Terms of Use

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Respond app and related services (“Respond”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). By creating an account, logging in, or using Respond, you agree to these Terms.

1. Who may use Respond

• You must be legally able to enter into a contract, or be using Respond under the supervision and authority of a school, organisation, parent, or guardian.
• If you use Respond on behalf of an organisation (such as a school), you confirm that you have authority to do so and that the organisation accepts these Terms.

2. Your account

• You must provide accurate and up‑to‑date information when you register.
• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login details and for all activity that occurs under your account.
• You must promptly notify us at joe@respond-app.co.uk if you believe there has been unauthorised access to your account.

3. Your content and licence to us

“Content” means any documents, text, images, data, prompts, or other materials you or your organisation upload, submit, or otherwise make available through Respond.

• You retain ownership of your Content.
• You are responsible for ensuring you have all necessary rights, permissions, and consents (including from students, parents, guardians, or institutions, where applicable) to upload and use the Content with Respond.
• By uploading or submitting Content, you grant Respond a worldwide, non‑exclusive, royalty‑free licence (with the right to sublicense to our service providers) to host, process, and display that Content as needed to operate the service for you and your organisation.

Use of Content for service improvement and development

To build and improve Respond, we also ask for your permission to use Content beyond your immediate session. Where you give that permission (for example, by opting in during sign‑up or through your organisation’s agreement), you grant Respond an additional licence to:

• Use your Content and associated feedback to develop, test, and improve Respond, including refining prompts, workflows, and quality‑assurance processes.
• Create de‑identified or aggregated datasets derived from your Content for analytics, benchmarking, and product research.

We will not sell your Content or use it to build general‑purpose models for unrelated third‑party services. Where feasible, we will take steps to minimise the inclusion of direct identifiers when using Content for internal research and development.

If you do not wish your Content to be used for these broader product development purposes, you may decline the optional opt‑in during sign‑up (where available) or contact us at joe@respond-app.co.uk to discuss alternatives. However, we may still process Content as necessary to provide the service, comply with law, and maintain security, as described elsewhere in these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use Respond in a way that violates any law or regulation, including data protection and child‑safeguarding laws.
• Upload Content that is unlawful, harmful, harassing, defamatory, discriminatory, or otherwise inappropriate for an educational environment.
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to the service or other users’ data.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or otherwise attempt to extract the source code of Respond or any part of it, except where such restrictions are prohibited by law.
• Use Respond to build a competing service or to benchmark our service for the purpose of publishing competitive comparisons without our consent.

5. AI‑generated content and responsibility

• Respond uses AI models to generate feedback and other outputs. AI‑generated content may contain errors, omissions, or biases. It should be reviewed by a competent teacher or professional before being relied upon.
• You remain responsible for how you use AI‑generated feedback in teaching, assessment, or any other context.
• You must ensure that your use of Respond complies with any applicable institutional or exam‑board policies.

6. Credits, billing, and usage limits

Where Respond uses a credit or subscription system:

• Details of pricing, bundles, and usage limits will be communicated separately or via the app.
• We may adjust pricing or limits from time to time. Where changes are material, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you in advance.
• Unused credits may expire in accordance with the applicable plan or agreement.

7. Intellectual property

Except for your Content, all rights in Respond (including the software, design, branding, and underlying technology) are owned by us or our licensors. You are granted a limited, non‑exclusive, non‑transferable licence to use Respond solely for your own educational or organisational purposes in accordance with these Terms.

8. Service changes and availability

• We may update, change, or discontinue parts of Respond from time to time (for example, to add features, fix bugs, or respond to legal requirements).
• We do not guarantee that Respond will be available at all times or free from interruptions, but we aim to provide a reliable and stable service.

9. Termination

• You may stop using Respond at any time. You may also request account deletion as set out in our Privacy Policy.
• We may suspend or terminate your access to Respond if you materially breach these Terms, if required by law, or if we discontinue the service.
• On termination, certain provisions of these Terms will continue to apply, including those relating to intellectual property, liability, and use of Content already processed, as described in our Privacy Policy.

10. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by law:

• Respond is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied.
• We do not warrant that Respond will be error‑free, uninterrupted, or suitable for every particular use case.
• We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising out of or in connection with your use of Respond.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so (for example, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation).

11. Privacy

Your use of Respond is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which explains how we collect, use, and protect personal data. In the event of any conflict between these Terms and the Privacy Policy regarding data protection, the Privacy Policy will generally prevail for those issues.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will take reasonable steps to notify you (for example, via email or in‑app notices). Your continued use of Respond after the new Terms take effect will constitute acceptance of the updated Terms.

13. Contact

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at joe@respond-app.co.uk.