# Terms & Disclaimer

**Our purpose, plainly: Vote Clarity is a non-partisan, educational tool built to help you decide, according to your own wants and needs, where to place your vote. It exists to inform your own thinking. It does not tell you how to vote, and it never will.**

_Last updated: 27 June 2026. By using Vote Clarity (the "tool", "app", "service", "we", "us", "our"), you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use it._

> ⚠️ **Draft notice, not yet legal advice.** This is a plain-English draft and **must be reviewed and approved by a qualified lawyer in each country where the tool is offered before launch.** It is not a substitute for professional legal advice. Items in **[square brackets]** must be completed with your counsel (legal entity name, jurisdiction, contact email, payment processor). The **sale of anonymous political-opinion aggregate data (Section 10)** and, when introduced, **paid features (Section 9)** are the highest-risk items and need specialist review before you rely on them.

## 1. Acceptance of these terms
By accessing or using the tool you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and by our **[Privacy Policy](PRIVACY.md)**, which forms part of these Terms. If you are using it on behalf of someone else, you confirm you are authorised to accept these Terms for them.

## 2. What this tool is (and is not)
Vote Clarity is an educational quiz that compares the priorities you tell us against publicly stated political party positions, then shows you where your answers sit relative to those parties. Your results are **for information and educational purposes only.** They are:

- **not voting advice, a recommendation, or an endorsement** of any party or candidate;
- **not a poll, forecast, or prediction** of any election result or of how anyone will vote;
- **not a complete or definitive picture** of any party, candidate, or the political landscape.

Think of your result as a starting point for your own research, not a conclusion. Any decision about whether, how, or for whom to vote is entirely your own.

## 3. We are independent and non-partisan
We are **not affiliated with, funded by, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of** any political party, candidate, campaign, government, electoral authority, investor group, or interest group. We do not favour any party or outcome. We take no party or government money. Our goal is to present information fairly and let you reach your own conclusions.

## 4. About the party information: no guarantee of accuracy
Party positions shown in the tool are **short summaries** prepared from publicly available sources. They are simplifications, they may contain errors, and **political positions change over time, so a summary may be out of date.** We provide all content **"as is" and "as available", with no warranties of any kind** (see Section 13). **Always verify positions with the party's own official materials, and confirm how and where to vote with your official electoral authority, before relying on anything here.**

## 5. How it works: our method, in the open
Each question is a **single, neutral policy statement.** You say how much you agree (on a five-point scale) and how much the issue matters to you. We place each party on the **same scale** using its **publicly stated positions** (such as manifestos, official policy, public statements, and legislative record), summarised in good faith and **not reinterpreted to favour or disadvantage anyone.** Your result is a **transparent similarity score** between your answers and those positions, weighted by what you said matters. You answer every question in each section you complete; if you choose to stop after a section, the remaining questions are simply not part of your score. You can see the exact comparison, and the sources we used, on the results page.

The tool uses a **limited set of questions** and cannot capture every issue, every nuance of a platform, independents or minor parties we do not include, or everything that may matter to you. Positions are summaries and **can change over time;** we review them periodically, but always verify with the party's own materials. It is a **simplified guide, not a substitute for your own research and judgement.**

## 6. Open to everyone; no effect on your right to vote
The tool and its results are **available to anyone, regardless of citizenship, nationality, or voter eligibility.** Using the tool does **not** confer, confirm, or affect any right to vote. Whether you are actually eligible to vote in any election is determined solely by the relevant electoral authorities, not by us.

## 7. Eligibility and age
The tool is intended for a **general audience and is suitable for users aged 16 and over.** If you are under the age of majority where you live, please use it with the involvement of a parent or guardian. By using it, you confirm you meet this requirement.

## 8. Acceptable use
Please use the tool lawfully and for your own personal, non-commercial, educational use. You agree **not to**: scrape, crawl, harvest, or bulk-download its content or data; copy, republish, or redistribute it; reverse-engineer or attempt to derive its source or data; probe, overload, disrupt, or attack the service or its infrastructure; submit false, automated, or manipulated responses to distort the aggregate; or use the tool to harass, mislead, or harm others. We may suspend or remove access for any breach.

