Terms of Service – Panelope

Hello and welcome to Panelope! Panelope’s community engagement platform facilitates efficient and effective decision-making by verifying community members, giving them convenient means to have their say, and promoting transparency so that everyone operates from the same set of facts.

These Terms of Service (“Terms” or “Agreement”) incorporate our Privacy Policy and Community Standards by reference and govern your use of our Panelope mobile application as a Panelope Member or Community Leader (“you” or “your,” unless otherwise indicated). This Agreement is between you and Panelope Inc. (“Panelope”).

Our Agreement

When you use our Mobile Application (referred to as our “App,” “Service,” or “Platform”), you accept and agree to all requirements and provisions of these Terms. This means that you also acknowledge and agree to our Privacy Policy, and that you will abide by our civil conduct rules in our Community Standards.

To optimize our platform, we are always making changes. When we make changes to our Service or this Agreement (including our Privacy Policy and Community Standards) that materially affect your usage of Panelope or your legal rights, we will inform you with a notification on our Service or by using your contact information, which we request from you when you join Panelope. You hereby acknowledge that continued use of our Service after we notify you of changes constitutes your consent to such changes.

1. First Steps

To sign up and use our Service on an individual basis, you may become a “Member” pending our verification process. When you are use the Service on behalf of an organization, business, or any other group, you are a “Community Leader,” pending verification. As a Community Leader, you are bound by these Terms as well as the most recent version of our Community Leader Standards.

To be eligible to use our Service, the following requirements apply:

If you are the age of majority (the age at which minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions) in your jurisdiction or over, that you have read, understood, and accept to be bound by the Terms, and
You can legally form a binding contract with Panelope and are not barred from receiving services under any U.S. or other laws or regulations.
If you are under the age of 16, you may not use our Service.

By registering with Panelope, you hereby acknowledge that you meet these requirements.

For the safety and consistency of the Panelope platform, we reserve the right to refuse registration for, access to, or use of our Services by any person or entity at any time and for any reason.

2. Privacy

When it comes to your information, we strive for transparency and accountability, and we will never sell your data to advertisers.

Please review our Privacy Policy for more information on how we use and process your data and how you can customize Member or Community Leader Privacy Settings to maximize privacy through our Service. Whenever Panelope collects or analyzes your Personal Information (information that can be used to identify you, including name, email, and location; defined in greater detail in our Privacy Policy) or facilitates collection by a third party trusted partner, it will be anonymized in such a way that is not identifiable in any way. Our registration process requires that we use trusted third parties to verify and authenticate your Personal Information. We also use locational information to allow Panelope Members to better network and to best ensure meaningful engagement on our Platform.

We understand that privacy is important for our Members and Community Leaders. For this reason, we offer privacy setting for our Members to customize the amount of privacy they are comfortable with. Community Leaders are also given similar Privacy Settings options as well, including the option to be invite-only.

3. Member Content

Member Content (or “Your Content”) refers to any media, including text, graphic, video, and otherwise, that is submitted, displayed, or shared on our Service by You. We disclaim responsibility for Member Content, which may include, but is not limited to, the following:

Surveys and/or polls
Profile information, including pictures and other media
Announcements
Reposts
Any other media submitted, displayed, or shared through our Service.

In return for your use of our Service, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, you hereby grant to Panelope, and their respective parents, subsidiaries and affiliate companies, successors, assigns, designees, agents and employees the non-exclusive, fully paid, sub-licensable, assignable, royalty-free right and license to use Your Content in any and all media now known or hereafter developed, throughout the world, subject to our Privacy Policy. We will not sell or distribute your data to advertisers.

Your Member Content must always stay within the bounds of our Member Standards. We are not responsible for any Member Content uploaded, displayed or submitted on or through our Service by you. You represent and warrant that Your Content is original to you and that you exclusively own the rights to such content, including the right to grant all of the rights and licenses in these Terms without the Company incurring any third-party obligations or liability arising out of its exercise of such rights and licenses.

We take reasonable efforts to ensure accuracy on our Platform. You agree that Panelope will not be liable for any Member Content under any circumstances, including, but not limited to errors in any Member Content, or any loss or damage incurred by use of such content. You understand that Panelope reserves the right to remove and permanently delete Your Content from the Service with or without notice for any reason or no reason. You understand that we cannot guarantee the identity of Members nor the accuracy of any data that users may provide with whom you interact in the course of using our Service, despite using leading practice third party service-provided verification processes.

4. Your License with Panelope

Subject to your compliance with this Agreement, Panelope grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, freely revocable license to use the Service. You may use this license to access and use our Service on an individual or organizational basis and install and use a copy of our Mobile Application associated with our Service acquired through a legitimate marketplace on a mobile device owned by you.

