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Terms of UsePrivacy Policy

Effective date: June 23, 2025

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your use of our websites, including the Accountability Console, the AC Helpdesk, the Accountability Toolkit, and any other website, form, or online service that we operate and that links to this policy (“AC Services”).

Please review these Terms carefully before using any AC Services. We may change these Terms or modify any features of AC Services at any time. The most current version of the Terms can be viewed by clicking on the “Terms of Use” link posted in AC Services. You accept the Terms by using AC Services, and you accept any changes to the Terms by continuing to use AC Services after we post the changes.

I. Registration

To access AC Services, you may be required to register by completing a registration form and designating a username and password. You agree to provide true, accurate, and current information about yourself as required by the registration form.

You may not authorize third parties to access or use AC Services on your behalf. You must maintain the confidentiality of your username and password and are fully responsible for all activities that are performed under your username and password. You agree to immediately notify us if you believe there has been unauthorized use of your username or password or any other unauthorized access of AC Services. You agree that we are not liable for any loss or damage arising from unauthorized use of your account.

II. Premium Content

AC Services are currently free to use. In the future, we may introduce portions of AC Services which feature premium content (“Premium Content”). If you subscribe to Premium Content, fees may apply. Use of the Premium Content is subject to timely payment for all fees required. Additionally, if you subscribe to Premium Content, you are responsible for and shall pay to us any applicable fees and/or levies imposed or charged in connection with Premium Content or services accessed through AC Services at your request where you are informed of such fees in advance.

III. User Submissions

You remain fully responsible for the materials that you provide to us, including without limitation images, photographs, videos, and comments (“User Submissions”). You agree not to provide User Submissions that:

Infringe on the copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property rights of any third party;
Are false, misleading, libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, hateful, or sexually-explicit;
Violate a third party’s right to privacy or publicity;
Degrade others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual preference, disability or other classification;
Contain epithets or other language or material intended to intimidate or to incite violence; or
Violate any applicable local, state, national, or international laws.

You may only submit User Submissions that you have the right to submit. To the extent they are original to you, you continue to own any User Submissions that you submit through AC Services, but by submitting a User Submission, you grant us a royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, fully sublicensable license to publish, reproduce, distribute, display, perform, edit, adapt, modify, and otherwise use your User Submissions (or any portion thereof) in any way that we want and in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. You hereby waive any moral rights you may have in your User Submissions.

You represent that you have obtained the consent of all individuals who are identifiable in your User Submissions, or of the individual’s parent or legal guardian if the individual is under 18 years old, to include the individual’s likeness in your User Submissions and for us to enjoy all of the rights and privileges that you grant to us under these Terms, including without limitation the right to use the individual’s likeness in our advertising and marketing activities.

You understand and agree that we are not responsible for any User Submissions. We are not obligated to publish or use your User Submissions. We may monitor, review, edit, remove, delete, or disable access to your User Submissions at any time, without prior notice and in our sole discretion, for any or no reason.

IV. Prohibited Conduct

AC Services, including the Accountability Console and the Accountability Toolkit, contain proprietary data that is the intellectual property of Accountability Counsel. You may not resell, reuse, redistribute, or profit off of this proprietary data without the express written consent of Accountability Counsel.

In addition, you may not access or use, or attempt to access or use, AC Services to take any action that could harm us or any third party, interfere with the operation of AC Services, or use AC Services in a manner that violates any laws. For example, and without limitation, you may not:

Use information in AC Services to exploit or harm local people or community advocates;
Impersonate any person or entity or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation or the origin of materials you transmit;
Engage in unauthorized spidering, “scraping,” or harvesting of content or personal information, or use any other unauthorized automated means to compile information;
Copy the features, underlying data, database, or system framework, in any fashion, whether automated or manual other than specifically provided for in AC Services;
Take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our network or infrastructure;
Use any device, software, or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of AC Services or any activity conducted on AC Services or attempt to probe, scan, test the vulnerability of, or breach the security of any system or network;
Attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble, or reverse-engineer any of the software comprising or in any way making up a part of AC Services;
Distribute any unauthorized materials or advertise or promote goods or services without our permission (including, without limitation, by sending spam); or
Engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits any person from using or enjoying AC Services, or that, in our sole judgment, exposes us or any of our users, affiliates, or any other third party to any liability, damages, or detriment of any type.

Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. We may investigate and work with law enforcement authorities to prosecute users who violate the Terms.

We may suspend or terminate your access to AC Services for any or no reason at any time without notice.

V. Copyrights

AC Services are protected under the copyright laws of the United States and other countries. All copyrights in AC Services are owned by us or our third-party licensors to the full extent permitted under the United States Copyright Act and all international copyright laws.

We respect intellectual property rights. If you believe in good faith that your work has been reproduced or is accessible on AC Services in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our designated agent with the following information in writing:

Identification of the copyrighted work or a representative list of copyrighted works claimed to have been infringed;
Identification of the allegedly infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material;
Your name, address and daytime telephone number, and an e-mail address if available, so that we may contact you if necessary;
A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Our designated agent is: Margaux Day, 244 Kearny St, San Francisco, CA 94108, USA. Email: info@accountabilitycounsel.org.

Upon receipt of a notice of claimed infringement (or any statement in conformance with 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)), we will expeditiously remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing content. We will terminate the privileges of users who repeatedly infringe copyright. Please note that United States law provides significant penalties for falsely submitting a notice of copyright infringement.

VI. Links to Third-Party Content

AC Services may contain links to third-party content. We do not control, endorse, sponsor, recommend, or otherwise accept responsibility for such content. Use of any linked third-party content is at the user's own risk.

VII. Disclaimer of Warranties; Limitation of Liability

YOUR USE OF AC SERVICES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. AC SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR OTHER VIOLATION OF RIGHTS. WE DO NOT WARRANT THE ADEQUACY, CURRENCY, ACCURACY, LIKELY RESULTS, OR COMPLETENESS OF AC SERVICES OR ANY THIRD-PARTY SITES LINKED TO OR FROM AC SERVICES, OR THAT THE FUNCTIONS PROVIDED WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, VIRUS, OR ERROR-FREE.

WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY LIABILITY FOR ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN THE CONTENT INCLUDED IN AC SERVICES OR ANY THIRD-PARTY SITES LINKED TO OR FROM AC SERVICES. SOME JURISDICTIONS MAY NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

IN NO EVENT WILL WE, OR OUR SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AND ASSIGNS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT OR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS, OR OTHER DAMAGES WHATSOEVER ARISING IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF AC SERVICES, ANY INTERRUPTION IN AVAILABILITY OF AC SERVICES, DELAY IN OPERATION OR TRANSMISSION, COMPUTER VIRUS, LOSS OF DATA, OR USE, MISUSE, RELIANCE, REVIEW, MANIPULATION, OR OTHER UTILIZATION IN ANY MANNER WHATSOEVER OF AC SERVICES OR THE DATA COLLECTED THROUGH AC SERVICES, EVEN IF ONE OR MORE OF THEM HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR LOSS. ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR CONNECTED WITH AC SERVICES WILL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF $100 OR THE AMOUNT THAT YOU PAID TO ACCESS AC SERVICES.

VIII. Indemnification

YOU AGREE TO INDEMNIFY, DEFEND AND HOLD US AND OUR SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS AND ASSIGNS HARMLESS FROM AND AGAINST ANY AND ALL LOSS, COSTS, EXPENSES (INCLUDING REASONABLE ATTORNEYS’ FEES AND EXPENSES), CLAIMS, DAMAGES AND LIABILITIES RELATED TO OR ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR USE OF AC SERVICES AND ANY ALLEGED VIOLATION BY YOU OF THESE TERMS. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO ASSUME THE EXCLUSIVE DEFENSE OF ANY CLAIM FOR WHICH WE ARE ENTITLED TO INDEMNIFICATION UNDER THIS SECTION. IN SUCH EVENT, YOU SHALL PROVIDE US WITH SUCH COOPERATION AS WE REASONABLY REQUEST.

IX. Choice of Law and Forum

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California and the laws of the United States, without regard to any principles of conflicts of laws. You agree that any claim or dispute against us arising out of or relating to AC Services must be resolved by a federal district court located in California, unless agreed upon by all parties. We make no representation that content on AC Services is appropriate or available for use in any particular location. Those who choose to access AC Services do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with all applicable laws including any applicable local laws.

