Terms Of Use
Securing your confidence, data & growth are our primary concerns.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Certifiedby! We’re delighted to have you on our platform but before you continue, we need you to read, understand and accept these terms. We’ve done our best to explain it in plain language, so you know what we expect from you and what you can expect from us.
These are your legal rights and obligations, so please read everything. You must agree to our terms to use our services. If you still have questions or comments after you’ve read these terms please contact us at [email protected]. We’d love to help.
Last updated on 26th May 2021
JOINING & USING Certified By, herein “CB”.
In this section we explain how to Register and subscribe for Premium Features to CB and use our services. When you see a word in bold, it will have the same meaning every time it’s used within these terms.
1. You and CB: When we say you or your, we mean both you and any entity or firm you’re authorized to represent. When we say CB, we, our or us, we’re talking about the CB entity you contract with and pay fees to based on the Products and Services you have signed into.
2. Our services: Our services consist of all the services we provide now or in the future, including our online and mobile products.
3. Creating a User Profile: When you create a User profile to use our services and accept these terms, you become a User. If you’re the user, you’re the one responsible for paying for Lite & Premium features you may purchase or renew, or any partner purchases you make.
4. The right to use our services: We grant you the right to use our services based on your user role and the level of access you’ve been granted, and for Lite & Premium features, for as long as the User continues to pay or until the subscription is terminated
5. User role: As a User, you take responsibility for fully controlling how your account is managed and who can access it.
6. Rules: Whatever your role, when you use CB you agree to follow the rules outlined in the do’s and don’ts below. Please read them and make sure you understand what you should and shouldn’t do.
7. Your responsibilities: You promise that you’ll keep your information (including a current email address) up to date. You’re responsible for providing true, accurate and complete information and for verifying the accuracy of any information that you use from our services for your legal, tax and compliance obligations. You’re also responsible for protecting your username and password from getting stolen or misused. Our service has password standards and you must ensure that passwords are very strong and not easily guessable. The stronger the password the better! For more on cyber security generally, check out our cyber programs.
8. When we introduce new or revised services: CB is a constantly evolving platform and with suggestions from our Users and interested parties, we will often update or add to our services for which there might be additional terms. You will be informed of those terms are before you start using those services.
9. What we own: We own everything we’ve put into our services unless otherwise stated and excluding content owned by others. This includes rights in the design, compilation, and look and feel of our services. It also includes rights in all copyrighted works, trademarks, designs, inventions, and other intellectual property. You agree not to copy, distribute, modify or make derivative works of any of our content or use any of our intellectual property rights in any way not expressly permitted by us.
PRICING
CB is and always will be a “Freemium” product. This means that some programs will be free, with the option to upgrade to Paid Lite & Premium Programs and features as and when you are ready or have a need. The only thing you will pay for is Lite and Premium features, and / or any partner purchases you make.
10. Freemium model: When you first sign up you can opt for any number of free Programs. If you need to upgrade to Lite or Premium Programs and / or features, you simply hit a paywall that requires payment in accordance with the pricing page options. Payment must be made before these Lite and Premium Programs can be progressed and completed.
11. Changes in pricing: We may update or amend the pricing plan from time to time. The terms of the pricing plan form part of these terms. As with any other changes to our terms, changes to the pricing plan won’t apply retrospectively and, if we make changes and you’re a Lite or Premium User, we’ll make every effort to let you know.
12. Taxes for your use of our services: You’re responsible for paying all other external fees and taxes associated with your use of our services wherever levied. Your responsibility includes withholding tax if it applies, unless we already process that withholding tax. We may collect geographical location information to determine your location, which may be used for tax purposes. This means location information you give us must be accurate for tax residency purposes.
13. Importance of timely payments: In order to continue accessing our services, and for renewal of Lite and / or Premium features you need to make payment based on the features you selected.
DATA USE & PRIVACY
CB uses your data to provide our services to you. Our Privacy Policy is an important part of these terms and describes in more detail how we deal with personal data, like your name and email address.
14. Use of data: When you enter or upload your data into our services, we don’t own that data but you grant us a license to use, copy, transmit, store, analyze, and back up all data you submit to us through our services, including personal data of yourself and others, to: enable you to use our services; allow us to improve, develop and protect our services; create new services; communicate with you about your Programs and community interactions; and send you information we think may be of interest to you based on your marketing preferences.
