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Terms of Service

Last Updated: October 25, 2025 | Questions? Contact legal@surmado.com

Agreement to Our Legal Terms

We are Surmado, Inc. ("Company," "we," "us," "our"), a company registered in Delaware, United States. Our mailing address is: 1301 North Broadway, STE 32373, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

We operate the website https://www.surmado.com (the "Site"), as well as any other related products and services that refer or link to these legal terms (the "Legal Terms") (collectively, the "Services").

Surmado provides AI-powered business intelligence and strategic advisory tools designed for internal business use. Our Services include "Signal" (AI visibility analysis), "Solutions" (AI strategic board simulation), and "Scan" (SEO auditing), collectively referred to as the "Services". These tools help businesses analyze their market position, website performance, and strategic options using data provided by the user and analyses generated by third-party AI platforms.

The Services are offered solely for business and professional use. By using the Services, you represent that you are acting for internal business purposes, not as a consumer, and you will avoid including submitting personal information to Surmado about individuals in free-text fields through the Services.

You can contact us by phone at 619-292-8638, email at legal@surmado.com, or by mail to 1301 North Broadway, STE 32373, Los Angeles 90012, USA.

These Legal Terms constitute a legally binding agreement made between you, whether personally or on behalf of an entity ("you"), and Surmado, Inc., concerning your access to and use of the Services. You agree that by accessing the Services, you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by all of these Legal Terms. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF THESE LEGAL TERMS, THEN YOU ARE EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED FROM USING THE SERVICES AND YOU MUST DISCONTINUE USE IMMEDIATELY.

Supplemental terms and conditions or documents that may be posted on the Services from time to time are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to make changes or modifications to these Legal Terms from time to time. We will alert you about any changes by updating the "Last updated" date of these Legal Terms, and you waive any right to receive specific notice of each such change. It is your responsibility to periodically review these Legal Terms to stay informed of updates. You will be subject to, and will be deemed to have been made aware of and to have accepted, the changes in any revised Legal Terms by your continued use of the Services after the date such revised Legal Terms are posted.

The Services are intended for users who are at least 18 years old. Persons under the age of 18 are not permitted to use or register for the Services.

We recommend that you print a copy of these Legal Terms for your records.

Interpretation: Capitalized terms not defined in these Legal Terms have the meanings given in our Privacy Policy or Data Processing Addendum (DPA), as applicable.

Table of Contents

  • 1 Our Services
  • 2 Intellectual Property Rights
  • 3 User Representations
  • 4 User Registration
  • 5 Purchases and Payment
  • 6 Subscriptions and Future Pricing Models
  • 7 Prohibited Activities
  • 7A Rate Limiting and Fair Use
  • 8 User Generated Contributions
  • 9 Guidelines for Reviews
  • 10 Social Media
  • 11 Third-Party Websites and Content
  • 12 Services Management
  • 13A AI Analysis Limitations and User Responsibilities
  • 13B Third-Party AI Dependencies
  • 13C AI Providers & Model Usage
  • 14 Privacy Policy
  • 15 Term and Termination
  • 16 Modifications and Interruptions
  • 17 Governing Law
  • 18 Dispute Resolution
  • 19 Corrections
  • 20 No Professional Advice
  • 21 Disclaimer
  • 22 Limitations of Liability
  • 23 Indemnification
  • 24 User Data
  • 25 Electronic Communications, Transactions, and Signatures
  • 26 Digital Millennium Copyright Act
  • 27 California Users
  • 28 Miscellaneous
  • 29 Contact Us

1. Our Services

The information provided when using the Services is not intended for distribution to or use by any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use would be contrary to law or regulation or which would subject us to any registration requirement within such jurisdiction or country. Accordingly, those persons who choose to access the Services from other locations do so on their own initiative and are solely responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable.

Public Beta (US-only)

During public beta we accept orders only from U.S. business customers and geo-restrict ordering accordingly. Users outside the U.S. may view marketing pages but may not place orders. Post-beta international availability may change via updated terms.

During public beta, the Services are available only to customers with a U.S. billing address. International expansion is planned for 2026, at which time these Terms will be updated accordingly.

Geographic Restrictions

During beta, we use Stripe's geo-blocking to restrict purchases to U.S. billing addresses and payment methods. Attempts to circumvent geographic restrictions violate these Terms and may result in service termination without refund.

Export/Sanctions

You may not use the Services if (a) you are in a U.S.-embargoed jurisdiction, (b) you are named on a sanctions list, or (c) doing so would violate export/sanctions laws. You are responsible for compliance with all applicable export and sanctions laws.

The Services are not tailored to comply with industry-specific regulations (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), etc.), so if your interactions would be subjected to such laws, you may not use the Services. You may not use the Services in a way that would violate the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA).


2. Intellectual Property Rights

Defined Terms

For clarity:

  • "Customer Inputs" = data you provide (you own)
  • "Analysis Data" = metrics, scores, insights we generate (we own)
  • "Outputs" = reports, PDFs we deliver (licensed to you)
  • "Training Data" = de-identified derivatives (we own)
  • "Contributions" = synonym for Customer Inputs (used in §8)
  • "Personal Information" = as defined in our Privacy Policy

Our Intellectual Property

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our Services, including all source code, databases, functionality, software, website designs, audio, video, text, photographs, and graphics in the Services (collectively, the "Content"), as well as the trademarks, service marks, and logos contained therein (the "Marks").

Our Content and Marks are protected by copyright and trademark laws (and various other intellectual property rights and unfair competition laws) and treaties in the United States and around the world.

Confidentiality: We will not use or disclose Customer Inputs or Outputs except to: (a) provide the Services; (b) create de-identified Training Data per §2(d); (c) comply with legal obligations; or (d) as you explicitly instruct. This does not restrict our use of Analysis Data, which is our proprietary property.

