Terms of Service

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

AcaTorch is operated by [Legal entity name to be confirmed], [Registered address to be confirmed]. These terms form an agreement between you and us covering your use of the AcaTorch website and application. By creating an account or using the service you accept them. If you do not accept them, do not use the service.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data and forms part of these terms.

2. Eligibility and your account

You must be at least 16 years old to use AcaTorch. You are responsible for keeping your sign-in credentials secure, for all activity under your account, and for telling us promptly at support@acatorch.com if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission. Do not share your account with anyone else.

3. What the service does — and what it does not do

AcaTorch helps you organise education and research opportunities: tracking applications and deadlines, keeping notes and watchlists, importing details from pages you point us at, and running research analyses that summarise published academic work.

We are not an admissions service, an agent, or an adviser. We do not submit applications for you, we do not represent any institution, and we have no influence over any admission, funding or hiring decision. Nothing in the service is legal, financial, immigration or careers advice.

4. Accuracy, deadlines and independent verification

Opportunity details, deadlines, eligibility criteria, funding information and contact details are drawn from external sources or generated automatically. They can be incomplete, out of date, or wrong.

You must independently verify every deadline and requirement with the institution before relying on it. We are not responsible for a missed deadline, a rejected application, or an opportunity that turns out to be unavailable or different from what the service showed.

5. AI-generated content

Some features use automated language models to summarise pages, extract structured details, draft text, and describe research activity. This output is generated by software, not written or checked by a person, and it can be inaccurate, incomplete or misleading even when it reads confidently.

Review anything generated before you rely on it or send it to anyone. You are responsible for what you do with it.

6. Information about researchers and other third parties

Some features display information about named academics, drawn from public research databases. That information is provided so you can identify relevant research, and it is subject to the same accuracy limits as everything else in section 4 — automated summaries about a person can be wrong.

You must not use it to:

• send bulk, automated or unsolicited marketing messages
• harass, impersonate or misrepresent anyone
• build or sell a contact list or marketing database
• make any decision about a person that has a legal or similarly significant effect on them

If you contact a researcher using details you found through AcaTorch, you are the sender and you are responsible for complying with the law that applies to that message. See our information for researchers.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• access, or try to access, another person's account or data
• probe, scan or test the security of the service, or bypass any limit, quota or access control
• use automated means to access the service beyond ordinary personal use, or resell access to it
• upload unlawful, infringing or malicious material
• use the service to misrepresent your identity, qualifications or work
• interfere with the service's operation or place an unreasonable load on it

We apply usage limits to keep the service available and to control the cost of the analysis features. We may adjust those limits, and may suspend accounts that circumvent them.

8. Your content

You keep ownership of everything you add — your profile, notes, application records and lists. You grant us only the permission needed to store, process and display that content in order to operate the service for you, including sending the relevant parts to the service providers listed in our Privacy Policy when you use a feature that requires it.

You confirm you have the right to upload what you upload, and that doing so does not breach anyone else's rights.

9. Paid plans and who you are buying from

Some features require a paid plan. Prices, plan limits and billing intervals are shown at the point of purchase.

Payments are sold and fulfilled by Paddle.com Market Ltd, which acts as the merchant of record. Paddle is the seller for the transaction, issues your invoice, and is responsible for collecting and remitting VAT and sales tax. Your card details are handled by Paddle and never reach us. Paddle's own terms and privacy notice apply to the payment itself, alongside these terms, which continue to govern your use of AcaTorch.

Charges appear on your statement as a Paddle reference rather than as AcaTorch, so please check for that before reporting a payment as unrecognised.

You can update your payment method, download invoices, or cancel from your profile page at any time.

Subscriptions renew automatically at the interval shown until you cancel. You may cancel at any time, taking effect at the end of the period you have already paid for. We do not refund part-used periods except where the law requires it or where we have withdrawn a feature you paid for.

If you are a consumer in the UK or EU you normally have a 14-day right to cancel a purchase. By starting to use a paid feature immediately you may lose that right for the portion consumed. We will tell you at checkout when that applies.

We may change prices with at least 30 days' notice before the change affects your next renewal.

10. Availability and changes

We aim to keep AcaTorch available but do not guarantee uninterrupted access. Features may change, and beta features may be altered or withdrawn. We may need to suspend access for maintenance, security, or to comply with the law.

11. Ending your use

You may stop using AcaTorch at any time and delete your account from your profile page. Deleting your account permanently erases your workspace data, as described in the Privacy Policy — it cannot be undone.

We may suspend or end your access if you materially breach these terms, if it is necessary to protect users or the service, or if we are required to by law. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will tell you first and give you a chance to put things right.

12. Liability

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited — including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

Subject to that, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, for lost opportunities, applications, funding or profit, or for loss arising from your reliance on information the service displayed without your independently verifying it. Our total liability in any twelve-month period is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in that period and £100.

If you are a consumer, your statutory rights are unaffected by these terms.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. If a change materially affects your rights we will give reasonable notice before it takes effect, by email or in-product notice. Continuing to use AcaTorch after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised.

14. Governing law and contact

These terms are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which [Legal entity name to be confirmed] is established, and disputes are subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of its courts. If you are a consumer, you may also bring proceedings in your country of residence.

Questions about these terms: support@acatorch.com. Privacy and data protection: privacy@acatorch.com.