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:
- An engineering or design service. Civitar does not perform engineering analysis, design, or site-specific recommendations. The Mitigation Explorer (Monitor tier) is an informational reference: it surfaces mitigation approaches documented in the public record and literature that are relevant to a site's findings, along with general trade-offs, so that you can do your own research. It does not tell you what to do at any specific site, is not advice, and is not engineering practice. Any actual implementation, permitting, or regulatory submission requires a licensed Professional Engineer in the project state.
- A legal service. Civitar does not provide legal advice. Nothing in a briefing constitutes a legal opinion or a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney.
- A consulting service. Civitar is a self-service informational platform, not a consultant of record on any project.
- A regulatory submission. Civitar briefings are not suitable for use as the technical basis of a permit application, NEPA submission, or Endangered Species Act consultation. For those purposes, retain qualified professional services.
- An advocacy organization. Civitar does not take positions for or against specific data-center projects; we surface what public data shows.
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 Content viewed offline or from the installed app may be out of date; the current record is always available at civitar.org.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:
- Maintaining the security of the email account you register with (anyone with access to it can request a sign-in link)
- All activity that occurs under your account
- Promptly notifying us at security@civitar.org of any unauthorized use
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):
- Free — full Site Briefings (all categories and public-data layers) and the change-over-time timeline, with a free account. No Mitigation Explorer, change alerts, or exports.
- Monitor — everything in Free, plus change alerts on saved sites (email and optional SMS), unlimited saved sites, the Mitigation Explorer, and data exports / PDFs. $5/month or $36/year.
- Institutional *(coming soon)* — multi-seat for newsrooms, libraries, conservation orgs, and university departments, plus bulk export/API and white-label PDFs. From $120/year, sliding scale available. Currently onboarded by request via hello@civitar.org.
Billing
- Subscriptions are billed in advance through Stripe.
- Card data is collected, processed, and stored by Stripe. Civitar does not see, store, or process your card number.
- We do not control Stripe; their Terms apply to your card data.
- All amounts are in U.S. dollars. Sales tax may apply, calculated and remitted via Stripe Tax.
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
- You may cancel at any time from your account settings or by emailing hello@civitar.org.
- Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you retain Monitor access until then.
- Refunds: annual subscriptions are refundable within 14 days of purchase, pro-rated. Monthly subscriptions are non-refundable but cancellation takes effect immediately at the end of the current month. Institutional subscriptions are non-refundable but can be transferred to a different account within the same institution by emailing hello@civitar.org.
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:
- Use Civitar to harass, defame, or threaten any individual, community, or organization
- Use Civitar's outputs to make biological-opinion, engineering, or legal determinations of any kind
- Use Civitar's service in a way designed to evade rate limits or pricing tiers (e.g., creating multiple accounts to bypass the Mitigation Explorer free-preview limit)
- Scrape, mirror, or republish Civitar's briefings at scale without explicit written permission
- Use Civitar in a way that violates U.S. law or the law of your jurisdiction
- Attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, or extract the source of Civitar's services (the source code is open at github.com/civitar-community/civitar; review it there)
- Interfere with or disrupt the service or networks connected to the service
Violation may result in account suspension or termination without refund.
6. Intellectual property
What Civitar owns
- The Civitar name, logo, and the design of civitar.org
- The Civitar pipeline architecture, methodology documentation, and the curated Mitigation Options catalog
- The structure and organization of Site Briefings as compilations
What you own
- Your account information
- Your list of saved sites
- Anything you submit through institutional inquiry forms (we use it only to respond to your inquiry)
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:
- Civitar's total liability to you for any claim arising out of these Terms or the service is limited to the amount you paid Civitar in the 12 months preceding the claim, or $100, whichever is greater.
- Civitar is not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages — including but not limited to lost profits, lost data, or business interruption — even if advised of the possibility.
- Some jurisdictions do not allow these limitations. To the extent they apply, you may have additional rights.
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:
- Material violation of these Terms
- Non-payment of subscription charges
- Conduct we determine in good faith poses a risk to other users, Civitar, or third parties
- Required by law
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:
- Small-claims-court actions, which you may file in your local jurisdiction
- Injunctive relief for intellectual property infringement
- Government investigations
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
- Entire agreement. These Terms (with the Privacy Policy) constitute the entire agreement between you and Civitar.
- Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
- No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of that provision.
- No assignment by you. You may not assign these Terms to a third party. We may assign them in the event of an acquisition or merger.
- Survival. Sections 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, and 14 survive termination of these Terms or your account.
15. Contact
- General questions: hello@civitar.org
- Billing: payments@civitar.org
- Privacy: privacy@civitar.org
- Security: security@civitar.org
- Mailing address: [to be added at launch]