## 9. Cost and donations
Vote Clarity is **currently free to use.** It runs no ads and takes no party money. You may choose to make a **voluntary donation** to help keep it online and independent. A donation is optional, is **not a purchase or a fee**, and (except where the law that applies to you requires otherwise) is **non-refundable**. Donations, if you make one, are handled by a **third-party payment provider [name, e.g. Stripe]** under its own terms and privacy policy; we never see or store your card details.

**Future paid features.** We plan to introduce **paid features or pricing** in future, and to **license or sell anonymous aggregate insights** (see Section 10). If we start charging for use, the price, currency, and any refund or consumer-protection rights that apply to you (for example, the Australian Consumer Law guarantees, or EU and UK distance-selling rights) will be shown to you at the point of payment, and these Terms will be updated first. If the app is offered through an app store, that store's billing and refund rules will also apply.

## 10. Your data and privacy
The tool itself does **not** collect personal data from the quiz: we do not ask for or store your name, email address, government ID, or IP address, and we do not track who you are. If you give consent (the tick box on the first screen), your result and any optional "about you" details are added in **anonymous, aggregate** form that cannot identify you. We may **use, publish, share, or sell these anonymous aggregate insights**, including to third parties. These aggregates come from a **self-selected group** who chose to take the quiz, so they are **directional, not a representative survey.** Payment, if you make one, is handled by the payment provider as described in Section 9. Full details are in our **[Privacy Policy](PRIVACY.md)**.

## 11. Intellectual property and licence
All content, design, text, code, and the underlying data are **protected by intellectual property rights** and remain ours or our licensors'. We grant you a personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the tool as intended. Any feedback you send us may be used without obligation or compensation to you. **If you believe anything here infringes your copyright or other rights, contact us at [your contact email]** and we will review it and, where appropriate, correct or remove it.

## 12. Third-party links and services
The tool links to third-party sites (such as electoral authorities, party websites, and our payment provider). We provide these for convenience and **do not control or endorse them and are not responsible for their content, accuracy, or practices.** Your use of any third-party site is governed by that site's own terms.

## 13. Disclaimer of warranties
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the tool and all content are provided **"as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind**, express, implied, or statutory, including accuracy, completeness, currency, availability, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. We do not warrant that the tool will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure. **Nothing in these Terms excludes any warranty or guarantee that cannot be excluded under the law that applies to you.**

## 14. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are **not liable** for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, or exemplary loss, or for any electoral, financial, reputational, or other decision you make or outcome that arises from using, or being unable to use, the tool or relying on its content or results. Where liability cannot be excluded, our **total aggregate liability to you is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or [small fixed sum, e.g. AUD $25].** Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law (for example, for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or certain consumer guarantees).

## 15. Indemnification
To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from claims, losses, and reasonable costs arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the tool, or your infringement of any law or third-party right.

## 16. Suspension, termination and changes to the service
We may **modify, suspend, or discontinue** the tool, any feature, or any country's data at any time, with or without notice, and without liability. We may suspend or end your access if you breach these Terms.

## 17. Changes to these terms
We may **update these Terms at any time.** The current version will always be posted here with its "last updated" date, and continued use after a change means you accept it. For material changes affecting paid users, we will take reasonable steps to make the change clear.

## 18. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of **[jurisdiction, to be set with counsel]**, without affecting any mandatory consumer-protection or other rights you have where you live. If a dispute arises, please contact us first so we can try to resolve it informally. **[Any arbitration, class-action-waiver, or venue clauses must be drafted per jurisdiction with counsel; such clauses are restricted or unenforceable in some markets, including parts of the EU and UK.]** If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.

## 19. Contact
Questions about these Terms, or a refund or billing query? Contact **[your legal entity name]** at **[your contact email]**.

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_Vote Clarity is provided in good faith to support civic education. It is not legal, financial, or electoral advice. Your vote is yours alone._