Terms of Service.

01Who we are and definitions

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") are an agreement between you and VeriForward ("VeriForward", "we", "us"). They govern your use of veriforward.com, app.veriforward.com, verify.veriforward.com, organization subdomains such as {org}.veriforward.com, custom verification domains we serve, and the related software and support (together, the "Service").

By creating an account, claiming an organization, uploading a certificate, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you use the Service on behalf of an organization, you confirm you have authority to bind that organization, and "you" includes it.

Terms used throughout

Credential

The record VeriForward manages: who holds what, from whom, issued and expiring when, and its current status.

Certificate

The document or other evidence of a credential, such as a scanned certificate image or a CSV export from your own records.

Issuing Organization

A certification body, training provider or other entity that awards credentials and has an organization account on the Service.

Holder

An individual who has been awarded a credential, or who claims to have been and uploads a certificate for review.

Verifier

Anyone who looks up a credential on a public verification page, such as an employer, client, agency or payer.

Record

A single credential entry. One person holding three credentials is three records.

Credential ID

The permanent identifier assigned to a record, used in its verification address and QR code.

02Accounts and organizations

Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to create an account. Organization accounts are currently invitation-only. We may approve, decline or revoke an invitation or claim at our discretion, and we may require review before an organization claim is approved when the requesting email address does not match the organization's domain.

Claiming an organization

Claiming an organization confirms to us that you are authorized to act for it, including to verify, decline, revoke and renew credentials in its name. You are responsible for every action taken under your organization's account, whether by you or by anyone you give access to. Organization subdomain slugs are assigned once and locked after a claim is approved.

Security

Keep your password confidential (minimum 8 characters) and tell us promptly at the address in Section 17 if you believe your account has been accessed without authorization. We are not responsible for loss caused by someone else using your credentials where you failed to keep them secure.

Accuracy

You agree that the organization details, holder information and credential data you provide are accurate and that you have the right to provide them. You will keep contact details current so that we can reach you about your account.

03Our role in verification

VeriForward is a verification platform. We are not a certifying body, accrediting agency, licensing authority or issuer of any credential, and nothing on the Service should be read as VeriForward certifying, endorsing or vouching for any individual or organization.

• A credential is confirmed by its Issuing Organization. Where a credential card reads "Verified by {Issuing Org}", that organization is the source of the confirmation; VeriForward hosts and powers the verification record.
• Only an Issuing Organization can verify, decline, revoke or renew its credentials. VeriForward staff do not verify credentials on an organization's behalf.
• We do not independently check that an Issuing Organization is accredited, licensed or otherwise qualified to award the credentials it lists. Verifiers remain responsible for deciding whether a credential meets their own requirements.
• Regulated professional designations may be restricted to authorized issuers or marked as externally issued. We may decline to list designations an organization is not authorized to award.

04Credential holders and self-reported uploads

If you are a Holder, you may upload a certificate and select the organization you believe issued it. By doing so you confirm that the certificate is genuine, that it was awarded to you, and that you consent to the Issuing Organization reviewing it and to the limited public display described in Section 5.

Until the Issuing Organization confirms your upload, your record is labeled as self-reported (for example "Uploaded" or "Awaiting verification") and is never displayed as verified. An Issuing Organization may confirm, decline or mark a record as not its credential. If a record is declined, its public page may show "Not verified". We may remove an upload we judge to be fraudulent, abusive or outside the scope of the Service; a removed record displays only that it is unavailable.

Uploading a certificate does not create a contract between you and the Issuing Organization, and VeriForward cannot compel any organization to review or confirm a record.

05Public verification pages

Each record has a public page at verify.veriforward.com using its Credential ID, and credentials can be searched by name or credential number on the global verify page. You acknowledge that these pages are intended to be viewed by Verifiers and may be indexed by search engines once a credential is verified.

• Public pages display the credential type, Issuing Organization, status, issue and expiration dates, and a dated history of status changes.
• Before an organization has claimed its page, pending holder uploads are shown with masking: first name and last initial only, year-only dates, and no certificate numbers. Pre-claim pages are marked not to be indexed.
• Issuing Organizations control which records they verify. Holders may request removal of their own self-reported upload at any time.
• Credential IDs are permanent through verification, renewal and record merges, so printed QR codes continue to resolve. If two records are merged, the retired ID redirects to the surviving one.

If you are a Verifier, you may use public pages to confirm a credential's status for a legitimate purpose. You may not scrape, bulk-download or compile data from public pages, or use them to build a competing directory.

06Your records and our use of them

Ownership

Issuing Organizations keep all rights in the credential data they import, issue or confirm ("Organization Data"). Holders keep all rights in the certificates they upload. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive license to host, store, process, display and transmit that data as needed to operate the Service, display verification pages, send notifications you enable, and improve the Service. This license continues for as long as the data remains on the Service, plus any retention period in Section 11.

Holder personal information

When an Issuing Organization imports or issues records, it is responsible for having a lawful basis to share the holder's name, contact details and credential information with us, and for its own privacy notices to holders. Our handling of personal information is described in the Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms.

Imports and matching

During import, we may suggest matches between rows and existing records (for example by email address), map credential types to a standardized library, and normalize dates. You review and confirm matches before records are committed; we do not silently overwrite an existing record. You are responsible for the accuracy of what you confirm.

Aggregate and de-identified data

We may use aggregated or de-identified information (such as verification counts, credential-type usage and import volumes) that does not identify any person or organization to operate, analyze and promote the Service.

