Terms of Service

Last updated 16 October 2026.

ReturnSafe is a public register of missing person notices. You submit a report, we review it, and if we approve it we publish it so members of the public can recognise the person and tell us if they see them.

ReturnSafe is not the police, and not an emergency service. We do not investigate. We do not search. We have no power to compel anyone to do anything. If a person is in danger, or you have found someone and they are with you now, contact the police directly — do not rely on this website.

You need an account to file a report. You must give a real name, a working email address and a working mobile number, keep your password to yourself, and tell us if you think someone else has used your account. You are responsible for what is submitted through it.

You do not need an account to browse the register or to report a sighting.

• Filing a report costs 2,000 RWF, charged once per case.
• A report is only put in front of our review team once the fee is paid.
• Paying the fee does not guarantee publication. It pays for the review, not for the outcome.
• If we reject your report you will be told why by SMS. Because the fee covers the review, rejected reports are not automatically refunded — contact us and we will consider it, particularly where the fault is ours.
• Browsing the register and reporting a sighting are free and always will be.

Needs legal review: refund terms, and consumer-protection requirements for taking payment before a discretionary decision.

Do not use ReturnSafe to:

• Report someone who is not actually missing — including to find someone who has chosen to leave, to trace a person who does not want to be found, or to locate someone you are in a dispute with
• Publish a person's details without the authority to do so, or against the wishes of their parent or legal guardian where the person is a child
• Submit a photograph you have no right to use
• Submit false, exaggerated or malicious sightings
• Harass, threaten or endanger anyone named on the register, or anyone who sends in a sighting
• Collect data from the register in bulk, by scraping or otherwise, for any purpose we have not agreed to in writing

Using a missing person notice to track down someone who has deliberately left — for example someone escaping domestic violence — can put them in real danger. We will refuse and remove reports where we suspect this, and may pass the matter to the police.

Every report is read by a person before publication. We may approve it, reject it with a reason, ask you for more information, or remove it later. We may edit obvious errors of spelling or formatting; we do not rewrite what you tell us.

We may remove a notice at any time, without notice, if we believe it is false, unlawful, harmful to the person named, or in breach of these terms. Decisions about what appears on the register are ours.

By filing a report you confirm that you have the authority to publish the details you submit, and you agree that we may publish and distribute the missing person's name, photograph, description, and last known location publicly and indefinitely, including in a printable poster that others may copy and display.

You grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, reproduce and display the photographs and text you submit for this purpose. You keep ownership of them.

A sighting is information, not a finding. We do not verify sightings before passing them to the family, and we cannot confirm that any sighting is accurate. Treat what you receive with appropriate caution, and do not confront anyone on the strength of a report from a stranger.

If you send a sighting you may ask us to keep your name from the family, and we will — see the Privacy Policy.

We do not guarantee that ReturnSafe is available, that SMS notifications are delivered, or that anyone will see a published notice. SMS delivery in particular depends on mobile networks and on third-party infrastructure outside our control. Do not treat an SMS as confirmation that anything has happened — sign in and check.

ReturnSafe is provided as it is. We do not promise that publishing a notice will help find anyone. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for a person not being found, for the accuracy of anything a member of the public submits, for actions taken on the strength of a sighting, or for information spreading further once a notice is public.

Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited. Needs legal review: enforceable limitation of liability under Rwandan law, particularly given the vulnerability of the people using this service.

We may suspend or close an account that breaches these terms, submits false reports, or abuses the sighting form. Where we close an account we will normally leave any published notice in place if it is genuine, because taking it down could harm the person it is trying to find.

We may update these terms. Where a change materially affects you — the fee, or what we publish — we will tell account holders by SMS or email. Continuing to use ReturnSafe after a change means you accept it.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Rwanda. Needs legal review: governing law, jurisdiction and dispute resolution.

Contact: info@returnsafe.rw