Terms of Service

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract. If you use the Service on behalf of a company or other organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity, and "you" refers to that entity. You may not use the Service if you are barred from doing so under applicable law.

askedwhy is a research tool that conducts AI-guided voice interviews and produces transcripts, summaries, counts, and other analysis from them. We may add, change, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time. The Service is provided for business and research purposes and is not a substitute for professional legal, medical, financial, or other advice.

You are responsible for the accuracy of your account information, for keeping your credentials confidential, and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us promptly at legal@askedwhy.com if you suspect unauthorized use. You are responsible for the acts and omissions of everyone you allow to access your account.

You alone decide whom to invite to an interview and what to ask them. You are solely responsible, and you represent and warrant, that you have obtained all consents, permissions, and legal bases required to invite each participant and to record, transcribe, store, and process their voice, responses, and personal information through the Service. This includes compliance with all applicable privacy, data-protection, recording and wiretap (including any two-party consent), employment, consumer-protection, and marketing laws.

For interview content and participant personal information, you are the data controller (or equivalent) and askedwhy acts as your processor, handling that information on your behalf and on your instructions to provide the Service, as described in our Privacy Policy. You will respond to participant requests and privacy inquiries relating to your interviews.

You will not use the Service to collect information from anyone under the age of 18 without verifiable consent from a parent or guardian, and you will not use it to unlawfully collect sensitive information (such as health, biometric, financial, or government-identifier data).

You agree not to, and not to permit anyone to:

• use the Service for any unlawful, deceptive, fraudulent, or harmful purpose;
• misrepresent who is asking the questions or the purpose of an interview, or use the Service to harass, defraud, or manipulate participants;
• infringe the intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, or other rights of any person;
• upload malware, attempt to gain unauthorized access, probe or test the vulnerability of, or interfere with or disrupt the Service;
• reverse engineer, decompile, scrape, or copy the Service, or use it to build a competing product or to train a competing model;
• circumvent usage limits, rate limits, or access controls, or resell the Service without our written permission.

We may investigate and take appropriate action, including suspending or terminating accounts and removing content, for any suspected violation.

Transcripts, summaries, themes, counts, and other output are generated in whole or in part by automated systems and large language models. They may be inaccurate, incomplete, out of date, or misleading, and they may misattribute or misstate what a participant said. Output is provided for your information only, is not advice, and must not be relied upon as the sole basis for any decision. You are responsible for reviewing and independently verifying any output before acting on it. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any output.

As between the parties, we own the Service, including all software, models, interfaces, designs, and trademarks, and all related intellectual-property rights. These Terms grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to use the Service, and nothing else.

You retain ownership of the content you and your participants submit ("Customer Content"). You grant us a worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, process, transmit, display, and create derivative works of Customer Content solely to operate, secure, and improve the Service and to comply with law. We may create and use aggregated or de-identified data derived from use of the Service, provided it does not identify you, your organization, or any participant.

If you send us feedback or suggestions, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use them without restriction or obligation to you.

The Service relies on third-party providers, including AI, cloud-hosting, storage, payment, and communications services. Your use of those features may be subject to the third party's terms, and we are not responsible or liable for third-party services, their availability, or their acts or omissions.

Paid plans are billed in advance on the interval shown at purchase and are non-refundable except where required by law. You authorize us and our payment processor to charge your payment method for all fees and applicable taxes. Fees may change on prospective notice. If a payment fails or is overdue, we may suspend or downgrade the Service. Any free tier or trial is provided as-is and may be changed or withdrawn at any time.

These Terms apply while you use the Service. You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access, with or without notice, if you breach these Terms, if your use poses a risk to the Service or others, or as required by law. On termination, your right to use the Service ends and we may delete your data as described in the Privacy Policy. Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive.

The Service and all output are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranty of any kind. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement, and any warranty that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or that any output will be accurate or reliable. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain disclaimers, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, askedwhy will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or business, arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms, even if advised of the possibility.

askedwhy's total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of the amounts you paid us for the Service in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, or CAD $100.

These limits apply to all theories of liability and are a fundamental basis of the bargain between us.

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless askedwhy and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, liabilities, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your Customer Content; (b) your interviews and your relationship with your participants, including any failure to obtain required consent or legal basis; (c) your use of the Service; or (d) your violation of these Terms, any law, or the rights of any third party.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

Before starting a formal proceeding, the parties will try in good faith to resolve any dispute informally by contacting legal@askedwhy.com. If a dispute is not resolved within 30 days, it will be finally settled by binding arbitration seated in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, conducted in English by a single arbitrator, rather than in court, except that either party may bring a claim in small-claims court or seek injunctive relief to protect its intellectual property.

Disputes will be resolved only on an individual basis. You and askedwhy waive any right to participate in a class, collective, or representative action. If this waiver is found unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim will proceed in court, but the rest of this section still applies. Where mandatory local law gives you a non-waivable right to a particular forum, this section applies only to the extent permitted by that law.

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will take reasonable steps to notify you, such as by posting the updated Terms with a new "Last updated" date or by email. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any order you agree to, are the entire agreement between you and askedwhy regarding the Service. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. Neither party is liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond its reasonable control. Notices to you may be sent to the email on your account.

Questions about these Terms: legal@askedwhy.com.