ucracy Terms of Service

Effective: October 21, 2026.

Before you start: the key points

This list helps you read the Terms. It does not replace them: the full Terms below are what apply.

• These Terms are a contract between you and Ucracy Inc. You accept them by ticking the box that says you agree and choosing the button that confirms it.
• You must be 18 or older to use ucracy.
• We read bills together. AI reads each bill first, ucracy accepts or corrects every reading before you see it, and members help improve readings with “Ask for a correction”. We do our best at each step, but a reading can still be wrong, so check the source we link beside it (Section 3).
• What AI produces can be wrong. Check it against its source before you rely on it (Section 4).
• Where ucracy offers it, officials, candidates and parties can claim their profile and state their own positions, which show as theirs (Section 7).
• ucracy is not a government site, it endorses no one, and a vote on ucracy is not an official vote (Section 2).
• You own what you post. You let us show it on ucracy, and you are responsible for it (Section 8).
• Some things are never allowed, such as threats, harassment, false statements of fact that harm a real person’s reputation, impersonation, false information about how to vote, and scraping ucracy (Section 9).
• If we have a dispute, we first try to settle it informally. If that fails, most disputes go to individual arbitration, not to court or a class action, unless you opt out within 30 days; small claims court stays open (Section 21).
• When we make an important change to these Terms, we tell you in advance and ask you to agree again before you continue (Section 24).

1. About these Terms

1.1 The agreement

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and Ucracy Inc., a Delaware corporation. In these Terms, “we”, “us” and “ucracy” mean Ucracy Inc., and “ucracy” also means its website, its apps and the services we offer through them, as the context shows.

1.2 How you accept

You accept these Terms by ticking the box that says you agree and choosing the button that confirms it: when you create your account, when you claim a profile, or when we ask you to agree to a new version. You cannot use ucracy without accepting them. If you do not agree, do not create an account or use ucracy.

1.3 Other rules that are part of these Terms

These documents are part of these Terms, and you agree to follow them:

• the Community Guidelines;
• the Content Policy; and
• the takedown procedures on the pages “Copyright and takedown notices”, “Ask us to remove an intimate image” and “Child safety”.

If one of them conflicts with these Terms, these Terms control.

The Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and share information. It is a notice, not part of this contract, and we ask you to read it (Section 13). The page “How ucracy uses AI” explains where AI helps.

1.4 What “public” means here

Wherever these Terms call something public, it is visible to other people signed in to ucracy; it is not public on the internet.

1.5 Words we use

• “Member” means anyone with a ucracy account.
• “Your content” means anything you post, upload or send on ucracy (Section 8.1).
• “Reading” means ucracy’s interpretation of a bill or a vote: which issue a bill is about, and which side a Yes vote supports (Section 3).
• “Official” and “candidate” mean people who hold or run for elected office, and “party” means a political party.
• “Including” means “including but not limited to”.

2. What ucracy is, and what it is not

2.1 A place to understand, collaborate and communicate

ucracy is a civic platform where citizens, officials, candidates and political parties can understand bills and the official record, propose ideas, and talk with one another. We describe positions and records. We do not grade or judge people.

2.2 Not a government site

ucracy is run by a private company. It is not a government website, and it is not run by, affiliated with or endorsed by any government, legislature, election office, political party or candidate, unless we say so expressly. An official or candidate who claims a profile does not become our affiliate, and we do not become theirs.

2.3 A vote on ucracy is not an official vote

A vote, an answer, a co-sign or a bill on ucracy is a member’s expression of opinion. It is not a ballot, a petition, an official poll or a scientific survey, no government counts it, and it has no legal effect.

2.4 No endorsement

ucracy is nonpartisan. We do not endorse or oppose any candidate, party or ballot measure, and nothing on ucracy is a contribution to any campaign. Section 7.7 explains how we treat candidates alike.

2.5 Not advice

Nothing on ucracy is legal, voting, tax, financial or other professional advice. For official information about voting, contact your election office.

2.6 Bills that members propose

A bill a member proposes on ucracy is that member’s idea. It is not legislation, it has no legal effect, and ucracy does not adopt or endorse it.

