Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By creating an account, accessing, or using the Service, you agree to:

• Be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy
• Comply with all applicable laws and regulations
• Have the legal authority to enter into this agreement
• Use the Service only for lawful purposes

If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not use the Service.

2. Description of Service

The BC Legal Tech platform provides document intelligence for organizations that work with large volumes of documents. The Service includes:

• Secure document storage and organization by matters
• Semantic and keyword search across your documents
• AI chat assistant for document analysis and Q&A
• OCR processing for scanned documents
• Document metadata management and classification
• Multi-user access with role-based permissions
• Billable time tracking features

We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the Service at any time with reasonable notice (minimum 30 days for material changes).

2A. Beta Services

From time to time, we may offer features, tools, or services that are designated as "beta," "preview," "early access," or similar labels ("Beta Services"). Beta Services are provided for evaluation and feedback purposes and may contain bugs, errors, or incomplete functionality.

You acknowledge and agree that:

• Beta Services are provided "as is" without any warranty of any kind.
• Beta Services may be modified, suspended, or discontinued at any time without notice.
• Beta Services may not perform at the same level as generally available features and may cause unexpected behavior, including data processing errors.
• We may collect additional usage data and feedback during your use of Beta Services to improve the Service.
• Any data processed through Beta Services is subject to the same data protection commitments described elsewhere in these Terms, including our commitments regarding solicitor-client privileged information.

We strongly recommend that you do not rely on Beta Services for critical or time-sensitive work. We are not liable for any losses arising from the use of Beta Services.

3. Geographic Availability

We do not currently offer the Service to users located in:

• The European Economic Area (EEA), including all EU member states
• The United Kingdom
• Switzerland
• Any other jurisdiction where we have not established compliance with local data protection laws

By creating an account, you represent and warrant that you are located in Canada or the United States and that you will not access the Service from a restricted jurisdiction.

We plan to expand availability to additional regions in the future. If you are interested in using the Service from a region where it is not currently available, please contact us to join our waitlist and be notified when we expand to your region.

4. User Accounts and Responsibilities

4.1 Account Registration

• You must provide accurate, current, and complete information
• You must maintain and update your account information
• You are responsible for all activities under your account
• You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized access

4.2 Account Security

• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password
• You must use a strong, unique password
• You must not share your account credentials with others
• You must log out from shared devices

4.3 Organization Accounts

If you register on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms. The organization agrees to be responsible for all users under its account and their compliance with these Terms.

5. Acceptable Use Policy

You agree NOT to:

• Violate any laws or regulations
• Infringe on intellectual property rights of others
• Upload documents you do not have the right to store or process
• Upload malicious code, viruses, or harmful content
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service or other accounts
• Use the Service to harass, abuse, or harm others
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any part of the Service
• Use automated systems (bots, scrapers) without authorization
• Resell or redistribute the Service without permission
• Use the Service for any illegal or fraudulent purpose
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers
• Circumvent any usage limits or access controls

Violation of this Acceptable Use Policy may result in immediate termination of your account without refund.

6. Intellectual Property Rights

6.1 Your Content

You retain all ownership rights to documents and content you upload ("Your Content"). By uploading Your Content, you grant us a limited license solely to:

• Store, process, and display Your Content to provide the Service to you
• Generate embeddings and process Your Content with AI for search and chat features
• Back up Your Content for disaster recovery purposes

This license is limited to providing the Service and ends when you delete Your Content or terminate your account, subject to our data retention periods described in Section 8A.

We do NOT:

• Claim ownership of Your Content
• Use Your Content to train AI models
• Share Your Content with other customers
• Access Your Content except as necessary to provide the Service

6.2 Our Platform

The Service, including its software, design, features, and branding, is owned by Vector Doc and protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. You may not copy, modify, or create derivative works without our written permission.

7. Payment and Billing

7.1 Free Trial

• New accounts receive a 14-day free trial
• No payment method is required to start your trial
• If you add a payment method during your trial, your account will automatically transition to a paid Starter monthly subscription at the end of the trial period
• If you do not add a payment method, your account will be suspended at the end of the trial period
• You may change your plan or cancel at any time before the trial ends to avoid being charged

7.2 Subscription Billing

• Subscription fees are billed in advance on a monthly or annual basis
• All fees are in Canadian Dollars (CAD) unless otherwise stated
• Applicable taxes (GST/HST/PST) will be added to your invoice
• Payment is processed securely through Stripe
• You authorize us to charge your payment method on file for recurring payments

7.3 Plan Changes

• Upgrades: When upgrading to a higher plan, you will be charged a prorated amount for the remainder of your billing period. The upgrade takes effect immediately.
• Downgrades (Monthly): Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period. You retain access to your current plan features until then.
• Downgrades (Annual): Annual plan downgrades take effect at the end of your annual billing period. No partial refunds are provided for unused time.

