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GradeFund Universal Terms of Use
Last Modified: 11/11/11
PLEASE READ THE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY. IT CONTAINS IMPORTANT TERMS THAT AFFECT YOU AND YOUR USE OF THIS WEBSITE AND RELATED SERVICES, INCLUDING THE REQUIREMENT THAT DISPUTES BE SETTLED BY ARBITRATION (AND NOT BY LAWSUIT) AND A LIMIT ON THE TIME YOU HAVE TO BRING CLAIMS AGAINST GRADEFUND.
By accessing or using the GradeFund web site at www.GradeFund.com ("Site") or related services available through the Site ("Service"), you agree to the following Universal Terms of Use. If you do not agree to the following Universal Terms of Use, do not use the Site or the Service.
The Universal Terms of Use covers terms of use of visitors to the site, requirements for registration, privacy policies, and other information regarding your interaction with the Site generally.
The GradeFund (collectively, "GradeFund" or "the Service") is operated by DormAid LLC and its corporate affiliates (collectively, "us", "we" or "the Company"), a New Jersey Corporation. GradeFund reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace these Universal Terms of Use at any time. If this occurs, GradeFund will indicate at the top of these Universal Terms of Use the date such document was last updated and post the revised version on the Site. Any changes will be effective immediately upon posting the revised version on the Site (or such later effective date as may be indicated at the top of the revised Universal Terms of Use). Your continued use of the Site or Service after the posting of any changes to these Universal Terms of Use will constitute your acceptance of such changes. If you do not agree to the changes, you must stop using the Site and Service. In addition, GradeFund may provide other methods by which you may accept these Universal Terms of Use or changes to these Universal Terms of Use.
Eligibility:
Membership in the Service is void where prohibited. This Site is intended solely for users who are thirteen (13) years of age or older and students and sponsors of students in middle school, high school, college, or graduate school. Any registration by, use of or access to the Site by anyone under 13, or by anyone who is not a student nor a sponsor of a student in middle school, high school, college, or graduate school, is unauthorized, unlicensed and in violation of these Terms of Use. By using the Service or the Site, you represent and warrant that you are 13 or older and a student or a sponsor of a student in middle school, high school, college, or graduate school, or else that you are 18 or older, and that you agree to and to abide by all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
Registration Data:
In consideration of your use of the Site, you agree to (a) provide accurate, current and complete information about you as may be prompted by any registration forms on the Site ("Registration Data"); (b) maintain the security of your password and identification; (c) maintain and promptly update any other information you provide to the Company, to keep it accurate, current and complete; and (d) be fully responsible for all use of your account and for any actions that take place using your account.
Proprietary Rights and Limited License:
All content on the Site and available through the Service, including designs, text, graphics, pictures, video, information, applications, software, music, sound and other files, and their selection and arrangement (the "Site Content"), are the proprietary property of the Company or its licensors with all rights reserved. No Site Content may be modified, copied, distributed, framed, reproduced, republished, downloaded, scraped, displayed, posted, transmitted, or sold in any form or by any means, in whole or in part, without the Company's prior written permission, except that the foregoing does not apply to your own User Content (as defined below) that you legally post on the Site. Provided that you are eligible for use of the Site, you are granted a limited license to access and use the Site and the Site Content and to download or print a copy of any portion of the Site Content to which you have properly gained access solely for your personal, non-commercial use, provided that you keep all copyright or other proprietary notices intact. Except for your own User Content, you may not upload or republish Site Content on any Internet, Intranet or Extranet site or incorporate the information in any other database or compilation, and any other use of the Site Content is strictly prohibited. Such license is subject to these Universal Terms of Use and does not permit use of any data mining, robots, scraping or similar data gathering or extraction methods. Any use of the Site or the Site Content other than as specifically authorized herein, without the prior written permission of Company, is strictly prohibited and will terminate the license granted herein. Such unauthorized use may also violate applicable laws including copyright and trademark laws and applicable communications regulations and statutes. Unless explicitly stated herein, nothing in these Universal Terms of Use shall be construed as conferring any license to intellectual property rights, whether by estoppel, implication or otherwise. This license is revocable at any time without notice and with or without cause.
