Terms and conditions

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and Vouch Tech, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company ("Vouch Tech," "we," "us," or "our"), governing your use of the Vouch Tech peer-to-peer outreach platform and related websites, applications, and services (collectively, the "Service").

By creating an account or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

Please read carefully. These Terms include an arbitration agreement and class-action waiver (Section 18) that affect your legal rights. You can opt out of arbitration within 30 days of first accepting these Terms by following the instructions in Section 18.

1. Who May Use the Service

You may use the Service only if:

• you are at least 18 years old;
• you have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract in your jurisdiction;
• you are not barred from using the Service under applicable law; and
• you are a U.S. resident or are using the Service from within the United States.

The Service is intended for use by volunteers acting in their individual capacity on behalf of campaigns, political organizations, and nonprofit organizations that have engaged Vouch Tech ("Clients"). You agree to use the Service only for that purpose.

2. Accounts

2.1 Sign in with Google

You create and access your Vouch Tech account using "Sign in with Google." Vouch Tech does not create or store a password for you. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your Google account, which controls access to your Vouch Tech account.

2.2 Accurate Information

You agree to provide accurate information when signing up and to keep your account information current. You may not create an account for anyone other than yourself, and you may not let another person use your account.

2.3 Affiliation with a Client

You will identify, in your account, the Client(s) you are volunteering for. By doing so, you represent that you are in fact volunteering for that Client and have not been instructed by the Client to misrepresent your affiliation. The Client may see Volunteer-level activity associated with your account, as described in the Privacy Policy.

3. The Service, in Plain Terms

The Service helps you:

• Connect your Google account so the Service can read your Google Contacts and "Other contacts."
• See which of your contacts appear on a list provided by a Client (a "Match").
• Compose a personalized message for a Matched contact, using a template the Client has provided or your own writing.
• Send the message yourself, from your own Gmail account, using Gmail's standard send function — either by clicking a button that opens a pre-filled Gmail compose window, or by copying the message text to your clipboard.

Vouch Tech does not send messages on your behalf. Vouch Tech does not access your Gmail inbox or your sent mail. Once you send a message from your Gmail account, the entire transaction is between you and the recipient.

For more detail on how data is handled, see the Privacy Policy.

4. Your Representations About Recipients

You are the sender of every message you compose and send through the Service. To protect the people who will receive those messages, you make the following representations each time you use the Service to send a message:

• Existing relationship. You have an existing personal or professional relationship with the recipient, and the recipient would not be surprised to receive a personal message from you.
• No purchased or scraped lists. You are not contacting people whose information you obtained through a purchased list, a scraped database, an event attendee list you did not personally collect, or any similar non-relational source.
• Reasonable expectation. The recipient would reasonably expect that you, personally, might reach out to them about civic, political, or charitable matters.
• No prior opt-out. The recipient has not previously asked you to stop contacting them.

If you cannot truthfully make these representations about a particular recipient, do not contact that person through the Service.

Vouch Tech does not verify, and cannot verify, your relationship with any recipient, the accuracy of contact information in your Google Contacts, or your representations under this Section 4. Your representations are made solely by you, and Vouch Tech relies on them in providing the Service.

5. Your Responsibilities as the Sender

Because you are the sender of any message you compose and send through the Service, you are responsible for complying with all laws that apply to that message. This includes, where applicable:

• the federal CAN-SPAM Act;
• the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and analogous state laws;
• state political-message and fundraising disclosure laws (for example, "Paid for by" attributions required for candidate-committee communications);
• state campaign finance and election laws applicable to communications on behalf of a candidate, party, or political committee;
• state and federal anti-harassment, anti-fraud, and anti-impersonation laws; and
• the terms of service of your email provider (including Gmail's Program Policies).

Where a Client provides a message template, you are responsible for confirming that the template includes any required disclosures and is appropriate for the recipient before you send it. Vouch Tech does not review messages for legal compliance and does not warrant that any template is legally compliant in your jurisdiction or for your intended recipient.

6. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• send unsolicited messages to people with whom you do not have a genuine personal or professional relationship;
• send messages that are harassing, threatening, defamatory, fraudulent, deceptive, or that impersonate another person;
• send messages that violate applicable law, including election, campaign finance, fundraising, or consumer protection laws;
• send commercial advertising or marketing messages unrelated to the Client's mission;
• send sexually explicit content, hate speech, or content promoting violence;
• send messages designed to mislead recipients about who is contacting them or why;
• send the same or substantially similar message to recipients with whom you have no relationship, in a manner designed to evade the relationship representation in Section 4;
• circumvent, disable, or otherwise interfere with the Service's security, rate limits, or matching logic;
• use any automation, bot, scraper, or script to operate the Service, except for accessibility tools you personally use;
• attempt to access another User's account or data, or access any part of the Service you are not authorized to access;
• reverse engineer, decompile, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code of the Service, except as expressly permitted by law;
• use the Service to compile a list of contacts for use outside the Service (for example, exporting Matches for use in another tool);
• resell, sublicense, or commercialize access to the Service; or
• use the Service in violation of these Terms or any applicable law.

We may, but are not obligated to, monitor use of the Service for compliance with this Section 6. We may suspend or terminate your account if we believe in good faith that you have violated this Section 6 or any other provision of these Terms.

7. Hate Speech and Harassment

You may not use the Service to send, and you may not assist any other person in sending, messages that:

• promote hatred or violence against, or that demean or harass, any individual or group based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or veteran status;
• threaten violence against any person; or
• harass, intimidate, or attempt to silence any person.

Vouch Tech reserves the right to suspend or terminate, without prior notice, the account of any User who we believe in good faith has used the Service in violation of this Section. You may report violations of this Section to team@getvouch.org; reports will be reviewed and acted on as we determine appropriate.

8. Client-Provided Content

Clients upload outreach lists and may provide message templates. You acknowledge that:

• Client-provided lists are the property of the Client, are confidential, and may be used only within the Service for the purpose of identifying Matches and contacting Matched individuals about the Client's mission.
• You may not export, copy, retain, or share a Client's list or any portion of it outside the Service.
• Message templates provided by a Client are the Client's content. The Client, not Vouch Tech, is responsible for the templates' accuracy and legal compliance.
• Vouch Tech does not endorse any Client, candidate, ballot measure, or message.

9. Your Content

"Your Content" means any text, edits, or other content you submit through the Service, including personalized message drafts you compose.

You retain ownership of Your Content. You grant Vouch Tech a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, process, transmit, and display Your Content solely to operate the Service and to provide Volunteer-level reporting to the applicable Client, as described in the Privacy Policy.

You represent and warrant that you have all rights necessary to grant this license and that Your Content does not infringe any third party's rights or violate any law.

10. No Compensation; No Employment Relationship

The Service is provided to you free of charge. You will not receive any payment or compensation from Vouch Tech for your use of the Service or for any outreach you perform through the Service. Nothing in these Terms creates an employment, agency, partnership, or joint venture relationship between you and Vouch Tech. You are not an employee, contractor, or agent of Vouch Tech, and you do not have authority to bind Vouch Tech or any Client.

Your relationship (if any) with a Client is governed by your own arrangements with that Client and is not Vouch Tech's responsibility.

11. Intellectual Property

The Service, including its software, design, text, graphics, logos, and trademarks, is owned by Vouch Tech and is protected by U.S. and international intellectual property laws. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, Vouch Tech grants you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and use the Service for the purposes described in these Terms.

All rights not expressly granted are reserved. The name "Vouch Tech," the Vouch Tech logo, and related marks are trademarks of Vouch Tech. You may not use them without our prior written permission.

12. Feedback

If you send us suggestions or feedback about the Service, you grant Vouch Tech a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that feedback for any purpose, without compensation or obligation to you.

13. Suspension and Termination

13.1 By You

You may stop using the Service at any time. You may disconnect your Google account in the Service or at Google account permissions, and you may close your account by contacting us at the address in Section 22. Closing your account will result in deletion or de-identification of your data consistent with the Privacy Policy.

13.2 By Us

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without notice, if we believe in good faith that:

• you have violated these Terms (including Section 4, Section 5, or Section 6);
• your use of the Service creates a legal, reputational, or security risk to Vouch Tech, a Client, or others;
• a Client has asked us to suspend volunteers affiliated with that Client; or
• we are required to do so by law.

We will use reasonable efforts to notify you of a suspension or termination, except where doing so would compromise an investigation, violate law, or create risk to others.

13.3 Effect of Termination

Upon termination, your right to use the Service ends. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 22) will survive.

14. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, VOUCH TECH DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, VOUCH TECH DOES NOT WARRANT THAT (a) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE; (b) ANY MATCH IS ACCURATE OR COMPLETE; (c) ANY MESSAGE TEMPLATE PROVIDED BY A CLIENT IS LEGALLY COMPLIANT IN YOUR JURISDICTION; OR (d) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR EXPECTATIONS.

YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LEGALITY, ACCURACY, AND APPROPRIATENESS OF ANY MESSAGE YOU SEND USING INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM THE SERVICE.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the disclaimer of certain warranties; in those jurisdictions, the disclaimers above apply to the fullest extent permitted.

15. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW:

• No indirect damages. VOUCH TECH WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, LOST GOODWILL, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE, EVEN IF VOUCH TECH HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
• Cap. VOUCH TECH'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US$100).
• Basis of the bargain. The limitations in this Section 15 are a fundamental basis of the bargain between you and Vouch Tech and apply even if a limited remedy fails of its essential purpose. The Service is provided to you free of charge, and Vouch Tech would not provide it without these limitations.

Some jurisdictions do not allow limitations on certain damages; in those jurisdictions, the limitations above apply to the fullest extent permitted.

16. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Vouch Tech and its officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, and affiliates from and against any third-party claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to:

• your use of the Service;
• your violation of these Terms (including Sections 4, 5, and 6);
• any message you compose or send through or using information from the Service; or
• your violation of any applicable law or any rights of a third party.

Vouch Tech may, at its option, assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, in which case you will cooperate with Vouch Tech's defense.

17. Changes to the Service or Terms

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service or any part of it at any time, with or without notice. We may also update these Terms. If we make material changes, we will provide notice through the Service or by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of updated Terms constitutes your acceptance of those updated Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service.

18. Arbitration Agreement and Class Action Waiver

Please read this Section 18 carefully. It affects your legal rights.

18.1 Informal Resolution

Before initiating arbitration, you and Vouch Tech agree to attempt to resolve any dispute informally for at least 60 days. You must send a written notice describing the dispute and your proposed resolution to the address in Section 22.

18.2 Binding Arbitration

If informal resolution fails, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding arbitration, except as set out below. The arbitration will be administered by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules (for claims under $250,000) or Comprehensive Arbitration Rules (for larger claims), and will take place in Wilmington, Delaware, unless you and Vouch Tech agree otherwise. The arbitrator's decision will be final and binding, and judgment may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

18.3 Exceptions

This Section 18 does not require arbitration of: (a) small-claims court actions, so long as the claim remains in that court and is brought on an individual basis; or (b) actions to enjoin infringement or misuse of intellectual property rights.

18.4 Class Action Waiver

YOU AND VOUCH TECH AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, COLLECTIVE, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims or preside over any form of representative or class proceeding.

18.5 30-Day Opt-Out

You may opt out of this Section 18 by sending written notice to team@getvouch.org within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Your notice must include your name, the email address associated with your account, and a clear statement that you are opting out of arbitration. Opting out will not affect any other provision of these Terms.

18.6 Severability

If the class action waiver in Section 18.4 is found unenforceable as to any claim, that claim must be brought in court, and the remainder of this Section 18 will continue to apply.

19. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. For any matter not subject to Section 18 (Arbitration), the parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in New Castle County, Delaware.

20. General

20.1 Entire Agreement

These Terms and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and Vouch Tech regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements.

20.2 No Waiver

Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms is not a waiver of our right to do so later.

20.3 Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full effect.

20.4 Assignment

You may not assign these Terms or any rights under them without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets.

20.5 No Third-Party Beneficiaries

Except as expressly provided, there are no third-party beneficiaries to these Terms. Clients are not parties to these Terms and have no rights or obligations under them.

20.6 Force Majeure

Vouch Tech is not liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, civil unrest, government action, labor disputes, network or power failures, or natural disasters.

20.7 Electronic Communications and Signatures

You consent to receive communications from Vouch Tech electronically (by email or through the Service) and agree that electronic communications satisfy any legal requirement that they be in writing. You agree that your electronic acceptance of these Terms (for example, by clicking "I agree" or by using the Service) has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature.

20.8 Headings

Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

21. Reporting and Notices

21.1 Reporting Abuse

If you believe a Volunteer is using the Service in violation of these Terms, you can report it to team@getvouch.org. Recipients who believe they should not be receiving messages may also contact privacy@getvouch.org as described in the Privacy Policy.

21.2 Copyright Complaints (DMCA)

If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice that complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512) to our designated agent at team@getvouch.org.

22. Contact Us