15. Use of your own personal data: We respect your privacy and take data protection seriously. In addition to these terms, our Privacy Policy sets out in detail how we process your own personal data that you enter into CB, like your name and email address.
16. Use of personal data you enter about others: Our Privacy Policy may also apply to the personal data of others (such as your employees) that you enter into CB..
17. Anonymized statistical data: When you use our services, we may create anonymized statistical data from your data and usage of our services, including through aggregation. Once anonymized, we may use it for our own purposes, such as to provide and improve our services, to develop new services or product offerings, to identify business trends, and for other uses we communicate to you.
18. Data breach notifications: Where we think there has been unauthorized access to personal data inside your CB Profile, we’ll let you know and give you information about what has happened. Depending on the nature of the unauthorized access, and the location of your affected contacts, you may be required to assess whether the unauthorized access must be reported to the contact and/or a relevant authority. As you have the most knowledge about the personal data stored in your subscription, you will be the best person to make decisions regarding any data breaches.
CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
We take reasonable precautions to protect your confidential information and expect that you’ll do the same for ours.
19. Keeping it confidential: While using our services, you may share confidential information with us, and you may become aware of confidential information about us. You and we both agree to take reasonable steps to protect the other party’s confidential information from being accessed by unauthorized individuals. You or we may share each other’s confidential information with legal or regulatory authorities if required to do so.
SECURITY
We take security seriously and you should too – that’s why you are here! To help protect our services and your data, we offer added security features such as two-step authentication.
20. Security safeguards: While we’ve taken steps to help protect your data, no method of electronic storage is completely secure and we cannot guarantee absolute security. We will notify you if there appears to be unauthorized access to your account and we may also restrict access to certain parts of our services until you verify that access was by an authorized user.
21. Account security features: We may introduce security features to make your account more secure, such as two-step authentication. Depending on where you are in the world or what services you’re using, we may require you to adopt some of these features. Where we make the use of security features optional, you are responsible (meaning we’re not liable) for any consequences of not using those features. We strongly encourage you to use all optional security features.
22. Playing your part to secure your data: You have an important part to play by keeping your login details secure, not letting any other person use them, and by making sure you have strong security on your own systems. If you realize there’s been any unauthorized use of your password or any breach of security to your account or email address linked to your account, you need to let us know immediately. You also agree not to use free-form fields in any of CB’s systems or services to store personal data, (unless it’s a field explicitly asking for personal data – like a first name or last name) credit card details, tax identifiers or bank account details. for more on best practice ways to manage data security, check out our cyber programs.
THIRD-PARTY PRODUCTS
To help make your CB experience even more awesome, the CB Partner Program provides other products and services made available by vetted third party vendors.
23. Third-party products: Along with the use of our services, you may use data, services and apps from other companies (third-party products), for example, those we make available through our Partner Program. Any third party providing a third-party product is a Vendor and is independent of us, so be aware that a vendor may also charge you fees in addition to what you pay us. This will be communicated to you by your vendor at the time of any purchase.
24. Third-party terms and descriptions: Third-party products are subject to terms and conditions and privacy notices set by vendors. These may include how the vendor will use your data that you make available to them. Be sure to read and make sure you agree to their terms and conditions and understand their approach on personal and non-personal data before you connect to them. The descriptions of third-party products that we publish, and any associated links, have been provided to us by the vendors. While we make reasonable efforts to check the accuracy of the descriptions, the vendors are solely responsible for any representations contained in those descriptions. We don’t endorse or assume any responsibility for third-party products.
25. Payments to CB: Just so you know, some third-party vendors may pay CB a fee that may be related to: referrals from CB; revenue made by the vendor; or data that the sellers access about you through our services with your consent.
26. Review of third party apps: Although we review all apps and services offered by our partners, we will not guarantee goods and/or services. It is your responsibility to assess the performance, quality and suitability of these services/apps before using them.
MAINTENANCE, DOWNTIME & DATA LOSS
We try to minimize any downtime, but sometimes it’s necessary so we can keep our services updated and secure. You also may have occasional access issues and may experience data loss, so backing up your data is important.
27. Availability: We strive to maintain the availability of our services, and provide email support, 24 hours a day. On occasion, we need to perform maintenance on our services, and this may require a period of downtime. We try to minimize any such downtime. Where planned maintenance is being undertaken, we’ll attempt to notify you in advance but can’t guarantee it.