Export

Organizations can export their records in a standard format (CSV) while their account is active. We will provide a reasonable export window after termination as described in Section 11.

07Plans, record limits and billing

The Service is offered on the plans below. Prices are in U.S. dollars and exclude taxes. We may change prices or plan features with at least 30 days' notice to the account email; changes apply at your next renewal.

How record limits work

• Limits apply only to adding records: issuing, importing, adding manually, or verifying a pending holder upload. Verifying a holder upload beyond the Free limit requires a paid plan.
• Existing records and their public verification pages never degrade when you reach or exceed a limit, including after a downgrade. We never delete records to fit a plan.
• Pending holder uploads that have not been verified do not count toward your record limit.

Payment and renewal

Paid plans are billed in advance, monthly or annually, and renew automatically until cancelled. You authorize us and our payment processor to charge the payment method on file. If a payment fails, we may downgrade the account to Free after notice; records remain intact as described above. Fees are non-refundable except where required by law or stated otherwise in writing. You can cancel at any time from account settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.

08Acceptable use

You agree not to, and not to allow anyone using your account to:

• Issue, confirm or upload a credential that is false, forged, altered, revoked or not actually held by the named person.
• Claim an organization you are not authorized to represent, or verify credentials on behalf of an organization that has not authorized you.
• Present VeriForward as a certifying, accrediting or licensing authority, or use phrases such as "Certified by VeriForward" or "VeriForward Certified" for any credential VeriForward did not itself issue.
• Scrape, crawl, harvest or bulk-export verification pages or holder information, or use the Service to build a competing database or directory.
• Upload malware, probe or bypass security controls, interfere with other accounts, or place unreasonable load on the Service.
• Use the Service to discriminate unlawfully, harass anyone, or violate any law, including privacy, consumer-protection and professional-licensing laws.
• Resell, sublicense or white-label the Service without a written agreement with us.

We may investigate suspected violations, remove content, suspend or terminate accounts, and cooperate with law enforcement and affected organizations.

09Intellectual property and branding

The Service, including its software, design, standardized credential library, verification page formats and documentation, is owned by VeriForward and its licensors and is protected by intellectual-property laws. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service for its intended purpose. We reserve all rights not expressly granted.

"VeriForward" and the VeriForward logo are our trademarks. Free-plan verification pages display "Powered by VeriForward" branding, and credential cards display a "Verification record powered by VeriForward™" line; you may not remove or alter this branding except as a feature of a paid plan. You may state that your organization uses VeriForward for credential verification and may link to your verification page and QR codes. You may not use our marks in a way that suggests we issued, certified or endorsed a credential.

If you send us feedback or suggestions, you grant us the right to use them without obligation to you.

10Availability and changes

We aim to keep verification pages available at all times, but the Service is provided without an uptime guarantee unless a separate written agreement says otherwise. We may perform maintenance, and we may add, change or remove features (including feature-flagged or beta features such as scanned-certificate import, holder reminders or verification history) at any time. We will try to give reasonable notice of changes that materially reduce core functionality.

Some features depend on third parties, such as hosting, email delivery and payment processing. We are not responsible for failures in those services beyond our control.

11Termination and record retention

By you

You may close your account at any time from account settings or by contacting us. Holders may request deletion of their own self-reported uploads at any time.

By us

We may suspend or terminate your access immediately if you materially breach these Terms, if we are required to by law, or if continuing the account would create legal or security risk. Otherwise we will give at least 30 days' notice before terminating an organization account without cause.

What happens to records

• For 60 days after termination of an organization account, you may export your Organization Data. After that period we may delete it, except as needed for backups, legal compliance or dispute resolution.
• Because Verifiers and Holders rely on verification addresses, we may keep a minimal placeholder at a retired Credential ID stating that the record is no longer available, without displaying personal information.
• Records that an organization verified remain the organization's responsibility until exported or deleted.

Sections 3, 6, 9 and 12 through 16 survive termination.

12Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE". TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, VERIFORWARD DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

In particular, we do not warrant that any credential displayed on the Service is genuine, current or sufficient for any purpose; that any Issuing Organization is accredited or qualified; that data supplied by organizations or holders is accurate; or that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free. Verification pages reflect the status an Issuing Organization has recorded as of the time shown and may not reflect later changes.

13Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, VERIFORWARD AND ITS MEMBERS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES AND CONTRACTORS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of the above may not apply to you. These limits reflect the pricing of the Service and are an essential part of these Terms.

14Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless VeriForward and its members, officers, employees and contractors from any claims, losses and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from: (a) credentials, certificates or other data you upload, issue, confirm or decline; (b) your breach of these Terms or of applicable law; (c) a claim that you were not authorized to act for an organization you claimed; or (d) your reliance, as a Verifier, on information displayed on the Service.

15Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Fulton County, Georgia, and you consent to their jurisdiction. Before filing a claim, you agree to contact us at the address in Section 17 and give us 30 days to try to resolve it.

Claims must be brought individually and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class or representative proceeding, to the extent permitted by law.

16General terms

• Changes to these Terms. We may update these Terms. For material changes we will post the new version with an updated date and notify organization accounts by email at least 14 days in advance. Continued use after the effective date is acceptance.
• Entire agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service and replace any earlier agreements, unless you have a separate signed agreement with us, in which case that agreement controls where it conflicts.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets.
• Severability and waiver. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.
• Notices. We send notices to the email on your account. You send notices to the address in Section 17.
• Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delays caused by events beyond its reasonable control.

17Contact

Questions about these Terms, account access, or a request to review or remove a record:

Email

support@veriforward.com