Beta Terms of Service

1. These terms, and who they bind

1.1 These Beta Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between [LEGAL ENTITY NAME], a [STATE] [ENTITY TYPE] ("Downballot", "we", "us") and the organization that has been accepted into the Downballot beta programme ("you", "your organization").

1.2 By creating an account, accepting an invitation, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you are agreeing on behalf of an organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind it.

1.3 "Service" means the Downballot platform and all applications within it, including Downballot Workplan and Downballot Engage, together with the websites through which they are offered.

2. What the beta is

2.1 The Service is offered as a beta programme. Access is by invitation following an application, and is granted at our discretion.

2.2 The Service is provided free of charge for the duration of the beta. It is not free permanently, and participation in the beta does not entitle you to free or discounted access afterwards.

2.3 Beta software is incomplete. Features may change, be removed, or behave unexpectedly. You should not rely on the Service as the sole record of anything you cannot afford to reconstruct.

3. Eligibility

3.1 The beta is open to progressive and Democratic organizations running or supporting candidates for offices below the federal level, including campaigns, county and state party committees, and allied political committees.

3.2 You may not use the Service for federal campaigns, for organizations supporting candidates of other parties, or for commercial purposes unrelated to electoral or civic organizing.

3.3 You represent that the information in your application was accurate, and you will tell us if your organization's purpose changes materially. We may end your access if eligibility no longer holds.

4. Accounts and organizations

4.1 Accounts are created by invitation only. You are responsible for the security of your account credentials and for everything done through your account.

4.2 Your organization's administrators control who is invited, what role each member holds, and who is removed. We do not adjudicate disputes about who should have access to your organization's data.

4.3 Tell us promptly at [SECURITY EMAIL] if you believe an account has been compromised.

5. Your data

5.1 You own your data. Everything you and your members put into the Service, including contacts, tasks, projects, notes, files and consent records, remains yours. We claim no ownership of it.

5.2 We process your data only to provide and improve the Service, to support you, and as required by law. We do not sell it, rent it, or share it with other organizations. We do not use one organization's data to inform another's.

5.3 Export. You may export your data at any time while your account is active, using the export tools in the Service.

5.4 Aggregate, de-identified statistics about how the Service is used may be used to improve it. These never identify you, your members, or any individual in your records.

6. Voter and supporter data, and the law

6.1 The Service lets you store and organize information about people who are not our users and who have no relationship with us. As between you and us, you are responsible for that data: for having the right to hold it, for how it was collected, and for how it is used.

6.2 You are responsible for complying with all laws applicable to your outreach, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the CAN-SPAM Act, state election and voter-file laws, and any restrictions attached to data you obtained from a third party.

6.3 Our consent tools are tools, not legal advice. The Service records consent and suppression, and can indicate whether a given contact appears reachable on a given channel according to the rules configured in your organization. Those rules are configured by you, they vary by jurisdiction, and the output is an aid to your compliance decisions, not a determination that contacting any particular person is lawful.

6.4 The Service does not send messages on your behalf. It records and organizes; it is not an outreach delivery platform.

6.5 If someone asks you to delete their information, you are responsible for honouring that request in your records. We will assist where the Service does not give you the means.

7. Acceptable use

7.1 You will not use the Service to:

• break any law, or facilitate anyone else doing so;
• harass, threaten, intimidate, or endanger any person;
• store data obtained unlawfully, or in breach of a licence or terms you agreed to;
• attempt to access another organization's data, or probe, scan, or test the security of the Service without our written permission;
• resell, sublicense, or provide the Service to a third party as a service;
• place an unreasonable load on the Service, including automated access at a volume that degrades it for others.

7.2 We welcome good-faith security research. Report anything you find to [SECURITY EMAIL] before disclosing it, and we will not pursue you for it.

8. Availability

8.1 There is no uptime commitment and no service level agreement during the beta. We may take the Service down for maintenance, sometimes without notice.

8.2 We take backups and we intend to keep your data safe, but you should keep your own copies of anything critical. Our current backup and recovery posture is described on our security page.

8.3 We may reset or delete beta data if a defect makes it necessary. We will tell you first where we can.

9. Ending the beta

9.1 The beta will end. We will give you at least 90 days' written notice before it does, sent to the email addresses of your organization's administrators.

9.2 That notice will say what happens next: whether the Service becomes a paid product, on what terms, and by when you need to decide.

9.3 You will be able to export your data throughout the notice period, and for at least [30 / 60 / 90] days after the beta ends, whether or not you continue with us.

9.4 We will delete your data [N] days after your access ends, unless you ask us to delete it sooner or the law requires us to keep it.

10. Suspension and termination

10.1 You may stop using the Service at any time, and ask us to close your organization's account and delete its data.

10.2 We may suspend or end your access if you breach these Terms, if your organization stops being eligible under section 3, or if we reasonably believe continued access poses a legal or security risk. Except where the risk is immediate, we will tell you first and give you a chance to fix it.

10.3 If we end your access for breach, you will still have [N] days to export your data, unless the breach makes that unsafe.

11. Feedback and confidentiality

11.1 If you send us feedback, ideas, or bug reports, we may use them without restriction and without owing you anything.

11.2 Beta access may expose you to features that are not public. Please do not publicly share screenshots or descriptions of unreleased functionality without asking us first.

12. Our intellectual property

12.1 The Service, its software, and the Downballot name and marks are ours. These Terms grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service during the beta, and nothing more.

12.2 You may say publicly that you use Downballot. We will not use your organization's name or logo as a customer reference without asking you first.

13. Disclaimers

13.1 The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

13.2 We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, that it will meet your requirements, or that any output of the Service constitutes compliance with any law.

14. Limitation of liability

14.1 To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, or goodwill.

14.2 Our total liability arising out of or relating to these Terms will not exceed [CAP].

14.3 Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including for fraud or willful misconduct.

15. Indemnity

15.1 You will defend and indemnify us against claims arising from your data, your outreach, or your breach of these Terms, including claims that your contact of an individual was unlawful.

16. General

16.1 Changes. We may update these Terms. For material changes we will give at least [30] days' notice by email. Continuing to use the Service after that means you accept them; if you do not, you may stop and export your data.

16.2 Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of [STATE], without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. The courts of [COUNTY, STATE] have exclusive jurisdiction.

16.3 Notices to you go to your administrators' email addresses. Notices to us go to [LEGAL EMAIL].

16.4 Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them to an affiliate or in connection with a merger or sale of substantially all our assets.

16.5 Entire agreement and severability. These Terms, with our Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between us about the Service. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest stays in force.

16.6 Survival. Sections 5.1, 11.1, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 survive the end of these Terms.