You may not (1) license, transfer, sell, assign, distribute, host, or otherwise commercially exploit our Service or Member Content; (2) modify, prepare derivative works of, disassemble, decompile; (3) reverse engineer any part of the Service or Content; (4) or access the Service or Member Content in order to build a similar or competitive website, product, or service. This license also extends to any trusted third parties that Panelope works with to the extent necessary to provide the Service to you.

This license will expire after an indefinite time after you stop using the service, with respect to aggregate and de-identified data derived from Member Content.

For the safety and security of our platform, we reserve the right to modify, terminate, or suspend your use and access to the Service at any time, with or without notification to you. You agree that we will not be liable to you or to any third-party for any modification, suspension, or discontinuation of the Services or any part thereof.

5. Third-Party Links

Our Service may contain links to other web sites and apps not maintained by Panelope, and members may share information to third-party platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. We encourage you to be aware of when you leave our Service, and to read the terms and conditions and privacy statements of each site and app that you visit. We are not responsible for the practices or the content of such other services or the accuracy thereof.

6. Account Security and Passwords

When you register for Panelope, you must submit a “selfie” and a photo of your current government identification, such as a driver’s license.. In addition, our registration process will also ask for additional information that is at your option to submit, such as:

Address of Residence
Date of Birth
Pronouns
Ethnicity

We use this information to secure our members’ accounts and to verify the authenticity of our members for a higher quality experience on Panelope. Our information handling practices are detailed in our Privacy Policy.

We encourage you to notify Panelope immediately of any breach of security or unauthorized use of your account. Panelope cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising out of failure to comply with the above.

7. Things You Cannot Do

We encourage you to review our Community Standards to better understand our expectations of you regarding your use of the Service. Our Service is provided for your personal and non-commercial use and for informational and communicational purposes only. Any other use of the Service requires the prior written consent of Panelope.

You agree not to engage in any of the following prohibited activities:

Use the Service in any manner that could interfere with, disable, disrupt, overburden, or otherwise impair the Service, including uploading, posting or transmitting any unsolicited or unauthorized solicitation of any kind;
Gain access to (or attempt to gain access to) another member’s account or any non-public portions of the Service, including the computer servers, systems, or networks connected to or used together with the Service;
Upload, transmit, or distribute to or through the Service any viruses, worms, malicious code, or other software intended to interfere with the Service;
Use the Service in any way inconsistent with our Community Standards or these Terms, including ridiculing, mocking, harassing, threatening, or intimidating anyone;
Use data from the Service by any means except as permitted in these Terms or in a prior agreement with Panelope;
Re-identify data that has been anonymized by Panelope or a third-party;
Use the Service in any manner that we reasonably believe to be an abuse of or fraud on Panelope or any payment system used as part of our Service;
Attempt to circumnavigate Panelope’s Member or Community Privacy settings, including search preferences and settings;
Collecting or harvest any Personal Information, including account names, from the Service, without permission from Panelope;
Impersonate another person or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity, conducting fraud, or hiding or attempt to conceal your identity.

This list is non-exhaustive and we reserve the right to determine what conduct we consider to be a violation of the Terms, Community Standards or improper use of the Service and to take action including termination of your Account and exclusion from further participation in the Service.

8. Saying Good-Bye

If for any reason you need to disconnect from our Service, you may do so by deactivating your Member account and discontinuing all use of our Service. After an extended period of time (approximately six months), your account will be terminated. We will continue to use any and all aggregate information you have submitted to our Platform in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

When you wish to dissolve a Community on our Service and end your Panelope subscription as a Community Leader, you may do so by either unsubscribing from our Service (recommended), or by deactivating your profile, at which time Panelope will receive a request to terminate your account and end your subscription. If Panelope determines that your Community was appropriately terminated, or if we take no action, your account will be deleted and your community will be dissolved (i.e. the Community will no longer appear on our App).

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we may suspend or terminate your Member or Community Leader account, Leader status, or ability to access or use the Services at any time for any or no reason, including for violating these this Agreement and our Community Standards incorporated herein.

The following sections will survive any termination of these Terms or of your Account: Member Content, Things You Cannot Do, Indemnity, Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability, Governing Law and Venue, Termination of Access, and Miscellaneous.

9. Community Leaders

We encourage organizational leaders to use our Platform to better connect with their constituents and real-world community members! You can create and manage a Community as a Community Leader on behalf of a new unverified group, or on behalf of a legally registered community or other pre-existing community—which may require further verification. Creating a Community on our App requires a subscription, which is explained in more detail below. We outline our requirements and expectations for Community Leaders in our Community Leader Standards, which is a subsection of our Community Standards.

