or other formation documents, government-issued identification, or banking information as part of a Places Business Account. If a page or message ever asks you for these, it is not a legitimate part of Stitch's Places Business Account flow and you should not provide it. Creating a Places Business Account, by itself, does not verify, certify, or legally confirm that you own or are authorized to represent any business. It is a gate that must be passed before you can attempt to add or claim a place - the actual claim is still subject to duplicate checks and, in most cases, ownership verification as described in Section 6. Stitch does not perform business registry checks, corporate filings review, or identity verification beyond the phone/email OTP process described below, and a Places Business Account should not be treated as proof of ownership for any purpose outside Stitch.
3. Business Owner & Manager Responsibilities
By creating a Places Business Account and using the Places Business Tools, you represent and agree that: - You will only add, claim, verify, edit, or otherwise manage places you actually own or are authorized to manage on behalf of the owner (for example, as an employee, manager, or agency acting with the owner's permission) - The contact information, role, organization name, and other details you provide are accurate and not misleading - You will not trigger phone or email ownership verification for a business or place you are not authorized to manage - You will keep your contact information reasonably current so Stitch and, where relevant, other users can reach you about the place - You are responsible for the accuracy of the place details you submit or edit, including name, category, address, phone number, website, hours, and description - You will respond to suggested edits and photo reports submitted by other users in good faith, and understand Stitch may act on them independently if you do not Places Business Accounts are personal to the person or entity that created them. You may not sell, transfer, or share access to a Places Business Account, and you may not create multiple accounts to evade a suspension of business tools.
4. Public Business & Place Information
Place profiles on Stitch - including the business/place name, category, address, phone number, website, hours, description, average rating, review count, reviews, and photos - are public. They may be visible to other Stitch users, and, where a place profile page is served publicly, to people who are not signed in to Stitch. Because place information is public, do not submit personal information in a place's name, description, hours, or photos unless it is genuinely part of that business's public-facing information (for example, do not add a private individual's home address or personal phone number as if it were a business listing). Owner badges, verification status, and similar signals shown on a place profile reflect that Stitch's verification process (Section 6) was completed for that place - they are not a guarantee of quality, safety, or legitimacy of the underlying business.
5. Google Places / Google Maps Data & Attribution
Many places shown in the Places tab are backed by data from Google Places and Google Maps ("Google-backed places"). Where Stitch displays Google-sourced photos, Street View imagery, ratings, addresses, phone numbers, websites, or other place details, that data is provided by Google and is subject to Google's own data policies. Stitch does not own Google-sourced photos or Street View imagery and displays them with attribution to Google as required by Google's terms. Google-backed place data can be incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate, and not every Google-backed place has photos, Street View coverage, a listed phone number, a website, or complete hours - these gaps come from the underlying Google data, not from a Stitch removal. If you notice incorrect or missing Google-backed information, you can suggest an edit (Section 8) or, if you are the verified owner, correct the Stitch-managed fields for that place directly (Section 7). Suggested edits and owner corrections update how the place is presented on Stitch; they do not necessarily update Google's own listing. Because Google-backed places reflect a real-world location that is independently indexed by Google, Google-backed place records cannot simply be deleted from Stitch by a business owner. If a Google-backed place should not exist at all (for example, it is permanently closed, a duplicate, or fraudulent), verified owners and other users can flag it for review; manually created listings you added yourself can be deleted by you directly (Section 8).
6. Adding, Claiming & No Duplicate Listings
Before you can add a new place, Stitch checks for existing places that already match the name, category, and location you entered. If a matching place already exists - whether it was added by another user, created by an owner, or sourced from Google - you cannot create a duplicate listing for it. Instead, you must claim and verify ownership of the existing place, or submit a suggested edit if you are not able to verify ownership. If no matching place exists, you may add it as a new, manually created listing. A manually created listing is not automatically verified; you can request ownership verification for it the same way you would for a Google-backed place. Do not create a listing for a business you do not own or manage, submit a place that does not exist, or add a listing with a false or misleading name, category, or address in an attempt to mislead customers or manipulate search results. Stitch may remove listings that violate this section at its discretion and without prior notice.
