Terms of service

Last updated 18 August 2026

These terms govern your use of GIST (Government Instruments & Statutes Tracker), at gist.co.zw and through our alert channels. By using GIST — with or without an account — you agree to them. If you don't agree, don't use the service.

1. What GIST is

GIST monitors public sources for new Zimbabwean Statutory Instruments, Acts, and Bills, publishes plain-language summaries of them, and — for subscribers — delivers alerts by email, push notification, and SMS. GIST links to official documents at their publishers and does not host them.

2. Summaries are not legal advice

Summaries are produced by automated processes and can be wrong, incomplete, or out of date. They are not legal advice, and the official gazetted text always prevails. Always read the full instrument at its official source before acting, and consult a qualified legal practitioner where it matters. Using GIST creates no lawyer–client relationship of any kind.

3. Accounts

Reading GIST needs no account. An account — created with an email code or by signing in with Google or Apple — is needed only for alerts and billing. You're responsible for keeping access to your email address secure, since it is how you sign in. One person per account; we may suspend accounts that abuse the service.

4. Plans, billing, and cancellation

Paid plans are billed in USD through Stripe, monthly or annually, with annual plans priced at ten months. Prices are shown on the pricing page before you pay, and we'll give account holders notice by email before any price increase affects them. You can cancel any time from the billing portal: alerts run to the end of the period you've paid for, and no further charges are made. Amounts already paid are non-refundable except where the law says otherwise or the service materially failed to deliver. If a card payment fails, we retry for a period before pausing alerts; your watchlists are never deleted for non-payment.

5. SMS

SMS delivery is available on plans that include it, to a phone number you verify, up to the plan's monthly quota. Standard carrier charges for receiving messages are yours. Reply STOP to any message to stop SMS; alerts continue on your other channels.

6. Acceptable use

Don't abuse the service: no attempting to breach or probe its security, no scraping at volumes that degrade it for others, no reselling alerts or summaries as your own service, and no using delivery channels to harass anyone. The RSS feed and public pages exist precisely so that reading and sharing summaries — with attribution to GIST — is easy; that use is welcome.

7. Availability

We work to keep GIST fast and reliable, but it is provided "as is": we can't guarantee uninterrupted service, that every instrument is caught, or that every alert arrives within any particular time. Sources publish irregularly, and delivery depends on third-party networks we don't control.

8. Liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, GIST is not liable for indirect or consequential losses arising from use of the service, from a missed or delayed alert, or from reliance on a summary rather than the official text. Where liability can't be excluded, it is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

9. Your data

How we handle personal information is set out in the privacy policy, which forms part of these terms.

10. Changes

We may update these terms as the service evolves. Material changes will be noted here with a new date, and account holders will be told by email before they take effect. Continuing to use GIST after that means you accept the updated terms.

11. Contact

Questions about these terms: legal@gist.co.zw. These terms are governed by the laws of Zimbabwe.