Your Use of Our Services

Subject to your compliance with these Legal Terms, including the "PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES" section below, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license solely for your internal business purposes to:

  • (a) access the Services; and
  • (b) access, use, download, or print the reports, dashboards, and other deliverables generated specifically for you by the Services (the "Outputs").

Ownership of Analysis Data and Outputs

a) Customer Input Ownership: You retain all ownership rights to the raw data, business information, domains, competitor lists, financial figures, and other content you provide to the Services ("Customer Inputs").

b) Surmado Analysis Data Ownership: As between you and us, Surmado owns all right, title, and interest in and to the analyses, metrics, scores, insights, competitive benchmarks, strategic recommendations, model configurations, prompt structures, intermediate calculations, and aggregated data generated by our systems in providing the Services ("Analysis Data"), excluding your Customer Inputs. Analysis Data is original to Surmado and does not consist of, or depend upon, any protectable expression in Customer Inputs.

c) Output Ownership and License: Customer owns the deliverables generated specifically for them ("Outputs"), including any intellectual property therein (to the extent any exists under applicable law, noting that AI-generated content may have limited IP protection). Surmado retains a non-exclusive, perpetual license to Outputs for internal purposes only. This license does not grant Customer any rights to the underlying Analysis Data, models, prompts, or methods, and does not allow Customer to resell, use for model training, or create competing services. Surmado may use anonymized Outputs for marketing/testimonials with Customer's prior written consent.

d) Training Data License Grant: By submitting Customer Inputs, you grant Surmado a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (including the right to create derivative works) to use Customer Inputs solely to: (i) provide the Services; and (ii) create Training Data as defined herein.

As a condition of the Services, Surmado creates "Training Data" from Customer Inputs and Analysis Data for internal model improvement, quality, safety, and research.

What we strip: Email addresses, account IDs, report tokens (e.g., SIG-2025-10-XXXXX), billing information, exact timestamps.

What we retain: Business-related content including entity names, geographic locations, industry categories, competitor data, customer personas, strategic context, and all Analysis Data metrics.

e) Feedback: Any feedback, suggestions, or ideas you provide about the Services ("Submissions") become Surmado's property, and we may use them without restriction or compensation to you.

f) No IP Warranty on AI Outputs: AI-generated content within Outputs may inadvertently resemble existing third-party material. We do not warrant that Outputs are free from third-party intellectual property claims. You are responsible for reviewing Outputs before public use.

g) Restrictions: You may not: (i) resell or commercially redistribute Outputs; (ii) use Outputs or Analysis Data to train competing AI models or services; (iii) present Outputs as human-authored professional advice without appropriate disclaimers; (iv) remove or alter any proprietary notices in Outputs; (v) attempt to reverse-engineer or extract Surmado's proprietary models, prompts, or Analysis Data from the Services or Outputs.

Submissions

By directly sending us any question, comment, suggestion, idea, feedback, or other information about the Services ("Submissions"), you agree to assign to us all intellectual property rights in such Submission. You agree that we shall own this Submission and be entitled to its unrestricted use and dissemination for any lawful purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you.

You Are Responsible for What You Post or Upload

By sending us Submissions through any part of the Services you:

  • confirm that you have read and agree with our "PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES" and will not post, send, publish, upload, or transmit through the Services any Submission that is illegal, harassing, hateful, harmful, defamatory, obscene, bullying, abusive, discriminatory, threatening to any person or group, sexually explicit, false, inaccurate, deceitful, or misleading;
  • to the extent permissible by applicable law, waive any and all moral rights to any such Submission; warrant that any such Submission are original to you or that you have the necessary rights and licenses to submit such Submissions and that you have full authority to grant us the above-mentioned rights in relation to your Submissions; and
  • warrant and represent that your Submissions do not constitute confidential information.

You are solely responsible for your Submissions and you expressly agree to reimburse us for any and all losses that we may suffer because of your breach of (a) this section, (b) any third party's intellectual property rights, or (c) applicable law.

No Implied Licenses: No licenses or rights are granted except as expressly stated in these Terms. In particular, your license to Outputs does not grant any rights to the underlying Analysis Data, prompts, model configurations, or methodologies.


3. User Representations

By using the Services, you represent and warrant that: (1) all registration information you submit will be true, accurate, current, and complete; (2) you will maintain the accuracy of such information and promptly update such registration information as necessary; (3) you have the legal capacity and you agree to comply with these Legal Terms; (4) you are not a minor in the jurisdiction in which you reside; (5) you will not access the Services through automated or non-human means, whether through a bot, script or otherwise; (6) you will not use the Services for any illegal or unauthorized purpose; (7) your use of the Services will not violate any applicable law or regulation; and (8) you will not submit protected health information (HIPAA), cardholder data (PCI), or other regulated personal data unless we have a separate written agreement permitting such use.

Business-only inputs: The Services are designed for business content. Do not include personal information about individuals (e.g., names, personal emails, phone numbers, health or financial account numbers) in free-text fields. If you choose to include personal information, you represent you have a lawful basis and authority to do so.

If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current, or incomplete, we have the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Services (or any portion thereof).


4. User Registration

You may be required to register to use the Services. You agree to keep your password confidential and will be responsible for all use of your account and password. We reserve the right to remove, reclaim, or change a username you select if we determine, in our sole discretion, that such username is inappropriate, obscene, or otherwise objectionable.


5. Purchases and Payment

Accepted Payment Methods

  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • American Express
  • Discover

Payments processed by Stripe; Surmado does not store full card PAN, CVV, or magnetic-stripe data. Your use of Stripe is also subject to the Stripe Services Agreement.

You agree to provide current, complete, and accurate purchase and account information for all purchases made via the Services. You further agree to promptly update account and payment information, including email address, payment method, and payment card expiration date, so that we can complete your transactions and contact you as needed. Sales tax will be added to the price of purchases as deemed required by us. We may change prices at any time. All payments shall be in US dollars.

