Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") constitute a legally binding agreement between you ("User," "you," or "your") and RootedIn.us ("Company," "we," "us," or "our") governing your access to and use of the RootedIn.us website, platform, and all associated services (collectively, the "Service").

By accessing or using the Service in any way — including browsing the website, creating an account, uploading data, or clicking "I agree" — you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated herein by reference.

If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent and warrant that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms, and all references to "you" include that organization.

2. Eligibility

To use the Service, you must:

• Be at least 18 years of age, or at least 13 years of age with verified parental or guardian consent;
• Have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract;
• Not be barred from using the Service under applicable law; and
• Not have had a prior account terminated by us for violation of these Terms.

By creating an account you represent and warrant that you meet all eligibility requirements. We reserve the right to terminate any account we discover does not meet these requirements.

3. Description of Service

RootedIn.us is a web-based platform that enables users to build, visualize, and manage interactive family trees. The Service includes, without limitation:

• Creation and management of family member profiles (including names, dates, locations, photos, and biographical information);
• Mapping and visualization of family relationships (parent, child, spouse, sibling, and related variants including divorce/separation);
• Secure collaboration by inviting family members to view or contribute to a tree;
• Role-based permissions and a pending-edits workflow for collaborators;
• Upload and storage of family photos;
• Import and export of family data via CSV and GEDCOM formats;
• AI-assisted data entry via natural-language chat (powered by a third-party AI provider); and
• Account management, profile settings, and associated email and SMS notifications.

We reserve the right to add, modify, suspend, or discontinue any feature or aspect of the Service at any time, with or without notice.

4. Account Registration and Security

To access most features you must create an account. When registering, you agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information and to promptly update that information if it changes. You may register using an email address and password, or via a supported third-party OAuth provider (currently Google and Facebook, subject to change).

You are solely responsible for:

• Maintaining the strict confidentiality of your account credentials;
• All activity that occurs under your account, whether or not you authorized it;
• Immediately notifying us at the contact information in Section 18 if you suspect unauthorized access to your account; and
• Ensuring you log out of shared or public devices.

We will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to maintain the security of your credentials. We may require you to verify your email address before accessing certain features.

5. User Content and Intellectual Property

5.1 Your Content

"User Content" means all data, information, text, photos, files, and other materials you upload, submit, or otherwise make available through the Service — including information about yourself and information you enter about other individuals (living or deceased).

You retain full ownership of your User Content. By submitting User Content to the Service, you grant RootedIn.us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, store, process, display, and transmit your User Content solely as necessary to operate, maintain, and improve the Service for you and authorized collaborators you designate.

We do not claim ownership of your User Content. We will not use your family tree data for any purpose other than providing and improving the Service as described in our Privacy Policy.

5.2 Your Responsibility for User Content

You represent and warrant that:

• You own or have the necessary rights, licenses, consents, and permissions to upload and use your User Content in connection with the Service;
• Your User Content does not and will not infringe, misappropriate, or violate any intellectual property rights, privacy rights, publicity rights, or any other rights of any third party;
• You have obtained all required consents from living individuals whose personal information you enter into the Service; and
• Your User Content does not violate any applicable law or these Terms.

You are solely responsible for the accuracy, legality, and appropriateness of all User Content you submit. We have no obligation to review, verify, or monitor User Content, but reserve the right to remove any User Content that violates these Terms.

5.3 RootedIn.us Intellectual Property

The Service, including its design, software, code, graphics, logos, and other content (excluding User Content), is owned by RootedIn.us and protected by applicable intellectual property laws. Nothing in these Terms grants you any right, title, or interest in the Service itself other than the limited license to use it as described herein.

