API Terms of Service
Draft — pending counsel review · not yet in force1The deal, in one line
You pay per successful call at the published rates; in exchange you get the answer, the evidence, and a licence broad enough to build a business on. These terms exist to protect that deal for both of us.
2The service
The Sirveil Scan API answers whether a named person appears on publicly indexed pages of a site you name (a check), or across our published registry of data-broker domains (a sweep). Answers are point-in-time observations of public indexes, with evidence and an honest indeterminate when we cannot be sure. We do not access private databases, we do not log into anything, and we do not remove anything.
3Billing
- Metered per successful call at the published rates; failed calls bill $0.00.
- Billed monthly in arrears on your chosen channel (AWS Marketplace, Azure Marketplace, or card). No prepayment, no minimum, no subscription; a month with no calls produces no invoice.
- Published rates are the ceiling for usage already incurred — rate changes apply prospectively with at least 30 days’ notice, never retroactively.
4Your licence — deliberately broad
The licence is limited only by Section 5. Inside those limits, your product is your business.
5The fence — nothing illegal, and four hard lines
Use the service and its output lawfully. In addition, you and your customers may not use them:
- for any purpose governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act — including decisions about employment, tenancy, credit, or insurance eligibility. Sirveil is not a consumer reporting agency;
- to stalk, harass, dox, intimidate or locate a person for harm — prohibited, monitored, and grounds for immediate termination;
- to probe, overload or circumvent the security or metering of the service; or
- to misrepresent API output as a government record, a background check, or a determination about a person.
High-volume accounts may be asked to verify their use case. If you resell output, you must impose these same restrictions downstream.
6Your account and key
The key is the account: it exists so the meter reads right. Keep it secret; usage under your key is yours. You must be a business or professional user — the API is not offered to consumers for personal use.
7What we promise — and what we don’t
We promise honest metering, honest answers (including “indeterminate”), and the published rates as a ceiling. Otherwise the service is provided “as is”: public indexes change without notice, and we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. An answer is an observation of a public index at a moment in time, not a guarantee about a person.
8Liability cap
To the maximum extent the law allows, each party’s total liability under these terms is capped at the fees you paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose, and neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages. The cap does not apply to your breach of Section 5, your indemnity, or either party’s wilful misconduct.
9Your indemnity
You defend and indemnify Sirveil against third-party claims arising from your (or your customers’) use of output in breach of Section 5 or of applicable law. We defend and indemnify you against third-party claims that the service itself, used as documented, infringes their intellectual property.
10Disputes — talk to us first, then arbitrate
Step one is mandatory for both sides: the direct remedy petition. Before either party may commence arbitration or any formal proceeding, it must send the other a written remedy petition — to [email protected] for us, to your account email for you — describing the dispute and the remedy sought. The parties then have 60 days to resolve it in good faith, including at least one conference (call or video) between people with authority to settle. Most disputes are a billing line or a misunderstanding; this step exists so they get fixed in days instead of litigated in months. Any applicable limitation period is tolled during the 60 days.
Step two: binding individual arbitration. Any dispute not resolved by the petition process is finally resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules, by one arbitrator, in English, seated in San Jose, California, with the option of remote hearings. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Both parties waive trial by jury, and disputes are arbitrated on an individual basis only — no class or representative proceedings.
Carve-outs: either party may use small-claims court for qualifying disputes, and either party may seek injunctive relief in court for breach of Section 5, intellectual-property misuse, or security abuse.
11Housekeeping
- Governing law: California, without regard to conflicts rules; the Federal Arbitration Act governs Section 10.
- Changes: we may update these terms with 30 days’ notice; continued use after notice is acceptance. Changes never bill retroactively and never narrow the licence for output already delivered.
- Termination: you terminate by stopping calls — that is the entire off-boarding process. We may suspend or terminate for breach of Section 5 immediately, and otherwise on 30 days’ notice. Sections 4 (for delivered output), 5, 7–10 survive.
- Entire agreement between us about the API, superseding prior discussions. If a court or arbitrator finds a clause unenforceable, the rest stands.
This document is written in plain English on purpose. Where plain English and legal effect could diverge, counsel review resolves it before this takes force.