2.7 Voting and bills

Bills are public, and so is everything members do on them. Other members can see your vote and the reason you gave on your profile, and a bill’s author is told who voted on it. A co-sign or a comment shows on the bill with your name. You may change your vote at any time. A reason you give may also be shown with the bill, without your name. Each bill’s totals are public. Totals reflect activity on ucracy only and are not an official government tally.

3. Reading bills together: our collaborative approach

ucracy helps you understand what bills do and how officials voted on them. We read each bill in three steps, and members take part in the last one.

3.1 AI reads first

For each bill, AI reads the bill’s title and official summary, from the bill’s official record or a published copy of it (for federal bills, Congress.gov). It suggests which issue the bill is about and which side a Yes vote supports. We do our best to make these readings carefully, and we keep improving how they are made.

3.2 ucracy accepts or corrects every reading

Before a reading is shown to members, ucracy accepts it as read or corrects it. We do our best at this step too. Mistakes happen, so an accepted reading can still be wrong.

3.3 Members review and improve readings, together

Wherever readings or questions appear, “Ask for a correction” sits beside them. Any member can use it to tell us what looks wrong and what it should say, and a person at ucracy reviews every request. Members can also discuss bills with one another. Working together as a community, we aim to make every reading better over time.

3.4 What a reading is

A reading is ucracy’s interpretation of an official record, made from the record we link beside it. It is not a statement by the official, candidate or party involved, and it does not describe their motives. We never change the record itself, such as how an official voted; only how it is read can be corrected. Where ucracy offers it, an official or candidate who claims a profile can state their own reading of their votes, which shows as theirs, beside ours (Section 7.5), and a party that claims its page can state its own positions (Section 7.6).

3.5 What “we do our best” means

“We do our best” describes how we work. It is not a promise that any reading is complete, current or correct. A reading can be wrong. Before you rely on one, check the source we link beside it. Section 18 explains the limits of what we promise.

3.6 What happens to your requests

When you ask for a correction, we may accept it, change it or decline it, and we decide what a reading says. We may not reply to each request individually. You give us permission to use your request, and anything you suggest in it, without paying you or naming you. You take part as a member of the community, not as our employee, agent or contractor. Send only information you have the right to share and believe to be accurate. A correction request is not a legal notice: legal notices go to the address in Section 27.

3.7 When we find an error

When we confirm that a reading is wrong, we correct it.

4. AI on ucracy

4.1 Where we use AI

We use AI to help read bills (Section 3), to help draft the questions members answer, to check that a proposed bill’s title and description are clear and free of abuse, and to suggest similar bills. The page “How ucracy uses AI” explains each use. Where members see AI’s work, ucracy labels it.

4.2 AI can be wrong

What AI produces can be false, incomplete, misleading or out of date, even after ucracy has accepted it. Do not rely on a factual statement in content made with AI’s help without checking it against its source.

4.3 What AI never does here

We do not use AI to supply a fact about a person from the AI’s own knowledge: a person’s position, vote or statement comes only from their own words or their own votes. AI does not write or change your words, and it judges no one.

4.4 The check on a bill you propose

When you propose a bill, an AI check reads its title and description before the bill is posted, and may refuse it. The check can be wrong: if it seems wrong, reword the bill and try again. A check that lets your bill through is not our approval of what it says.

4.5 Do not misuse AI features

Do not try to trick, overload or get around an AI check, or use ucracy’s AI features to make content that these Terms forbid.

5. Who may use ucracy

5.1 Age

You must be 18 or older to use ucracy. When you create your account, you confirm that you are 18 or older, and that confirmation is part of this agreement. If you give a false age, you break these Terms, and you are responsible for the consequences. If we learn that a member is under 18, we close the account.

Where the law requires us to check a member’s age, we may ask you to verify it, for example with the age range your phone’s app store holds for you, or with a check run by a service that works for us. We may limit your account, or delay opening it, until you do. We may also delay new accounts in a place until we can meet that place’s law.

5.2 Ability to agree

You must be able to form a binding contract, and the law must not bar you from using ucracy. If we closed an account of yours for breaking these Terms, you may not use ucracy again unless we agree in writing.

5.3 One personal account

Each person may have one personal account. A claimed profile of an official or a candidate has its own sign-in under Section 7.

