Legal Information

Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Superficial app (“App”), operated by Superficial Pty Ltd (“Superficial”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). By using the App, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, you may not use the App.

1. Use of the App

The Superficial app provides tools to extract, verify, and search factual information from user-submitted or AI-generated content and publicly available online sources.

The App may access publicly available or licensed online sources to retrieve information relevant to your query (“Search Results”). These are processed and summarised by Superficial’s systems to help you identify relevant material. Superficial does not host or control third-party content and provides such results “as is”.

Eligibility: You must be at least 16 years old to use the App. By using the App, you represent that you meet this requirement.

2. Account Registration and Access

You may be required to register and authenticate via third-party OAuth providers (such as Google or Apple) to access the App. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for any activity under your account.

3. User Content and Responsibility

You may submit content (text, URLs, documents, etc.) for claim extraction, verification, and search.

You retain ownership of your submitted content, but you grant us a limited licence to process and analyse it as needed to deliver the service.

You agree not to upload, submit, or share any content that:

• Is unlawful, misleading, defamatory, or harmful
• Violates intellectual property rights
• Contains personal data you do not have the right to share
• Includes confidential information you do not wish to transmit to external search providers

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate access if you misuse the service or violate these Terms.

4. Intellectual Property

All rights in the App, including its interface, logic, outputs, and software, are owned by or licensed to Superficial Pty Ltd.

You may not copy, reverse engineer, resell, or use any part of the App for commercial purposes without our written consent.

Search Results and extracted content remain the property of their respective rights holders. You may view or cite excerpts returned by the App for personal or professional informational use only.

You may use outputs (verified claims, summaries, or search extracts) for personal or professional purposes but not as part of an AI product, dataset, or training corpus without our permission.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use the App in any way that could harm, disable, or disrupt our service
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to systems or data
• Use the App to perform or support automated scraping, crawling, or bulk content submission
• Submit copyrighted or personal content you do not have permission to analyse
• Use search features for competitive data collection or mass reproduction of third-party content

We may rate-limit or restrict access to protect system integrity and availability.

6. Disclaimers

The App provides factual verification and search results using best-effort AI tools and publicly available information. Superficial does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, currency, or reliability of outputs or Search Results.

Search Results may link to external sites operated by third parties. We are not responsible for their content, accuracy, or availability.

Use of results is at your own discretion. The App does not provide legal, medical, or financial advice.

7. Limitation of Liability

To the extent permitted by law, Superficial is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, data, or goodwill arising from your use of the App.

Our total liability is limited to the amount you have paid (if any) for access to the App during the past 12 months.

8. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the App at any time for any reason, including violation of these Terms. You may stop using the App at any time.

9. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified via the App or email. Continued use of the App after such updates means you accept the revised Terms.

10. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia. Any disputes will be resolved in the courts of that jurisdiction.

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Superficial Pty Ltd (“Superficial”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) collects, uses, and protects your information when you use the Superficial app (“App”), which allows users to register, log in, verify factual claims, and search online content.

By using the App, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

1. Information We Collect

a. Account Information

When you register, we collect:

• Authentication information from third-party login providers (e.g., OAuth)
• Your email address

We do not collect or store your password. Authentication is handled by external providers.

b. Optional Personal Information

You may choose to provide:

• Your name, company, or role
• Preferences related to content, claim types, or summaries

c. Text Input, Search Queries, and Analysis Content

When you use the App, we temporarily process:

• Input text, documents, and search queries
• Extracted claims, verification results, and retrieved Search Results

For search features, we process your query text and may transmit it to third-party search providers to retrieve results. We log limited metadata (query, timestamp, provider, response time) for performance and abuse prevention.

Search queries are not used to train models.

d. Usage Data

We collect basic technical and usage data, such as:

• Device or browser type
• IP address
• App activity and features used
• Timestamps of usage

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Operate and maintain the App
• Extract and verify factual claims
• Retrieve and display relevant search results
• Provide and improve user experience
• Monitor performance and prevent abuse
• Comply with legal obligations

We do not sell or use your input or query data to train models.

3. Data Sharing

We do not sell or rent your personal information.

We may share limited data with:

• Search providers (e.g., Parallel, Exa, Perplexity) strictly to perform your search
• Technical service providers for hosting and infrastructure
• Legal authorities if required by law

All third parties are contractually bound to protect your data and use it only as instructed.

Search providers may process data under their own privacy terms and may transfer data outside your jurisdiction.

4. Data Retention

• Input and search content is processed and discarded unless you explicitly save it.
• Search logs and metadata may be retained for up to 30 days for debugging and system monitoring.
• Account data is retained for as long as your account is active.
• Aggregate, non-identifiable usage data may be kept for service improvement.

You can delete your account or request deletion by contacting privacy@superficial.org.

5. Data Security

We use encryption, access controls, and secure infrastructure to protect your data. While we take reasonable measures to safeguard your information, no system is completely secure.

6. Your Rights (GDPR & California Privacy Laws)

If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or California, you have certain rights regarding your personal data.

You may:

• Access and review your personal information
• Request corrections or deletion
• Object to or restrict processing
• Request data portability (where applicable)
• Withdraw consent (where processing relies on consent)
• Lodge a complaint with your data protection authority

To exercise any of these rights, please contact privacy@superficial.org.

Legal bases for processing (GDPR):

• Your consent (when you opt in to provide additional data)
• Performance of a contract (to deliver the App)
• Legitimate interests (to improve service and maintain security)
• Compliance with legal obligations

California (CPRA):

We do not sell personal data and do not knowingly collect information from children under 16. You may authorise an agent to make requests on your behalf under the CPRA.

7. Data Transfers

We operate internationally and may transfer your data to countries outside your residence. When we do, we implement safeguards consistent with applicable law, such as standard contractual clauses.

8. Accuracy and Third-Party Content

Search results may include links or excerpts from external sites that have their own privacy and cookie policies. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. Material changes will be communicated via the App or email. Continued use of the App after such updates means you accept the revised policy.