7. Ownership Verification
To claim a place - whether it is Google-backed or manually created by another user - you generally need to verify that you control a public point of contact already associated with that business. Stitch currently supports two verification methods: PHONE VERIFICATION: Stitch sends a one-time passcode (OTP) by SMS text message or automated voice call to the public phone number already listed for the place. Entering the code correctly demonstrates that you (or someone you authorized) can receive communications at that public number. EMAIL VERIFICATION: Where the place has an associated website, Stitch sends a one-time passcode to an email address at that website's domain (for example, name@yourbusiness.com rather than a personal email at a generic provider). Entering the code correctly demonstrates that you can receive email at that business domain. WHAT VERIFICATION DOES AND DOES NOT PROVE: Successfully completing phone or email OTP verification demonstrates control over the public phone number or business-domain email already associated with the place at the time of verification. It is a strong practical signal, but it is not the same as a legal determination of ownership, and it does not prove you have authority to act on behalf of the business for purposes outside Stitch. Someone who has gained unauthorized access to a business's phone line or email domain could, in principle, pass this verification; Stitch relies on the public contact information already associated with the place and on your representations under Section 3. IF NO PUBLIC PHONE OR EMAIL IS AVAILABLE: If a place has no listed phone number or no website/domain to verify against, phone or email verification for that method will not be available, and the claim may require manual review or additional supporting information before Stitch will grant verified status. IF SOMEONE ELSE HAS ALREADY VERIFIED THE BUSINESS: If a place already has a verified owner or manager, a new claim attempt is treated as a takeover request and is subject to additional scrutiny. If you believe you are the rightful owner or manager and someone else has wrongly verified themselves for your business, contact us using Section 14 with details supporting your claim so we can review it. RATE LIMITS: To prevent abuse, Stitch applies anti-spam and rate-limiting controls to OTP requests. Repeated, rapid, or suspicious verification attempts may be temporarily or permanently blocked. Do not attempt to trigger OTP verification for a business you are not authorized to manage - doing so may result in suspension of your Places Business Account.
8. Editing, Suggested Edits & Deleting a Place
VERIFIED OWNERS: Once you are the verified owner or manager of a place, you can directly edit the Stitch-managed details for that place, including its name, category, description, phone number, website, hours, and photos. You are responsible for keeping this information accurate. SUGGESTED EDITS FROM OTHER USERS: Any user - not only verified owners - can suggest an edit to a place's details if they notice something outdated, incomplete, or incorrect. Suggested edits are queued for the verified owner (if any) to review, and the owner can accept, reject, or partially apply a suggestion. Stitch may also review and act on suggested edits directly, including where a place has no verified owner or where a suggestion appears well-supported and the owner has not responded. DELETING A PLACE: If you manually created a place listing yourself (Section 6) and later determine it should not exist - for example, it was added in error or is a duplicate - you can delete that manually created listing directly. Google-backed places cannot be deleted from Stitch by a business owner, verified or not, because they reflect a real-world location independently indexed by Google; see Section 5 for how to flag a Google-backed place that should not exist. DISPUTES: Where two users dispute a suggested edit, an ownership claim, or the accuracy of place details and cannot resolve it between themselves, Stitch may review the available evidence - such as verification status, account history, and the substance of the dispute - and make a determination at its discretion, including reverting an edit, removing verified status, or requesting additional information from either party. Stitch's determination in a dispute is not a legal finding of ownership and does not prevent either party from pursuing the matter through other lawful means.
9. Reviews, Ratings & Photos
Any Stitch user can leave a rating and written review for a place, and can upload photos of a place as a customer. Verified owners and managers can additionally upload owner photos, which may be labeled to distinguish them from customer photos and from Google-sourced photos and Street View imagery. Reviews and ratings should reflect an honest account of a real experience with the business or place. You may not post a review for a place you have no genuine experience with, post multiple reviews for the same place from accounts you control, offer or accept payment or other incentives in exchange for a positive review without clearly disclosing that incentive, or coordinate with others to inflate or deflate a place's rating. Photos you upload must be your own or otherwise ones you have the right to share, must actually depict the place in question, and must not contain content that is sexually explicit, illegal, misleading, or that exposes another person's private information without their consent. Any user can report a photo they believe violates these rules using the report option in the photo viewer; Stitch reviews reports and may remove reported photos at its discretion. Business owners and managers may not use the Places Business Tools to harass, threaten, or retaliate against a reviewer, submit fake reviews of their own business, submit negative or fraudulent reviews of a competitor's business, or otherwise attempt to manipulate ratings through means other than genuinely improving the business.
