Terms of Use and Community Rules

1. Service and Operator

BITESCORE. is a platform for discovering and reviewing packaged products and sharing experiences with other members. It is operated by Ömer Taha Tonbaklar, whose contact details appear in the Privacy Notice.

The current service does not offer a paid subscription. The BiteData business data service is also unavailable; section 6 explains the limits that apply to it.

The service includes product search, barcode scanning and discovery, ratings, reviews, comments and likes, direct messages, profile discovery and friendship, forums and chat, personal and collaborative lists, Clashes and voting, and product-information and image contributions. The current Turkey-first release is free. Adult-only membership does not relax community standards or prohibitions on sexual exploitation and unlawful content.

2. Eligibility and Account

• You must have reached your 18th birthday to create an account and use BITESCORE. People on or after their 18th birthday meet the age policy. Parental or legal-representative permission does not permit membership before 18.
• We record your self-declaration that you have reached your 18th birthday. In addition, under Article 4 of the supplementary provisions of Law No. 5651 and the Regulation on Differentiated Services for Children and Age Verification by Social Network Providers published in Official Gazette No. 33396 of 10 October 2026, your account's age is verified with the e-Devlet age verification token before you can use the social network features that let you interact with other members. These features are direct messages, Explore posts and replies, Clash comments, friends, gifts, shared lists, Blend and appearing in people search. The product catalogue, product ratings and reviews, personal lists and account functions are provided separately from these features and do not require age verification. Other members cannot contact an unverified account, and it is not shown in people search. For accounts opened from 1 November 2026, the social network features stay closed until verification is complete. Accounts opened before 1 November 2026 keep using these features without verification until 31 March 2027; after that date the features close until verification is complete.
• The token shows only your age group against the 15 and 18 thresholds; your name, Turkish ID number, date of birth or identity document are neither sent to nor requested by BITESCORE. If the token shows you have not reached your 18th birthday, your account is closed for use. If there is a reasonable suspicion that a verified account is used outside its age group, the account is suspended until it is verified again with a new token. Acceptance of the Terms, delivery of the Privacy Notice, age verification and optional choices are separate records.
• Child safety and content rules apply to all members.
• Ordinary service access is restricted until the current 18+ declaration and document steps are completed. A search and league visibility choice does not establish adulthood. Accounts known to belong to someone under 18 remain restricted pending review and correction.
• Even while age-restricted, you can read legal documents, contact support, report safety concerns, block users, sign out, request your data and delete your account. Request human review of an incorrect age record or restriction at legal@bitescore.co. Deletion does not require acceptance of new terms. Objecting to an age verification result or to the suspension or closure of an account is free of charge and possible in Turkish; objections are reviewed by a person, not solely by automated systems. Account content and personal data are not deleted until the objection is concluded. You may complain to the Cybersecurity Directorate about the outcome and apply to the courts. The measures taken are published on the Age Verification Measures page.
• If you choose Google or Apple sign-in, that provider handles the sign-in process; neither is a party to these Terms. You can delete your account through Settings.

3. Limited Licence

Subject to these Terms, you receive a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable licence to use the service for lawful, non-commercial purposes. No ownership of BITESCORE. software, branding, design, databases, classifications, model outputs or original content is transferred. No separate commercial-use right is granted through BiteData.