You agree to pay all charges at the prices then in effect for your purchases and any applicable shipping fees, and you authorize us to charge your chosen payment provider for any such amounts upon placing your order. We reserve the right to correct any errors or mistakes in pricing, even if we have already requested or received payment.

We reserve the right to refuse any order placed through the Services. We may, in our sole discretion, limit or cancel quantities purchased per person, per household, or per order. These restrictions may include orders placed by or under the same customer account, the same payment method, and/or orders that use the same billing or shipping address. We reserve the right to limit or prohibit orders that, in our sole judgment, appear to be placed by dealers, resellers, or distributors.

Delivery and Refunds

We typically deliver reports within 24 hours of order. If your report is not delivered within 24 hours, you may request a refund.

7-Day Money-Back Guarantee: If you are unsatisfied with your report for any reason, contact us at legal@surmado.com within 7 days of purchase with your order ID for a full refund, no questions asked. We may ask for feedback to help us improve, and we reserve the right to limit refunds in cases of clear fraud or abuse.

Processing: Payment processing begins immediately upon order. Chargebacks and fraud checks may delay delivery.

Taxes

You are responsible for all sales, use, and excise taxes and any other similar taxes, duties, and charges of any kind imposed by any governmental authority on any amounts payable by you under these Terms, excluding taxes based on Surmado's net income.


6. Subscriptions and Future Pricing Models

The Services are currently offered on a pay-per-use basis as described in Section 5. We reserve the right to introduce subscription tiers or other pricing models in the future.

Any new pricing models, subscription terms, and fees will be posted on the Site. We may, in our sole discretion, change our pricing and pricing models at any time. Your continued use of the Services after a price change becomes effective constitutes your agreement to pay the changed amount.


7. Prohibited Activities

You may not access or use the Services for any purpose other than that for which we make the Services available. The Services may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by us.

As a user of the Services, you agree not to:

  • Systematically retrieve data or other content from the Services to create or compile, directly or indirectly, a collection, compilation, database, or directory without written permission from us.
  • Trick, defraud, or mislead us and other users, especially in any attempt to learn sensitive account information such as user passwords.
  • Circumvent, disable, or otherwise interfere with security-related features of the Services, including features that prevent or restrict the use or copying of any Content or enforce limitations on the use of the Services and/or the Content contained therein.
  • Disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the Services.
  • Use any information obtained from the Services in order to harass, abuse, or harm another person.
  • Make improper use of our support services or submit false reports of abuse or misconduct.
  • Use the Services in a manner inconsistent with any applicable laws or regulations.
  • Engage in unauthorized framing of or linking to the Services.
  • Upload or transmit (or attempt to upload or to transmit) viruses, Trojan horses, or other material, including excessive use of capital letters and spamming (continuous posting of repetitive text), that interferes with any party's uninterrupted use and enjoyment of the Services or modifies, impairs, disrupts, alters, or interferes with the use, features, functions, operation, or maintenance of the Services.
  • Engage in any automated use of the system, such as using scripts to send comments or messages, or using any data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools.
  • Delete the copyright or other proprietary rights notice from any Content.
  • Attempt to impersonate another user or person or use the username of another user.
  • Upload or transmit (or attempt to upload or to transmit) any material that acts as a passive or active information collection or transmission mechanism, including without limitation, clear graphics interchange formats ("gifs"), 1×1 pixels, web bugs, cookies, or other similar devices (sometimes referred to as "spyware" or "passive collection mechanisms" or "pcms").
  • Interfere with, disrupt, or create an undue burden on the Services or the networks or services connected to the Services.
  • Harass, annoy, intimidate, or threaten any of our employees or agents engaged in providing any portion of the Services to you.
  • Attempt to bypass any measures of the Services designed to prevent or restrict access to the Services, or any portion of the Services.
  • Copy or adapt the Services' software, including but not limited to Flash, PHP, HTML, JavaScript, or other code.
  • Except as permitted by applicable law, decipher, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any of the software comprising or in any way making up a part of the Services.
  • Except as may be the result of standard search engine or Internet browser usage, use, launch, develop, or distribute any automated system, including without limitation, any spider, robot, cheat utility, scraper, or offline reader that accesses the Services, or use or launch any unauthorized script or other software.
  • Use a buying agent or purchasing agent to make purchases on the Services.
  • Make any unauthorized use of the Services, including collecting usernames and/or email addresses of users by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited email, or creating user accounts by automated means or under false pretenses.
  • Use the Services as part of any effort to compete with us or otherwise use the Services and/or the Content for any revenue-generating endeavor or commercial enterprise.
  • Use the Services to advertise or offer to sell goods and services.
  • Sell or otherwise transfer your profile.
  • Access, query, or monitor the Services via automated means (scrapers, bots) without written permission, or in a way that degrades stability (rate limits may apply).
  • Use Outputs or the Services to train, benchmark, or improve a competing foundation model or to reverse engineer third-party models accessed through the Services.
  • Signal monitoring is subject to reasonable use limits based on tier. Excessive API calls, automated scraping of reports, or attempts to reverse-engineer our AI prompts constitute violations. We reserve the right to throttle or suspend access for abnormal usage patterns.
  • Use competitive tracking features for legitimate business intelligence only. You may not use the Services to: (a) engage in corporate espionage, (b) violate competitor websites' terms of service, (c) circumvent robots.txt restrictions, or (d) conduct denial-of-service reconnaissance.

7A. Rate Limiting and Fair Use

Automated Access Prohibited

The Services are designed for human-initiated strategic analysis. Automated scripts, bots, or programmatic access without our written API agreement is prohibited.