28. Access issues: As wonderful as the internet is, it of course has its issues – occasionally you might not be able to access our services and your data. This might happen for any number of reasons, at any time, completely out of our control.
29. Data loss: Data loss is an unavoidable risk when using any technology. You’re responsible for maintaining copies of your data entered into our services.
30. No compensation: Whatever the cause of any downtime, access issues or data loss, your only recourse is to discontinue using our services.
31. Problems and support: If you have a problem, please refer to our live chat or website contact form, If you’ve tried this and still need help, please contact [email protected] with your enquiry.
32. Modifications: We frequently release new updates, modifications and enhancements to our services, and in some cases discontinue features. Where this occurs, we’ll endeavor to notify you where practical (for example, by email, on our website, or within our services when you log in).
DO’s and DON’T’s
Please read this section carefully. it outlines how you can (and can’t) use our services.
33. Feedback: We appreciate your feedback and may use it without restriction.
34. Help using our services: We provide a lot of guidance and support to help you use our services. You agree to use our services only for lawful business purposes and in line with the instructions and guidance we provide.
36. No-charge or beta services: Occasionally we may offer a service at no charge – for example a beta service, or a time-limited trial account. Because of the nature of these services, you use them at your own risk.
DONT’s
37. While we can’t anticipate all circumstances that may apply, we want to highlight a few more examples of things you must not do:
– Undermine the security or integrity of our computing systems or networks.
– Use our services in any way that might impair functionality or interfere with other people’s use.
– Access any system without permission.
– Introduce or upload anything to our services that includes viruses or other malicious code.
– Share anything that may be offensive, violates any law, or infringes on the rights of others.
– Modify, copy, adapt, reproduce, disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer or extract the source code of any part of our services.
– Resell, lease or provide our services in any way not expressly permitted through our services.
– Repackage, resell, or sublicense any leads or data accessed through our services.
– Commit fraud or other illegal acts through our services.
– Act in a manner that is abusive or disrespectful to a CB employee, Sellers, or other CB users. We will not tolerate any abuse or bullying of our CB employees in any situation and that includes interaction with our support teams.
TERMINATION
You can easily terminate your Lite and / or Premium subscription. We may terminate your subscription as well. If you violate these terms, we may terminate your subscription immediately.
38. Subscription period: Your subscription is for a period of one year for access to Lite and Premium Programs and features. To continue access, the annual renewal fee will apply. At the end of each year, these terms automatically continue provided you continue to pay the subscription fee in accordance with the pricing plan. You may choose to terminate your renewal at any time by providing one month’s written notice in advance to [email protected]. You’ll still need to pay all relevant subscription fees up to and including the day of termination.
39. Termination by CB: CB may choose to terminate your access at any time. CB may also terminate or suspend your access to all or any data immediately if:
– you breach any of these terms and do not remedy the breach within 14 days after receiving notice of the breach,
– you breach any of these terms and the breach cannot be remedied,
– you fail to pay subscription fees, or
– you or your business become insolvent, your business goes into liquidation or has a receiver or manager appointed over any of its assets, you become insolvent or make any arrangement with your creditors, or become subject to any similar insolvency event in any jurisdiction.
40. No refunds: No refund is due to you if CB terminates it in accordance with these terms.
41. Retention of your data: Once a subscription is terminated by you or us, it is archived and the data submitted or created by you is no longer available to you. We retain it for a period of time consistent with our data retention policy, during which, as a user you can reactivate your profile and once again access your data by paying the required fees. We retain data in case you need it as part of your record retention obligations, but you can get in touch with us to have your data removed completely if you wish.
LIABILITY & INDEMNITY
This section is important as it outlines liability terms between us and users, so we urge you to read it closely and in full.
42. You indemnify us: You indemnify us against all losses, costs (including legal costs), expenses, demands or liability that we incur arising out of, or in connection with, a third-party claim against us relating to your use of our services or any third-party product (except as far as we’re at fault).
43. Disclaimer of warranties: Our services and all third-party products are made available to you on an “as is” basis. Subject to the relevant consumer law terms, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including any implied warranties of non-infringement, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
44. Limitation of liability: Other than liability that we can’t exclude or limit by law, our liability to you in connection with our services or these terms, in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, is limited as follows:
We have no liability arising from your use of our services for any loss of revenue or profit, loss of goodwill, loss of customers, loss of capital, loss of anticipated savings, legal, tax or accounting compliance issues, damage to reputation, loss in connection with any other contract, or indirect, consequential, incidental, punitive, exemplary or special loss, damage or expense.
