Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By creating an account, accessing, or using Rate My Acquaintance ("the Platform"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to all of these Terms, you may not create an account or use the Platform.

2. User Eligibility and Account Responsibility

You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction) to create an account or submit ratings.

You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized use.

One Account Rule: To prevent review manipulation, bots, or targeted smear campaigns, each user is limited to one account. Creating multiple accounts is a violation of these Terms and may result in termination of all associated accounts.

3. User-Generated Content Rules

Ratings and reviews must reflect your genuine, first-hand professional experience and be framed as subjective opinion where applicable. You bear 100% liability for the content you post.

Prohibited Content:

• Private personal data: home addresses, personal phone numbers, private email addresses, or any non-public identifying information. Only public professional identifiers (such as a public LinkedIn profile URL) are permitted.
• Knowingly false statements of fact: you may not knowingly post false statements of fact. Accusations of specific illegal conduct must be based on your direct, first-hand experience. Where your statement is an interpretation or belief, frame it as opinion (e.g., "I believe," "in my experience").
• Discriminatory, hateful, harassing, profane, or sexually explicit language.
• Proprietary company data, trade secrets, or information protected by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

4. Third-Party Links and LinkedIn Policy

The Platform may display hyperlinks to third-party websites, including LinkedIn profiles. The Platform does not own, endorse, verify, or monitor the accuracy of external hyperlinks added by users.

Users warrant that any hyperlink they add is publicly accessible and accurately maps to the professional being reviewed, without infringing on third-party intellectual property or privacy rights.

5. Community Reporting, Moderation, and Section 230

The Platform reserves the right, but does not assume the obligation, to monitor, review, flag, or remove content that violates these Terms.

In accordance with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the Platform acts purely as an interactive computer service provider and is not the publisher or author of user-generated content. Users are solely responsible for their own content.

Users outside the United States acknowledge that intermediary liability protections vary by jurisdiction, and that they remain solely responsible for content they post under the laws applicable to them.

A reporting system is available for users and rated professionals to report violations of these Terms.

6. Take-Down Requests and Professional Rights

Any professional (landlord, recruiter, manager, or other rated individual) who discovers a profile created for them on the Platform has the right to:

• Claim the profile and manage their public presence on the Platform.
• Request corrections for factual errors in metadata (e.g., name, title, employer).
• Request complete removal of their personal profile in compliance with applicable privacy regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Removal requests should be submitted through the available reporting mechanism or by contacting our support team.

7. Right of Reply

Rated professionals who claim their profile may post one public response to each review. Responses are subject to the same content rules as reviews.

8. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Rate My Acquaintance, its founders, employees, and affiliates from any claims, damages, liabilities, costs, or legal fees (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to: (a) any content you submit or post on the Platform; (b) your breach of these Terms; (c) your violation of any law or the rights of any third party.

9. Limitation of Liability

The Platform provides its services on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Rate My Acquaintance shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, data, or professional reputation resulting from your use of or inability to use the service.

Ratings and reviews reflect the opinions of individual users, not the Platform.

10. Content Ownership and License

You retain ownership of content you submit. By submitting content, you grant Rate My Acquaintance a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to display, distribute, and store your content on the Platform for the purpose of operating and improving the service.

We reserve the right to remove content that violates these Terms.

11. Mandatory Individual Arbitration & Class Action Waiver

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the Platform shall be resolved exclusively by binding individual arbitration administered by a neutral arbitrator. Arbitration shall be conducted on an individual basis only — class arbitrations, class actions, private attorney general actions, and consolidated proceedings are expressly prohibited.

You agree that by accepting these Terms, both you and Rate My Acquaintance are waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class action. This arbitration clause applies to all claims, including those against the Platform's founders, employees, and affiliates.

If you wish to opt out of this arbitration agreement, you must send a written notice within 30 days of creating your account. If you do not opt out, this agreement governs all disputes.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court, and either party may seek injunctive relief in court for intellectual property infringement or unauthorized data access.

12. Reviewer Verification and Subpoena Disclosure

While the Platform allows anonymous posting of reviews, your anonymity is not legally absolute. Rate My Acquaintance will comply with valid legal process, including court subpoenas, and may disclose your identity, email address, IP address, account registration data, and any other information in its possession when required by law.

Before disclosing a user's identity in response to civil legal process, the Platform will, where legally permitted, make reasonable efforts to notify the affected user and allow at least 14 days for the user to seek to quash the subpoena.

By using the Platform, you acknowledge and agree that the Platform may disclose your information in response to a lawful subpoena without liability to you. This shifts the legal responsibility for defamatory content to the individual who posted it.

13. Professional Account Terms

Rated professionals may claim their profile free of charge. Claiming a profile does not waive any legal rights you may have against individual reviewers. By claiming a profile, you agree that the Platform itself is an interactive computer service provider and is not the author or publisher of user reviews. You agree to use the Platform's reporting and correction tools as a first step for resolving content disputes before initiating legal action against the Platform.

14. Prohibited Conduct — Scraping and Extortion

Scraping, crawling, or systematic extraction of Platform data without written permission is prohibited and constitutes a breach of these Terms and may violate applicable computer access laws. The Platform may pursue all available legal and equitable remedies, including injunctive relief and actual damages.

Any user who threatens to post, or offers to remove, a review in exchange for money or other benefit will have their account terminated and may be reported to law enforcement. Reviews determined to be posted in bad faith for leverage will be removed.

15. Governing Law, Jurisdiction, and Severability

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or related to your use of the Platform shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without regard to its choice of law principles. For any disputes not subject to the Mandatory Arbitration clause in Section 11, you and the Platform explicitly agree to submit to the exclusive personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Alameda County, California.

If any provision of these Terms is found by a court of competent jurisdiction or arbitrator to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, that specific provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions of these Terms shall remain in full force and effect.

16. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Takedown Policy

The Platform respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that any content hosted on the Platform infringes upon your copyright, you may submit a formal DMCA Takedown Notice to our Designated Copyright Agent at legal@ratemyacquaintance.com.

Your notice must include: (a) a physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or authorized agent; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed; (c) the specific URL or location of the infringing material on our Platform; (d) your contact information (email and phone number); (e) a statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material is not authorized; and (f) a statement made under penalty of perjury that the information in your notice is accurate.

17. Prohibited Uses — Consumer Reporting

Rate My Acquaintance is not a consumer reporting agency as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. You may not use the Platform or any information obtained from it, in whole or in part, as a factor in determining any person's eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, housing, tenancy, or any other purpose covered by the FCRA. Use of Platform content for any FCRA-covered purpose is strictly prohibited and grounds for immediate termination.

18. Entire Agreement

These Terms, along with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire and exclusive agreement between you and Rate My Acquaintance regarding your use of the Platform. These Terms supersede and replace any prior verbal or written agreements, representations, promises, or understandings between you and the Platform.

19. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms at any time. Continued use of the Platform after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the new Terms. We will notify users of material changes via email or platform notice.

20. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, please reach out to our support team.