Rate Limits by Service

Usage may be subject to limits such as:

  • Signal: Max domains per monitoring cycle, reports per day
  • Solutions: Max sessions per day/month
  • Pulse: Max audits per day

Current limits are specified on our Site or upon purchase.

Abuse Indicators

The following constitute abuse:

  • Attempting to extract or reverse-engineer our prompts
  • Using outputs to train competing AI services
  • Systematic scraping or downloading of reports
  • Circumventing cost controls through multiple accounts
  • Stress-testing with adversarial inputs

Enforcement

We may throttle, suspend, or terminate access for violations. Suspected abuse will trigger manual review. Egregious violations may result in permanent ban and legal action.


8. User Generated Contributions

License Grant

By submitting Customer Inputs, you grant Surmado a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, copy, process, and display Customer Inputs solely to: (a) provide the Services; and (b) create and use de-identified Training Data per §2(d). This license does not transfer ownership of Customer Inputs to Surmado.

The Services may allow you to submit business inputs (e.g., brand lists, domains, questionnaires) and to upload assets necessary to produce reports ("Contributions"). Contributions are not published to other users. When you create or make available any Contributions, you thereby represent and warrant that:

  • The creation, distribution, transmission, public display, or performance, and the accessing, downloading, or copying of your Contributions do not and will not infringe the proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, or moral rights of any third party.
  • You are the creator and owner of or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, releases, and permissions to use and to authorize us, the Services, and other users of the Services to use your Contributions in any manner contemplated by the Services and these Legal Terms.
  • You have the written consent, release, and/or permission of each and every identifiable individual person in your Contributions to use the name or likeness of each and every such identifiable individual person to enable inclusion and use of your Contributions in any manner contemplated by the Services and these Legal Terms.
  • Your Contributions are not false, inaccurate, or misleading.
  • Your Contributions are not unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, pyramid schemes, chain letters, spam, mass mailings, or other forms of solicitation.
  • Your Contributions are not obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, violent, harassing, libelous, slanderous, or otherwise objectionable (as determined by us).
  • Your Contributions do not ridicule, mock, disparage, intimidate, or abuse anyone.
  • Your Contributions are not used to harass or threaten (in the legal sense of those terms) any other person and to promote violence against a specific person or class of people.
  • Your Contributions do not violate any applicable law, regulation, or rule.
  • Your Contributions do not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party.
  • Your Contributions do not violate any applicable law concerning child pornography, or otherwise intended to protect the health or well-being of minors.
  • Your Contributions do not include any offensive comments that are connected to race, national origin, gender, sexual preference, or physical handicap.
  • Your Contributions do not otherwise violate, or link to material that violates, any provision of these Legal Terms, or any applicable law or regulation.

Any use of the Services in violation of the foregoing violates these Legal Terms and may result in, among other things, termination or suspension of your rights to use the Services.


9. Guidelines for Reviews

If we provide areas on the Services to leave reviews or ratings, you must comply with the following criteria: (1) you should have firsthand experience with the person/entity being reviewed; (2) your reviews should not contain offensive profanity, or abusive, racist, offensive, or hateful language; (3) your reviews should not contain discriminatory references based on religion, race, gender, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, or disability; (4) your reviews should not contain references to illegal activity; (5) you should not be affiliated with competitors if posting negative reviews; (6) you should not make any conclusions as to the legality of conduct; (7) you may not post any false or misleading statements; and (8) you may not organize a campaign encouraging others to post reviews, whether positive or negative.

We may accept, reject, or remove reviews in our sole discretion. We have absolutely no obligation to screen reviews or to delete reviews, even if anyone considers reviews objectionable or inaccurate. Reviews are not endorsed by us, and do not necessarily represent our opinions or the views of any of our affiliates or partners. We do not assume liability for any review or for any claims, liabilities, or losses resulting from any review. By posting a review, you hereby grant to us a perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid, assignable, and sublicensable right and license to reproduce, modify, translate, transmit by any means, display, perform, and/or distribute all content relating to review.


10. Social Media

As part of the functionality of the Services, you may link your account with online accounts you have with third-party service providers (each such account, a "Third-Party Account") by either: (1) providing your Third-Party Account login information through the Services; or (2) allowing us to access your Third-Party Account, as is permitted under the applicable terms and conditions that govern your use of each Third-Party Account. You represent and warrant that you are entitled to disclose your Third-Party Account login information to us and/or grant us access to your Third-Party Account, without breach by you of any of the terms and conditions that govern your use of the applicable Third-Party Account, and without obligating us to pay any fees or making us subject to any usage limitations imposed by the third-party service provider of the Third-Party Account. By granting us access to any Third-Party Accounts, you understand that (1) we may access, make available, and store (if applicable) any content that you have provided to and stored in your Third-Party Account (the "Social Network Content") so that it is available on and through the Services via your account, including without limitation any friend lists and (2) we may submit to and receive from your Third-Party Account additional information to the extent you are notified when you link your account with the Third-Party Account. Depending on the Third-Party Accounts you choose and subject to the privacy settings that you have set in such Third-Party Accounts, personally identifiable information that you post to your Third-Party Accounts may be available on and through your account on the Services. Please note that if a Third-Party Account or associated service becomes unavailable or our access to such Third-Party Account is terminated by the third-party service provider, then Social Network Content may no longer be available on and through the Services. You will have the ability to disable the connection between your account on the Services and your Third-Party Accounts at any time. PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE THIRD-PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR THIRD-PARTY ACCOUNTS IS GOVERNED SOLELY BY YOUR AGREEMENT(S) WITH SUCH THIRD-PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS. We make no effort to review any Social Network Content for any purpose, including but not limited to, for accuracy, legality, or non-infringement, and we are not responsible for any Social Network Content. You acknowledge and agree that we may access your email address book associated with a Third-Party Account and your contacts list stored on your mobile device or tablet computer solely for purposes of identifying and informing you of those contacts who have also registered to use the Services. You can deactivate the connection between the Services and your Third-Party Account by contacting us using the contact information below or through your account settings (if applicable). We will attempt to delete any information stored on our servers that was obtained through such Third-Party Account, except the username and profile picture that become associated with your account.


