Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and Verdical, which operates the Veridical platform (“Veridical,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). They govern the website, applications, assignment rooms, reports, and related services we provide (the “Service”).

By creating an account, clicking an acceptance box, accessing, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and acknowledge the Privacy Policy. If you use Veridical for a school, district, or other organization, you represent that you have authority to accept these Terms for that organization. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

A separately signed order form, data privacy agreement, or district contract controls if it conflicts with these Terms. These Terms do not override rights or duties that cannot legally be waived by a public school or government entity.

Teachers and other adults must be legally able to enter a contract. Students may use the Service only through a participating school, district, teacher, or parent or legal guardian that is authorized to provide any consent required by law.

Children under 13. A child under 13 may not create or use an account independently. The school must authorize the child’s use for an educational purpose and provide any notice or consent required under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), or a parent or legal guardian must provide legally valid consent. Schools must obtain parental consent when school authorization is unavailable or does not apply. Contact us to request parental access or deletion.

The adult creating a class is responsible for inviting only eligible students, providing legally required notices, and using student information only for legitimate educational purposes.

• Provide accurate information and keep it current.
• Keep credentials and class codes confidential and promptly report suspected unauthorized access.
• Use only your own account. Do not impersonate another person or misrepresent your role.
• Teachers are responsible for activity performed through their classes and for removing people who should no longer have access.

You are responsible for reasonable security under your control. We may require verification, suspend access, reset credentials, or take other protective action when we reasonably suspect misuse or compromise.

When a school provides access to student education records, the school retains control of those records and determines the educational purpose for processing them. To the extent applicable, Veridical acts as a “school official” performing an institutional service for which the school would otherwise use employees, under the school’s direct control regarding use and maintenance of education records, and uses those records only for the authorized educational purpose.

Schools are responsible for determining whether their use complies with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), COPPA, state student-privacy laws, records-retention rules, and local policy. We will reasonably assist a school with lawful requests to access, correct, export, or delete student records. Parents and eligible students should first direct education-record requests to their school; we may refer a direct request to the school for verification and handling.

We do not own student education records and will not use them for targeted advertising, sell them, or build advertising profiles. The Privacy Policy explains our data practices.

Veridical may record activity inside an assignment room, including typing activity, paste and copy events, focus or tab changes, fullscreen exits, time away, timestamps, and draft progress. The Service does not use webcams, microphones, facial recognition, or biometric identification.

Signals, automated analysis, scores, and summaries are contextual evidence—not proof of misconduct. Teachers and schools must independently review the underlying context, follow their own policies, give students a fair opportunity to explain, and make all disciplinary, grading, accommodation, and other high-impact decisions themselves. You may not use Veridical as the sole basis for an accusation or adverse decision.

You may not, and may not help another person to:

• break a law, violate school policy, infringe rights, harass, threaten, exploit, or endanger anyone;
• access another account, class, answer key, submission, grade, or record without authorization;
• bypass security, rate limits, timers, access controls, monitoring disclosures, or technical restrictions;
• probe, scan, reverse engineer, scrape, overload, disrupt, introduce malware, or automate requests without written permission;
• upload unlawful, malicious, deceptive, discriminatory, sexually exploitative, or infringing content;
• use the Service to conduct surveillance outside an assignment room or to make fully automated disciplinary decisions; or
• resell or commercially exploit the Service except under a written agreement.

Good-faith security reports should be sent to verdicalinquires@gmail.com. Do not access, alter, retain, or disclose another person’s data while testing.

You retain ownership of assignments, submissions, feedback, images, and other content you lawfully provide (“User Content”). You grant us a limited, nonexclusive, worldwide license to host, copy, process, transmit, display, and back up User Content only as needed to operate, secure, support, and improve the Service, comply with law, and fulfill school instructions. This license ends when the content is deleted, subject to legal duties and limited backup retention.

You represent that you have the rights and permissions needed to provide User Content. Do not upload unnecessary sensitive information. Veridical and its licensors own the Service, branding, software, designs, and documentation. No rights are granted except those expressly stated here. Feedback about the Service may be used without restriction or compensation.

Copyright complaints must identify the protected work, the allegedly infringing material and its location, your contact information, a good-faith statement, an accuracy and authority statement under penalty of perjury, and your signature. Send notices to the contact in Section 18.

