Terms of Service

1. Scope of These Terms

These Terms apply to:

1. visitors to our public website;
2. account holders, customers, moderators, observers, administrators, and invited users of the Services;
3. participants, respondents, translators, reviewers, or other persons who access a session, room, viewer lounge, upload link, or invitation-based research environment made available through the Services.

If you have a separate master services agreement, order form, statement of work, subscription agreement, or similar written agreement with High Tech, that agreement will control to the extent of any conflict with these Terms.

2. Eligibility and Authority

You may use the Services only if:

1. you can form a legally binding contract under applicable law;
2. you are not prohibited from using the Services under applicable law; and
3. you will use the Services only for lawful business, research, evaluation, collaboration, or other authorized purposes.

If you access a session or project by invitation, you may use the Services only within the scope of the permissions granted to you by the customer, project owner, moderator, administrator, or other authorized controller of that session or project.

3. The Services

High Tech provides privacy-focused qualitative research technology and related infrastructure, including remote qualitative research, mobile field capture, facility and hybrid streaming, observer/backroom tools, collaboration features, recordings, transcripts, translations, content hosting, and related workflow tools.

Service features may vary by product, plan, project, device, geography, infrastructure configuration, or customer settings. Not every feature is available in every session, product, or subscription tier.

We may improve, modify, replace, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Services at any time. Where reasonably practicable, we will try not to break your day in half.

4. Accounts, Invitations, and Access Credentials

Some Services require an account, while others may be accessed by invitation, secure link, session token, room credential, one-time code, or similar access mechanism.

You agree that:

1. all information you provide to High Tech is accurate and current;
2. you will keep your login credentials, access tokens, and session links confidential;
3. you will not share access links, tokens, passwords, or credentials except as expressly authorized;
4. you are responsible for activity under your account or credentials unless caused by our breach.

High Tech may require users in certain environments to access Services through project-specific security controls, including email-based validation, access tokens, project permissions, nicknames, waiting rooms, role restrictions, or session windows.

5. Roles and Permissions

Access to the Services may be limited by role, including, for example, account owner, customer administrator, moderator, facility operator, translator, observer, invited viewer, participant, or respondent.

Permissions may differ by project or session and may govern who can:

1. stream;
2. view;
3. record;
4. download;
5. chat;
6. clip;
7. invite others;
8. administer settings;
9. upload or access documents, transcripts, translations, or other content.

Customers and authorized project owners are generally responsible for setting and managing project-level permissions, features, access rights, storage rules, and distribution rules for their research environments.

6. Customer Content and Research Ownership

As between High Tech and the customer, the customer retains ownership of its research content, project materials, recordings, uploaded files, transcripts, translations, clips, and other customer-provided or customer-generated content (“Customer Content”), except for High Tech’s own software, systems, analytics models, documentation, and other intellectual property.

You grant High Tech a non-exclusive, worldwide, limited license to host, process, transmit, store, reproduce, display, and otherwise use Customer Content solely as necessary to:

1. provide the Services;
2. maintain security and performance;
3. support customer-configured workflows;
4. generate requested outputs such as recordings, transcripts, translations, summaries, clips, or exports;
5. comply with legal obligations;
6. enforce these Terms.

You represent and warrant that you have all rights, consents, permissions, and lawful bases necessary to submit Customer Content to the Services and to authorize High Tech to process it as described in these Terms.

7. Research Sessions, Recordings, and Consents

The Services may be used to host or support research sessions, interviews, focus groups, ethnographic studies, facility sessions, mobile capture, recordings, transcripts, translations, notes, and related outputs.

Customers are responsible for obtaining all notices, consents, permissions, authorizations, and legal bases required for their studies and use of the Services, including for recording, streaming, transcription, translation, participant communications, and data processing, unless High Tech expressly agrees otherwise in writing.

High Tech may provide workflow tools that support privacy notices, session invitations, access controls, nicknames, token-based access, consent communications, or opt-out processes, but those tools do not transfer the customer’s legal and operational responsibility for the study itself.