5.4 The citizen question

We ask whether you are a U.S. citizen. Answering is optional. If you answer, answer truthfully. The Privacy Policy explains how your answer decides whether your answers and votes count in totals.

5.5 Using ucracy for an organization

If you use ucracy for an organization, such as an office, a campaign or a party, you confirm that you are authorized to accept these Terms for it, and “you” includes the organization. Section 7.8 applies to government bodies.

6. Your account

6.1 Accurate information

Give accurate, current information when you create your account, and keep it up to date, including your name, email address, phone number and address. Use your real address: we use it to place you in your districts. Do not misstate where you live, for example to appear as an official’s constituent.

6.2 Your username

Your @handle is visible to other people signed in to ucracy. Do not choose one that impersonates someone, misleads others about who you are, or infringes someone’s rights. We may change or reclaim a handle that breaks these Terms.

6.3 Security

Keep your password and other ways of signing in secure, and do not share them, except as Section 7.4 allows for a claimed profile. You are responsible for what happens under your account, except what happens after you tell us that it was compromised. Tell us at once at support@ucracy.com if you think someone else has used your account.

6.4 Verification

We may ask you to prove your email address, your phone number or other details, and we may limit your account until you do.

6.5 Your account is yours alone

Do not sell, rent, transfer or lend your account, or let anyone else use it, except as Section 7.4 allows for a claimed profile.

7. Officials, candidates and political parties

7.1 Profiles from official records

ucracy shows profiles of officials and, when it covers an election, of candidates. They are built from official records, such as legislatures’ member lists and roll calls, election offices’ candidate lists and official filings. Senator and representative voting records reference the roll-call records Congress publishes, with best-effort accuracy. A profile is there to help members understand the official record. It is not an endorsement, and until it is claimed, the person does not run it.

7.2 How we describe people

We describe positions and records, not character or performance. We show a position as a person’s own only when it rests on their own words or their own votes, and we link its basis. We never show a party’s position as an official’s or a candidate’s.

7.3 Claiming a profile

If you are the official or candidate, or someone they have authorized, you may ask to claim the profile. You must give true information, and we may check it with you, your office or others. We may refuse a claim, and we may suspend or withdraw a claim that rested on false information, that is misused, or where the law requires. A badge on a claimed profile means we verified the claim. It does not mean we endorse the person or vouch for what the profile says.

7.4 Running a claimed profile

If you run a claimed profile:

• you may let staff you authorize use it; you are responsible for everything posted from it, including by them, and their acts on it are yours;
• keep its sign-in secure, and tell us at once when someone who used it should no longer have access;
• these Terms, including the rules in Section 9, apply to you as they do to every member; and
• you are responsible for following the laws and rules that apply to you as an official or candidate, such as election, ethics and open-records laws, including any duty to keep records of what you post or to allow access to an account you use for official business. ucracy does not keep records for you.

7.5 Your own positions and readings

Where ucracy offers it, you can state from a claimed profile your own positions and your own reading of your votes. They show as yours, marked as yours, and our reading stays available beside them, marked as ours. We do not edit what you state, except to enforce these Terms or the law. On ucracy, no one can edit the record of how you voted.

7.6 Political parties

Where ucracy offers it, a political party may claim its page through an officer we verify. Positions the party states show as the party’s, and take precedence over our reading of the party’s statements. We use a party’s positions only to suggest starting answers to members who say they belong to that party, and each member can change them.

7.7 Equal treatment of candidates

We offer the same features, on the same terms, to every candidate for the same office.

7.8 Government bodies

If you accept these Terms for a government body, and the law that governs it does not let it accept part of these Terms, such as an indemnity, a choice of law, a choice of court or arbitration, that part does not apply to the body to the extent that law forbids it. You may ask us for an addendum.

7.9 If you think something about you is wrong

If you believe that something on ucracy about you is wrong, you can use “Ask for a correction”, claim your profile, or write to us at the address in Section 27. You do not need an account to write to us. We review each request in good faith, and we correct what we confirm is wrong.

8. Your content

8.1 What your content is

Your content is anything you post, upload or send on ucracy: the bills you propose, your votes and the reasons you give, your answers and positions, co-signs, comments, posts, replies, events, groups, images, audio, video, messages, reports, correction requests and your profile.

8.2 You own it

You keep whatever ownership you have in your content.