4. Your Content

• You retain the rights to your content. To make it available within the service, you grant the operator a worldwide, non-exclusive and royalty-free licence to host, reproduce, format, display, distribute and technically adapt it only as necessary to operate, protect and improve BITESCORE. This includes community scoring, moderation, product discovery, previews and in-service product summaries.
• This licence does not permit delivery of your content to commercial customers through BiteData, or reuse of your review, name, username, image or identity in advertising, promotional content or testimonials. It does not permit the sale of identity information, sign-in information or private content.
• The licence ends when the content is deleted, subject to limited exceptions for legal retention, restricted backups, genuinely non-identifiable aggregate information and copies previously shared by others within the service. The Privacy Notice explains account and content deletion.
• Your contributions must be accurate to the best of your knowledge, based on genuine experience when reviewing a product, and respectful of privacy, copyright, trademark and personality rights. Clearly disclose any commercial, sponsorship or employment relationship with the product or brand in your contribution.
• Unlawful content, insults, defamation, threats, discrimination, sexual exploitation, dangerous guidance, exposure of personal information, undisclosed advertising, spam, misleading or manipulated reviews and malware are prohibited. The Community Rules explain these obligations. A negative opinion about a product is not, by itself, a breach.
• You can report accounts and individual content using the in-app tools. Reports are recorded and assessed according to urgency, risk and applicable legal duties. Alleged infringements of personality rights receive priority. Subject to legally required deadlines, no fixed resolution time is promised for every report.
• You can block a member from their profile. Blocking stops messages, friend requests, gifts and related notifications between the two accounts, hides their reviews from you and removes existing friendship and pending requests. The blocked member is not separately notified. You can manage blocks in Settings.
• Avoid sharing passwords, financial information, identity documents, precise location, school details or private images. Voluntarily sharing your own contact details is not automatically prohibited; using them for pressure, exploitation or unwanted contact is prohibited.

4A. the Explore Feed and How Content Is Ordered

Community posts in the Explore feed of the mobile app are ordered by an automated ranking system. It aims to show you recent and relevant posts, reduce how often the same content reappears and give new posts a chance to be seen. The main criteria are listed below, broadly in order of their influence:

Posts that have not completed review may appear in the feed but are not promoted by the ranking. Product scores, whether a review is positive or negative, the length of a post and whether it contains a photograph are not ranking criteria.

Ranking cannot be changed in return for payment. The Explore feed contains no sponsored or paid posts, and no posts selected for promotion by the operator. If such a practice is introduced, these Terms will be updated in advance and the relevant content will be clearly identified as advertising as required by law.

Ranking is not an assessment, endorsement or sanction. A post appearing lower does not mean a rule breach has been found, and reports are not used as evidence of a breach in the ranking. Removal or restriction of content for a rule breach follows the notice and review safeguards in sections 4 and 11. Attempting to influence the ranking artificially through likes, replies or accounts falls within the manipulation prohibition in section 8.

BITESCORE. does not undertake that a post will be shown in a particular position, for a particular time or to a particular number of people. Details of the ranking may change to improve the service; if the main criteria described in this section change materially, these Terms will be updated. When ranking is temporarily unavailable, posts may be shown in date order.

You can pull down on the feed to request an updated ranking. The community area on the website shows posts in date order without personalisation. Sections 2, 6, 8 and 12 of the Privacy Notice explain the personal data used for ranking, retention periods and your rights.

Interest-based personalisation drawing on products, categories or members you have interacted with is not currently used. If it is offered in future, you will be informed in advance and given a choice to turn it off.

• Recency: the time since a post was published is the most significant criterion, and posts move down over time. The ranked feed is limited to posts published within the last 30 days.
• Current community interest: recent likes and public replies from different members are taken into account. Their effect fades over time and is capped. The effect of newly created accounts is reduced, and likes from banned accounts are not counted.
• Like rate: once enough members have viewed a post, the proportion of viewers who liked it has a limited effect. This criterion is not used where there is insufficient data.
• Friendship: posts by your accepted friends are moved up to a limited extent. A cap prevents friends' posts from filling the feed.
• What you have already seen: posts displayed on your screen, and posts you have liked or replied to, are moved down. New interest in a post or the passage of time may reduce this effect. No post is permanently hidden for this reason.
• Diversity and new posts: the feed avoids showing many consecutive posts by the same member or about the same product or category. New posts that have completed review and reached few members receive limited, rotating visibility.
• Your own posts: posts you have just published appear briefly at the top of your feed so that you can see they were accepted. Your posts still under review are visible only to you.

