POLICYSIGNAL

1.1 Age Requirement

You must be at least 16 years of age to create an account and use the Service. By registering, you represent and warrant that you meet this requirement. If you are under 18, you represent that a parent or legal guardian has reviewed and consented to these Terms on your behalf.

1.2 Entity Users

If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of a company, government agency, organization, or other legal entity (“Entity”), you represent that you have authority to bind that Entity to these Terms, and “you” refers to both you individually and the Entity. If you lack authority, you must not accept these Terms.

1.3 Changes to Terms

We may modify these Terms at any time. We will provide notice of material changes by posting the revised Terms on the Service and updating the effective date, and where we have your email address, by sending you an email at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of any modification constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must discontinue use and may close your account.

2.1 Core Functionality

The Service includes the following primary features:

• Policy Forums: Officeholders may create public or private forums organized around specific policy topics.
• Policy Areas: Sub-topics within forums on which Participants may endorse or create policy positions.
• Policy Statements: Structured written positions, with supporting premises, that Participants may submit or endorse.
• AI-Assisted Structuring: An optional feature that uses artificial intelligence to help organize and clarify user-submitted text. See Section 6 for important disclosures about this feature.
• Analytics: Aggregated data visualizations and AI-generated analysis made available to Officeholders and, in limited form, to Participants.

2.2 Account Types

The Service provides two primary account types with distinct capabilities:

• Participant Accounts: Standard accounts for members of the public. Participants may join forums, submit and endorse policy statements, and rate supporting premises.
• Officeholder Accounts: Accounts designated for elected officials, public agency representatives, or community organizers. Officeholders may create and manage forums, access detailed analytics, and invite Participants. Officeholder status is granted by PolicySignal administrators and is subject to verification.

2.3 No Official Government Channel

THE SERVICE IS NOT AN OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT CHANNEL OR PLATFORM. A PolicySignal forum, even one created and managed by an elected official, does not constitute an official government comment period, regulatory proceeding, or public record under any applicable law. Participation in a PolicySignal forum does not satisfy any legal right to petition government or participate in a formal governmental process. Policy positions expressed on the Service do not constitute binding commitments by any officeholder.

3.1 Account Creation

To access most features of the Service, you must create an account by providing a valid email address, a password, and your birth year. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information and to maintain and promptly update your information.

3.2 Email Verification

A verified email address is required to submit policy statements, endorse positions, and perform other core actions on the Service. We will send a verification code to the email address you provide. You are responsible for ensuring your email address remains accessible.

3.3 Account Security

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account. You agree to:

• Use a strong, unique password for your PolicySignal account.
• Notify us immediately at [security@policysignal.com] of any unauthorized use of your account or any other security breach.
• Not share your credentials with any third party.

PolicySignal will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from unauthorized use of your account where such use results from your failure to maintain adequate security.

3.4 One Account Per Person

You may only maintain one active Participant account. Creating multiple accounts to circumvent restrictions, inflate endorsement counts, or otherwise manipulate the Service is prohibited and may result in immediate termination of all associated accounts.

3.5 Account Termination

You may close your account at any time by contacting us at [legal@policysignal.com]. Upon account closure, your personal profile information will be deleted or anonymized in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Certain content you have contributed (policy statements, premises) may be retained in anonymized or de-identified form as permitted under Section 5.

4.1 Permitted Uses

You may use the Service only for its intended purpose: lawful civic engagement, including submitting genuine policy positions, endorsing positions you hold in good faith, rating premises based on your honest assessment, and engaging with policy forums in which you have a legitimate interest.