If you are an invited participant or respondent, you should not join or continue a session if you do not consent to the session terms presented to you by the customer, moderator, or project owner.

8. Privacy, Security, and Data Handling

Our collection and use of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy.

High Tech uses security controls designed to protect the Services and Customer Content, including role-based access, encrypted connections, and project- or session-specific access rules. Some Services may also use secure links, invitation tokens, nicknames, project permissions, or customer-defined access settings.

Depending on the Service and customer configuration:

1. content may be streamed, processed, stored, or distributed in one or more customer-selected or customer-applicable regions;
2. recordings, downloads, clips, transcripts, translations, or archives may be enabled, disabled, limited, or expired according to customer settings or contract terms;
3. certain content may be subject to retention, expiry, deletion, or restricted download rules.

We do not guarantee that every feature will be available in every geography or project configuration.

9. Nicknames, Tokens, and Session Integrity

Certain High Tech environments may require or permit users to access sessions under a nickname, pseudonym, display label, or other limited identifier rather than a full public identity. Secure cookies, tokens, or similar technical controls may be used to authenticate access, enforce permissions, track usage, and maintain research security.

You may not:

1. bypass waiting rooms, access controls, or role restrictions;
2. impersonate another participant, moderator, observer, or administrator;
3. reuse, share, sell, or publicly post session credentials or invitations;
4. attempt to access projects, sessions, or content you are not authorized to access.

10. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

1. use the Services in violation of any law, regulation, court order, or third-party right;
2. upload, transmit, or distribute unlawful, infringing, defamatory, harassing, abusive, fraudulent, or malicious content;
3. interfere with, disrupt, damage, or overburden the Services or networks connected to the Services;
4. scrape, crawl, reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code, models, security controls, or infrastructure details from the Services, except to the extent such restriction is prohibited by law;
5. upload malware, harmful code, or any other disabling mechanism;
6. access the Services to build a competing product or service;
7. test vulnerabilities, bypass authentication, or attempt unauthorized access;
8. use the Services for surveillance, unlawful monitoring, doxxing, discrimination, or any purpose inconsistent with applicable law or ethical research practice.

We may suspend or terminate access for any violation of this Section.

11. AI, Automation, and HT Insights / HT Sense

Certain Services may include automated tools, analytics, summaries, generated transcripts, translations, or signal-based outputs, including features within HT Insights or HT Sense.

Unless expressly stated otherwise in writing:

1. such outputs are provided as workflow aids;
2. generated outputs may contain errors, omissions, or inaccuracies;
3. customers remain responsible for review, interpretation, moderation, compliance, and downstream use of outputs;
4. HT Sense and similar features are not intended to provide medical, psychological, legal, employment, or other diagnostic conclusions.

No automated output should be treated as the sole basis for any high-stakes decision.

12. Third-Party Services and Content

The Services may interoperate with third-party platforms, browsers, devices, telecom providers, cloud infrastructure, hardware, plugins, embedded content, or collaboration tools.

High Tech is not responsible for third-party services, third-party terms, third-party outages, third-party privacy practices, or third-party content, except to the extent required by law.

Your use of third-party services may be subject to separate third-party terms and policies.

13. Fees, Orders, and Payment

If you purchase paid Services, you agree to pay all applicable fees, charges, taxes, and other amounts set out in your applicable order form, subscription, quote, invoice, or other commercial agreement.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing:

1. fees are stated in the currency specified in the applicable order;
2. fees are non-cancellable and non-refundable once incurred;
3. late payments may result in suspension of Services;
4. High Tech may charge interest or late fees to the extent permitted by law.

Public website descriptions do not create a binding offer unless expressly stated.

14. Confidentiality

If you receive access to non-public sessions, research content, recordings, discussion materials, business information, or other confidential content through the Services, you must treat that information as confidential and use it only for the purpose for which access was granted.

You may not disclose, reproduce, distribute, capture, or use confidential content except as authorized by the customer, project owner, or applicable written agreement.