11. Third-Party Websites and Content

The Services may contain (or you may be sent via the Site) links to other websites ("Third-Party Websites") as well as articles, photographs, text, graphics, pictures, designs, music, sound, video, information, applications, software, and other content or items belonging to or originating from third parties ("Third-Party Content"). Such Third-Party Websites and Third-Party Content are not investigated, monitored, or checked for accuracy, appropriateness, or completeness by us, and we are not responsible for any Third-Party Websites accessed through the Services or any Third-Party Content posted on, available through, or installed from the Services, including the content, accuracy, offensiveness, opinions, reliability, privacy practices, or other policies of or contained in the Third-Party Websites or the Third-Party Content. Inclusion of, linking to, or permitting the use or installation of any Third-Party Websites or any Third-Party Content does not imply approval or endorsement thereof by us. If you decide to leave the Services and access the Third-Party Websites or to use or install any Third-Party Content, you do so at your own risk, and you should be aware these Legal Terms no longer govern. You should review the applicable terms and policies, including privacy and data gathering practices, of any website to which you navigate from the Services or relating to any applications you use or install from the Services. Any purchases you make through Third-Party Websites will be through other websites and from other companies, and we take no responsibility whatsoever in relation to such purchases which are exclusively between you and the applicable third party. You agree and acknowledge that we do not endorse the products or services offered on Third-Party Websites and you shall hold us blameless from any harm caused by your purchase of such products or services. Additionally, you shall hold us blameless from any losses sustained by you or harm caused to you relating to or resulting in any way from any Third-Party Content or any contact with Third-Party Websites.


12. Services Management

We reserve the right, but not the obligation, to: (1) monitor the Services for violations of these Legal Terms; (2) take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in our sole discretion, violates the law or these Legal Terms, including without limitation, reporting such user to law enforcement authorities; (3) in our sole discretion and without limitation, refuse, restrict access to, limit the availability of, or disable (to the extent technologically feasible) any of your Contributions or any portion thereof; (4) in our sole discretion and without limitation, notice, or liability, to remove from the Services or otherwise disable all files and content that are excessive in size or are in any way burdensome to our systems; and (5) otherwise manage the Services in a manner designed to protect our rights and property and to facilitate the proper functioning of the Services.


13A. AI Analysis Limitations and User Responsibilities

Multi-Provider Architecture

The Services utilize multiple third-party AI providers (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI). Providers have independent terms, limitations, and potential service interruptions that may affect our Services. We may change providers or models over time without prior notice.

Non-Deterministic Outputs

Our AI board members provide diverse perspectives by design. The same strategic question may yield different recommendations upon re-analysis. This variability enables comprehensive strategic exploration.

Cost Controls

Services implement reasonable cost ceilings per session. Complex analyses may be truncated if limits are reached.

Processing Pipeline

Strategic analysis may follow a multi-stage pipeline involving different models for specific tasks (e.g., initial analysis, summarization, synthesis). Failure at any stage may result in partial outputs.

Hallucination and Verification

AI models can generate convincing but incorrect information (hallucinations). You must independently verify all quantitative claims, competitive intelligence, and other material facts before making business decisions based on Outputs.

Feature Flags

Certain premium features may be enabled/disabled based on subscription tier. Feature availability is not guaranteed.

High-Risk / Safety-Critical Use Prohibited

The Services are not designed for use where failure could reasonably result in death, personal injury, or severe environmental or property damage ("High-Risk Uses"). High-Risk Uses include, without limitation, medical diagnosis or treatment, life-support, emergency response, autonomous vehicles, aviation, nuclear facilities, weapons systems, critical infrastructure, or safety-of-life systems. You must not use the Services in High-Risk Uses or to generate instructions intended to be executed in such contexts. You remain solely responsible for appropriate human review and safeguards. We disclaim all liability arising from any prohibited High-Risk Use.

Enterprise & Regulated Use Exclusion

The Services are designed for SMB/internal business use without custom security addenda, BAAs, SLAs, or bespoke compliance. If you require a BAA, custom DPA, uptime SLA, audit rights beyond our standard DPA, or use in regulated/high-risk contexts, do not use the Services.


13B. Third-Party AI Dependencies

Business-Input Routing

To generate Outputs, the Services route only the business-content fields you submit in analysis forms (e.g., brand/domain, competitors, product descriptions, budgets/estimates) to third-party AI providers listed on our Sub-processor page. We do not transmit your account contact details or payment card numbers for this purpose. We do not accept per-customer exclusions or provider opt-outs.

No Personal Information in Analysis Fields

See Section 3 for requirements regarding business-only inputs.

Uniform Routing; No Exclusions

The Services are offered on a single, uniform routing posture. We do not offer per-customer provider exclusions, custom routing, data residency guarantees, or special handling. If you require provider-specific guarantees or restrictions, do not use the Services.

Provider Control Limits

Where available, we enable provider controls intended to limit reuse (e.g., "no-training"). Providers operate under their own terms and may log or review content for safety. We do not control and do not guarantee provider behavior or retention.

Substitution

We may substitute substantially comparable providers or models at any time without notice. The uniform routing posture does not change.

Variability

Model outputs may vary by run and availability.


13C. AI Providers & Model Usage

Business-Input Routing

To generate Outputs, the Services route only the business-content fields you submit in analysis forms (e.g., brand/domain, competitors, product descriptions, budgets/estimates) to third-party AI providers listed on our Sub-processor page. We do not transmit your account contact details or payment card numbers for this purpose. We do not accept per-customer exclusions or provider opt-outs. Note on DeepSeek: DeepSeek models are served via Together AI, a U.S.-based hosting platform. All processing occurs on U.S. infrastructure; no data is transmitted to the People's Republic of China.