8.3 The permission you give us

So that we can run ucracy, you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, process, adapt in format (for example to fit a screen), display and distribute your content within ucracy, and to let our service providers do these things for us. This license lets us:

• show your content to the people allowed to see it under the Privacy Policy and your settings;
• keep your content after you delete your account where Section 23.3 says it stays, with your name removed;
• keep backups for a limited time;
• use your content to keep ucracy safe, to enforce these Terms and to meet legal duties; and
• make statistics that identify no one.

We may transfer this license to a successor under Section 26.4. We do not use your content to promote ucracy outside ucracy without asking you first.

8.4 Other members

Other members may see and respond to your content on ucracy, as its features allow. They get no right to copy it outside ucracy, except as the law allows.

8.5 Your responsibility for your content

You are responsible for your content and for what follows from posting it. When you post, you promise that:

• you have the rights needed to post it and to give us the license above;
• it does not infringe anyone’s copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other rights;
• what it states as fact about a real person is, to the best of your knowledge, true; and
• it follows these Terms and the law.

8.6 Your views are your own

Member content is the view of the member who posted it, not of ucracy. We do not endorse it, and we do not review it before it appears, apart from automatic checks such as the one in Section 4.4. We have no duty to monitor content, but we may.

8.7 Removing your content

Where ucracy lets you delete something you posted, you can delete it yourself, and you can ask us to remove anything else. When you delete your account, some content stays, with your name removed, because others built on it (Section 23.3). A copy may remain in backups for a limited time, and we may keep content when the law requires it or to protect people.

8.8 Ideas about ucracy

If you send us ideas or feedback about ucracy, we may use them freely, without paying you or naming you.

8.9 Events and groups you create

If you create an event or a group on ucracy, you are responsible for it and for following the law, including any permit an event needs. ucracy does not organize, host, supervise or check events, and you take part in any event at your own risk.

9. Rules for using ucracy

ucracy works only if people can disagree without fear and can trust what they read. So you agree not to use ucracy to do, or to help anyone do, any of the following.

9.1 Harm to people

• Threaten anyone, or encourage violence against anyone, including officials, candidates, election workers and their families.
• Harass, bully or intimidate anyone, or encourage others to.
• Attack people because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age or another protected characteristic.
• Post someone’s private information without their consent, such as a home address, a personal phone number or email address, an identity document, financial or medical information, or anything that lets others find or harm them.
• Post sexual content involving a minor, in any form. We remove it, report it to the authorities as the law requires, and close the account.
• Share an intimate image of someone without their consent, including one made or changed with AI.
• Post sexually explicit content or gratuitous violence.
• Promote or encourage self-harm.

9.2 Truth and trust

• Post a false statement of fact about a real person that harms their reputation.
• Impersonate any person, official, candidate, party, government body or ucracy, or falsely claim to be affiliated with one.
• Post false information about how, when or where to vote or to register, about who may vote, or about whether a vote will be counted; falsely claim that a candidate has withdrawn or that an election has been moved or cancelled; or post content meant to stop people from voting.
• Post synthetic or altered media that shows a real person saying or doing something they did not say or do, unless it is clearly labeled.
• Post content that falsely claims to come from ucracy or from a government.

9.3 Fair participation

• Create more than one personal account, or use a fake identity.
• Manipulate votes, answers, totals or co-signs, including by buying, selling or trading them, or by coordinating fake or automated activity.
• Give a false answer to the citizen question, or a false address, to change what counts.
• Send spam, chain messages, unsolicited ads or bulk messages, including to officials.
• Sell anything, or ask for money or donations, without our written permission.
• Misuse the report or correction tools, for example to harass someone or to flood our reviewers.

9.4 The rights of others

• Post content that infringes someone’s copyright, trademark or other rights.
• Collect information about members without their consent.

9.5 Protecting ucracy

• Scrape, crawl, copy in bulk or harvest any part of ucracy, or reach it by bots, scripts or other automated means, without our written permission.
• Use content or data from ucracy to train or improve AI models, or to build a database or a service, without our written permission.
• Probe, scan or test the security of ucracy, or get around any security measure, sign-in or limit, except as a security-research policy we publish allows.
• Upload viruses or harmful code, or interfere with or overload ucracy.
• Copy, change, decompile or reverse engineer ucracy’s software, except where the law allows it despite this rule.
• Use ucracy in a way that breaks the law, or that exposes ucracy or its members to legal liability.