4.2 Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to, and agree not to assist others to:

• Submit false, misleading, or fraudulent policy positions or supporting premises.
• Impersonate any person, including any elected official, government employee, or other user.
• Create or use accounts to artificially inflate endorsement counts, manipulate analytics, or misrepresent the level of public support for any position (“astroturfing”).
• Use automated tools, bots, scripts, or other means to access the Service or submit content without prior written permission.
• Scrape, harvest, or otherwise collect data from the Service for commercial purposes without authorization.
• Submit content that is defamatory, harassing, threatening, obscene, or that constitutes unlawful discrimination or incitement.
• Upload malware, viruses, or any other harmful code.
• Attempt to circumvent any access controls, content filters, or moderation systems.
• Use the Service in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the platform or interfere with other users' use of the Service.
• Use the Service to conduct or promote unlawful activity of any kind.

4.3 Political Activity Restrictions

The Service is designed for genuine civic deliberation. The following uses are prohibited regardless of whether they would otherwise be lawful:

• Using the Service as a vehicle for coordinated political campaigns or paid political advertising.
• Submitting positions or premises you do not genuinely hold for the purpose of distorting analytical outputs.
• Using Officeholder account capabilities to suppress legitimate dissenting views or to curate forum outcomes deceptively.

4.4 Enforcement

PolicySignal reserves the right, but not the obligation, to monitor content, investigate reported violations, and take any action we deem appropriate, including removing content, suspending or terminating accounts, and reporting conduct to law enforcement. We are not liable for failure to act on any violation.

5.1 Definition

“User Content” means any policy statements, premises, forum posts, comments, or other content you submit, post, or otherwise make available through the Service.

5.2 Ownership

You retain ownership of User Content you create. PolicySignal does not claim ownership of your User Content.

5.3 License Grant to PolicySignal

By submitting User Content to the Service, you grant PolicySignal a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, display, distribute, and create derivative works from your User Content for the following purposes:

• Operating, maintaining, and improving the Service.
• Generating aggregated or de-identified analytics and reporting features within the Service.
• Displaying your User Content to other users of the Service in accordance with forum visibility settings.
• Creating anonymized or aggregated datasets for internal research and product development.

This license does not grant PolicySignal the right to sell your User Content to third parties as a standalone product or to use it in external advertising without your consent.

5.4 Public Forum Content

If you submit User Content to a public forum, you acknowledge that such content will be publicly visible and may be indexed by search engines, accessed via the Service's API (if applicable), and viewed by anyone with internet access, including media, researchers, and government entities.

5.5 Content Moderation

PolicySignal operates a content moderation system through which users may flag User Content for review. Flagged content may be reviewed by PolicySignal staff or administrators. We reserve the right to remove any User Content that violates these Terms or our content policies, without prior notice. Officeholders managing a forum may also flag content within their forums for review, but may not unilaterally delete content without PolicySignal review unless they are designated administrators.

5.6 Data Retention After Account Closure

When you close your account, your personal profile data will be deleted or anonymized. Policy statements, premises, and endorsements you have contributed may be retained in de-identified form to preserve forum integrity and analytical continuity. If you wish to request deletion of specific User Content, please submit a request to [privacy@policysignal.com]. We will honor such requests to the extent practicable and consistent with applicable law.

5.7 Representations and Warranties

You represent and warrant that: (a) you have all rights necessary to grant the license in Section 5.3; (b) your User Content does not infringe any third party's intellectual property, privacy, or other rights; (c) your User Content accurately represents your genuine policy position to the best of your knowledge; and (d) your User Content complies with these Terms.

6.1 AI-Assisted Statement Structuring

When you submit a policy position, you may use the AI structuring feature, which processes your raw input and returns a structured version comprising a title, a concise claim, and extracted supporting premises. This feature is designed to improve the clarity and comparability of policy positions across the platform.

You acknowledge and agree that:

• The AI structuring feature may rephrase, condense, or reorganize your language while aiming to preserve your intended meaning.
• The structured version returned is attributed to you and published under your account. You are responsible for reviewing the structured output before submission.
• PolicySignal does not guarantee that AI structuring will accurately reflect your intent. You should not use the feature if the precise wording of your submission is material to you.
• The raw input you provide to the structuring feature is processed by a third-party AI provider (currently Anthropic, Inc. or Google LLC, depending on forum configuration). Your input is subject to those providers' applicable data processing terms, though we do not permit those providers to use your inputs to train their models except as specified in our Privacy Policy.

