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First draft — pending Vermont attorney review.

These terms are published in good faith for transparency, but the final binding version will be the post-review release. Questions or concerns: hello@askedhere.org. The companion document is the Privacy Policy.

AskedHere — Terms of Service

FIRST DRAFT — REQUIRES VERMONT ATTORNEY REVIEW BEFORE PUBLISHING.

Effective date: [TO BE SET ON PUBLICATION]

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of AskedHere, operated by PSP US Ventures ("the Operating Entity", "we", "us"). By using AskedHere, you agree to these Terms.

If you don't agree, please don't use AskedHere.

1. Who these terms apply to

These Terms apply to:

  • Contributors — people who sign up to participate in polls
  • Free-tier consumers — academics, journalists, nonprofits, and government users who query our published data under our free-tier license
  • Commercial users — buyers who pay for query access (when commercial query infrastructure ships)
  • Sponsors — organizations that sponsor specific topics for collection-priority and query-discount benefits

Different sections apply to different roles. Where a section applies to only one type of user, that's noted.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use AskedHere generally; specific topics may require a higher minimum age (e.g., 18+) where the underlying civic decision requires adult eligibility. By creating a contributor account, you represent that you are old enough to do so under applicable law.

If you are participating in topics that require residency verification (e.g., Vermont ballot measure inputs), you represent that you actually reside in the relevant jurisdiction.

3. Account responsibilities (contributors)

You are responsible for:

  • Maintaining the security of your account credentials
  • Providing accurate information (especially for verification — falsifying residency or identity is grounds for permanent removal and forfeiture of any accrued payout balance)
  • Notifying us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised

We are responsible for:

  • Holding your data per our Privacy Policy
  • Never publishing your individual response
  • Crediting your accrued payout balance per our payout model

4. Our obligations

When you participate, we commit to the following — and we hold ourselves accountable for them publicly:

  • No raw individual data ever leaves the platform. All commercial consumption is aggregated, privacy-preserving query output. Non-negotiable.
  • Methodology transparency. Every published result discloses sample frame, verification tier, weighting approach, margin of error, and downloadable cross-tabs (subject to k-anonymity suppression).
  • Public scorecard. For predictive topics, our predictions are published in advance and scored against actuals. We publish misses as prominently as hits.
  • No editorial influence from sponsors. Sponsorship funds recruitment for specific topics and grants query discounts — it does not grant any authority over question wording, methodology, or whether a finding is published.
  • K-anonymity floor. No published cell or methodology disclosure may correspond to fewer than ten contributors (higher for sensitive categories).

If we materially fail to meet any of these obligations, you may close your account immediately and request deletion of your data.

5. Contributor payout model

When commercial users query AskedHere, the platform calculates which contributors' shared attributes were in scope of that query. Contributors in scope earn an equal share of that query's revenue, subject to the payout split decided by the Operating Entity (currently 50% to contributors, 50% to platform — subject to public review and adjustment as published in our governance docs).

In V1, contributor earnings accrue as a ledger balance ("you have earned $X"). Actual payouts ship in V2, when our payment-processing infrastructure (currently planned to use Tremendous) is live. We commit publicly to the V2 payout schedule. If we delay V2 payouts beyond a reasonable timeframe, contributors may request immediate payout of accrued balances.

A one-time recruitment payout may apply when you sign up; the amount is communicated at signup time. The recruitment payout is yours regardless of whether you continue to participate.

You are responsible for any tax obligations on amounts you receive. We will issue 1099 forms or equivalent reporting where required.

6. Sponsor terms (sponsors)

Sponsorship is a financial commitment to fund recruitment for a specified topic or topic area. By sponsoring a topic, you agree:

  • You do not control editorial decisions. Question wording, sample frame, weighting, methodology, and the decision of whether to publish a finding are determined by AskedHere's editorial process. You may not condition your sponsorship on a particular framing or finding.
  • Your sponsorship is publicly disclosed on the topic page and in the methodology disclosure.
  • Your funds are earmarked for recruitment. They go to marketing campaigns and (above a certain sponsorship threshold) to one-time sign-up incentives for contributors who share specific data attributes relevant to the topic. Sponsorship is not platform profit.
  • You receive query-pricing discounts on data from the sponsored topic and priority lift in the topic-collection queue.
  • AskedHere reserves the right to refuse sponsorship that we judge to compromise our editorial integrity, our nonpartisan stance, or our published commitments.

7. Free-tier user terms (academics, journalists, nonprofits, government)

Free-tier users receive query access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) license. You may:

  • Use AskedHere data in your reporting, research, or policy work
  • Republish aggregated findings with attribution to AskedHere

You agree:

  • To attribute AskedHere when you cite our data
  • Not to attempt to re-identify individual contributors from aggregated outputs
  • To accept reasonable rate limits on free-tier queries (currently published in our developer documentation)
  • To respect the platform — automated abuse, brute-forcing the query API, or attempting to circumvent k-anonymity protections is grounds for revocation

8. Commercial user terms (paid buyers)

When commercial query access ships in V2, paid commercial users will agree to a separate commercial license that includes:

  • The same restrictions on re-identification attempts
  • A clear definition of "commercial use" (TBD; reference Creative Commons NonCommercial guidance)
  • Pricing and rate-limit terms specific to the commercial tier

9. Acceptable use

You may not:

  • Use AskedHere to harass, threaten, or harm any person or community
  • Submit responses you know to be false, including coordinated submission to manipulate results
  • Attempt to re-identify contributors
  • Attempt to circumvent k-anonymity or differential-privacy protections
  • Scrape, reverse-engineer, or otherwise extract data outside the published query interface
  • Use AskedHere data in any manner that violates applicable law

Violations may result in account suspension, permanent removal, forfeiture of accrued payout balance (in cases of fraud), and where appropriate, legal action.

10. Intellectual property

  • Site code: open-source where indicated; otherwise © Operating Entity, all rights reserved
  • Brand assets (AskedHere wordmark, logos, the tagline "We asked here. So you know."): © Operating Entity. Limited license to journalists and academics to use brand assets when attributing AskedHere as a data source.
  • Published aggregated data: licensed under CC-BY 4.0 for free-tier use; commercial license terms apply to paying buyers
  • Individual contributor responses: contributors retain ownership of their personal data; AskedHere holds a license to use it for the purposes described in the Privacy Policy

11. Disclaimers

AskedHere publishes findings with transparency about methodology, sample size, and margin of error. We make no guarantee that any individual finding will be predictive of any future event. Predictive topics are scored on a public calibration dashboard; calibration is not certainty.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, AskedHere is provided "as-is" without warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

  • We are not liable for indirect, consequential, or punitive damages
  • Our total aggregate liability to any user in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of (a) $100, or (b) the amounts you have paid to AskedHere in the prior 12 months

This limitation does not apply where prohibited by Vermont consumer protection law or other applicable mandatory law.

13. Operating entity transfer

AskedHere is currently operated by PSP US Ventures. We expect to spin out a dedicated entity (likely a Vermont public-benefit corporation) as the project matures. When that transition happens:

  • All obligations under these Terms transfer in full to the new entity
  • Your data, accrued payout balances, and accumulated rights transfer in full
  • You will be notified at least 30 days before the transition and will have the opportunity to close your account beforehand

You consent to that transfer by accepting these Terms.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be communicated to contributors via email at least 30 days before taking effect. Continued use of AskedHere after the effective date of an update constitutes acceptance.

15. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Vermont, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any disputes arising from these Terms will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Burlington, Vermont, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you and we agree to attempt good-faith resolution of any dispute through informal discussion before filing litigation.

16. Contact