Terms of use

These terms

These terms apply when you use hoodat.is, the HooDat browser extension or the API at api.hoodat.is (together, “HooDat”). Using HooDat means you accept them; if you don’t, please don’t use it. The privacy policy explains what HooDat collects and is part of these terms.

HooDat is in testing

HooDat is free, and it’s an early version. Features change, research is incomplete and things break. HooDat may change, pause or stop any part of the service, including the API, at any time. Accounts are optional and free: signing in with Google means you accept these terms and the privacy policy. Keep your account to yourself, and don’t use it to send requests in bulk or on others’ behalf without asking. Paid features, when they come, will have their terms shown before you sign up.

What a profile is, and isn’t

A HooDat profile records a person’s documented relationships and interests: who pays them, what they own and who they work with, with dates, sources and what isn’t known.

• It isn’t a rating of anyone’s credibility, a finding about their private motives, or an accusation of wrongdoing.
• Sources vary. Some entries rest on official filings, others on a single or anonymous report. Every source and claim carries a grade, so read the grades and the stated limits before you rely on an entry.
• Profiles can be incomplete, out of date or wrong. Each one shows when its sources were last checked.
• Nothing on HooDat is legal, financial, investment or other professional advice.

Not for eligibility decisions

HooDat isn’t a consumer reporting agency, and its profiles aren’t consumer reports. Don’t use HooDat to decide whether someone gets a job, credit, insurance, housing or a similar benefit, or to screen people for any of these.

Using HooDat fairly

Don’t use HooDat to:

• harass, threaten, stalk or intimidate anyone, or encourage harm to them, including the people HooDat profiles
• present a profile as saying more than it does, for example by dropping the grades or limits from a weak claim
• send HooDat material you know is false, or that you have no right to share
• overload, probe or disrupt HooDat, get around its rate limits or security, or reach parts of it that aren’t public
• break the law

HooDat may block access that breaks these rules.

Sharing and reusing profiles

• Link and quote: you can share profiles, and quote them with a link back to the profile. Keep a claim’s grades and limits with it when you quote it.
• Build on the API: it’s public and free to use within its rate limits. If you show HooDat data, say it comes from HooDat and link to the profile.
• Ask first: before you copy HooDat in bulk, republish it as a dataset, or sell it. Email support@hoodat.is.
• Sources: they belong to their publishers. HooDat links to them and quotes short passages, and their own terms apply when you use them.
• HooDat itself: the HooDat name, website, extension and software belong to HooDat. Using them doesn’t give you any ownership of them.

The browser extension

The extension is free. It reads the pages you visit on your device and asks the HooDat API about the names it finds, as the privacy policy describes. Installs from the Chrome Web Store update automatically; tester builds downloaded from hoodat.is don’t. You can pause it on a site, or remove it, at any time.

Corrections and disputes

If something on HooDat is wrong, email support@hoodat.is with what’s wrong and, if you can, a source. That includes people HooDat profiles. HooDat reviews every report. Corrections and disputes appear on the profile with its version history, so nothing is changed quietly. If something on a profile puts someone at risk, say so: those reports are reviewed first.

Feedback, requests and sources

When you send HooDat feedback, a profile request or a source, you let HooDat use it to improve HooDat and its research, including in published profiles, without owing you anything for it. HooDat keeps a private note of who sent a source and never shows it on a profile. Please don’t send anything confidential.

Other sites

Profiles link to news sites, filings and other pages HooDat doesn’t control. HooDat isn’t responsible for their content, availability or privacy practices.

No warranty

HooDat is provided as is and as available. To the fullest extent the law allows, HooDat makes no promises, express or implied, about its accuracy, completeness, timeliness or availability, or that it’s fit for any particular purpose.

Limits on liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, HooDat isn’t liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill, arising from your use of HooDat or your reliance on anything it publishes. HooDat’s total liability for any claim about the service is limited to US$100. Some places don’t allow these limits, so they may not all apply to you.

Changes to these terms

When these terms change, the date at the top changes, and meaningful changes are summarized here. If you keep using HooDat after a change, the new terms apply. You can stop at any time: leave the site and remove the extension.

Questions

Email support@hoodat.is.