For loss or corruption of your data, our liability will be limited to taking reasonable steps to try and recover that data from our available backups.
Our total aggregate liability to you in any circumstances is limited to the total amount you paid us for your subscription in the 12 months immediately preceding the date on which the claim giving rise to the liability arose.
DISPUTES
This section outlines how disputes may be resolved.
45. Dispute resolution: Most of your concerns can be resolved quickly and to everyone’s satisfaction by contacting [email protected] If we’re unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction (or if we haven’t been able to resolve a dispute we have with you after attempting to do so informally), you and we agree to resolve those disputes through binding arbitration or small claims court instead of in courts of general jurisdiction. You and we agree that any dispute must be brought in the parties’ individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class or representative proceeding.
IMPORTANT HOUSEKEEPING
Here we set out some additional terms. Take a read as they cover important issues.
46. No professional advice: We may provide you with information we think might be useful in running a small business, but this should not be seen as a substitute for professional advice and we aren’t liable for your use of the information in that way.
47. Events outside our control: We do our best to control what we can. We aren’t liable to you for any failure or delay in performance of any of our obligations under these terms arising out of any event or circumstance beyond our reasonable control.
48 Notices: Any notice you send to CB at [email protected] and any notices we send to you will be sent to the email address you’ve provided us through your subscription.
49. Consumer laws: In some places, there may be non-excludable warranties, guarantees or other rights provided by law (non-excludable consumer guarantees). They still apply – these terms do not exclude, restrict or modify them. Except for non-excludable consumer guarantees and other rights you have that we cannot exclude, we’re bound only by the express promises made in these terms. Our liability for breach of a non-excludable consumer guarantee is limited, at our option, to either replacing or paying the cost of replacing the relevant service (unless the non-excludable consumer guarantee says otherwise).
50. Export limitations: You must not use our services in violation of any export or trade embargo laws that apply to you.
51. Excluded terms: The terms of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the Sale of Goods and the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) do not apply to these terms.
52. Blocking your access, disabling your Premium access, or refusing to process a payment: As our sites are global, different laws may apply in different countries that restrict our relationship with you. We may block your access, terminate your Premium access, or refuse to process a payment if we reasonably believe there’s a risk – like a potential breach of a law or regulation – associated with you, your company, your subscription, or a payment. Examples of where we might do this include transactions where the payment is from a sanctioned person or country; or where we reasonably believe there is a legal or regulatory risk or a risk of loss being suffered by us or our customers or partners. You promise that you’re not located in a sanctioned country and are not on a sanctioned persons list. We may also block users from a country if we can’t receive payments from that country. You should check what payment methods are available in your country for making payments. We may take any of these actions without notice.
53. Relationship between the parties; assignment: Nothing in these terms is to be construed as constituting a partnership, joint venture, employment or agency relationship between you and us, or between you and any other subscriber or invited user.
54. Changes to these terms: We sometimes will decide to change these terms of use. Changes will not apply retrospectively and, if we make changes, we’ll make every effort to let you know. You can keep track of changes to our terms by referring to the version and the date last updated at the top of the terms. Generally, we endeavor to provide you with 30 days’ notice of material changes before they become effective, unless we need to make immediate changes for reasons we don’t have control over. When we notify you, we’ll do it by email or by posting a visible notice through our services. If a change isn’t material, we may not notify you. If you find a modified term unacceptable, you may terminate your subscription by giving the standard advance notice to CB.
55. Enforcement of terms: If there’s any part of these terms that either one of us is unable to enforce, we’ll ignore that part but everything else will remain enforceable.
56. Interpretation: Words like ‘include’ and ‘including’ are not words of limitation and where anything is within our discretion we mean our sole discretion.
57. CB contracting entities; law and venue: Our contracting entities are listed below along with what law and venue apply in any dispute between you and us:
Certified By Pty Ltd
9 Wardale Road, Springvale South VIC 3172 Australia.
P: +61 3 9015 4669
E: [email protected]
Governing Law – Victoria, Australia
Governing Venue – Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria
