Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the marketing website at northstardata.com, the Northstar Business platform, and any related services offered by Northstar Data Services Inc. ("Northstar", "we", "our", "us"). By using the services, you agree to these Terms.

Acceptance of these terms

If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of a company or other organization (a "Tenant"), you represent that you have authority to bind that organization, and "you" in these Terms refers to that organization as well as the individual user. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the services.

The services

Northstar offers two related services under one company:

• Consulting services — custom Pick/MultiValue programming, integration, and modernization work delivered under separate written agreements with each consulting client. The marketing site at northstardata.com is the public-facing description of this work.
• Northstar Business — a multi-tenant software platform for measuring and improving the online presence of local service businesses, including AI-assisted authoring and cross-channel publishing. Northstar Business is provided as a hosted service via app.northstardata.com, admin.northstardata.com, and tenant subdomains of northstardata.com.

These Terms cover both. Where a section applies only to one, we say so. Where a written consulting agreement conflicts with these Terms, the consulting agreement controls for that engagement.

Your account

To use Northstar Business you need an account. You agree to:

• Provide accurate, current, and complete information.
• Keep your credentials confidential and not share them.
• Be responsible for everything that happens under your account, including actions by users you invite.
• Notify us at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorized access.

You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority where you live, whichever is greater) to create an account.

Acceptable use

You agree not to use the services to:

• Violate any law or anyone else's rights.
• Post or publish content that is unlawful, defamatory, deceptive, fraudulent, infringing, harassing, sexually explicit, or that promotes violence or discrimination.
• Misrepresent yourself or your business, or post on behalf of a business without authority.
• Spam, send unsolicited communications, or attempt to manipulate ratings, reviews, search rankings, or AI outputs.
• Attack the services, attempt to gain unauthorized access, scrape data we have not made available, probe for vulnerabilities outside an authorized program, or interfere with other users.
• Use the services to train competing AI models or to build a substantially similar product.
• Resell, sublicense, or expose the services to third parties as your own (white-labeling requires a separate written agreement).

We may remove content, suspend access, or terminate accounts that violate these rules. We are not obligated to monitor your use, but we may.

Your content and licenses

You own your content

You retain all rights to the content you upload, author, or otherwise submit to the services (your "Content"), including photos, posts, descriptions, business information, and authored material. We do not claim ownership of your Content.

The license you grant us

To run the services for you, you grant Northstar a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, process, transmit, display, adapt for delivery (for example, resizing photos for the web), and otherwise use your Content solely to provide and improve the services for you. This license includes sending your Content to the subprocessors listed in our Privacy Policy, including AI providers as described in the AI Usage Disclosure, only as needed to do so.

Publishing to third-party channels

When you authorize Northstar Business to publish your Content to a third-party platform (for example, your blog, Facebook Page, Google Business Profile, or LinkedIn), you authorize us to send the Content and the necessary credentials/tokens to that platform on your behalf. Once published, that platform's terms apply to the published content.

Feedback

If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them without obligation to you.

AI-assisted features

Northstar Business uses third-party AI providers to generate measurements, narratives, suggestions, and authoring assistance. AI output is probabilistic and may be wrong, incomplete, biased, or inappropriate. You are responsible for reviewing AI-generated content before publishing it. Northstar makes no guarantee that AI-generated content is accurate, complete, non-infringing, or suitable for any particular purpose.

We do not authorize our AI providers to use your Content to train their models. See the AI Usage Disclosure for which providers we use, what data flows to each, and how to opt out of AI features where the platform exposes a choice.

Third-party services

The services integrate with third-party platforms (Google, Meta, LinkedIn, Bing, and others) and rely on third-party subprocessors (see Privacy Policy). Your use of those platforms is governed by their terms, not ours. We are not responsible for third-party platforms, and we do not guarantee continued availability of any third-party integration.

Fees and billing

If a feature, plan, or engagement carries a fee, the fee is described where you sign up for or order it. Fees are non-refundable except as stated at the point of purchase or required by law. We may change fees on prospective notice; changes do not apply retroactively to a paid term. You are responsible for taxes other than taxes on Northstar's income. Failure to pay is grounds for suspension or termination.

Our intellectual property

The services, including all software, content, design, branding, and documentation that we provide, are owned by Northstar or our licensors and are protected by intellectual property laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to use the services as permitted by these Terms. Nothing in these Terms transfers any of our intellectual property to you.

Disclaimers

The services are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, and freedom from interruption or error. Northstar does not warrant that AI-generated content is accurate, suitable, or non-infringing, and you should not rely on it without your own review.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Northstar and its officers, directors, employees, and agents are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including lost profits, lost data, business interruption, or loss of goodwill, arising from or related to the services or these Terms, even if Northstar has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Northstar's total cumulative liability for all claims arising from or related to the services or these Terms is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid Northstar for the services in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100). Some jurisdictions do not allow these limits, so they may not apply to you in full.

Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Northstar and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any third-party claim, demand, or action arising from (a) your Content, (b) your use of the services in breach of these Terms, (c) your violation of any law or third-party right, or (d) your authorized publishing to third-party platforms. We will tell you promptly about a claim, cooperate with your defense, and let you control it, provided your defense does not impose any obligation on us or admit any wrongdoing.

Suspension and termination

You may stop using the services at any time. To delete your account, see the Data Deletion Instructions. We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these Terms, if continued service creates a legal or security risk, or if we decide to stop offering a service. Where reasonable, we will give notice. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, governing law, and general provisions) survive.

Changes to the services and these terms

We may change, add, or remove features at any time. We may revise these Terms; when we do, we update the "Last updated" date at the top and, for active customers, notify the account contact. If you keep using the services after a change becomes effective, you accept the revised Terms. If you do not accept them, stop using the services and request deletion as described above.

Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Minnesota, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The state and federal courts located in Douglas County, Minnesota (or, where federal jurisdiction is required, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota) have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from these Terms or the services, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

General

• Entire agreement. These Terms, our Privacy Policy, the AI Usage Disclosure, the Cookie Policy, and any order form or written consulting agreement you sign with us are the entire agreement between you and Northstar regarding the services.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign them to an affiliate or to a successor in a corporate transaction.
• Severability. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.
• Waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of the right to do so later.
• Force majeure. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control.
• Notices to you may be sent to the email address on your account or shown in the platform. Notices to us must be sent to [email protected] with a copy to our mailing address below.

Contact

Northstar Data Services Inc.
1634 Fairview Beach Rd NE
Alexandria, MN 56308
United States

Legal notices: [email protected]
General contact: [email protected]