9.6 What we may do

If we believe that you have broken these rules, we may remove or limit your content, limit features, suspend or close your account, and report conduct to the authorities where the law requires it or where someone may be in danger. Section 10 explains how.

10. Moderation, reports and takedowns

10.1 How to report

Use “Report” beside content to tell us that it breaks these Terms. Anyone, with or without an account, can ask us to remove an intimate image, or send a copyright notice, on pages that anyone can open without signing in. The page “Child safety” explains how to report a concern about a child.

10.2 What we do

We review reports and decide what to do. We may remove content, limit who sees it, limit an account’s features, or suspend or close the account. When we remove a bill, its number stays, marked “Removed by moderator”. We keep a record of the actions our moderators take.

10.3 Intimate images

When we receive a valid request to remove an intimate image shared without consent, we remove it within 48 hours, and we make reasonable efforts to remove identical copies we know of.

10.4 Child safety

We preserve apparent child sexual abuse material as the law requires instead of simply deleting it.

10.5 Telling you

When we act on your content or your account, we usually tell you what we did and why, unless the law, someone’s safety or an investigation prevents it.

10.6 Asking us to look again

If you believe we made a mistake, write to us at support@ucracy.com within 30 days and say what we got wrong. We will take another look. Our decision after that second look is final, but it does not affect your rights under Section 21.

10.7 Our discretion

We may act on content or accounts at our discretion and in good faith, including on content that is lawful but breaks these Terms. We do not have to act on every report, and not acting is not approval. Our decisions are about content and conduct, never a judgment of anyone as a person.

10.8 Keeping information for legal reasons

We may keep and disclose content and account information when the law requires it, to respond to legal process, to protect anyone’s safety, or to protect ucracy’s rights.

11. Copyright

11.1 Notices

We respond to notices of claimed copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. 512). To send one, use the page “Copyright and takedown notices”, which lists what a notice needs, or write to our designated agent: Ucracy Inc., 61 N Plains Industrial Rd, #300, Wallingford, CT 06492; email copyright@ucracy.com; telephone 203-626-1538.

11.2 Counter-notices

If your content was removed after a notice and you believe that was a mistake or a misidentification, you can send a counter-notice. Unless the person who sent the notice tells us they have filed a court action, we put the content back 10 to 14 business days after we receive your counter-notice.

11.3 Repeat infringers

We close the accounts of members who repeatedly infringe. An account whose files were removed after three notices loses access. A removal that is reversed after a counter-notice does not count.

11.4 False notices

Knowingly misrepresenting that material infringes, or that it was removed by mistake, can make the person who does so liable for damages.

11.5 Other rights

To report a trademark or another rights issue, write to us at the address in Section 27.

12. Texts, emails and electronic notices

12.1 Text messages

When you add a mobile number and ask for a verification code, you agree that ucracy may send one-time verification codes to that number by text. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, or STOP to opt out at any time. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. We send no other texts unless you separately agree to receive them.

12.2 Your number

Give only a mobile number that is yours or that you are authorized to use. If you give up or change your number, update it in your settings, so that our texts do not reach someone else.

12.3 Emails

We send emails about your account, its security, these Terms and legal matters, and you cannot opt out of these while you have an account. We send no emails about activity: we show notices about activity you follow in ucracy, as your notification settings allow.

12.4 Electronic communications and signature

You agree that we may give you these Terms, notices and other communications electronically, by email or within ucracy, and that they meet any legal requirement to be in writing. You agree that ticking the box and choosing the button that confirms it is your electronic signature. You can withdraw this consent by closing your account. Keep your email address current.

13. Your privacy

The Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use and share it, and the choices you have, including who can see your votes, answers and other activity. Your answers about your citizenship and your party are private.

14. ucracy’s content and data

14.1 What belongs to ucracy

ucracy’s software, design, name and logo, its readings, explanations, issue lists and questions, and the way it arranges information belong to Ucracy Inc. or its licensors and are protected by law. Apart from the rights in these Terms, we give you no rights in them.

