Agreement and eligibility
These Terms govern your use of sherlocksearch.net and the Sherlock Search service. By paying for or starting a search, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the service.
You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter this agreement. Sherlock Search does not require a customer account.
What Sherlock Search provides
Sherlock Search sends a submitted image to an authorized third-party search provider and displays possible visual matches connected to public web sources. Where available, results may include provider-generated similarity or confidence information and links to those sources.
Results are investigative leads, not proof of identity, authenticity, ownership, wrongdoing, or any other fact. Searches can produce false positives, miss relevant pages, or link to outdated or inaccurate material. You are responsible for reviewing each source and its context before drawing a conclusion.
Your images and instructions
You keep your rights in images you submit. You give Sherlock Search and its service providers a limited, non-exclusive license to host, transmit, process, and display them only as needed to provide, secure, and support the requested service.
You promise that you have the legal right, permission, or other lawful basis to upload each image and request the search. Do not upload confidential images or images you are prohibited from using.
The first image selected on the homepage is used for an on-device search-readiness step. The full image comparison begins only after payment, when you choose the final image and deliberately spend one search credit.
Acceptable use
You must not use Sherlock Search to:
- violate privacy, publicity, biometric, intellectual-property, data-protection, anti-discrimination, or other laws;
- stalk, harass, threaten, intimidate, dox, extort, shame, or facilitate violence against anyone;
- search for or attempt to identify a child;
- make or support decisions about employment, housing, education, credit, insurance, healthcare, public benefits, policing, immigration, or another high-impact or regulated matter;
- build a face-recognition database, systematically track people, or perform automated surveillance;
- impersonate another person or misrepresent the origin or certainty of a result;
- bypass payment, rate, access, result-link, or security controls;
- scrape, resell, sublicense, reverse engineer, or overload the service; or
- use the service for an unlawful purpose.
We may investigate suspected misuse and restrict service. Where appropriate or legally required, we may preserve information and cooperate with lawful requests.
One-time packages and payment
Sherlock Search offers one-time packages containing 1, 3, or 10 search credits. The package selector shows each current base price before checkout, and Stripe Checkout shows the final total after any eligible promotion code. There is no subscription, automatic renewal, or recurring charge.
Stripe processes the hosted checkout, collects your payment and email, and may apply its fraud-prevention controls. The email is used for the receipt and a secure, one-time wallet recovery link. Each paid credit can start one provider search. Payment does not guarantee that a search will find a match.
Search completion and refunds
- We validate the fresh search image before consuming a credit where practical.
- If a technical or provider failure prevents a started search from completing, the used credit is restored automatically.
- A search that completes successfully is not refundable only because it returns zero possible matches.
- Duplicate return visits, page reloads, or webhook deliveries do not consume or grant additional credits.
If a paid package cannot be delivered at all and credits cannot reasonably be restored, contact support. Any applicable refund is limited to the amount actually paid after discounts.
A refund can take additional time to appear, depending on Stripe, the card network, and your financial institution. Rights that cannot lawfully be excluded remain unaffected.
Access and retention
Each submitted search image and its cached result media are retained for up to 24 hours. Each guest report is protected by an unguessable access link and is intended to remain available during that window. Keep report links private. Access after the window expires is not guaranteed.
Unused search credits do not currently have a scheduled expiration date. They are attached to the private guest wallet created for the purchase, not to a customer account. Keep the wallet recovery email and browser data needed to access them. We cannot guarantee recovery if both are lost.
Order, payment, refund, security, and support records may be retained longer when reasonably needed for legal compliance, accounting, fraud prevention, disputes, and service security. See the Privacy Policy for details.
Third-party sources and availability
The service depends on third parties, public source pages, and provider availability. Sources may change, disappear, block access, or contain inaccurate, unlawful, or offensive material. We do not control or endorse third-party pages and do not guarantee a match, completeness, uninterrupted availability, accuracy, or a particular outcome.
Intellectual property
Sherlock Search's software, branding, and original site content are protected by applicable intellectual-property law. These Terms do not transfer ownership to you. Feedback may be used without restriction or compensation.
Restriction and discontinuation
You may stop using the service at any time. We may restrict an order or discontinue access for breach, risk, fraud, chargeback, legal requirement, provider restriction, or harm to Sherlock Search or others. Terms that by their nature should survive will survive.
Disclaimers and liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Sherlock Search is provided "as is" and "as available." We disclaim implied warranties and do not guarantee the accuracy, legality, or completeness of search results.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Sherlock Search and its operators will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, loss of profits or data, or harm arising from reliance on a result or third-party source. Our aggregate liability for a claim relating to a search will not exceed the amount paid for that search.
Nothing in these Terms excludes rights or liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
Changes and contact
We may update these Terms. The date above shows the latest version. Continued use after an update takes effect means you accept the revised Terms.
Questions, abuse reports, source-removal concerns, and legal notices can be sent to support@sherlocksearch.net or through our contact page.