No Personal Information in Analysis Fields

The Services are for business content. Do not include personal information about individuals (e.g., names, personal emails, phone numbers, account numbers) in analysis fields. If you choose to include such information, you represent and warrant you have lawful authority to do so.


14. Privacy Policy

Your use is subject to our Privacy Policy. We honor Do-Not-Sell/Share and GPC for advertising cookies where required by law. These opt-outs do not alter: (i) our uniform AI provider routing, or (ii) creation of de-identified Training Data. As described in our Privacy Policy, we create de-identified Training Data to improve our Services. This is a fundamental aspect of how our AI-powered tools learn and improve. If you do not consent to Training Data creation, you may not use the Services, or you may request account deletion at any time per Section 24.


15. Term and Termination

These Legal Terms shall remain in full force and effect while you use the Services. WITHOUT LIMITING ANY OTHER PROVISION OF THESE LEGAL TERMS, WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO, IN OUR SOLE DISCRETION AND WITHOUT NOTICE OR LIABILITY, DENY ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE SERVICES (INCLUDING BLOCKING CERTAIN IP ADDRESSES), TO ANY PERSON FOR ANY REASON OR FOR NO REASON, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION FOR BREACH OF ANY REPRESENTATION, WARRANTY, OR COVENANT CONTAINED IN THESE LEGAL TERMS OR OF ANY APPLICABLE LAW OR REGULATION. WE MAY TERMINATE YOUR USE OR PARTICIPATION IN THE SERVICES OR DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT AND ANY CONTENT OR INFORMATION THAT YOU POSTED AT ANY TIME, WITHOUT WARNING, IN OUR SOLE DISCRETION.

If we terminate or suspend your account for any reason, you are prohibited from registering and creating a new account under your name, a fake or borrowed name, or the name of any third party, even if you may be acting on behalf of the third party. In addition to terminating or suspending your account, we reserve the right to take appropriate legal action, including without limitation pursuing civil, criminal, and injunctive redress. If we terminate solely for convenience (and not for your breach), we will provide a pro-rated refund of any prepaid, unused subscription fees.

Effect of Termination or Deletion

Upon termination or account deletion:

  • Your account access is immediately revoked
  • Personal account data (email, billing info, login credentials) is deleted or irreversibly de-identified within 30 days
  • Reports and intelligence packages are deleted within 30 days
  • Training Data (if created) is handled per the deletion rights in Section 24

16. Modifications and Interruptions

We reserve the right to change, modify, or remove the contents of the Services at any time or for any reason at our sole discretion without notice. However, we have no obligation to update any information on our Services. We will not be liable to you or any third party for any modification, price change, suspension, or discontinuance of the Services.

We cannot guarantee the Services will be available at all times. We may experience hardware, software, or other problems or need to perform maintenance related to the Services, resulting in interruptions, delays, or errors. We reserve the right to change, revise, update, suspend, discontinue, or otherwise modify the Services at any time or for any reason without notice to you. You agree that we have no liability whatsoever for any loss, damage, or inconvenience caused by your inability to access or use the Services during any downtime or discontinuance of the Services. Nothing in these Legal Terms will be construed to obligate us to maintain and support the Services or to supply any corrections, updates, or releases in connection therewith. We do not provide an uptime service level agreement unless expressly stated in an order form.

Service Availability

We target high availability for our application layer but cannot guarantee third-party AI API availability. Service credits are not provided for outages caused by third-party providers (including AI APIs and hosting/subprocessors). Because the Services orchestrate multiple third-party AI APIs, we do not provide credits for outages caused by those third-party providers.


17. Governing Law

These Legal Terms and your use of the Services are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California applicable to agreements made and to be entirely performed within the State of California, without regard to its conflict of law principles.


18. Dispute Resolution

Informal Negotiations

To expedite resolution and control the cost of any dispute, controversy, or claim related to these Legal Terms (each a "Dispute" and collectively, the "Disputes") brought by either you or us (individually, a "Party" and collectively, the "Parties"), the Parties agree to first attempt to negotiate any Dispute (except those Disputes expressly provided below) informally for at least thirty (30) days before initiating arbitration. Such informal negotiations commence upon written notice from one Party to the other Party.

Binding Arbitration

If the Parties are unable to resolve a Dispute through informal negotiations, the Dispute will be finally and exclusively resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Commercial Arbitration Rules. Your arbitration fees and your share of arbitrator compensation shall be allocated per those rules; if costs are determined by the arbitrator to be excessive, we will pay amounts deemed excessive. The arbitration may be conducted in person, through the submission of documents, by phone, or online. The arbitrator will issue a written decision and must apply applicable law. The arbitration will take place in San Diego, California, unless the AAA rules or applicable law require otherwise. These arbitration terms are governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).

Court Proceedings

If a Dispute proceeds in court, it shall be commenced in the state or federal courts located in San Diego, California, and the Parties consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there. Application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods and the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act (UCITA) are excluded from these Legal Terms.

Limitation Period

In no event shall any Dispute be commenced more than one (1) year after the cause of action arose.

Restrictions

The Parties agree that any arbitration shall be limited to the Dispute between the Parties individually. To the full extent permitted by law, (a) no arbitration shall be joined with any other proceeding; (b) there is no right or authority for any Dispute to be arbitrated on a class-action basis or to utilize class action procedures; and (c) there is no right or authority for any Dispute to be brought in a purported representative capacity on behalf of the general public or any other persons.