Community Leaders can customize their own Community Outline that builds upon our general Community Standards. The Community Outline allows flexibility on our Platform for Communities to engage differently depending on their function, purpose, constituency, and other criteria.

Community Leaders have other reserved abilities such as posting content to the Community, adding or removing members, and viewing poll results and community metrics. WE ARE NOT responsible for the actions taken by Community Leaders.

If you choose to be a Community Leader on our Service:

You agree to follow both the Community Standards and the Community Leader Standards included within;
You agree that when you receive reports related to any content that you moderate, you will take appropriate action, which may include removing content that violates policy, suspending or removing Members who violate your Community guidelines or any Panelope Community Standards;
You are not, and may not represent that you are, authorized to act on behalf of Panelope;
You may not enter into any agreement with a third-party on behalf of Panelope without our prior written approval;
You may not perform management actions in return for any form of compensation, consideration, gift, or favor from third-parties;
If you have access to private or sensitive information (including all non-public info) as a result of managing a Community, you will use such information only in connection with your performance as a Community Leader; and
You may enforce rules for the Communities you moderate, provided that such rules do not conflict with these Terms or the Community Leader Standards within the Community Standards.

Though we do not expect to interfere with any Community activities, Panelope reserves the right to overturn or modify any action taken by a Leader if we, in our sole discretion, believe that such action is against the interest of Panelope. We reserve the right to revoke or limit a user’s Community Leader status at any time and for any reason or no reason, including for a breach of these Terms.

10. Proprietary Rights

Panelope is the owner of or otherwise licensed to use all parts of the Service, including all software, graphics, designs, photographs, and all copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos, and other intellectual property or proprietary rights contained therein. Some materials on the Service may belong to third parties who have authorized Panelope to display the materials, such as other Member Content, or other such proprietary materials. By using the Service, you agree not to copy, distribute, modify or make derivative works of any materials without the prior written consent of the owner of such materials. Except as expressly set forth in these Terms and Conditions, no license is granted to you and no rights are conveyed by virtue of accessing or using the Service. All rights not granted under these Terms and Conditions are reserved by Panelope.

11. Community Subscriptions

We offer subscriptions on a community-wide basis, and provide Community Leaders the opportunity to fund access to our Service for their Members. Community Leaders may purchase subscriptions on an at-will basis, and differ in price according to how many members may join the Community, which are subject to change at Panelope’s sole discretion at any time.

We also may provide other products and services available for purchase through the Service for which our billing and payment policies herein described will apply.

A. Billing Policies

If you elect to use our subscription service or make a transaction through our Service, you agree to these pricing and payment terms, as we may update them from time to time. Panelope may add new services for additional fees and charges, or amend fees and charges for existing services at any time in its sole discretion, in which case we will notify you. Any change to our payment or pricing terms shall become effective in the billing cycle following notice of such change to you as provided in this Agreement.

B. Subscriptions Paid in Advance

Panelope subscriptions can be purchased on a monthly basis. Panelope is not responsible for any charges or expenses you incur resulting from charges billed by Panelope in accordance with the Terms and Conditions (e.g. overdrawn accounts, exceeding credit card limit, etc.). By providing a credit card or other payment method, you authorize Panelope to work with payment processors (such as Stripe) to continue charging the payment method for all charges due Panelope until your account is settled and or terminated. We reserve the right to limit the amount of accounts that may be charged to a unique credit card or other payment method.

C. Payment Methods

Panelope uses a trusted third-party to collect and process all payment data, and we do not store any of this information. Our Platform accepts the following payment types: credit and debit cards issued through VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. To protect against the unauthorized use of your card by others, our payment processing partners may require that you provide the security code for your debit or credit card, which consists of an individual three- or four-digit number specific to your card that may be printed on the face of your card above the embossed account number (if American Express), or on the back of your card, on the signature panel (if Visa, or MasterCard).

D. No Refunds

There are no refunds for any unused portion of a subscription, or on any subscription fees for any portion of the Service or any other products sold on our app or site.

Notwithstanding the above, we may consider any refund requests in our sole discretion on a case-by-case basis. Contact us at support@panelope.com for information and requests regarding refunds.

E. Payment Information; Taxes

All information that you provide in connection with a purchase or transaction or other monetary transaction interaction with the Service must be accurate, complete, and current. You agree to pay all charges incurred by users of your credit card, debit card, or other payment method used in connection with a purchase or transaction or other monetary transaction interaction with the Service at the prices in effect when such charges are incurred. You will pay any applicable taxes, if any, relating to any such purchases, transactions or other monetary transaction interactions.

12. Security

You acknowledge that you provide your Personal Information at your own risk.

