Terms of Service
Draft — last edited [date]. Not yet effective.
1. Agreement to these Terms
These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of this candidate-experience review platform (the “Platform”), operated by [Company Legal Name] (“we,” “us,” or “our”). By creating an account or using the Platform, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Platform.
2. Eligibility
You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or submit content. [Minimum age subject to confirmation before launch, per docs/06-PRIVACY-AND-IDENTITY.md #80.] By using the Platform, you represent that you meet this requirement and that you have the legal capacity to agree to these Terms.
3. The Platform
The Platform lets job applicants search companies, read firsthand accounts of hiring and interview experiences, and publish their own reviews. Reviews use numeric ratings from 1 to 10 across defined categories — the Platform does not use star ratings. Companies may claim their profile and publish responses to reviews. The Platform does not verify the truth of every review, and publication of a review is not an endorsement of its accuracy by us.
4. Accounts
Accounts are created and authenticated using a one-time code sent to your email address (“Continue with email”) — there are no passwords. You are responsible for maintaining access to the email address associated with your account and for all activity under your account. You may have only one account. You may request deletion of your account at any time from your account settings.
5. Anonymity of Reviews
Candidate reviews are published anonymously to the public under the label “Anonymous Candidate.” We do not publish your email address, account identifier, or IP address alongside your review. This means your review is anonymous to the public — it does not mean the review is unauthenticated internally, and we cannot guarantee anonymity if you voluntarily include identifying details in your own review text, or if a company is able to infer your identity from context (such as the timing or specifics of a described interaction). Do not include personal contact information about yourself in a review.
6. Your Content
You retain ownership of the reviews, comments, and other content you submit (“User Content”). By submitting User Content, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, distribute, and adapt (for formatting, redaction, or moderation purposes) that content, solely as needed to operate, moderate, and improve the Platform. You represent that your User Content reflects your own firsthand hiring experience, that you have the right to submit it, and that it does not violate these Terms.
7. Content and Conduct Rules
You agree not to submit content or use the Platform to:
- post anything that is not based on your own firsthand hiring experience;
- make personal attacks, or post insults, threats, harassment, or hate speech directed at any individual;
- publish another person’s home address, personal phone number, personal email address, family information, or other private personal information (a professional name and title is permitted when directly relevant to a hiring interaction);
- attempt to identify, expose, or speculate about the identity of another reviewer;
- post fabricated, incentivized, or coordinated reviews, or duplicate content;
- post spam, promotional content, or content unrelated to a hiring experience;
- scrape, systematically extract, or use automated means to access the Platform beyond normal browsing, or attempt to circumvent rate limits or other technical protections;
- reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source code of the Platform;
- impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with one;
- violate any applicable law.
A more detailed description of what we do and do not moderate is intentionally kept general here so it can evolve with our moderation policy without requiring a Terms update for every clarification.
8. Company Accounts and Responses
A company representative may request to claim a company profile; claims are subject to our review and are not automatically granted. A verified company representative may publish a public response to a review, but may not edit or delete the review itself, reveal or speculate about the reviewer’s identity, demand removal within the response, or use the response to threaten or retaliate against a reviewer. Company responses must comply with the same content rules in Section 7. Negative reviews are not removed merely because a company disagrees with them; a company may privately dispute a review through our moderation process, but a dispute does not by itself establish that a review is false.
9. Moderation
We may review, restrict, redact, hide, or remove content, and may restrict or suspend accounts, that we determine violates these Terms or our moderation policy. We aim to take the least restrictive action that resolves a violation, and we do not remove content solely because it is negative, embarrassing, or disputed by a company. We do not guarantee that moderation will be free of error, and moderation decisions are made using the information reasonably available to us at the time.
10. No Verification of Reviews
Reviews and company responses reflect the opinions and experiences of the individuals who submit them. We do not independently verify the factual accuracy of User Content, and we do not guarantee its accuracy, completeness, or reliability. Numeric scores are calculated mechanically from published, score-eligible reviews and do not reflect our own assessment of a company.
11. Intellectual Property
Excluding User Content, the Platform and its original content, features, design, and functionality are owned by [Company Legal Name] and are protected by applicable intellectual property laws. You may not use our name, branding, or trademarks without prior written permission.
12. Disclaimers
THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR THAT THE PLATFORM WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE. YOUR USE OF THE PLATFORM AND RELIANCE ON ANY CONTENT ON IT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.
13. Limitation of Liability
[Placeholder pending counsel review of an appropriate liability cap and carve-outs for this jurisdiction.] To the maximum extent permitted by law, [Company Legal Name] will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or data, arising from your use of the Platform.
14. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold [Company Legal Name] harmless from any claims, damages, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from your User Content, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.
15. Governing Law and Disputes
[Placeholder — governing law and dispute-resolution forum (courts vs. arbitration) depend on the operating entity’s jurisdiction, which has not yet been chosen. This section requires counsel input before it can be finalized.]
16. Termination
You may stop using the Platform and request account deletion at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access if we determine you have violated these Terms. Published reviews may remain publicly available after your account is deleted unless you withdraw them first, consistent with our privacy policy.
17. Changes to These Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will take reasonable steps to notify users before the changes take effect. Continued use of the Platform after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.
18. Contact
[Contact details will be published once a production domain and support email exist — see docs/LAUNCH-CHECKLIST.md.]