Submissions and Feedback:
You agree that any materials, including questions, comments, suggestions, feedback, ideas, plans, notes, postings, original or creative materials or other information, regarding the Site or the Service that are provided by you in the form of email, web form, or other submissions to GradeFund ("Submissions") are non-confidential and shall become the sole property of GradeFund. You hereby assign all of your right, title and interest in and to such Submissions, including all intellectual property rights therein, and GradeFund shall be entitled to the unrestricted use and dissemination of these materials for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you. Submissions do not include the data you store through the Service, though the Company reserves rights to use this information at well.
Fees:
GradeFund reserves the right to change the fees associated with its services at any point in time without prior notice. GradeFund's sponsorship fees are 5% of all sponsorship money. For cost reduction purposes GradeFund does not remit checks to students for less than $100, though a student may submit a request for a check of lesser amount for a $5 fee. The Company considers these fees reasonable to provide and maintain the Service and cover all credit card, website, and other fees it incurs in providing to you the various benefits of the Site.
Indemnification:
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Company, its affiliates, independent contractors and service providers, and each of their directors, officers, employees and agents ("GradeFund Parties") from and against any third party claim, suit, investigation, action, proceeding, arbitration or hearing ("Claim") and all costs, damages, losses, judgments, expenses (including reasonable attorney fees), obligations and liabilities of every kind and nature arising out of any actual or threatened Claim arising out of your use of, or inability to use, the Site or the Service.
You understand and agree that at no point does the GradeFund represent itself to be a financial institution and is not holding money on your behalf in that capacity. GradeFund reserves the right to levy fees on transfers to cover its own costs in building and maintaining the service.
Limited Liability:
In no event shall any of the GradeFund Parties be liable to you or any third party for (a) damages caused other than by the Company's gross negligence or willful misconduct or (b) any indirect, special, incidental, consequential or punitive damages whatsoever (including damages for lost profits, disclosure of confidential information, or loss of privacy), arising out of related to the site or the service, even if a GradeFund Party has been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event shall the aggregate liability of the GradeFund Parties (whether in contract, warranty, tort, product liability, strict liability or other theory) arising out of or relating to the site or service exceed the compensation you have paid, if any, to GradeFund for the Service.
Arbitration:
You agree that all arbitration necessary as a result of your becoming a user of the Site will be done by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”). The AAA will decide where arbitration will occur and how the costs of arbitration will be allocated. The arbitration’s decision will be binding and used as a judgment in any court that has relevant jurisdiction. No request for arbitration will be considered for a complaint about an event, action, injury, or claim more than 3 years after the action prompting the complaint occurred.
Termination:
The Company may terminate your membership, delete your profile and any content or information that you have posted on the Site, or prohibit you from using or accessing the Service or the Site for any reason, or no reason, at any time in its sole discretion, with or without notice, including if it believes that you are under 13, or not a student nor a sponsor of a student in middle school, high school, college, or graduate school.
Removing Information:
Access and control over most personal information on GradeFund is readily available through the profile editing tools. GradeFund users may modify or delete any of their profile information at any time by logging into their account. Information will be updated immediately. Individuals who wish to deactivate their GradeFund account may do so by emailing GradeFund at support@gradefund.com. Removed information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time but will not be generally available to members of GradeFund.
Security:
GradeFund takes appropriate precautions to protect our users' information. Your account information is located on a secured server behind a firewall. When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card number or your password), we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). (To learn more about SSL, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer). Because email and instant messaging are not recognized as secure communications, we request that you not send private information to us by email or instant messaging services. If you have any questions about the security of GradeFund Web Site, please contact us at support@gradefund.com.
Registering Generally for an Account:
You agree to abide by all the terms and conditions of these Universal Terms of Use of GradeFund.
You allow GradeFund to store your personal information after you change it or choose to remove yourself from the site. You allow GradeFund to transmit, display, advertise, analyze and use any and all information you provide to the site in ways GradeFund deems reasonable.
Under no circumstances will you seek to undermine or circumvent the security measures GradeFund puts in place to protect the privacy of its students, sponsors, educational partners, or internal systems and proprietary information.