7.4 Refund Policy

• If you cancel during your 14-day trial, you will not be charged
• No refunds are provided for partial billing periods after the trial
• No refunds are provided for annual plans that are canceled mid-term
• If we terminate your account for cause (violation of Terms), no refund will be provided

7.5 Price Changes

We may change our prices with at least 30 days notice. Price changes will not affect your current billing period. For annual plans, price changes take effect at renewal.

8. Data and Confidentiality

We understand that your documents may contain confidential and sensitive information, including information protected by solicitor-client privilege. We commit to:

• Maintaining appropriate technical and organizational security measures
• Not accessing your documents except as necessary to provide the Service or as required by law
• Not using your documents to train AI models
• Maintaining complete data isolation between customers using database-level security
• Encrypting your data in transit and at rest
• Providing you the ability to export and delete your data

See our Privacy Policy for complete details on how we handle your data.

8A. Data Retention

We retain your data as follows:

• Active accounts: Your Content, account information, and associated metadata are retained for the duration of your subscription and are available to you through the Service.
• Post-termination export period: Upon termination or cancellation of your account, you have 30 days to export your data using our built-in export tools. During this period, your data remains stored but you will not have access to AI features.
• Permanent deletion: After the 30-day export period, your documents, embeddings, and associated metadata will be permanently deleted from our primary systems.
• Backup retention: Encrypted backups containing your data may persist for up to an additional 90 days following permanent deletion from primary systems, after which they are automatically purged. Backups are stored solely for disaster recovery purposes and are not accessed for any other reason.
• Aggregated and anonymized data: We do not retain aggregated or anonymized versions of Your Content after account termination. Usage statistics (e.g., feature usage counts, query volumes) that cannot be linked to any individual, account, or document may be retained indefinitely for service improvement purposes.
• Legal obligations: We may retain limited account and billing information as required by applicable tax, accounting, or other legal obligations, even after permanent deletion of Your Content.

8B. Security Incident Notification

In the event that we become aware of a security breach or unauthorized access that affects Your Content or personal information ("Security Incident"), we commit to the following:

• Prompt notification: We will notify affected customers of a confirmed Security Incident without unreasonable delay and in any event within 72 hours of confirmation, unless a law enforcement authority requests a delay.
• Notification content: Our notification will include, to the extent known at the time: a description of the nature of the incident, the types of data affected, the measures we have taken or plan to take to address the incident and mitigate potential harm, and a point of contact for further information.
• Remediation: We will take all reasonable steps to contain and remediate the Security Incident, prevent recurrence, and cooperate with affected customers in addressing the consequences of the incident.
• Regulatory notification: Where required by applicable Canadian federal or provincial privacy legislation (including PIPEDA and applicable provincial privacy statutes), we will notify the relevant privacy commissioner or regulatory authority.

You agree to notify us promptly at security@bclegaltech.ca if you become aware of any unauthorized access to your account or any suspected compromise of your credentials.

9. AI Features Disclaimer

Our Service includes AI-powered features for document search and analysis. You acknowledge and agree that:

• AI responses are generated automatically and may contain errors or inaccuracies
• AI features are provided for informational purposes only
• AI responses do not constitute legal, financial, or professional advice
• You must independently verify any AI-generated information before relying on it
• You are solely responsible for decisions made based on AI outputs
• AI performance may vary based on document quality, format, and content
• AI outputs may not be unique; other customers using the Service with similar documents may receive similar responses

Vector Doc explicitly disclaims any responsibility for actions taken based on AI-generated content.

9A. AI Input Restrictions and Privileged Information

Our AI features are designed to process documents and content that you upload to the Service, including documents that may contain solicitor-client privileged information. You acknowledge and agree to the following:

Permitted Inputs

You may submit to the AI features any documents and content that you have lawfully uploaded to the Service and that you have the right to process, including documents containing solicitor-client privileged information related to your matters.

How We Handle Privileged Information

• All AI processing of your documents occurs within your isolated tenant environment. Your documents are never commingled with those of other customers during AI processing.
• We use third-party AI model providers (currently Amazon Web Services Bedrock) to process your queries. Your document content is transmitted to these providers solely for the purpose of generating responses to your queries and is not retained by the model provider for training or any other purpose.
• We do not review, access, or analyze the content of your AI interactions except as necessary to provide the Service, to investigate a security incident, or as required by law.