X. Miscellaneous

These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and us, superseding any prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals (whether oral, written or electronic) between you and us. In the event any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, it will not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions and will be replaced by an enforceable provision that comes closest to the intention underlying the unenforceable provision. You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and us as a result of these Terms or your access to and use of AC Services.

Our failure to enforce any provisions of these Terms or respond to a violation by any party does not waive our right to subsequently enforce any terms or conditions of the Terms or respond to any violations. Nothing contained in these Terms is in derogation of our right to comply with governmental, court, and law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of AC Services or information provided to or gathered by us with respect to such use.

Effective date: July 25, 2025

Accountability Counsel (“AC”) values your support and is committed to protecting your privacy through our compliance with the practices described in this notice.

This notice describes our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing the information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit our websites, including the Accountability Console, the Accountability Helpdesk, the Accountability Toolkit, and any other website, form, or online service that we operate and that links to this policy (“AC Services”).

This notice applies to the information collected through our AC Services, regardless of the country where you are located.

AC Services may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, services, social networks or applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow the third party to collect or share information about you. We do not control these third-party websites, and we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

We do not rent or sell visitor or donor information to third parties. We will not transfer or share this information unless compelled by law, or under the specific conditions listed below.

Please read this notice carefully to understand our policies and practices for processing and storing your information. By engaging with AC Services, you accept and consent to the practices described in this notice. This notice may change from time to time (see “Changes to this Policy“). Your continued engagement with our AC Services after any such revisions indicates that you accept and consent to them, so please check the notice periodically for updates.

I. DATA COLLECTION

Though we strive to collect as little information as we need to further our mission, we may collect and use some or all of the following types of information from and about you when you visit or interact with AC Services:

Information you provide directly to us. For certain activities, such as when you register an account, fill out a form, subscribe to our newsletter, or contact us directly, we may ask you to provide some or all of the following types of information:

Contact information, such as name, email address, phone number, and address;
Sign-in information, such as username or other similar identifier and password;
Information you provide directly to our AC Services, such as through surveys;
Payment information, such as credit card number, expiration date, credit card security code, and billing address where needed to complete a transaction; and/or
Correspondence you sent to us;

Information that we collect automatically. We may also collect certain information automatically when you use AC Services, such as your Internet protocol (IP) address, device and advertising identifiers, browser type, operating system, Internet service provider, pages that you visit before and after using AC Services, the date and time of your visit, information about the links you click and pages you view within the AC Services, and other standard server log information. We may infer your general location information, for example, by using your IP address.

We may use cookies, pixel tags, and similar technologies (“Cookies”) to automatically collect this information.

By using the AC Services, you consent to our use of Cookies.

Information we obtain from other sources. We may also receive information about you from other sources, including through third-party services and organizations, and publicly available information (as permitted by law). For example, if you access third-party services, such as Google, through AC Services to login to the AC Services, or if you interact with our social media pages (such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter)), we may collect information about you from these third-party services.

We may aggregate or de-identify the information described above so that it is not reasonably likely to identify you. Aggregated or de-identified information is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

II. USE OF INFORMATION

We use information to provide you with information, offer you services, communicate with you, or to conduct other business operations, such as using information to improve and personalize your experiences. We may use and otherwise process the information identified above for the following business purposes:

Provide you with the information, services, and support that you request from us;
Customize the content you see when you use AC Services, including to ensure that we present AC Services content in the most effective manner for you and for your device;
Notify you about changes to our AC Services, products or activities;
Administer our AC Services and conduct internal operations, including for troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
Improve our AC Services, products, activities, marketing, or client relationships and experiences;
Protect our AC Services, employees or operations;
Prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities and otherwise in accordance with our Terms of Use;
Meet our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts with you, including for billing or collections, or to comply with legal requirements; and/or
For any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect your information or pursuant to your consent.

We only use payment information, such as credit card numbers, expiration date, and security codes, as necessary to complete a particular transaction (such as a donation) or as otherwise required by law.

