Terms of service

1. These Terms govern your use of Confer

These Terms apply to all use of Confer’s website, applications, and services, including tools for study, teaching, feedback, and assessment.

Confer is operated by Dustin Palea ("Confer," "we," or "us"). These Terms form an agreement between you and Confer. Contact us at dustin@conferlearning.com.

To use Confer, you must agree to these Terms. If you use Confer on behalf of a school or other organization, you confirm that you are authorized to enter this agreement for it.

Our Privacy Statement forms part of these Terms and explains how we handle information. These Terms govern personal and institutional use. If Confer and your institution sign a separate agreement, its terms control over conflicting provisions here only for the services and records it covers. We handle school records under applicable law, binding agreements, and the school's lawful instructions.

2. Use Confer through an authorized account

You may use Confer if you can legally enter this agreement or participate with the appropriate authorization of a parent, guardian, or school. For a learner under 13, a parent, guardian, or school must arrange access with Confer before the learner creates an account or shares personal information. School authorization covers the educational uses it may lawfully approve; optional personal services require their own appropriate permissions.

Keep your account information accurate and your sign-in credentials secure, and tell us promptly about suspected unauthorized access. Use materials and records you are authorized to access, following applicable law and your institution's rules, including academic-integrity requirements.

The following uses are prohibited: impersonation, harassment, unlawful content, infringement of others' rights, bypassing access controls, malicious software, and disruption of Confer. We may investigate misuse and restrict affected access under Section 7.

3. Your content stays yours

You and the relevant rights holders retain ownership of your work, teaching materials, and other content. Provide content only with the authority needed for its intended use. School-record rights remain with the relevant institution and rights holders.

You grant Confer a nonexclusive license to store, reproduce, process, adapt, and display content as needed to provide and secure authorized services, create requested feedback and learning records, and carry out the permitted educational uses described here and in the Privacy Statement. Providers may exercise these rights only for authorized work for Confer under corresponding restrictions.

This license applies only for authorized purposes and for as long as the applicable retention arrangements allow, subject to the Privacy Statement's protections. Sections 4 and 5 govern continuing personal records and qualifying de-identified improvements. Public sharing, attribution, and contributions to shared resources require the relevant permissions for the stated audience and purpose. Copyright and other rights continue to apply.

You may use, copy, adapt, and share the AI responses and other generated material provided to you, subject to rights in the source material, school permissions, and applicable law. To the extent Confer holds rights needed for that use, we grant you a nonexclusive license to exercise them. Generated material may be similar to material provided to others and may not qualify for copyright protection; we do not promise exclusive rights in it.

To report a copyright concern, contact us with your contact information, the work concerned, the location of the material in Confer, and why you believe the use is unauthorized. We review reports and may restrict or remove affected material as appropriate, while respecting applicable law and school-record obligations. We may contact the person who provided the material for a response.

4. School arrangements support continued learning

Continued personal learning is part of Confer's standard service. A school accepting these Terms through an authorized representative authorizes Confer to provide its educational services, offer learners the choice to keep eligible records for continued personal learning, and create and use qualifying de-identified information as described in Section 5 and the Privacy Statement. This authorization covers the rights and purposes the school may lawfully approve; the school retains control over records held on its behalf.

Learners can choose continued personal use during a course or before the school's copy is scheduled for deletion. We explain the eligible records and obtain any required learner or parent consent before that separate use begins. Required coursework and access to results remain available regardless of that choice. Acceptance of these Terms does not replace any purpose-specific consent required by law.

An authorized personal record can survive the end of a course or school agreement, including deletion of the school's copy, under its continuing permissions and privacy protections. You may request a copy, stop future additions from school records, or request deletion. The Privacy Statement explains eligibility and these choices.

We seek a 180-day school-record notice and choice period, with reminders and a deadline for keeping eligible records or requesting and receiving a copy. The actual period follows the school agreement and applicable requirements. Independent personal study follows your relationship with Confer; school-provided material follows its continuing permissions.

5. Learning patterns help improve Confer

Patterns in learner work and educator feedback can improve explanations, assessment, and practice for the Confer community. Under these Terms, you authorize Confer, within the rights you may lawfully grant, to create and use qualifying de-identified information for educational research, analytics, product development, and training, testing, and improving its educational systems, including AI models, subject to the Privacy Statement.

Product-wide model training uses only information that meets the documented de-identification standard in Section 6 of the Privacy Statement. Its safeguards govern permission before creating and using improvement information, identification risks in context and in combination with other information, rights in the material, and assessment of retained models and results for disclosure of personal information.

Where law and agreements allow, qualifying de-identified information and results may be retained without a fixed expiration for these educational purposes, including after source records are deleted. Once contributions are no longer identifiable, we may be unable to isolate them for an individual deletion request.

Third-party providers may not use learner content, including inputs and generated responses, to train their own models. This restriction follows content through every service processing it for Confer. Providers helping develop Confer's educational systems follow our instructions and the same restrictions. The Privacy Statement explains permitted operational retention and review. We may change models and providers for quality, reliability, or cost while maintaining these protections and meeting agreed requirements and any required advance notice or approval.