14.2 Your permission to use ucracy

We give you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable permission to use ucracy for its intended purpose, under these Terms.

14.3 Sharing what you find

You may share a link to a page on ucracy, and quote a short passage from a reading or an explanation for news, commentary, research or civic discussion, with credit to ucracy. You may not copy ucracy’s content or data in bulk without our written permission.

14.4 Data from others

Some information on ucracy comes from others, such as official records and data published under open licenses. We credit the source where its data appears, and the source’s own terms or license apply to that data.

14.5 The ucracy name

Do not use the ucracy name or logo in a way that suggests that we endorse you or are affiliated with you, without our written permission.

15. Other services, links and app stores

15.1 Signing in with another service

If you sign in with Google, Apple, Microsoft or Yahoo, that service’s own terms also apply to your use of it.

15.2 Links

ucracy links to official sources and other sites. We do not control them and are not responsible for them.

15.3 The app from Apple’s App Store

If you got the ucracy app from Apple’s App Store:

• these Terms are between you and Ucracy Inc., not Apple, and Apple is not responsible for the app or its content;
• Apple has no duty to provide maintenance or support for the app;
• if the app fails to meet a warranty that applies to it, you may tell Apple, and Apple may refund the price you paid for it, if any; to the extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty duty for the app;
• Apple is not responsible for any claim about the app, including product liability claims, claims that it fails to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, claims under consumer protection or privacy laws, and claims that the app or your use of it infringes someone’s intellectual property;
• you confirm that you are not in a country under a U.S. government embargo or designated by the U.S. government as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that you are not on a U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties;
• you must follow any third-party terms that apply when you use the app, such as your wireless provider’s; and
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.

15.4 The app from Google Play

If you got the app from Google Play, Google Play’s own terms also apply to your use of Google Play.

16. Changes to ucracy

We change ucracy over time. We may add, change, suspend or stop any feature, or ucracy as a whole, at any time. Some features may be marked as tests. If we stop offering ucracy, we will try to tell you in advance.

17. Fees

ucracy is free. If we ever charge for a feature, we will tell you the price first, and you will not be charged unless you agree.

18. What we do not promise

We provide ucracy “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no promises or warranties of any kind, express or implied, including any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title or non-infringement, and any warranty arising from a course of dealing or usage of trade.

In particular, we do not promise that:

• readings, positions, explanations, questions or any other information on ucracy are complete, accurate, current or free of error, including information about officials, candidates, parties, bills, votes and elections;
• what AI produces is correct;
• member content, or content from claimed profiles, is true or lawful;
• ucracy will be available, uninterrupted, secure or free of harmful components; or
• an error will be corrected by any particular time.

You use ucracy at your own risk. Some places do not allow some of these exclusions, so some of them may not apply to you.

19. Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows:

• ucracy and its owners, officers, employees, agents, service providers and licensors (together, the “ucracy parties”) are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill or opportunity, arising out of or relating to these Terms or ucracy, even if we were told such damages were possible;
• the ucracy parties are not liable for member content, for content from claimed profiles, for the conduct of any member or third party, or for decisions you make based on information on ucracy; and
• the ucracy parties’ total liability for all claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or ucracy is limited to the greater of $100 and the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose.

These limits apply whatever the legal theory, including contract, tort (including negligence) and statute, and even if a remedy fails of its essential purpose. They do not limit liability that the law does not allow to be limited, such as liability for fraud, or for gross negligence or willful misconduct where the law does not allow it to be limited. These limits are part of the basis of our agreement: without them, we could not offer ucracy for free.

20. Your responsibility to us (indemnity)

To the extent the law allows, you will defend, indemnify and hold harmless the ucracy parties against any claim, loss, liability, damage, cost or expense, including reasonable lawyers’ fees, arising out of or relating to your content, your use of ucracy, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of the law or of anyone’s rights. We may take over the defense of such a claim at our own cost, and you will cooperate with us. You may not settle such a claim without our written consent. Section 7.8 applies to government bodies.

21. Resolving disputes

Please read this section carefully. It affects your rights. It requires most disputes to be resolved by individual arbitration, not in court, and it waives class actions and jury trials. You can opt out of arbitration (Section 21.9).