In addition, we and our partners may use information collected through Cookies to improve your experience and provide you with more relevant content and advertising on our AC Services and elsewhere online and across your devices, including by enabling us to:

Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
Store your preferences so we may customize our AC Services according to your individual interests.
Speed up your searches.
Recognize you when you return to our AC Services.
Gather feedback through surveys and e-mail.
Help us understand usage of our AC Services.

III. DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

We are committed to maintaining your trust, and we want you to understand when and with whom we may share the information we collect:

Authorized third-party vendors and service providers. We share your information with third-party vendors and service-providers that help us with specialized services, including email deployment, business analytics, data processing, or cybersecurity.
Business transfers. We may share your information in connection with a substantial corporate transaction, such as the sale of a website, a merger, consolidation, asset sale, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.
Legal purposes. We may be required to disclose information to respond to subpoenas, court orders, legal process, law enforcement requests, legal claims or any other government or regulatory requests. Other than the disclosure of donor information required by law, we will object to any subpoena or other demand by government or private organizations or individuals (other than yourself) to access your information.
With your consent. We may share information for any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect the information or pursuant to your consent.

If you access third-party services, such as Facebook, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, or X (formerly Twitter), through AC Services to login to AC Services or to share information about your experience on AC Services with others, these third-party services may be able to collect information about you, including information about your activity on the AC Services, and they may notify your connections on the third-party services about your use of the AC Services, in accordance with their own privacy policies.

We do not sell information for money, or share information for cross-context behavioral advertising, both currently and in the last twelve (12) months. We also have not knowingly sold or shared for cross-context behavioral advertising information for minors less than sixteen (16) years of age.

IV. DATA SECURITY

The security of your information is very important to us. We use physical, electronic, and administrative safeguards designed to protect your information from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, use, alteration or disclosure. We store all information you provide to us on servers employing security protections.

However, like with every website, there are risks associated with uploading your information online. The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted to AC Services. Any transmission of information is at your own risk.

Please note that information collected by third parties may not have the same security protections as information you submit to us, and we are not responsible for protecting the security of such information.

V. YOUR RIGHTS

You may be able to refuse or disable Cookies by adjusting your web browser settings. Some browsers have options that allow the visitor to control whether the browser will accept Cookies, reject Cookies, or notify the visitor each time a cookie is sent. Because each web browser is different, please consult the instructions provided by your web browser (typically in the “help” section). Please note that you may need to take additional steps to refuse or disable some Cookies. If you choose to refuse, disable, or delete these technologies, some of the functionality of the AC Services may no longer be available to you and any differences in service are related to the data. Deleting Cookies may in some cases cancel the opt out selection in your browser.

You may request to access, limit collection of, correct, or delete your information. We will respond to such requests made in writing as set out below according to applicable law. We may need to request additional information from you in order to verify your request. You may be entitled, in accordance with applicable law, to submit a request through an authorized agent by using the contact information provided below. You also may be entitled, in accordance with applicable law, to appeal a refusal to take action on your request; to do so, please see the instructions in our response to your request. Contact info@accountabilitycounsel.org to exercise those rights.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights and choices, although some of the functionality and features available on the AC Services may change or no longer be available to you. If you choose not to provide us with information we collect, some features of the AC Services may not work as intended.

VI. INTERNATIONAL USERS

The AC Services are based in the U.S. and are governed by and operated in accordance with the laws of the U.S. By using the AC Services and providing us with information, you understand and agree that your information may be transferred to and stored on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction and, to the extent you are a resident of a country other than the United States, that you consent to the transfer of such information to the United States for processing by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Our lawful basis for processing, including basis of legitimate interest include (a) performance of a contract with you, (b) necessity to comply with a legal obligation, (c) necessity for our legitimate interest (for instance, to keep our records updated).

Where legally required and we have no other valid legal basis to process your information, we will obtain consent, which may subsequently be withdrawn at any time by contacting us. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before it is withdrawn.

Where we need to collect information by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may cancel a product or service you have with us.

VII. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we update the Policy, we will revise the “Effective Date” date above and post the new Policy. We recommend that you review the Policy each time you visit AC Services to stay informed of our privacy practices.

VIII. STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our practices, please contact us at info@accountabilitycounsel.org.