Paid plans, when available, will be billed at the price, interval, and currency shown at checkout or in an order form. A promotional trial lasts for the stated period. Unless checkout says otherwise, a trial requiring payment information converts to a paid subscription at its end unless canceled beforehand. We will disclose recurring charges before purchase.

Subscriptions renew automatically for the same billing period until canceled. Cancellation stops the next renewal and access continues through the paid period. Fees are nonrefundable except where the law, checkout terms, or a signed agreement requires otherwise. You authorize applicable charges and are responsible for taxes other than taxes on our income. We may change future prices with advance notice.

School and district purchases may be governed by quotes, purchase orders, invoices, seat limits, renewal terms, and signed agreements. A purchase order’s administrative terms do not amend these Terms unless we expressly accept them in writing.

We may add, change, or discontinue features and may perform maintenance. We do not promise uninterrupted, error-free, or permanently available service. We will use reasonable care to avoid material disruption and, where practical, provide notice of material changes.

The Service may rely on third-party hosting, authentication, payment, email, analytics, and other providers. Their separate terms may apply to services you choose to use. We are not responsible for third-party products or websites outside our control.

You may stop using the Service at any time. Account owners and schools may request closure, subject to verification, school control of education records, legal retention duties, and active paid commitments.

We may restrict or suspend access when reasonably necessary to protect users or the Service, investigate suspected misuse, comply with law, prevent harm, address nonpayment, or enforce these Terms. We may terminate for a material or repeated breach. When appropriate, we will provide notice and an opportunity to cure or export data. Provisions that by nature should survive will survive termination.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” VERDICAL DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT SIGNALS, AUTOMATED OUTPUTS, SCORES, OR REPORTS ARE COMPLETE, ACCURATE, OR SUITABLE AS THE SOLE BASIS FOR AN ACADEMIC OR DISCIPLINARY DECISION.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain disclaimers, so they apply only to the extent legally permitted. Nothing in these Terms limits non-waivable rights or obligations under applicable law.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, VERDICAL AND ITS AFFILIATES, PERSONNEL, AND PROVIDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID VERDICAL FOR THE SERVICE DURING THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM OR (B) US $100. THESE LIMITS APPLY REGARDLESS OF LEGAL THEORY, BUT NOT WHERE OR TO THE EXTENT THE LAW PROHIBITS THEM, INCLUDING LIABILITY THAT CANNOT LAWFULLY BE LIMITED.

To the extent permitted by law, you will defend and indemnify Verdical from third-party claims arising from your unlawful User Content, misuse of the Service, or material breach of these Terms. This section does not apply to public schools or government entities where prohibited by law and does not waive sovereign immunity or statutory protections.

Florida law governs these Terms, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before filing a claim, each party agrees to send written notice describing the dispute and requested relief and to attempt an informal resolution for 30 days.

Except for eligible small-claims matters, requests for emergency or public injunctive relief, intellectual property misuse, or claims that cannot legally be arbitrated, disputes will be resolved by binding individual arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act and the then-current Consumer Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association. Arbitration may occur remotely unless the arbitrator requires otherwise. No class, consolidated, or representative proceeding is permitted to the extent enforceable.

30-day opt out. You may opt out of arbitration by emailing the legal contact below within 30 days after first accepting these Terms, with your name, account email, and a clear statement that you opt out. If arbitration does not apply, exclusive venue lies in state or federal courts located in Florida, except where applicable law requires another venue. Government and public-school entities are subject to this section only to the extent permitted by their governing law.

We may update these Terms. We will post the updated version and change the effective date. If a change is material, we will provide additional notice where legally required. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance, unless the law requires a different form of consent. Changes to a signed school or district agreement require the process stated in that agreement.

These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and any applicable signed agreement are the entire agreement about the Service. If a provision is unenforceable, it will be narrowed or removed and the remainder stays effective. 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, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets. Headings are for convenience. Electronic notices and signatures are valid to the extent allowed by law.

Verdical operates Veridical. Questions, legal notices, copyright complaints, and arbitration opt-outs may be sent to verdicalinquires@gmail.com.

For privacy and student-data requests, include enough information for us to identify the account and school, but do not email passwords, answer keys, full student records, or other sensitive information.