21.1 Talk to us first

Before either of us starts an arbitration or a lawsuit, we will try to settle the dispute informally. Whoever has the dispute sends the other a written notice: you send yours to the address in Section 27, and we send ours to the email address on your account. The notice gives the sender’s name, the account’s username and email address, a description of the dispute and the relief sought. For 60 days after the notice is received, we will both try in good faith to settle the dispute, and either of us may ask for a personal call or video meeting, which the other will join, with a lawyer if they wish. The time limits for bringing the claim stop running during these 60 days.

21.2 Arbitration

If the dispute is not settled within those 60 days, you and we agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or ucracy will be resolved by binding individual arbitration, except as Section 21.6 provides. This includes disputes about the formation, scope, validity or enforceability of this Section 21, which the arbitrator decides, except that a court decides disputes about Section 21.4 and Section 21.7. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this Section 21.

21.3 How arbitration works

The American Arbitration Association (AAA) runs the arbitration under its rules for consumer disputes in force when the arbitration starts, as changed by this Section 21. One arbitrator decides. The arbitration takes place by video, by phone or on written submissions, or in person in the county where you live if you prefer. The arbitrator may award the same individual relief that a court could, applies these Terms and the law, and gives a written decision. The administrator’s consumer fee rules decide who pays its fees and the arbitrator’s, and they limit what you pay to start a claim. Each side pays its own lawyers’ fees, unless the law or the rules provide otherwise.

21.4 Individual claims only

You and we may bring claims against each other only individually, and not as a plaintiff or a class member in any class, collective, consolidated or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not combine more than one person’s claims, except under Section 21.7, and may award relief only to the individual party asking for it and only as far as that party’s claim needs. If a court decides that this Section 21.4 cannot be enforced for a particular claim or remedy, that claim or remedy, and only it, goes to court, and it waits until the arbitration of any other claims is finished.

21.5 No jury

Where a dispute goes to court, you and we waive any right to a jury trial, to the extent the law allows.

21.6 Exceptions

• Either of us may bring an individual claim in small claims court, if it qualifies there and stays there.
• Either of us may go to court to stop the infringement or misuse of intellectual property, or unauthorized access to or scraping of ucracy.
• If you bring a claim of sexual harassment or sexual assault, you may choose to bring it in court, as federal law allows.
• Any claim that the law does not allow to be sent to arbitration by an agreement made before it arose may go to court.

21.7 Many similar claims

If 25 or more demands for arbitration that raise similar claims are filed within 90 days of one another by the same or coordinated lawyers or organizations, whether against us or by us, they are handled this way:

• 10 of them, half chosen by each side, go forward first as test cases; the rest wait, and no fees are owed for them while they wait;
• after the test cases are decided, the parties try in good faith to settle the rest through mediation;
• if that fails, the rest go forward in groups of 100, one group at a time, each group before one arbitrator, unless the administrator’s rules for mass filings provide otherwise; and
• the time limits for bringing the waiting claims stop running while they wait.

A court may enforce this Section 21.7, including by stopping fees from being charged for claims that are waiting.

21.8 Time limit

To the extent the law allows, a claim must be brought within one year after it arose, or it is barred.

21.9 Opting out

You can opt out of arbitration and of Section 21.4 within 30 days after you first accept these Terms, by writing to legal@ucracy.com or to the postal address in Section 27, with your name, your username, the email address on your account, and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect the rest of these Terms. Only you can opt out for yourself.

21.10 Changes to this section

If we change this Section 21, we will give you at least 30 days’ notice. A change does not apply to a dispute that either of us has already given notice of. If you write to us within those 30 days to reject the change, the version of this Section 21 you last accepted continues to apply to you. Rejecting a change to this Section 21 does not stop you from agreeing to the rest of the new version and continuing to use ucracy.

21.11 Courts

For any dispute that is not arbitrated, you and we agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts in New Castle County, Delaware, except for small claims court.

22. The law that applies

The laws of the State of Delaware and the Federal Arbitration Act govern these Terms, without regard to rules about conflicts of laws. If you live in a place whose law gives you rights that these Terms cannot take away, you keep those rights.

23. Ending your use of ucracy

23.1 You can leave at any time

You can delete your account at any time in your settings.