6. Sensitive Personal Information

The Service is specifically designed to store and organize detailed personal and genealogical information, which may include information about living persons such as birthdates, addresses, contact details, photographs, and biographical notes. By using the Service, you acknowledge and agree that:

• You are solely responsible for obtaining any legally required consents from living individuals before entering their personal information into the Service;
• Information about deceased individuals may be subject to privacy protections under applicable law in certain jurisdictions, and you are responsible for ensuring your use of such information complies with applicable law;
• You will not use the Service to store personal information about minors beyond what is reasonably necessary for family tree purposes;
• You will not enter, upload, or store any information that is unlawfully obtained, stolen, or otherwise obtained without proper authorization; and
• You will not use information stored on the Service to discriminate against, harass, stalk, or harm any individual.

7. AI-Assisted Features

The Service includes an optional AI chat feature that uses a third-party artificial intelligence provider (currently Groq) to help you add family members through natural language input. By using this feature, you acknowledge and agree that:

• Text you submit to the AI chat feature may be processed by the third-party AI provider in accordance with that provider's terms of service and privacy policy;
• AI-generated suggestions are automated and may contain errors, inaccuracies, or hallucinations — you are responsible for reviewing and verifying all AI-generated content before saving it;
• We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any AI-generated output;
• You should not enter highly sensitive personal information (e.g., social security numbers, financial data) into the AI chat feature; and
• We are not liable for any outcomes resulting from your reliance on AI-generated suggestions.

8. Collaboration and Sharing

The Service allows you to invite other individuals ("Collaborators") to access your family tree via email invitation. As the tree owner, you are responsible for:

• Ensuring that individuals you invite have consented to receiving invitations and accessing the family data you share;
• Managing and revoking collaborator access as appropriate;
• All actions taken by Collaborators under the permissions you grant them; and
• Ensuring Collaborators are made aware that their use of the Service is subject to these Terms.

We provide role-based access controls and a pending-edits workflow to help you manage Collaborator contributions, but we do not monitor or review content submitted by Collaborators and are not responsible for Collaborator actions or submissions.

9. Data Import and Export

You may import family data in CSV or GEDCOM format and export your family tree data in those formats. You represent and warrant that any data you import is lawfully obtained and that you have the right to import and use it within the Service. We do not verify the accuracy, legality, or ownership of imported data.

Exported data is provided for your personal use and backup. You are responsible for securing exported files. We are not responsible for any data loss, corruption, or unauthorized access that occurs after you export data from the Service.

10. Prohibited Uses

You agree not to use the Service to:

• Violate any applicable local, state, national, or international law or regulation;
• Infringe upon any intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other rights of any third party;
• Upload, transmit, or distribute malicious code, viruses, spyware, or any other harmful software;
• Harass, abuse, threaten, defame, or harm any person or entity;
• Collect, harvest, or scrape personal information about other users without their express written consent;
• Impersonate any person, entity, or organization;
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service, its servers, networks, or infrastructure;
• Conduct automated scraping, crawling, or data mining of any part of the Service;
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Service or to any other user's account or data;
• Use the Service for any commercial purpose — including to operate a competing service, resell access, or aggregate data for third-party use — without our prior written consent;
• Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to extract the source code of the Service;
• Circumvent, disable, or interfere with any security-related features of the Service; or
• Use the Service to enter false, misleading, or fraudulent information.

11. Third-Party Services

The Service integrates certain third-party services to operate. By using the Service, you acknowledge that your data may be processed by these providers under their respective terms of service and privacy policies:

• Postmark — used to deliver transactional emails (verification, password reset, invitations, notifications);
• CockroachDB — used as our primary database for storing your account and family tree data;
• Groq (optional) — used to power the AI-assisted chat feature for natural-language data entry;
• Google / Facebook (optional) — used as OAuth sign-in providers if you choose to authenticate via those platforms; and
• NextAuth.js — used for session management and authentication flows.

We select service providers that we believe maintain appropriate security standards, but we cannot guarantee or control the security or privacy practices of any third party. We are not responsible for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party service. Your use of third-party services is at your own risk and subject to their respective terms.

The Service may also contain links to third-party websites. We do not endorse and are not responsible for the content or practices of linked websites.

12. Privacy

Your use of the Service is governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using the Service you consent to our collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described in the Privacy Policy. We strongly encourage you to read the Privacy Policy before using the Service.