Panelope will store and process Member Content in a manner consistent with industry security standards, including anonymization by leading industry processes. Panelope has implemented appropriate technical, organizational, and administrative systems, policies, and procedures designed to help ensure the security, integrity, and confidentiality of Your Content and to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access to or use of Your Content. If Panelope becomes aware of any unauthorized or unlawful access to, or acquisition, alteration, use, disclosure, or destruction of, personal data related to your account (“Security Incident”), Panelope will take reasonable steps to notify you. Panelope will also reasonably cooperate with you with respect to any investigations relating to a Security Incident with preparing any required notices, and provide any other information reasonably requested by you in relation to any Security Incident, where such information is not already available to you in your account or online through updates provided by Panelope.

13. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Panelope, its employees, directors, officers, agents, business partners, affiliates, contractors, distribution partners and representatives from and against any and all claims, demands, liabilities, costs or expenses, including attorney’s fees and costs, arising from, or related to, any breach by you of any of these Terms and Conditions or applicable law.

14. No Warranties / Limitation of Liability

WHILE PANELOPE USES REASONABLE EFFORTS TO INCLUDE UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION ON THE SERVICE, PANELOPE MAKES NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS AS TO ITS ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS. PANELOPE ASSUMES NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN THE CONTENT ON THE SERVICE. YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SERVICE, INCLUDING ALL CONTENT MADE AVAILABLE ON OR ACCESSED THROUGH THE SERVICE, IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND PANELOPE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER FOR THE CONTENT ON THE SERVICE. FURTHER, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW, PANELOPE DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, NON-INFRINGEMENT, TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. PANELOPE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS OR CONTENT CONTAINED THEREIN WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THE SERVICE OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES IT AVAILABLE IS FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. PANELOPE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR THE USE OF THE SERVICE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE CONTENT AND ANY ERRORS CONTAINED THEREIN. IN NO EVENT WILL PANELOPE BE LIABLE UNDER ANY THEORY OF TORT, CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHER LEGAL OR EQUITABLE THEORY FOR ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, LOST OPPORTUNITIES, COSTS OF COVER, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE, PERSONAL INJURY/WRONGFUL DEATH, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR OTHER CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY DIRECT DAMAGES, EACH OF WHICH IS HEREBY EXCLUDED BY AGREEMENT OF THE PARTIES REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT EITHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

15. Arbitration

You hereby submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) in connection with any dispute relating to, concerning, or arising out of the Service or this Agreement. The arbitration will be conducted before a single arbitrator and will be held at the AAA location in San Francisco, CA. Payment of all filing, administration and arbitrator fees will be governed by the AAA’s rules, unless otherwise stated in this paragraph. In the event the costs of arbitration to you are demonstrably prohibitive as compared to the costs of litigation, Panelope will pay as much of your arbitration fees as the arbitrator deems necessary to prevent the arbitration from being cost-prohibitive. You agree that you will not participate in a class action claim against Panelope. Nor will you participate in any other kind of representative action or arbitration. Nor may an arbitrator consolidate your claims with the claims of any other person. Nor may an arbitrator grant any relief on your claims that applies to someone else (such as injunctive relief that applies to a class of persons), except where such a contractual limitation is not permitted by law. If you initiate litigation or any other proceeding against Panelope in violation of this paragraph, you agree to pay Panelope’s reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees incurred in connection with its enforcement of this paragraph.

16. Governing Law

THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE SHALL GOVERN THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU HEREBY EXPRESSLY CONSENT TO EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION AND VENUE IN THE COURTS LOCATED IN DELAWARE FOR ALL MATTERS ARISING IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OR YOUR ACCESS OR USE OF THE SERVICE.

17. Entire Agreement and Changes

This Agreement and our Privacy Policy are the entire and exclusive agreement between Panelope and you regarding the Service and these Terms and Conditions supersede and replace any prior agreements between Panelope and you regarding the Service.

These Terms and Conditions may be changed, modified, or updated at our sole discretion at any time without prior notice.

Your continued use of the Service after such changes conclusively demonstrates your acceptance of those changes.

18. Severability

If any part of this Agreement is held or declared to be invalid or unenforceable for any reason by any court of competent jurisdiction, such provision shall be ineffective but shall not affect any other part of these Terms and Conditions, and in such event, such provision shall be changed and interpreted so as to best accomplish the objectives of such unenforceable or invalid provision within the limits of applicable law or applicable court decisions.

19. No Waiver

The failure of either party to enforce any right or provision of this Agreement will not be deemed a waiver of such right or provision.

20. Questions

Should you have any questions regarding these Terms and Conditions you may contact us at support@panelope.com

These Terms and Conditions are effective and were last updated on May 15, 2022.