Prohibited Inputs

You agree NOT to submit the following to the AI features:

• Documents or content that you do not have the legal right to process or that were obtained unlawfully
• Content designed to manipulate, exploit, or circumvent the AI system's safety controls
• Content intended to generate outputs for use in training competing AI systems or models

Your Responsibilities

You are solely responsible for determining whether submitting specific documents to AI features is appropriate given your professional obligations, including any applicable rules of professional conduct regarding solicitor-client privilege, confidentiality, and the use of technology in legal practice. We recommend that you review the Law Society of British Columbia's guidance on the use of AI tools in legal practice.

10. Warranties and Disclaimers

We do not warrant that:

• The Service will be uninterrupted or error-free
• AI-generated responses will be accurate, complete, or appropriate
• The Service will meet your specific requirements
• Any errors or defects will be corrected

11. Limitation of Liability

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations of liability. In such cases, our liability will be limited to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Vector Doc and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including legal fees) arising from: (a) your use of the Service; (b) your violation of these Terms; (c) your violation of any third-party rights; or (d) your Content.

13. Termination

13.1 Termination by You

You may cancel your subscription at any time through your account settings or by contacting us. Upon cancellation:

• Your access continues until the end of your current billing period
• No refunds are provided for unused time (except during the 14-day trial)
• You may export your data within 30 days of termination
• After the 30-day export period, your data will be permanently deleted from primary systems in accordance with Section 8A

13.2 Termination by Us

We may suspend or terminate your account immediately if you violate these Terms, fail to pay fees when due, or engage in fraudulent or illegal activity. We may also terminate accounts for any reason with 30 days notice.

14. Third-Party Services

The Service relies on third-party infrastructure and service providers to deliver its functionality. These currently include, but are not limited to:

• Cloud infrastructure: Amazon Web Services (AWS), including AWS Bedrock for AI model inference, S3 for document storage, and RDS for database hosting. Your data is stored in AWS data centers located in Canada (ca-central-1 region) unless otherwise specified.
• AI model providers: We use large language models provided through AWS Bedrock to power our AI features. Your document content is sent to these models for processing but is not retained by the model provider for training or improvement purposes.
• Payment processing: Stripe processes all subscription payments. Your payment information is handled directly by Stripe and is subject to Stripe's terms of service and privacy policy.
• Authentication: We may use third-party authentication providers to manage user sign-in and identity verification.

We carefully select third-party providers that maintain appropriate security standards and data protection practices. However, we are not responsible for the acts or omissions of third-party service providers, and their use of your data is governed by their respective terms and privacy policies.

We will provide reasonable notice if we make material changes to our third-party service providers that would affect how your data is processed or where it is stored. A current list of our sub-processors is available upon request by contacting privacy@bclegaltech.ca.

15. Copyright Policy

Vector Doc respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects its users to do the same. If you believe that your copyrighted work has been reproduced on or through the Service in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, you may submit a notice to our designated copyright agent at legal@bclegaltech.ca.

Your notice must include:

• Identification of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed
• Identification of the material that you claim is infringing, including a description of where it is located within the Service so that we can locate it
• Your name, address, telephone number, and email address
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf
• Your physical or electronic signature

Upon receipt of a valid notice, we will investigate and, if appropriate, remove or disable access to the allegedly infringing material. We may also suspend or terminate the accounts of users who are repeat infringers.

Please note that Vector Doc does not monitor or control the content uploaded by users. All user-uploaded content is the sole responsibility of the user who uploaded it.

16. Changes to Terms

We may modify these Terms from time to time. We will provide at least 30 days notice of material changes by email or through the Service. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the modified Terms. If you do not agree to the changes, you must stop using the Service and cancel your subscription.

17. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of British Columbia and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict of law principles.

Informal Resolution: Before initiating any legal proceeding, you agree to contact us at legal@bclegaltech.ca to attempt to resolve the dispute informally. We will attempt to resolve disputes within 30 days.

Any legal action must be brought in the courts of British Columbia, and you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of such courts.

18. General Provisions

• Entire Agreement: These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Vector Doc.
• Severability: If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect.
• Waiver: Our failure to enforce any right does not waive that right.
• Assignment: You may not assign these Terms. We may assign our rights to a successor entity.
• Force Majeure: We are not liable for delays caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control.