You understand and agree that at no point does the GradeFund represent itself to be a financial institution and is not holding money on your behalf in that capacity. GradeFund reserves the right to levy fees on transfers to cover its own costs in building and maintaining the service.
You release GradeFund from all errors and omissions with respect to the use of your personal information. You indemnify GradeFund of all personal liability regarding the use of your information.
Registering as a Student:
You promise that any and all information you provide to the GradeFund for the purposes of building your profile, obtaining sponsorships, or increasing the value of your Seedfund, defined as conditional convertible cash credit for profile information and referrals, is valid and accurate information. You further vouch that all grades, transcripts, or academic records are not tampered with, and reflect your current academic standing. You are obligated to inform GradeFund if any of the details of your uploaded grades, academic history, or academic standing cease to be representative of your current academic standing. You promise under penalty of permanent removal and civil and criminal proceedings to the fullest extent possible under law that you are submitting truthful information about yourself and your academic performance.
You further promise that any and all student referrals you make to the GradeFund are validly enrolled students whose educational status would qualify them for the benefits of the GradeFund. You further promise that any and all referral emails are obtained and possessed legally by you and you are not in violation of the CAN SPAM ACT of 2003 (15 U.S.C. 7701, et seq., Public Law No. 108-187, was S.877 of the 108th United States Congress), or any other applicable laws.
You agree that GradeFund reserves the right at its sole discretion to withhold any and all referral checks, Seedfund(s), and checks in general under suspicion of fraud. If you believe funds are being withheld from you erroneously, you may contest this by contacting the GradeFund. Seedfunds you raise do not have any cash value until you raise $100 through the GradeFund site.
You agree that for the purposes of reducing its own costs, the GradeFund will retain fees from sponsorships enacted. These fees are explained in the "Fees" section of these Universal Terms of Service.
You understand GradeFund will issue money to the location as specified by the sponsor and that neither you nor GradeFund has any control over whether money is designated to be sent to you or your educational institution.
You give GradeFund the right to use any and all information contained in your profile as they see fit. This includes, but is not limited to, aggregating demographic data, using your information to pair you with related or similar parties, using your information to identify potential employees for you, allowing third parties to contact you, and more. You also allow the GradeFund to enroll you in its Employment Search authorization service, and authorize them to make your performance information anonymously available to potential employers. GradeFund agrees to go to all reasonable lengths to protect your identity and promises that it will never intentionally give information to third parties that allows third parties to determine your identity.
Registering as a Sponsor:
By registering for a sponsor account and providing your credit card information to the GradeFund, you authorize the GradeFund from time to time to charge your credit card to make necessary payments to sponsorships of students or educational cause you have created. You also vouch for the accuracy of all information uploaded about you, your professional history, and any other information provided to the site.
You understand that GradeFund does not require official transcripts for sponsor-student direct sponsorships. The GradeFund does require official transcripts from educational institutions for educational causes and corporate or organizational sponsorships. You release GradeFund from liability in the case of fraud or misinformation on behalf of your sponsored student(s) in providing their academic information, and you further acknowledge that GradeFund makes no representations as to the validity of said information.
You agree that by entering into any sponsorships with students or creating any educational causes, you agree that you are liable to pay all money derived from the sponsorship(s) thereof regardless of the validity, existence, or removal of credit card information on your account.
You promise not to retain, resell, publish, or utilize any information from the Site you gain from sponsorships or other usage in for-profit or not-for-profit activities. The information provided to you for sponsorships is to be used only in the execution and maintenance of your sponsorship agreements.
Changes in Privacy Policies:
The information below represents our Privacy Policies effective as of the date indicated at the top of these Universal Terms of Use. GradeFund reserves the right to change its Privacy Policies at any time so please review it frequently. We may also choose to notify you of material changes to the Privacy Policy by email or by means of a notice on our home page.
Collection of Personal Information:
We may collect personal information about you from you and from third parties, including personal, demographic and aggregate data. As used in this Privacy Policy, "personal information" means information that specifically identifies you, such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, social security number, driver's license number, bank account numbers, credit card number, and student identification number. Demographic information is anonymous information, which may include your age, date of birth, income, gender, geographic area, hobbies or interests. Demographic information is not considered personal information unless it is linked with your other personal information, which we may do for a variety of reasons such as customizing content or services according to your interests and preferences or verifying your identity. Personal information does not include aggregate information, which is data we collect about the use of the Site or Service (or categories of the Site or Service), from which personal information has been removed. Aggregate data are used for a number of purposes such as helping us understand trends and user needs so we can improve our products and services.
