Terms of Service

1. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 16 years old and able to form a binding contract to use the Service. When you create an account, you are responsible for the information you provide and for all activity that occurs under your account. Authentication is handled by a third-party provider; you are responsible for keeping your credentials secure.

2. What the Service is

Trust Directory is an online directory that publishes business listings and hosts user-generated reviews, ratings, and community discussions. Listings may be compiled from publicly available sources. The Service is provided for general informational purposes only.

3. No endorsement, verification, or guarantee

We do not verify, endorse, guarantee, or assume responsibility for any business, listing, review, rating, or other content. The presence of a business on the Service — including any use of the words "trust", "trusted", or similar — is not a certification, recommendation, or guarantee that the business is licensed, insured, qualified, available, or suitable for your needs. You are solely responsible for evaluating and selecting any business, and any dealings, contracts, or transactions between you and a business are solely between you and that business.

4. No professional advice

Content on the Service is not professional, legal, financial, or other advice. You rely on any content at your own risk.

5. User content

You retain ownership of the content you submit. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, and sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly display, and distribute that content in connection with operating and promoting the Service.

You are solely responsible for your content and represent that you have the rights to submit it and that it does not violate any law or third-party right. You must not submit content that is false, misleading, defamatory, harassing, obscene, infringing, or that contains another person's private information.

6. Reviews

Reviews must reflect a genuine, first-hand experience. You must not submit fake, incentivized, or fraudulent reviews, and business owners must not review a direct competitor. We may remove, edit, or refuse any content at any time, for any reason, without notice, and we have no obligation to monitor content.

7. Business listings and claims

Business owners may claim a listing for a fee (currently $49 per year) to display their contact details, reply to reviews as the business, and request edits to their listing. Claims and edit requests are reviewed manually and may be approved or declined at our discretion. Claiming a listing does not guarantee any leads, customers, ranking, placement, or results. Fees are non-refundable except where required by law. We may modify, suspend, or remove any listing at any time.

8. Advertising

The Service may display advertising and sponsored placements, which are labeled as such. Paid placements do not constitute an endorsement, and we are not responsible for advertisers' products, services, or claims. We may accept, reject, modify, or remove any advertisement or sponsored placement at our sole discretion.

9. Prohibited conduct

You agree not to:

• violate any law or infringe any third-party right;
• post content that is false, defamatory, harassing, obscene, or infringing;
• submit fake reviews or otherwise manipulate ratings;
• scrape, harvest, or collect data from the Service;
• interfere with, disrupt, or overload the Service;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to any account or system;
• impersonate any person or business, or use the Service to send spam.

10. Intellectual property

The Service, including its design, text, graphics, and software (excluding user content and third-party marks), is owned by us or our licensors and is protected by intellectual-property laws. Business names and logos are the property of their respective owners and are used for identification purposes only.

11. Third-party services and links

The Service relies on and links to third-party services and websites. We are not responsible for third-party services, their availability, or their content.

12. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE AND ALL CONTENT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTY REGARDING THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR COMPLETENESS OF LISTINGS, REVIEWS, OR OTHER CONTENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE.

13. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE AND OUR OPERATORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF (OR INABILITY TO USE) THE SERVICE OR ANY DEALINGS WITH A BUSINESS OR OTHER USER. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM OR ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100). SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

14. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Trust Directory and its operators, officers, employees, and agents from any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your use of the Service, your content, your dealings with any business or user, or your violation of these Terms or any law or third-party right.

15. Dispute resolution; arbitration; class-action waiver

This section is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act and applies to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Informal resolution first. Before bringing any claim, you agree to contact us at hello@trustdir.co and attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days.

Binding arbitration. Any dispute that is not resolved informally will be resolved by binding, individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect, rather than in court, except that either party may bring a qualifying claim in small-claims court. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction. You and we waive the right to a trial by jury.

Class-action waiver. Disputes will be brought only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims or preside over any representative or class proceeding.

30-day opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing hello@trustdir.co within 30 days of first accepting these Terms; if you do, the courts described in the Governing Law section will have jurisdiction.

16. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, except that (a) the Federal Arbitration Act governs the arbitration provisions above, and (b) mandatory consumer-protection laws of your place of residence may still apply to you. For any dispute not subject to arbitration, you and we consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Delaware.

17. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without notice, for any reason, including violation of these Terms. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Changes are effective when posted, and the "Last updated" date above reflects the most recent revision. Your continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

19. Miscellaneous

These Terms are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them. Nothing in these Terms creates any agency, partnership, or employment relationship.

20. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Contact us at hello@trustdir.co.