Terms of use

1. Who these terms apply to

perapro has two kinds of users, and some sections apply to only one of them.

• Customers: agencies, school districts, other public bodies and law firms that subscribe to perapro, and the staff, counsel and other people they authorize to use it ("authorized users").
• Requesters: members of the public, journalists, organizations and anyone else who files or tracks a public records request through a customer's perapro portal.

A customer's signed order form, master services agreement or data privacy agreement with us (a "customer agreement") controls if it conflicts with these terms.

2. Filing a public records request

perapro is a tool that agencies use. It is not a government agency and it does not decide requests. When you file through a customer's portal:

• Your request goes to that agency or school district only. The agency, not perapro, decides how to respond, what to release, what to withhold and what to charge, under its state's law.
• You can file through perapro only with agencies and school districts that use it. If an agency isn't listed, contact it directly. We can't forward a request to an agency that doesn't use perapro.
• Deadlines shown in perapro are calculated from each state's law for the agency's convenience. The agency's legal obligations, and your rights, come from the law itself, not from what perapro displays.
• Requests, the correspondence about them and the records released may themselves be public records. Don't include information in a request that you wouldn't want an agency to keep or disclose.
• Give accurate contact details so the agency can reach you. You're responsible for keeping your tracking number and secure links private.

3. Customer accounts

• Customers decide who their authorized users are and what each can see and do. Customers are responsible for their authorized users' activity in perapro.
• Keep sign-in credentials confidential. Tell us right away at support@perapro.com if you think an account has been used without permission.
• Customers must have the legal authority to upload the records and information they put into perapro and to share them with the people they give access to, including outside counsel.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use perapro to harass, threaten or impersonate anyone, or to submit requests in someone else's name without their permission.
• Upload malicious code, or try to get around access controls, rate limits, redactions or other security measures.
• Access records, accounts or requests you aren't authorized to see, or try to reverse or remove a redaction.
• Scrape, copy or resell perapro, or use it to build a competing product.
• Use perapro in a way that breaks the law, including privacy, public records and education records laws.

We may limit or suspend access to protect perapro, its users or the public, and will tell affected customers when we do, unless the law or an emergency prevents it.

5. Customer data and student records

"Customer data" means the records, requests, correspondence, letters and other information customers and requesters put into perapro, including any personal information in them.

• Customers own their customer data. We use it only to provide, secure and support perapro for that customer, as the customer directs, and as the law requires.
• We never sell customer data, use it for advertising or build profiles from it, and we don't use it to train AI models.
• For school districts, perapro acts as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA, 20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99). We work under the district's direct control, use education records only for the purposes the district authorized, and don't redisclose them except on the district's behalf as FERPA allows.
• We follow the student data privacy laws that apply to our customers, including those listed in our Privacy policy, and we'll sign a customer's data privacy agreement where its state requires one.
• When a customer asks, or when its subscription ends, we delete or return its customer data within 45 days, unless the law requires us to keep it or the customer tells us in writing to keep it. We confirm deletion in writing on request.
• We notify affected customers promptly, and within 24 hours of confirming it, if customer data is accessed or disclosed without authorization.

Public agencies are often required to keep records under their state's records retention schedules. Customers are responsible for setting retention for their own records in perapro.

6. Fees and payments

• Customers pay perapro the fees in their customer agreement.
• Fees for copies or staff time on a public records request are set by the agency under its state's law. If you pay one through perapro, the payment goes to the agency and is processed by our payment provider, Stripe. perapro doesn't set those fees and doesn't store card numbers.
• Questions about a request fee or refund go to the agency that issued the estimate.

7. Legal information and AI-assisted features

• perapro quotes statutes and exemptions word for word from official sources. Plain-English notes are labelled as notes and summarize, they don't replace, the law.
• Nothing in perapro is legal advice, and using perapro doesn't create an attorney-client relationship with us. Customers and their counsel remain responsible for every decision on a request.
• Some features, such as suggested redactions, use AI. Suggestions are a starting point only: a person reviews and approves every redaction and every letter before anything is released.

8. Our service and your feedback

perapro, Inc. owns perapro and its software, design and content, other than customer data. We give customers and their authorized users a limited, non-transferable right to use perapro during their subscription, and requesters a right to use the portal to file and track requests. If you send us feedback, we may use it without owing you anything.

9. Third-party services

perapro relies on service providers for hosting, sign-in, email, payments and similar functions. Our Privacy policy lists them. Links to other websites, including official statute sites, are provided for convenience and we aren't responsible for their content.

10. Disclaimers

We work hard to keep perapro accurate and available, but except as a customer agreement says otherwise, perapro is provided "as is" and "as available". To the extent the law allows, we disclaim implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We don't promise that perapro will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that deadlines and statutes shown in it are complete for every situation.

11. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, perapro isn't liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue or data. Our total liability for any claim relating to perapro is limited to the greater of the amount the customer paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or $100 for requesters. These limits don't apply where the law doesn't allow them, and a customer agreement may set different limits.

12. Responsibility for claims

To the extent its governing law allows, a customer is responsible for claims that arise from records it uploads or the decisions it makes on requests. Nothing in these terms waives any immunity or protection a government customer has under its own law. If a customer's law limits what it can agree to, its customer agreement controls.

13. Ending use of perapro

Customers can end their subscription as their customer agreement allows. We may suspend or end access for anyone who seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms. When a subscription ends, we handle customer data as described in "Customer data and student records" above. Sections that by their nature should continue, such as data handling, disclaimers and limits of liability, continue after use ends.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as perapro and the law change. We'll post the new version here with a new date, and give customers at least 30 days' notice of material changes before they take effect. Material changes to how we use student data won't apply to existing customer data without the customer's agreement.

15. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. Disputes are resolved in the state or federal courts located in North Carolina. Where a government customer must, by law, be governed by its own state's law or courts, its customer agreement controls.

16. Contact us

Questions about these terms: support@perapro.com.