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Civitar Terms of Service

Effective date: *To be set on execution.* Last updated: 2026-06-28


1. Acceptance of these terms

By creating a Civitar account or using civitar.org, you agree to these Terms of Service. If you don't agree, don't use Civitar.

These Terms form a binding contract between you ("you," "your") and Pinnalux LLC dba Civitar ("Civitar," "we," "our").

You must be at least 16 years old to use Civitar. If you are using Civitar on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

2. What Civitar is — and isn't

Civitar is an informational and educational platform that surfaces public-record environmental and demographic data about U.S. data-center sites. Each "Site Briefing" cites the underlying public data sources and is generated programmatically.

Civitar is NOT:

You agree to use Civitar consistent with this informational purpose.

Offline / installed-app content. Civitar can be installed to your device (as a "progressive web app") and may cache pages for offline access. Content viewed offline or from the installed app may be out of date; the current record is always available at civitar.org.

3. Your account

You may create one Civitar account. To register, you provide an email address. Civitar uses passwordless sign-in: instead of a password, we email you a one-time sign-in link. An optional phone number may be added later solely to receive SMS alerts (Monitor tier; opt-in).

You are responsible for:

We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms, attempt to abuse the service, or fail to pay subscription charges.

4. Subscription tiers and billing

Civitar offers the following tiers (current pricing on civitar.org):

Billing

Automatic renewal. Monitor subscriptions renew automatically — monthly plans each month, annual plans each year — and your payment method is charged the then-current published rate at the start of each period until you cancel. You may cancel anytime via the customer portal ("Manage billing") or by emailing hello@civitar.org; cancellation stops future renewals and takes effect at the end of the current paid period.

Cancellation and refunds

Donations

You may donate to Civitar through the donations form. Donations are not tax-deductible because Civitar is operated by Pinnalux LLC, a for-profit entity. Donations are non-refundable.

SMS alerts (when available)

SMS change-alerts are a Monitor feature that is not yet active. If and when you provide a mobile number and opt in, you consent to receive automated text alerts about sites you've saved. Message and data rates may apply; frequency varies. Reply STOP to unsubscribe or HELP for help. Consent to texts is not a condition of any purchase, and you can remove your number at any time.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

Violation may result in account suspension or termination without refund.

6. Intellectual property

What Civitar owns

What you own

Public data

The public-data sources Civitar uses (USGS, NASA, EPA, USFWS, U.S. Census, GBIF, IUCN, etc.) are subject to their own licenses, generally public-domain or open-data licenses. Civitar cites each source explicitly. Civitar does not claim ownership of underlying public data.

Open source

Civitar's source code is published at github.com/civitar-community/civitar under an open-source license (MIT). The license terms in the repository govern use of the source code itself.

7. Disclaimers

Civitar is provided "as is." We make no warranty, express or implied, that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or fit for any particular purpose.

Public-data outputs reflect the upstream data. Civitar surfaces what public databases (USGS, NASA, USFWS, etc.) actually contain. We do not warrant the accuracy of those underlying datasets. When a public database has gaps, errors, or delays, Civitar's briefings will reflect those gaps. We make best efforts to flag known limitations.

No professional advice. Nothing in Civitar constitutes engineering, legal, environmental, or financial advice. For decisions of consequence, retain a qualified licensed professional.

No prediction of outcomes. Civitar surfaces context; we do not predict the outcome of any permit, lawsuit, environmental review, or community-engagement process.

8. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

9. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Pinnalux LLC, its officers, employees, and contractors from any claim arising out of your misuse of Civitar — including any use of Civitar outputs as the basis for engineering, regulatory, or legal action.

10. Termination

You may terminate your account at any time by deleting it from account settings or emailing privacy@civitar.org.

We may terminate or suspend your account at any time for:

Upon termination, your access ends immediately, and your data is handled per the Privacy Policy retention schedule (Section 7 of the Privacy Policy).

11. Governing law and dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles.

Informal resolution first

Before filing a formal dispute, we agree to try informal resolution. Email hello@civitar.org with a description of the dispute; we will respond within 14 days.

Binding arbitration

If informal resolution fails, any dispute arising under these Terms will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The arbitration will be conducted in the State of Delaware (or by video if both parties agree).

You and Civitar each waive the right to a jury trial and the right to participate in any class action.

Exceptions

This arbitration clause does not apply to:

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms as we add features or as the law changes. For material changes, we will notify active users by email at least 30 days before the change takes effect, and update the Last updated date.

Continued use of Civitar after the effective date of a change constitutes acceptance of the new Terms.

13. Force majeure

Civitar is not liable for any failure or delay in providing the service due to causes beyond our reasonable control — including acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labor disputes, internet or hosting-provider outages, failures of third-party services (e.g., Cloudflare, Stripe, Resend, or upstream public-data providers), changes in law, or government action.

14. Miscellaneous

15. Contact