13. 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, SECURE, OR FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT (A) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; (B) ANY ERRORS OR DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED; (C) THE SERVICE OR THE SERVERS THAT MAKE IT AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS; OR (D) THE RESULTS OF USING THE SERVICE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE.

AI-GENERATED CONTENT IS PROVIDED WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. YOU RELY ON AI SUGGESTIONS ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties. If those laws apply to you, some of the exclusions above may not apply.

14. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ROOTEDINUS, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AFFILIATES, AND LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES — INCLUDING LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION — ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

IN NO EVENT SHALL OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS (USD $100).

THE LIMITATIONS IN THIS SECTION APPLY REGARDLESS OF THE LEGAL THEORY UNDER WHICH LIABILITY IS SOUGHT (CONTRACT, TORT, STATUTE, STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE). SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY. IN SUCH JURISDICTIONS, LIABILITY WILL BE LIMITED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

15. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless RootedIn.us and its officers, directors, employees, agents, and affiliates from and against any and all claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to:

• Your use of or access to the Service;
• Your User Content, including any claims that your User Content infringes the rights of any third party;
• Your violation of these Terms or any applicable law;
• Your violation of any rights of another person or entity; or
• Any dispute between you and any Collaborator or other user of the Service.

We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you agree to cooperate with our defense of such claim.

16. Account Termination

16.1 Termination by You

You may delete your account at any time through your account settings. Upon account deletion, we will delete your data as described in our Privacy Policy. Deletion is permanent and irreversible. You will lose access to all your family tree data and will not be entitled to a refund of any amounts paid.

16.2 Termination by Us

We may suspend or permanently terminate your account, without prior notice or liability, for any reason, including if we reasonably believe that:

• You have violated these Terms;
• Your account poses a security or legal risk to us or other users;
• Your account is being used fraudulently or for illegal activity; or
• Continued provision of the Service to you is not commercially viable.

Upon termination for cause, we may immediately deactivate or delete your account and all associated data, and we will have no obligation to preserve or return any User Content.

16.3 Effect of Termination

All provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination shall survive, including Sections 5 (Intellectual Property), 13 (Disclaimer of Warranties), 14 (Limitation of Liability), 15 (Indemnification), and 17 (Governing Law).

17. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

17.1 Governing Law

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

17.2 Dispute Resolution

Before filing any formal legal claim, you agree to first contact us and attempt to resolve the dispute informally by sending written notice to the contact information in Section 18. We will attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute within 30 days of receipt.

17.3 Binding Arbitration

If the dispute cannot be resolved informally, you and RootedIn.us agree to resolve any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service through final and binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. Judgment on any arbitration award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Class Action Waiver: YOU AND ROOTEDINUS 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 PROCEEDING.

17.4 Exception for Injunctive Relief

Notwithstanding the arbitration agreement, either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent actual or threatened infringement of intellectual property rights or unauthorized access to data.

17.5 Jury Trial Waiver

TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, YOU WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY IN ANY ACTION, PROCEEDING, OR CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE.

18. Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email to the address associated with your account and/or by posting a prominent notice within the Service at least 14 days before the effective date of the changes (or immediately if required by law). We will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.

Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of revised Terms constitutes your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, you must stop using the Service and may delete your account.

19. General Provisions

• Entire Agreement: These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any other agreements expressly incorporated by reference herein, constitute the entire agreement between you and RootedIn.us concerning the Service.
• Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.
• Waiver: Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not be deemed a waiver of such right or provision.
• Assignment: You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your rights hereunder without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms without restriction.
• Force Majeure: We will not be liable for any delay or failure in performance resulting from causes beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, war, terrorism, labor disputes, internet outages, or government orders.
• No Agency: Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, or agency relationship between you and RootedIn.us.

20. Contact Information

If you have questions, concerns, or complaints about these Terms of Service, please contact us through the support features available within the Service or via the contact information provided in your account settings. We will make every reasonable effort to respond promptly.