6.2 AI-Powered Analytics

Officeholders have access to AI-generated analytics features, including position clustering, shared reasoning theme analysis, and minority view identification. These features aggregate and analyze User Content across a forum to surface patterns in participant positions.

These analytics outputs are generated by machine learning algorithms and may contain errors, misclassifications, or oversimplifications. They are intended as analytical aids, not definitive representations of participant views. Officeholders are responsible for exercising independent judgment in interpreting and acting upon AI-generated analytics.

6.3 No AI Warranty

AI and machine learning outputs are inherently probabilistic and may be incorrect. PolicySignal makes no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of any AI-generated content or analysis. You assume all risk associated with reliance on AI-generated outputs.

6.4 AI Provider Transparency

PolicySignal currently uses the following third-party AI providers in connection with the Service:

• Anthropic, Inc. (Claude models): AI statement structuring, preflight analysis, and analytics.
• Google LLC (Gemini models): Alternative AI structuring and analytics (available on some forums depending on Officeholder preference).
• Voyage AI: Text embedding services used for similarity analysis and position clustering.

The specific AI provider used for any given forum is determined by the Officeholder's configuration. We will update this section as providers change. Use of these providers is governed by our agreements with them and by our Privacy Policy.

7.1 Eligibility and Verification

Officeholder status may be granted to: (a) elected officials; (b) appointed government officials; (c) candidates for public office; (d) staff acting on behalf of the foregoing; and (e) community organizers or nonprofit representatives, subject to PolicySignal's discretion.

PolicySignal may require verification of your claimed role before granting or maintaining Officeholder status. Misrepresenting your identity or official capacity to obtain Officeholder status is a material breach of these Terms and may result in immediate account termination and potential legal liability.

7.2 Forum Management Responsibilities

As an Officeholder, you are responsible for the forums you create and manage. You agree to:

• Use the platform for genuine civic engagement with your actual or intended constituency.
• Not use forum analytics or AI-generated insights to identify or target individuals for purposes unrelated to policy engagement.
• Not use forum management tools to suppress, censor, or remove legitimate dissenting views in a manner that would misrepresent the true distribution of participant opinion.
• Comply with any applicable laws governing your public role, including open meetings laws, public records laws, and campaign finance regulations, in your use of the Service. PolicySignal does not guarantee compliance with those laws and is not responsible for your compliance obligations.

7.3 Privacy Obligations

Participant data made available to Officeholders through the Service (including demographic information, endorsement patterns, and engagement data) may only be used for purposes of civic policy analysis within the scope of the Service. You agree not to:

• Export or share identifiable Participant data with third parties outside the Service without Participant consent.
• Use Participant data for commercial purposes, fundraising, or electoral activities.
• Combine Participant data from PolicySignal with data from other sources to build profiles of identifiable individuals without their consent.

7.4 No Endorsement

PolicySignal's provision of Officeholder account status does not constitute an endorsement of the Officeholder, their political positions, their candidacy, or their fitness for office. PolicySignal is a politically neutral platform and does not take positions on the merits of any policy question.

8.1 Demographic Data

We collect optional demographic information (age bracket, gender, zip code) to allow Officeholders to understand how policy positions vary across their constituency. This data is presented to Officeholders only in aggregated form. Raw demographic data is not shared with Officeholders at the individual level.

8.2 Political Opinion Data

Your policy endorsements, premise ratings, and forum participation constitute information about your political opinions. We treat this category of data with heightened care. We do not sell, license, or share this data with political parties, campaigns, data brokers, advertisers, or government agencies, except as required by law or as expressly described in the Privacy Policy.

9.1 PolicySignal's Rights

The Service, including its software, design, user interface, branding, trademarks, and all content produced by PolicySignal (excluding User Content), is owned by PolicySignal or its licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other applicable intellectual property laws. You may not reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works of any PolicySignal-owned material without our express written permission.