Exceptions to Informal Negotiations and Arbitration

Either party may bring an individual action in small-claims court in a venue with jurisdiction. The Parties agree that the following Disputes are not subject to the above provisions concerning informal negotiations binding arbitration: (a) any Disputes seeking to enforce or protect, or concerning the validity of, any of the intellectual property rights of a Party; (b) any Dispute related to, or arising from, allegations of theft, piracy, invasion of privacy, or unauthorized use; and (c) any claim for injunctive relief. If this provision is found to be illegal or unenforceable, then neither Party will elect to arbitrate any Dispute falling within that portion of this provision found to be illegal or unenforceable and such Dispute shall be decided by a court of competent jurisdiction within the courts listed for jurisdiction above, and the Parties agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of that court.

Delegation

The arbitrator, not any court, will decide arbitrability issues including scope and enforceability of this arbitration agreement.

Severability

If the class action waiver is found unenforceable, the arbitration agreement remains in effect for individual claims.


19. Corrections

There may be information on the Services that contains typographical errors, inaccuracies, or omissions, including descriptions, pricing, availability, and various other information. We reserve the right to correct any errors, inaccuracies, or omissions and to change or update the information on the Services at any time, without prior notice.


20. No Professional Advice

The Services provide AI-assisted business intelligence and financial modeling for informational purposes only. Outputs are decision support and may contain errors; you must independently verify before relying.

Important Disclaimers

  • (a) Not investment advice: Outputs (including NPV/ROI, Monte Carlo, real-options, or forecasts) are not investment recommendations and we are not an investment adviser.
  • (b) Not legal, accounting, or tax advice: Consult qualified professionals before acting.
  • (c) Model boundary: LLMs may summarize/draft, but numeric calculations are performed by Surmado's code using standardized, automated financial models applied to your estimates and assumptions; results are sensitive to those inputs and may not fit your specific context.
  • (d) Verification duty: You are solely responsible for independently verifying all quantitative claims, competitive intelligence, and data points before relying on them.
  • (e) No reliance; no fiduciary duty: You acknowledge decisions you make based on Outputs are at your sole risk and discretion.
  • (f) Affirmative acknowledgment: Your in-product checkbox consent gates report generation and is logged with timestamps.
  • (g) Customer Verification Duty: You are solely responsible for independently verifying all Outputs before relying on them for business decisions, and for ensuring your use of Outputs complies with any industry regulations applicable to you (e.g., financial services, healthcare, legal).
  • (h) Industry-Specific Restrictions: If you operate in a regulated industry requiring licensed advice (financial services, healthcare, legal, accounting), you must consult qualified licensed professionals before acting on any Outputs.
  • (i) Financial Information Acknowledgment: If you provide financial estimates or projections to the Services (e.g., in Solutions), you acknowledge that such business-context information (excluding account credentials and billing details) will be shared with AI providers to generate your analysis. You waive confidentiality claims related to business information you voluntarily share with Surmado for analysis purposes.

21. Disclaimer

THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN AS-IS AND AS-AVAILABLE BASIS. YOU AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE AT YOUR SOLE RISK. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES AND YOUR USE THEREOF, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE MAKE NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE SERVICES' CONTENT OR THE CONTENT OF ANY WEBSITES OR MOBILE APPLICATIONS LINKED TO THE SERVICES AND WE WILL ASSUME NO LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY (1) ERRORS, MISTAKES, OR INACCURACIES OF CONTENT AND MATERIALS, (2) PERSONAL INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE, OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER, RESULTING FROM YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE SERVICES, (3) ANY UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR USE OF OUR SECURE SERVERS AND/OR ANY AND ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION AND/OR FINANCIAL INFORMATION STORED THEREIN, (4) ANY INTERRUPTION OR CESSATION OF TRANSMISSION TO OR FROM THE SERVICES, (5) ANY BUGS, VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, OR THE LIKE WHICH MAY BE TRANSMITTED TO OR THROUGH THE SERVICES BY ANY THIRD PARTY, AND/OR (6) ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN ANY CONTENT AND MATERIALS OR FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF ANY CONTENT POSTED, TRANSMITTED, OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE VIA THE SERVICES. WE DO NOT WARRANT, ENDORSE, GUARANTEE, OR ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY PRODUCT OR SERVICE ADVERTISED OR OFFERED BY A THIRD PARTY THROUGH THE SERVICES, ANY HYPERLINKED WEBSITE, OR ANY WEBSITE OR MOBILE APPLICATION FEATURED IN ANY BANNER OR OTHER ADVERTISING, AND WE WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO OR IN ANY WAY BE RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING ANY TRANSACTION BETWEEN YOU AND ANY THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERS OF PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. AS WITH THE PURCHASE OF A PRODUCT OR SERVICE THROUGH ANY MEDIUM OR IN ANY ENVIRONMENT, YOU SHOULD USE YOUR BEST JUDGMENT AND EXERCISE CAUTION WHERE APPROPRIATE.

AI Limitations

The Services use large language models that are: (i) probabilistic, not deterministic; (ii) subject to training data cutoffs; (iii) capable of generating plausible but incorrect information; (iv) dependent on third-party API availability; and (v) optimized for pattern recognition, not factual accuracy. Strategic recommendations are educated hypotheses, not guarantees. Market conditions, competitive dynamics, and implementation quality will affect actual outcomes.


22. Limitations of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, AND EVEN IF A REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE, IN NO EVENT WILL SURMADO BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, GOODWILL, OR DATA, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY. SURMADO'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID FOR THE SPECIFIC SERVICE IN THE THREE (3) MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY, OR (B) $500. FOR FREE, BETA, OR TRIAL FEATURES, THE CAP IS $100.

The foregoing does not limit liability for death or personal injury caused by gross negligence, or for willful misconduct to the extent such limits are prohibited by law. These are your exclusive remedies for claims related to the Services.


23. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us harmless, including our subsidiaries, affiliates, and all of our respective officers, agents, partners, and employees, from and against any loss, damage, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees and expenses, made by any third party due to or arising out of: (1) use of the Services; (2) breach of these Legal Terms; (3) any breach of your representations and warranties set forth in these Legal Terms; (4) your violation of the rights of a third party, including but not limited to intellectual property rights; (5) any overt harmful act toward any other user of the Services with whom you connected via the Services; or (6) your use of the Services in violation of export or sanctions laws. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we reserve the right, at your expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter for which you are required to indemnify us, and you agree to cooperate, at your expense, with our defense of such claims. We will use reasonable efforts to notify you of any such claim, action, or proceeding which is subject to this indemnification upon becoming aware of it.


24. User Data

Data Retention

We retain different types of data for different purposes:

  • Account Data (email, password, billing): While account is active (with no time limit for active accounts) + 3 years after account closure or last purchase for tax, audit, fraud prevention, and dispute resolution purposes.
  • Business Inputs (brand names, URLs, descriptions, strategic context): While account is active (with no time limit for active accounts) + 12 months after account closure for customer support and service improvement. These may be converted to Training Data per §2(d) if properly de-identified.
  • Reports and Intelligence Packages: While account is active (with no time limit for active accounts) + 12 months after account closure for support and integration with other Surmado services (e.g., Solutions intelligence tokens).
  • Training Data (de-identified): Retained for 24 months from creation, then automatically deleted.

Deletion Rights

You may request deletion of your data at any time by emailing legal@surmado.com with your account email for verification.

Deletion Process

Upon verified deletion request, we will:

  1. Delete or irreversibly de-identify Customer Data from active systems within 30 days
  2. Overwrite backup copies within 35 days (standard backup rotation schedule)
  3. Invalidate all intelligence tokens (e.g., SIG-2025-10-XXXXX) preventing use with other services
  4. Use reasonable efforts, including provenance records, to identify and remove derived Training Data that remains reasonably linkable to your account from active systems

De-identified Data

To the extent we create Training Data from your inputs and outputs, we strip account identifiers (email, password, tokens, IP logs, exact timestamps) and apply industry-standard de-identification techniques.


25. Electronic Communications, Transactions, and Signatures

Visiting the Services, sending us emails, and completing online forms constitute electronic communications. You consent to receive electronic communications, and you agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications we provide to you electronically, via email and on the Services, satisfy any legal requirement that such communication be in writing. YOU HEREBY AGREE TO THE USE OF ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES, CONTRACTS, ORDERS, AND OTHER RECORDS, AND TO ELECTRONIC DELIVERY OF NOTICES, POLICIES, AND RECORDS OF TRANSACTIONS INITIATED OR COMPLETED BY US OR VIA THE SERVICES. You hereby waive any rights or requirements under any statutes, regulations, rules, ordinances, or other laws in any jurisdiction which require an original signature or delivery or retention of non-electronic records, or to payments or the granting of credits by any means other than electronic means.


26. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

We respect IP rights. We maintain a policy of terminating or suspending accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. If you believe content infringes your copyright, send a notice to our DMCA Agent with: (i) your signature; (ii) identification of the work and the infringing material; (iii) your contact info; (iv) a statement of good-faith belief; and (v) a statement under penalty of perjury that the notice is accurate and you are authorized. Counter-notices must satisfy 17 U.S.C. §512(g). If we receive a valid counter-notice, we may re-post the content in 10-14 business days unless we receive notice that the original complainant has filed a court order.

DMCA Agent: Legal Department, Surmado, Inc., 1301 North Broadway, STE 32373, Los Angeles, CA 90012; legal@surmado.com.


27. California Users and Residents

If any complaint with us is not satisfactorily resolved, you can contact the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, California 95834 or by telephone at (800) 952-5210 or (916) 445-1254.


28. Miscellaneous

These Legal Terms and any policies or operating rules posted by us on the Services or in respect to the Services constitute the entire agreement and understanding between you and us. Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Legal Terms shall not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. These Legal Terms operate to the fullest extent permissible by law. We may assign any or all of our rights and obligations to others at any time. Force Majeure. We shall not be responsible or liable for any loss, damage, delay, or failure to act caused by any cause beyond our reasonable control. If any provision or part of a provision of these Legal Terms is determined to be unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision or part of the provision is deemed severable from these Legal Terms and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. There is no joint venture, partnership, employment or agency relationship created between you and us as a result of these Legal Terms or use of the Services. You agree that these Legal Terms will not be construed against us by virtue of having drafted them. You hereby waive any and all defenses you may have based on the electronic form of these Legal Terms and the lack of signing by the parties hereto to execute these Legal Terms.

Survival

The following Sections survive termination or expiration: 2 (Intellectual Property Rights) as to ownership and license restrictions; 5 (to the extent fees remain due); 7, 7A (Prohibited Activities, Rate Limiting); 8 (User Generated Contributions) as to feedback; 13A–13C (AI Limitations, Dependencies, Providers); 14 (Privacy Policy); 15 (effects of termination); 16 (Modifications/Interruptions disclaimers); 17 (Governing Law); 18 (Dispute Resolution); 20 (No Professional Advice); 21 (Disclaimer); 22 (Limitations of Liability); 23 (Indemnification); 24 (User Data) as to retention/deletion; and 28 (Miscellaneous).

Order of Precedence

If there is a conflict among these Terms, a signed order form or SOW, and the DPA, the following order applies: (1) the DPA for data protection matters; (2) a signed order form/SOW for commercial terms it expressly overrides; then (3) these Terms.


29. Contact Us

In order to resolve a complaint regarding the Services or to receive further information regarding use of the Services, please contact us at:

Surmado, Inc.
1301 North Broadway
STE 32373
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: 619-292-8638
Email: legal@surmado.com

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