6. Your plan explains costs and access

Confer may offer free faculty trials, student plans for personal or required course use, and plans purchased by schools or departments. Each offer explains its scope and limits. Required course use follows school approval and record permissions regardless of who pays. The continuing-learning choices and educational-improvement permissions in Sections 4 and 5 are separate from the purchase.

Before purchase, the plan or order states the price, included use, billing period, any trial and renewal terms, cancellation method, refund terms, and any credit expiration or additional charges. Charges require your agreement or that of an authorized purchaser.

We disclose changes to paid terms before they apply and obtain authorization when required. Agreed charges are not increased retroactively, and a trial converts to a paid plan only with express purchase authorization. Cancellation, refunds, and remaining access follow the disclosed plan or written agreement and applicable law.

7. Changes and closure preserve record protections

You may stop using Confer or request account closure. If we offer an automatically renewing paid plan, you can cancel renewal yourself using the method identified before purchase. If that method is unavailable or does not work, contact us to request cancellation.

We may limit or end access for material violations, unlawful use, security risks, or unpaid agreed charges. Where practicable, we give notice, explain the reason, and allow a reasonable opportunity to resolve the issue. Immediate action may be necessary for legal or urgent security reasons. Institutional agreements govern covered school-service termination.

Authorized records continue under their applicable permissions and retention arrangements when service access ends. The Privacy Statement governs export and deletion, including coordination with schools. You can request eligible records when ordinary account access is restricted, subject to legal and security requirements.

For planned closure of the continuing personal-record service, we will give at least 180 days' notice and a way to obtain a copy of eligible records before closure. If legal or urgent security requirements require less time, we explain the limitation and provide as much notice and access as permitted.

We may improve or change features, including trial or experimental features, while honoring paid commitments, institutional agreements, and record protections. We describe any special limits when offering a trial or experimental feature. Third-party outages or unavailable services may interrupt affected features; we may suspend those features or use a suitable replacement consistent with our privacy commitments. These changes remain subject to the notice, record-access, and paid-plan obligations above.

We notify you of material changes to these Terms by email or a notice in Confer, with an effective date and advance notice appropriate to their effect. We obtain renewed agreement or consent where required. Existing binding agreements and the permissions for previously collected information continue to govern.

8. Confer’s technology and service commitments

Confer and its licensors retain rights in the software, designs, and technology that provide the service. These Terms permit you to use the available service for its intended purposes. Your rights in content and generated material under Section 3, and applicable rights to access personal information and learner-specific insights, continue.

Confer provides feedback and explanations that educators and learners can review and refine. Review AI-generated material for accuracy and suitability before relying on it, including when learning from an explanation or using feedback in coursework. Educators retain responsibility for final grades and academic decisions, including review and correction before results are released. AI can make mistakes, and Confer does not guarantee a particular grade, learning outcome, or accuracy level.

If you voluntarily send ideas for improving Confer's features or design, you permit us to use and incorporate those suggestions without payment to you. This permission covers product suggestions; coursework, educator feedback on learner work, and personal information remain governed by their content permissions and the Privacy Statement.

We work to provide a useful, reliable service, but cannot promise uninterrupted or error-free operation. Except for our express commitments and rights that cannot lawfully be excluded, the service is provided as available, without additional implied warranties. Our privacy, security, records-handling, and written institutional obligations remain in effect.

9. Liability and resolving disputes

To the extent permitted by law, neither party is liable to the other for indirect or consequential losses arising from these Terms or the service.

Confer's total monetary liability for all claims arising from these Terms or the service is limited to the greater of $1,000 or the fees paid to Confer for the affected account or institutional order during the 12 months before the first event giving rise to the claims. This is an aggregate limit, not a separate limit for each claim. For an institutional order, the fees and cap apply collectively to the institution and its covered users who are validly bound by these Terms.

These monetary limits apply to claims in contract, tort (including ordinary negligence), or any other legal theory, including privacy and confidentiality claims, only to the extent permitted by law. They do not apply to fraud, willful or reckless misconduct, gross negligence, or liability that the law does not allow to be limited. They do not excuse our privacy or security duties, required notices, or obligations to provide record access, return, or deletion, or limit available nonmonetary remedies. Any different liability allocation in a mutually signed agreement controls for its covered scope.

Hawaiʻi law governs these Terms, while preserving mandatory protections under applicable law. Subject to mandatory jurisdiction rules and any authorized institutional agreement, disputes may be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction in Hawaiʻi. Arbitration is not required, and nonwaivable rights remain protected.

For public institutions, these Terms apply to the extent permitted by applicable law, including limits on indemnity, immunity, payment, forum, and dispute procedures. Any mutually signed agreement controls conflicts for its covered scope as described in Section 1.

Confer may transfer this agreement only to an entity formed to operate Confer or a successor that takes over the service, provided it assumes the obligations under this agreement and the Privacy Statement. We will notify affected users and obtain any consent or institutional approval required by law or a binding agreement before the affected transfer. A transfer preserves existing record protections and limits on permitted uses. You may transfer this agreement only with our consent.

If a provision cannot be enforced, the remaining provisions continue to apply to the extent permitted by law. Provisions needed to carry out continuing record permissions, privacy duties, lawful payment obligations, ownership, and dispute resolution survive termination only to the extent their purpose requires.