ISKCON Chicago
These are the terms on which ISKCON Chicago offers its community app — Act of Service — to devotees and well-wishers, together with the guidelines everybody in it is asked to keep. They are short on purpose. Read them alongside the Privacy Policy, which says what the app holds about you and who can see it.
Effective 1 September 2026The app is run by ISKCON Chicago (the International Society for Krishna Consciousness of Chicago), a religious congregation in Illinois, USA. It is offered free of charge for the temple's community, not as a commercial product.
By creating an account or using the app, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree with them, please do not use the app, and speak to the President or an authorised temple administrator.
The app is meant for devotees and well-wishers taking part in the ISKCON Chicago community, and for adults — accounts are not for children under 13. Use your own account, with your own name, and give information that is true, including a current phone number.
Keep your password to yourself. What is done through your signed-in account may be treated as done by you. If you think somebody else has got into your account, tell an authorised temple administrator promptly.
Access levels — Devotee, Volunteer, Community Head, Tech Admin and President — are granted according to temple responsibilities, by the President or a Tech Admin.
This app carries what devotees write to each other: direct messages, sanga group chats, announcements and comments, devotee care posts, newsletter submissions and darshan photographs. It is a temple's community space. Speak to devotees the way you would in the temple room.
If your availability for a seva changes, update the app or tell the coordinator as early as you can, so somebody else can cover it. That is not a rule so much as a kindness to whoever would otherwise stand in for you.
What you write and the photographs you post stay yours. By posting them you give ISKCON Chicago permission to store, display and keep them within the app as part of running the community and its records. The temple claims no other rights over them and will not publish them outside the app without asking you.
Share only what you are entitled to share. Messages, sanga chats and photographs are kept as temple records, and the President and Tech Admin can read them — including the original of a message you delete. The Privacy Policy explains this in full, and it is worth reading before you write something you would not want kept.
You are responsible for what you post. The temple does not endorse and is not responsible for what another devotee writes.
These are commitments the temple is making, not descriptions of an ideal.
Two things blocking deliberately does not do. It does not change anything about seva: two devotees who have blocked each other can still be assigned to the same service, and neither one's hours are affected, because a personal preference about who you read must not leave a Sunday feast short of cooks. And the President and the Tech Admin cannot be blocked, because the temple has to be able to reach every member of its congregation.
Reporting and blocking are separate. You may report a message and still be willing to talk to the person, or block somebody and have nothing to tell the temple. The app offers the second after the first because usually people want both, but neither requires the other.
The temple undertakes to review every report and act on it within 24 hours of receiving it. Acting on it means a decision is made and carried out — the content is removed or it is allowed to stand — not merely that somebody has seen it. Where it is practical to say what was decided, the devotee who reported it will be told.
If something is urgent, or somebody is in danger, do not rely on a report in the app. Contact the temple directly, and the police if it is a matter for them. Moderation matters can also be raised at any hour by writing to tech@iskconchicago.com.
Where these terms or the Community Guidelines are broken, or where it is reasonably necessary for the safety of devotees or the running of the temple, ISKCON Chicago may do any of the following, choosing what fits what happened:
Every one of these is recorded — what was done, to whom, by whom, and when — and that record is kept so that a pattern of behaviour can be seen and so the temple can show what it did about a complaint.
Serious matters — anything involving a child, a credible threat, or unlawful content — go straight to permanent removal and, where the law requires it or safety demands it, to the authorities.
Where it is practical to say why, the temple will. If you think a decision was wrong, say so at the address below and it will be looked at again by somebody who did not make it.
Seva offered, arranged, recorded or verified through this app is voluntary religious and charitable service. It is not employment, not an internship, not a contract for services, and not an offer of work.
Nothing you do through the app creates an employment relationship, an agency, a partnership or a joint venture with ISKCON Chicago. No wage, salary, stipend or other compensation is owed for seva, and hours recorded in the app are a record of service offered to the Deities and the community — not hours worked for pay.
Seva Yatra points, hours, awards and leaderboard positions have no monetary value, cannot be exchanged for anything, and confer no rights.
Whether a donation is tax-deductible depends on your circumstances and on what ISKCON Chicago's own receipts say; the app does not give tax advice.
The app is provided as is and as available, without warranty of any kind, express or implied — including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title or non-infringement. It may be unavailable, delayed or wrong, and features may change or be withdrawn.
It is not an emergency service. For anything urgent, contact the temple directly, or the emergency services, rather than relying on a message or a notification in the app.
To the fullest extent the law allows, ISKCON Chicago, its trustees, officers and the devotees running the app are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss arising from your use of the app — including a notification that did not arrive, a seva that was not covered, information that was lost, or content another devotee posted.
Because the app is offered free of charge, the temple's total liability to you for any claim relating to it is limited to one hundred United States dollars (US$100).
Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.
You may stop using the app at any time. In Profile, at the bottom, Leaving steps you away and keeps your record as it stands, and asking to be forgotten erases your personal details and closes your sign-in for good. Both are described in the Privacy Policy, and either can also be requested at https://app.iskconchicago.com/delete-account.
ISKCON Chicago may suspend or close an account as described in What the temple may do. The sections on content, liability, governing law and donation records continue to apply after an account ends.
These terms will be updated as the app and the temple's services change, and the date at the top will change with them. Where a change is significant, the temple will say so in the app rather than quietly editing this page. Carrying on using the app after an update means you accept the revised terms.
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute that cannot be settled between us belongs to the state or federal courts sitting in Cook County, Illinois, and both of us agree to those courts.
If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest of them continue to apply.
Before any of that, please simply talk to us. Almost everything is settled by a conversation with the President or a community head.
Email — including all moderation reports and appeals
tech@iskconchicago.com
Post
ISKCON Chicago
1716 W Lunt Ave
Chicago, IL 60626
USA
Delete your account on the web
https://app.iskconchicago.com/delete-account