Preamble: A Constitutional Commitment to Clarity
The Visual Thinking Company (VTCo) is founded on the principle of "From Complexity to Clarity". Our mission is to build civic intelligence infrastructure that is legible, verifiable, and serves the public good. These Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy are not just legal requirements; they are an extension of our constitutional commitment to evidence over opinion, system legibility, and institutional trust. By using our services, you agree to operate within this framework.
Part I: General Terms of Service
1. Acceptance of Terms
By accessing or using any services provided by The Visual Thinking Company Inc., including our websites, consumer applications (e.g., School Guide), professional and institutional platforms (e.g., Territory Intelligence and the Social Infrastructure Database), or data products (collectively, the "Services"), you agree to be bound by these Terms.
2. Definition of User Tiers
These terms apply to all users, who are classified as follows:
- Public Users: Individuals who access our free, publicly available Services, such as the School Space Finder.
- Institutional & Commercial Users: Organizations, including municipalities, school districts, realtors, and sponsors, who access paid Services through a subscription, license, or other commercial agreement.
- Academic Partners: Approved researchers and institutions participating in our Academic Partnership Program (APP), whose use is governed by the General Terms and the specific conditions in Schedule A.
3. Use of Services & Intellectual Property
- License: VTCo grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Services for their intended purpose.
- Intellectual Property: All content, data, methodologies, and technologies within the Services, including but not limited to the Canadian Civic Evidence Registry (SID), the Diagonal Integration Method, and all associated software, are the exclusive intellectual property of VTCo. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of our Services or reverse engineer any of our software.
- Acceptable Use: You agree not to use the Services for any unlawful purpose or to engage in any activity that could damage, disable, or impair our systems. Automated data scraping is prohibited unless explicitly authorized via an API agreement.
4. Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability
Our Services provide evidence classified by our L1-L5 Evidence Operating System (EOS) to help inform decisions. However, the Services are provided "as is." VTCo makes no warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of the data and is not liable for any decisions made based on the use of our Services. Our role is to enhance human discretion, not replace it.
5. Governing Law
These Terms shall be governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein.
Schedule A: Academic Partnership Program (APP) Addendum
These terms apply in addition to the General Terms for approved Academic Partners.
A.1. Purpose & Scope
The purpose of the APP is to provide qualified academic partners with supervised access to VTCo's methods and data for the sole purpose of independent verification, as detailed in our "Simplified Structure & Process".
A.2. The "Glass Box": Data Access & The Secure Environment
- Synthetic & Aggregated Data Only: Partners will only interact with synthetic or aggregated data slices within a Canadian Trusted Research Environment (TRE). No raw or personally identifiable information will be accessible.
- Secure Protocol: The TRE prohibits data export and logs all queries to ensure compliance with our privacy and security commitments.
A.3. The Output: Methodology Verification Statement
The deliverable is a public, co-authored statement confirming that VTCo's methods are sound and our systems are legible. It is a verification of process, not a commercial endorsement.
A.4. Confidentiality
All proprietary methods and algorithms accessed during the review remain the confidential and exclusive intellectual property of VTCo. Partners agree not to disclose this information outside the scope of the co-authored public statement.