9.2 Feedback

If you provide us with suggestions, feedback, or ideas about the Service (“Feedback”), you grant PolicySignal an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to use such Feedback for any purpose without obligation or compensation to you.

9.3 DMCA / Copyright Infringement

We respect intellectual property rights. If you believe that content on the Service infringes your copyright, please send a written notice to our designated agent at [legal@policysignal.com] including: (a) identification of the copyrighted work; (b) identification of the allegedly infringing material and its location on the Service; (c) your contact information; (d) a statement of good faith belief that the use is not authorized; and (e) a statement under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate and you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

11.1 Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS. POLICYSIGNAL DOES NOT WARRANT THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY CONTENT ON THE SERVICE, INCLUDING USER CONTENT OR AI-GENERATED OUTPUTS.

11.2 Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, POLICYSIGNAL AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, LICENSORS, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA, LOSS OF GOODWILL, SERVICE INTERRUPTION, COMPUTER DAMAGE, OR SYSTEM FAILURE, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

IN NO EVENT WILL POLICYSIGNAL'S TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE EXCEED THE GREATER OF: (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO POLICYSIGNAL IN THE 12 MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE CLAIM; OR (B) ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS (USD $100.00).

11.3 Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless PolicySignal and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from: (a) your use of the Service in violation of these Terms; (b) your User Content; (c) your violation of any third party's rights; or (d) your violation of any applicable law.

12.1 Informal Resolution

Before initiating any formal legal proceeding, you agree to contact PolicySignal at [legal@policysignal.com] and attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days.

12.2 Binding Arbitration

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS.

Except for claims that may be brought in small claims court, and except as provided in Section 12.5, you and PolicySignal agree to resolve any dispute arising from or related to these Terms or the Service through binding individual arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) Commercial Arbitration Rules, conducted in [CITY, STATE TO BE DETERMINED], unless you and PolicySignal agree otherwise. The arbitrator's decision will be final and binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction.

12.3 Class Action Waiver

YOU AND POLICYSIGNAL AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION.

The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not otherwise preside over any form of class or representative proceeding.

12.4 Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [TO BE DETERMINED], without regard to conflict of law principles, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of the arbitration provisions.

12.5 Injunctive Relief

Notwithstanding Section 12.2, either party may seek emergency injunctive or other equitable relief from a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent irreparable harm pending arbitration.

13.1 Term

These Terms remain in effect while you use the Service or maintain an account.

13.2 Termination by PolicySignal

PolicySignal may suspend or terminate your account, with or without notice, for any reason, including but not limited to: (a) violation of these Terms; (b) requests from law enforcement or government authorities; (c) extended periods of inactivity; or (d) discontinuation of the Service or any part thereof. We will attempt to provide reasonable notice of termination except where notice is legally prohibited or would create security risk.

13.3 Effect of Termination

Upon termination, your right to access the Service ceases immediately. Sections 5, 9, 11, 12, and 14 survive termination.

14.1 Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any additional terms you agree to for specific features, constitute the entire agreement between you and PolicySignal with respect to the Service and supersede all prior agreements and understandings.

14.2 Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

14.3 Waiver

PolicySignal's failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.

14.4 Assignment

You may not assign your rights or obligations under these Terms without PolicySignal's prior written consent. PolicySignal may assign its rights and obligations under these Terms without restriction, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

14.5 Force Majeure

PolicySignal will not be liable for any failure or delay in performance resulting from causes beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, labor disputes, power failures, or internet service disruptions.

14.6 Notices

Legal notices to PolicySignal must be sent to [legal@policysignal.com] or by certified mail to [registered address]. We may provide notices to you via email to the address associated with your account or via posting on the Service.

14.7 Export Controls

You may not use or export the Service in violation of U.S. export control laws and regulations. You represent that you are not located in a country subject to U.S. government embargo and are not on any U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties.