Terms of Service

Effective date: February 18, 2026

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using the Bawks platform and associated services (the “Service”), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not access or use the Service. These Terms apply to all users, including organization administrators and members.

You represent that you are at least 18 years of age (or the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction) and have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms. If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

2. Description of Service

Bawks is a SaaS platform that helps organizations build a Body of Knowledge from uploaded documents — including completed inquiries, policy documents, technical specifications, and similar materials. The Service processes and indexes uploaded content and provides AI-powered answers with source attribution and confidence scores. The founding use case is security and compliance inquiry completion, though the platform is designed for any subject matter expert who is a recurring source of institutional knowledge.

3. Accounts and Registration

• You must provide accurate, current, and complete information when registering for an account
• You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account
• Organization accounts are managed by one or more administrators; administrators may invite and manage members, and all members share access to the organization's Body of Knowledge
• You may only maintain one account per person
• You must notify us immediately at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorized access to your account

4. Billing and Subscriptions

• Free tier: Limited usage at no charge; no payment information required
• Pro tier: Monthly subscription billed via Stripe
• All payment processing is handled entirely by Stripe; we do not store your payment card details
• Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period; you may cancel at any time through the Stripe Customer Portal
• Upon cancellation, your access to paid features continues through the end of the current billing period
• No refunds are provided for partial billing periods, except where required by applicable law
• Bawks reserves the right to modify pricing with at least 30 days' advance notice
• Billing is managed self-service through the Stripe Customer Portal

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• Upload content that is illegal, harmful, defamatory, or infringes any third-party intellectual property rights
• Attempt to exploit, manipulate, or inject adversarial prompts into the AI system
• Circumvent, disable, or otherwise interfere with security measures or tenant isolation controls
• Attempt to access, query, or extract data belonging to other organizations
• Conduct automated scraping or bulk data extraction beyond the capabilities provided by the Service's API
• Upload files exceeding the 10 MB per-file size limit
• Use the Service in any manner that could damage, disable, or impair the Service or interfere with other users

6. Your Content

• You retain full ownership of all documents and data you upload to the Service
• By uploading content, you grant Bawks a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to process, store, index, embed, and generate answers from your content solely for the purpose of providing the Service to you
• This license terminates when you delete the content or close your account, subject to our retention obligations
• You are solely responsible for ensuring you have all necessary rights and permissions to upload the content
• You are solely responsible for the accuracy, legality, and appropriateness of the content you upload

7. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

• AI-generated answers are not guaranteed to be accurate, complete, current, or suitable for any particular purpose
• Confidence scores are statistical estimates produced by the AI and should not be treated as certainty or professional assurance
• The Service is not a substitute for professional advice, including legal, compliance, security, or other professional counsel
• You bear full responsibility for all decisions made in reliance on AI-generated output from the Service
• We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free from security vulnerabilities

8. Intellectual Property

• Bawks owns all rights, title, and interest in the Service, including its user interface, underlying algorithms, software, and all technology derived therefrom
• You own all documents, data, and content you upload to the Service
• Vector embeddings and derived search indexes are service artifacts created solely to provide the Service; Bawks does not assert ownership of these artifacts separate from the Service itself

9. Service Availability and Modifications

• We operate on a best-effort basis; no uptime SLA is provided at current pricing tiers (subject to change for future enterprise plans)
• Bawks may modify, suspend, or discontinue any features or the Service as a whole with reasonable advance notice
• Scheduled maintenance windows will be communicated in advance when reasonably possible

10. Limitation of Liability

• To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Bawks's aggregate liability to you for any claims arising from or related to these Terms or the Service is capped at the greater of (a) the total fees paid by you in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim, or (b) one hundred US dollars ($100)
• Bawks is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including lost profits, loss of data, or loss of goodwill, even if advised of the possibility of such damages
• Bawks is specifically not liable for any losses arising from reliance on AI-generated answers, confidence scores, or any other AI output produced by the Service
• These limitations apply regardless of the legal theory under which a claim is brought and to the fullest extent permitted by law

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Bawks and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to: (a) content you upload to the Service; (b) your violation of these Terms; or (c) your violation of any third-party right, including intellectual property rights or privacy rights.

12. Termination

• You may delete your account at any time through the account settings
• Bawks may suspend or terminate your account if you materially violate these Terms, with or without notice depending on the severity of the violation
• Upon termination, your data will be retained for 30 days to allow you to export your data, after which it will be permanently deleted from our active systems, except where retention is required by law. Backup copies may persist in encrypted backups for up to an additional 7 days consistent with our backup retention schedule
• Provisions that by their nature should survive termination — including limitations of liability, intellectual property rights, indemnification, and dispute resolution — will remain in effect after termination

13. Data Processing Agreement

A Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is available upon request for enterprise customers. The DPA governs our respective obligations as controller and processor under GDPR and similar data protection regulations. To request a DPA, contact [email protected].

14. Dispute Resolution

• Before initiating any formal dispute, you agree to first contact us at [email protected] and provide written notice of the dispute; we will have 30 days to attempt informal resolution
• If the dispute is not resolved informally, it will be subject to binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Commercial Arbitration Rules. The arbitration will be conducted in the State of Florida unless the parties mutually agree to a different location
• Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may bring claims in small claims court if the claim qualifies
• You agree to resolve disputes with Bawks on an individual basis only — you waive any right to bring or participate in any class action, class arbitration, or representative proceeding

15. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Florida, United States, without regard to its conflict of law principles.

16. General Provisions

• Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect
• Waiver: Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms at any time does not constitute a waiver of our right to enforce that provision in the future
• Entire Agreement: These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Bawks and supersede all prior agreements and understandings
• Assignment: Bawks may assign its rights and obligations under these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, corporate reorganization, or sale of all or substantially all of its assets, provided that we notify you of any such assignment. You may not assign your rights or obligations without our prior written consent

17. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify you of material changes via email or an in-app notification at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of the updated Terms constitutes your acceptance. If you do not agree with the changes, you must stop using the Service before the effective date.

18. Contact Information

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us at:

[email protected]