23.2 When we can end it

We may suspend or close your account, or limit what you can do, if you break these Terms, if the law requires it, if your account creates risk or legal exposure for ucracy or for others, or if we stop offering ucracy. We usually tell you why, unless the law, someone’s safety or an investigation prevents it. We may also withdraw a claim to a profile under Section 7.3.

23.3 What happens to your content

When you delete your account, we erase activity such as your votes and the positions you declared. The bills you proposed, your posts and comments, and the events you published stay, with your name removed and shown as written by a former member, because others voted on them, replied to them or took part in them; an upcoming or ongoing event is cancelled. The deletion screen lists what goes and what stays. We keep a record of the versions of these Terms you accepted, as the Privacy Policy explains.

23.4 What survives

Every part of these Terms that by its nature should survive the end of this agreement survives it, including Sections 3.6, 8.3 (for content that stays), 8.7, 8.8, 14 and 18 to 26.

24. Changes to these Terms

24.1 New versions

We may change these Terms. Each version shows its version number and its effective date at the top, and earlier versions stay available on ucracy.

24.2 Important changes

When a change materially affects your rights or duties, we tell you at least 30 days before it takes effect, by email and within ucracy, and we say what changed. When the new version takes effect, we ask you to agree to it before you continue to use ucracy. If you do not agree, you can delete your account. Until you agree, you cannot use ucracy, except to read the new Terms, sign out or delete your account.

24.3 Other changes

We may make changes that do not materially affect your rights, such as fixing errors or making the wording clearer, without asking you to agree again. We may make changes that the law requires, or that safety needs, with shorter notice. We still post every new version with its date.

24.4 Section 21

A change to Section 21 also follows Section 21.10.

25. Export controls and sanctions

You may not use ucracy if you are in a country under a comprehensive U.S. embargo, or if you are on, or owned or controlled by someone on, a U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties. You agree to follow U.S. export control and sanctions laws.

26. General terms

26.1 Entire agreement

These Terms, with the documents in Section 1.3, are the entire agreement between you and us about ucracy, and they replace any earlier agreement about it.

26.2 If part is unenforceable

If a court or an arbitrator finds part of these Terms unenforceable, that part is enforced as far as the law allows, and the rest stays in effect. Section 21.4 has its own rule.

26.3 No waiver

If we do not enforce part of these Terms, we have not waived our right to enforce it later.

26.4 Transfer

You may not transfer these Terms or your rights under them. We may transfer them, with notice to you, as part of a merger, an acquisition, a reorganization or a sale of assets, or by operation of law.

26.5 No rights for others

These Terms give no rights to anyone other than you and us, except the ucracy parties under Sections 19 and 20, and Apple under Section 15.3.

26.6 Events beyond our control

We are not liable for a delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

26.7 Our relationship

These Terms do not create a partnership, a joint venture, or an employment or agency relationship between you and us. Taking part in improving readings (Section 3.3) does not make you our employee, agent or contractor.

26.8 Notices

We give you notices by email to the address on your account, or within ucracy. You give us legal notices at the address in Section 27. A notice by email is received when it is sent, unless the sender learns that it was not delivered.

26.9 Reading these Terms

Headings are for convenience only. If these Terms are translated, the English version controls.

26.10 State notices

For members in California, here is the information that California Civil Code section 1789.3 describes:

• Who provides ucracy: Ucracy Inc., 61 N Plains Industrial Rd, #300, Wallingford, CT 06492; telephone 203-626-1538.
• Charges: ucracy is free (Section 17).
• Complaints and questions: write to support@ucracy.com. For a dispute, Section 21 says what to do first, and Section 27 says where to write. You can also contact the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the Department of Consumer Affairs in writing at Department of Consumer Affairs, Consumer Information Center, 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210; hearing-impaired persons: 711, or 1-800-735-2929 (TTY).

26.11 Another format

If you need these Terms in another format, write to support@ucracy.com.

27. Contact us

• Questions about these Terms: support@ucracy.com
• Legal notices, disputes and arbitration opt-outs: legal@ucracy.com, and by post to Ucracy Inc., 61 N Plains Industrial Rd, #300, Wallingford, CT 06492
• Privacy: privacy@ucracy.com
• Copyright notices: our designated agent (Section 11.1)