5. How BITESCORE. Is Calculated, Product Data and Health Warning

• A product score is consumer opinion expressed as a weighted average of eligible review scores. It is not the simple arithmetic average of the displayed stars: the overall rating and any valid selected details first become a review score, then those scores are combined using level weights. The score is not selected by the operator, manufacturer or advertiser, or determined in return for payment.
• The level weight ranges from 1.00 to 1.25 and is saved using the level you have reached at submission or the latest edit; a text-only edit can also refresh it. A level increase alone does not automatically change the weight of earlier reviews. The multiplier determines relative influence on the product average; it is not a fixed number of extra score points. Level develops through in-service activity and XP; it is not a measure of verified expertise or review accuracy.
• Scores, rankings, community views and AI-assisted summaries reflect user experience; they are not scientific assessments of health, nutrition, allergen suitability or product safety. They may be incomplete, outdated or incorrect and do not guarantee quality, availability or suitability for you.
• Before using a product, check its current packaging, ingredients and allergen information, nutrition label, expiry date, storage instructions and manufacturer notices. App information is not a substitute for qualified advice on allergies, diagnosis, treatment, diet or emergencies.
• Product information, barcodes and images may come from manufacturers, users or sources such as Open Food Facts. The Data Sources and Licences page explains attribution and licensing. You can report errors you find.
• Only products approved for publication and suitable for a general audience are shown in the catalogue, search, recommendations, lists, Clashes and other community areas. Age-restricted, otherwise restricted or unreviewed products are not offered to users.
• BITESCORE. does not verify that a reviewer purchased, used or received a product as a gift. A review or rating is not proof of those circumstances or of the reviewer's identity.
• Neutral in-service tasks may earn BiteCoin or XP. A reward does not require a positive rating and adds no direct score or weight bonus to that submission. However, earned XP may allow you to claim a higher level later; the new level weight can apply to a subsequent submission or edit. A separate disclosure may appear where a task reward associated with a review can be established; its absence does not guarantee the absence of third-party incentives. A reward disclosure does not verify purchase or product use. Virtual gifts between members are a separate social feature. Undisclosed incentives and score manipulation are prohibited.

6. Status of the BiteData Service

The BiteData business service is unavailable. No organisation or commercial customer receives access, product analysis, review text, quotations, user references, demographic analysis or other data outputs through it. An existing account, earlier invitation or previous preference does not change this position.

Current reviews and ratings support core BITESCORE. scoring, discovery, security and moderation. Making content public does not grant a commercial BiteData licence. Contributions made before that service opens cannot be included retrospectively merely because you later accept general terms.

Before any future launch, the Terms, Privacy Notice and Community Rules must be updated, together with store privacy disclosures and requirements for providers and international transfers. Relevant contractual acceptance and, where required, separate purpose-specific consent must be obtained before the new processing begins. Only later contributions made under those conditions may qualify.

BiteData demographic collection is also disabled. Any future demographic service requires a separate assessment of adult-only eligibility and notice requirements. Your current age declaration, analytics preference or acceptance of these Terms does not authorise future demographic processing.

7. Virtual Rewards and Gifts

BiteCoin, XP, levels, badges and virtual gifts are for in-service use only. They have no cash value, are not electronic money, cannot be redeemed for cash and cannot be transferred outside permitted service functions. Records may be corrected to address errors or abuse and maintain service balance. If a paid transaction is introduced, its price, pre-contract information, withdrawal or refund terms and relevant store rules will be explained before payment.

8. Prohibited Use

These restrictions do not override rights granted by open licences covering third-party material such as Open Food Facts data and images. The Data Sources and Licences page identifies those licences separately. They do not grant rights to users' personal data, private content, BITESCORE. software or third-party trademarks.

• You must not bypass access controls, conduct unauthorised security testing, upload malicious code, impersonate others or harass users.
• You may not extract or copy service data in bulk without permission, manipulate voting, scoring or contributions, or use content for competing model training or unlawful commercial profiling without written permission. Unauthorised reverse engineering is prohibited, subject to rights provided by law.