10. Prohibited Conduct Specific to Places
In addition to the general Acceptable Use rules in the Terms of Service, when using the Places tab or the Places Business Tools you may not: - Create a duplicate listing for a place that already exists on Stitch - Falsely claim ownership or management authority over a place you do not own or manage - Impersonate a business, its owner, staff, or a customer - Post fake, incentivized-but-undisclosed, or coordinated reviews, or otherwise manipulate ratings - Harass, threaten, extort, or attempt to coerce a business owner or a reviewer (for example, threatening a negative review unless paid or given something of value) - Sabotage a competitor's listing through false suggested edits, fraudulent ownership claims, fake negative reviews, or abuse of the reporting tools - Upload photos that are copyrighted by someone else without permission, sexually explicit, illegal, misleading, or that expose someone's private information without consent - Post another person's private information in a place's name, description, or reviews where it is not genuinely relevant to the business - Attempt to trigger phone or email OTP verification for a business you are not authorized to manage - Abuse the suggested-edit or reporting systems to vandalize, deface, or spam a place's listing We may remove content, reject or revert edits, restrict or suspend access to the Places Business Tools, remove verified status, or terminate a Places Business Account or the underlying Stitch account at our discretion for violations of this section, with or without prior notice, consistent with the Terms of Service.
11. Third-Party Providers
The Places tab and Places Business Tools rely on third-party providers to function, including Google (Google Places / Google Maps data, photos, and Street View imagery), Twilio or a similar provider (SMS and voice delivery for phone OTP verification), and Firebase (application infrastructure, authentication, and data storage). Use of these features is also subject to the applicable terms of those providers where relevant. Stitch is not responsible for outages, inaccuracies, or changes in the data or services provided by these third parties, though we will make reasonable efforts to keep Places working as expected.
12. Business Plus
Stitch may offer an optional enhanced tier for business owners and managers, referred to as Business Plus. Business Plus is not fully available at this time, and any features associated with it are still being developed. Where Business Plus or related features are referenced in the app or Help Center, that reference describes what Business Plus may include or may offer when available - it is not a promise that any specific feature exists today or will ship on any particular timeline. We will update these Business Terms and our Help Center when Business Plus features become generally available.
13. Data Collected for Places Business Accounts
Creating and using a Places Business Account involves additional data collection beyond a standard Stitch account, described in detail in our Privacy Policy. In summary, we collect: your contact name, role, organization/business name, contact email, contact phone, website, city/state, your acceptance of these Business Terms, verification status, claim attempts, OTP delivery and verification metadata, rate-limiting metadata, and the owner/manager relationships between your account and the places you manage. We do not collect tax identification numbers, Social Security numbers, EINs, incorporation or formation documents, banking or payment account details, or government-issued identification as part of a Places Business Account. See our Privacy Policy's Places section for full detail on retention and your rights regarding this data.
14. Enforcement, Suspension & Contact
We may, at our discretion, remove or moderate place listings, photos, reviews, or suggested edits; reject or revert an edit; decline or revoke ownership verification; restrict or suspend your access to the Places Business Tools; or terminate your Places Business Account or underlying Stitch account, in each case for actual or suspected violation of these Business Terms, the general Terms of Service, or our Community Guidelines, or where we reasonably believe doing so is necessary to protect users, businesses, or Stitch. For questions about these Business Terms, to dispute an ownership claim or verification outcome, to report a problem with a place listing, or for privacy requests related to your Places Business Account, contact us at support@stitchmessaging.com. Please include your registered email or Stitch username, and, where relevant, the name and location of the place involved, so we can investigate effectively. We may revise these Business Terms from time to time using the same process described in Section 14 of the general Terms of Service ("Changes to These Terms"). The "Last Updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.