This confidentiality obligation does not apply to information that:

1. is or becomes public through no fault of yours;
2. was lawfully known by you without confidentiality obligation;
3. is lawfully received from a third party without restriction;
4. is independently developed without use of confidential information.

15. Intellectual Property

High Tech and its licensors own all right, title, and interest in and to the Services, including all software, interfaces, designs, workflows, documentation, branding, text, graphics, code, models, and related technology, excluding Customer Content.

These Terms do not grant you any ownership rights in the Services. Subject to your compliance with these Terms and any applicable order, High Tech grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to access and use the Services for your internal business or authorized research purposes.

You may not use High Tech’s names, logos, marks, screenshots, or branding without prior written permission, except as expressly permitted by law or written agreement.

16. Suspension and Termination

High Tech may suspend or terminate your access to all or part of the Services immediately if:

1. you violate these Terms;
2. you create a security risk or legal risk;
3. your use threatens the integrity, confidentiality, or availability of the Services;
4. payment amounts due remain unpaid;
5. we are required to do so by law or court order.

You may stop using the Services at any time.

Upon termination or expiration:

1. your access rights end;
2. content retention, export, or deletion will be handled in accordance with your applicable contract, project settings, retention rules, or Privacy Policy;
3. sections that by their nature should survive will survive, including confidentiality, payment obligations, intellectual property, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, and dispute provisions.

17. Service Availability and Changes

We aim to provide reliable Services, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation.

The Services may be unavailable from time to time due to:

1. maintenance;
2. updates;
3. customer configuration issues;
4. network failures;
5. third-party failures;
6. force majeure events;
7. security incidents or protective measures.

We may change features, workflows, interfaces, and technical implementations from time to time.

18. Disclaimers

THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT EXPRESSLY SET FORTH IN A WRITTEN AGREEMENT SIGNED BY HIGH TECH.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, HIGH TECH DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, OR UNINTERRUPTED AVAILABILITY.

HIGH TECH DOES NOT WARRANT THAT:

1. THE SERVICES WILL ALWAYS BE SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR UNINTERRUPTED;
2. ANY OUTPUT, TRANSCRIPT, TRANSLATION, SUMMARY, SIGNAL, OR ANALYTIC RESULT WILL BE COMPLETE, ACCURATE, OR FIT FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE;
3. ANY CONTENT WILL NEVER BE LOST, CORRUPTED, DELAYED, OR UNAVAILABLE.

19. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW:

1. HIGH TECH WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, GOODWILL, DATA, USE, OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY;
2. HIGH TECH’S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF:
   • THE AMOUNTS PAID BY YOU TO HIGH TECH FOR THE SPECIFIC SERVICE GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY; OR
   • ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US $100), IF NO FEES WERE PAID.

THE LIMITATIONS IN THIS SECTION APPLY REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY AND EVEN IF A REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

20. Indemnification

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

1. your use of the Services in violation of these Terms;
2. your Customer Content;
3. your violation of law or third-party rights;
4. your failure to obtain required permissions, notices, or consents for a study, recording, upload, stream, or session.

21. Export, Sanctions, and Restricted Uses

You may not use, export, re-export, or make the Services available in violation of applicable trade, export control, or sanctions laws.

You represent that you are not located in, organized under the laws of, or ordinarily resident in any jurisdiction subject to comprehensive sanctions that would prohibit provision of the Services, and that you are not identified on any restricted party list applicable to your use of the Services.

22. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of [INSERT STATE/COUNTRY], without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services will be brought exclusively in the courts located in [INSERT VENUE], and each party consents to that jurisdiction and venue, unless a separate written agreement provides otherwise.

23. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will post the updated Terms on the relevant website or service and update the “Last Updated” date above.

By continuing to use the Services after the revised Terms become effective, you agree to the revised Terms.

24. General

These Terms, together with any applicable order forms, statements of work, privacy notices, and other incorporated documents, form the entire agreement between you and High Tech regarding the Services, except as otherwise expressly agreed in writing.

If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

High Tech’s failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver.

You may not assign these Terms without High Tech’s prior written consent. High Tech may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, or similar transaction.

25. Contact