We reserve the right to use a third party to provide identity and information verification services on our site. These third parties are prohibited from using your personally identifiable information for any other purpose. We also may use your information to ascertain favorable loan agreements for you, but will not enter you into any loan agreements without your express consent.
Personal information may be collected in a number of ways, such as when you visit the Site with your Internet browser or use the Service. In addition, GradeFund may ask you to provide certain personal information when filling out and submitting registration forms or providing feedback to GradeFund. When registering for an account, you may be asked to provide your social security number, a bank account number, contact information, a student identification number, school and degree program information, your name and other personal information. Such information is not required of you but may be necessary for you to access certain benefits the Site offers. Also, you may post to the Site or transmit to GradeFund personal information, photographs, videos, and other content through messaging functionality on the Site, or to a public bulletin board, blog, chat room or other forum on the Site. Although your profile is specifically made available to your designated lenders and people that they may potentially recommend, certain information may also be viewed by other individuals. All such content that you post to the Site is done at your own risk and GradeFund bears no responsibility for any such content or any liability for any claims arising out of such content.
When you use the Site, GradeFund may also collect certain information about your computer to facilitate and evaluate your use of the Site and the Service. For example, we may log environmental variables, such as browser type, operating system, referring or exit web pages, and the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer. We may on occasion supplement the personal information you submit to us with information from third-party sources. For example, if permitted under applicable law, we may supplement your Registration Information (defined below) with address standardization data to verify the address you have entered is actually your address.
Protection of Personal Information:
We maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect the security, confidentiality and integrity of your personal information. The personal information that you provide online in connection with registering yourself as a user of the Site or of the Service or use the Service is protected in several ways. Access by you to such personal information is available through your email a password selected by you. This password is encrypted. To protect the confidentiality of such personal information, you should not divulge your password to anyone. You are responsible for all uses of the Site and Service by any person using your customer ID and password. Please advise us immediately if you believe your password has been compromised. In addition, your personal information resides on servers or in areas of facilities that only selected GradeFund personnel and contractors have access to. GradeFund encrypts all data that you submit to GradeFund through the Site, and thereby attempts to prevent unauthorized parties from viewing such information when it is transmitted to GradeFund. Please note that any information you submit by email may not be secure, so please do not send any sensitive information or materials in or attached to any email to GradeFund.
Use of Cookies:
In order to improve our Service and the Site and provide more convenient, relevant experiences to our customers, we and our vendors may use "cookies", "web beacons", and similar devices to track your activities. A cookie is small amount of data that is transferred to your browser by a web server and can only be read by the server that gave it to you. It functions as your identification card and enables GradeFund to record your passwords, purchases and preferences. A web beacon is a small transparent "GIF" image that is embedded in an HTML page or email used to track when the page or email has been viewed. A similar device may be used by which a product, service or functionality may send data to a server when a set of user-initiated events occur (such as after clicking a button on the Site or in an email). This device is similar to a cookie in that it tracks your visit and the data can only be read by the server that receives the data. It is different than a cookie in that it is not browser-based, may not function as an identification card and does not store any data on your computer. While GradeFund uses cookies and similar devices to track your use of the Site and the Service, such as the number of downloads, types of Service used, and how many users we receive daily, and while our web servers automatically log the IP/Internet address of your computer, GradeFund does not generally use this information to identify you personally. However, if you expressly provide consent for the Site or the Service to "remember" you when you log into your account, that unique identifier will be stored on a cookie on your computer and that unique identifier will be linked to your Registration Information. As a result, your navigation path around the Site and the Service will be tracked.
Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies and similar devices. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or similar device, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it, though this may preclude you from using the Site.
Contacting Us:
To contact GradeFund with questions, concerns, or objections to this policy you may post mail to GradeFund, Inc., PO Box 742, Northbrook, IL 60065. Alternatively, you may email support@gradefund.com.
GradeFund Universal Terms of Use 11/11/11