9. Intellectual Property and Complaints

Rights to the BITESCORE. brand, software, interface and original content belong to the operator or relevant rights holders. Product names, trademarks and packaging identify the reviewed product; their appearance does not imply endorsement, sponsorship or an official partnership.

Send copyright, trademark, personality-rights or privacy complaints to legal@bitescore.co. Identify the content link, grounds for your request, any supporting documents and your contact details. Identity or authority may be checked where necessary and proportionate to assess the request.

10. Availability and Liability

Parts of the service may change, be temporarily interrupted or end for maintenance, security, legal compliance or product reasons. Uninterrupted or error-free operation is not guaranteed.

To the extent permitted by law, the operator is not liable for indirect losses, decisions based solely on user or third-party content, or events beyond reasonable control. This limitation does not apply to intentional misconduct, gross negligence, negligently caused bodily injury or liability that cannot lawfully be excluded. Mandatory consumer rights remain unaffected.

11. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using the service and initiate account deletion at any time. Serious or repeated breaches, security risks, legal requirements or harm to others may result in a proportionate warning, content removal, restriction, suspension or account closure.

Except where urgent action is necessary or disclosure would be legally inappropriate, the decision should be accompanied by reasons and an opportunity for review. You can appeal to legal@bitescore.co.

12. Governing Law and Consumer Rights

Turkish law applies. Depending on the dispute, your right to apply to Consumer Arbitration Committees, Consumer Courts and other competent authorities remains unaffected. No provision requires you to waive a remedy available by law. You may contact us to seek a resolution before starting proceedings.

13. Changes

Changes materially affecting your rights and obligations will, where reasonably possible, be announced before they take effect and presented for renewed acceptance before you submit a contribution affected by the change. Spelling, editorial or explanatory corrections and updates to privacy information alone do not automatically require renewed contractual acceptance. Earlier editions and their acceptance records are preserved.

Changes to the minimum age, collection of more detailed age information, legal-representative verification or adult-only transactions require separate legal assessment and appropriate information. Section 6 applies to BiteData; these Terms do not authorise future use of data for different purposes in advance.

Search, League and Profile Privacy

New accounts do not appear in search or the league. You can enable visibility separately on the Community Rules screen or in Settings. Published reviews are shown to other users with your username and profile picture, independently of search and league visibility. Your friend list and profile details initially appear only to you and accepted friends, following their own privacy settings.

If you separately enable search and league visibility, your username, profile picture, bio, level, community score and rank may be shown publicly in search, the league and limited profile identity views. Search engines may index this information and others may copy it. Email, sign-in information and private demographic details are not published. Social sign-in accounts do not appear in search or the league until username selection is complete.

Enable or disable search and league visibility separately on the Community Rules screen or in Settings. Friends and profile details follow a separate privacy setting. Existing accounts' disabled preferences are not enabled by this edition; previously enabled visibility is not disabled by this change. Turning visibility off does not prevent access to the core service or immediately remove previous third-party copies or search-engine caches.

Reviews and ratings are subject to moderation and publication requirements. Before submitting a review, you are informed that your published review will be shown to other users with your username and profile picture. Review visibility is independent of search and league visibility. Turning search and league visibility off does not hide published reviews or their username and profile-picture attribution. Content held for review or removed is not shown to other users. Lists and Clashes follow their own visibility settings. Do not share personal or sensitive information in public areas.

Visibility is separate from the 18+ membership declaration. Becoming eligible does not enable a disabled preference. Community visibility is processed to establish and perform the service (KVKK Article 5/2-c); optional usage analysis requires separate explicit consent.

Initial visibility is an account default, not a consent or visibility decision made by the member. Later changes record the account-linked enable/disable preference, decision identifier, language, version, full copy of the notice and its hash, presentation verification status, action channel (web or mobile) and decision time. This setting collects no date of birth, identity document, IP or device information. Limited preference evidence is retained to protect a right (KVKK Article 5/2-e) and removed on account deletion. Declarations from previous editions are not rewritten. The Privacy Notice explains service providers, transfer conditions and Article 11 rights.