TERMS OF SERVICE & DISCLAIMER.

1. About this Service

The Hotchows ADA Web Compliance Tool ("the Service," "we," "our") is software that scans HTML files on a customer's web server, identifies likely violations of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1, Level AA (WCAG 2.1 AA), and proposes machine-generated remediations.

Two plans are available:

• DIY plan — $29.99/month. You connect to your own web server via SSH/SFTP, you supply your own AI API key (Anthropic Claude or Google Gemini), and the AI calls happen on your account. You retain control of every change before it is deployed to your server. Re-audits are unlimited within your subscription period.
• Done-For-You plan — $299/month. A human account manager onboards you, runs the audits on a recurring monthly schedule, deploys approved fixes on your behalf, and emails you a branded monthly compliance certificate. AI API usage is included in the price.

By creating an account, by clicking Subscribe, or by submitting a credit card to begin a paid plan, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

2. Disclaimer — Not Legal Advice

There is no governmental certification body for ADA web compliance in the United States. No private entity, including Hotchows, can issue a certificate that legally pre-empts a lawsuit. Our compliance certificates are marketing artifacts that summarize the audit you commissioned at a moment in time; they are not licensed accreditation, and they are not a defense against demand letters or litigation.

If you are responding to a demand letter, an active lawsuit, or a state or federal investigation, you must consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction. Do not rely on the Service in lieu of qualified legal counsel.

3. AI-Generated Fixes — Customer Review Required

Remediations proposed by the Service are generated by large language models (currently Anthropic Claude and Google Gemini). These models are statistical systems that can and do produce incorrect, incomplete, or misleading output, including:

• Missing accessibility violations that a human auditor would catch.
• Producing alt text, ARIA labels, or roles that are technically valid but semantically wrong for the surrounding content.
• Suggesting fixes that pass automated checks but fail real-world assistive technologies (screen readers, voice-control, switch input).
• Rewriting code in a way that breaks unrelated layout, behavior, or analytics.

You are responsible for reviewing every proposed change before deploying it. The Service offers a side-by-side diff view (Review & Deploy) and one-click rollback expressly so that you can validate fixes prior to publication. By deploying a fix, you acknowledge that you have reviewed and accepted that fix.

Manual auditing by a person who uses assistive technology is not optional. No automated tool — ours or any other — currently catches more than approximately a third of all WCAG-relevant issues on a typical page. The Service is a productivity tool, not a substitute for human review.

4. Authorization to Audit

You may only use the Service on websites and servers you own, control, or are explicitly authorized in writing to audit. Submitting SSH credentials, SFTP credentials, or directory paths for any other system is a breach of these Terms and may also be a violation of computer-fraud laws in your jurisdiction (including 18 U.S.C. § 1030 and California Penal Code § 502).

If you are a web agency or freelancer auditing client sites, you represent that you have written client authorization that covers (a) read access to the site's HTML files, (b) automated scanning, and (c) deployment of approved fixes back to the customer's server.

Hotchows reserves the right to suspend any account that we reasonably suspect of unauthorized access, including without notice or refund.

5. Subscription, Billing & Cancellation

Both plans are paid monthly subscriptions billed in advance via Stripe. Your card is charged on the day you start your subscription and on the same day each month thereafter, until you cancel. Pricing is in U.S. dollars; applicable sales tax (if any) is added at checkout.

Cancellation. You may cancel at any time. To cancel, click Manage subscription on the in-app dashboard (DIY plan) or use the Manage subscription link in any Stripe receipt email (DFY plan). Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period — you keep access until that date, then the subscription ends without further charges. Cancelling on day 3 of the month and cancelling on day 28 of the month produce the same outcome: the full monthly charge stands and you keep access until the period closes.

Failed payments. If a payment fails (expired card, insufficient funds, declined transaction), Stripe will retry per its standard schedule. If recovery fails, your subscription will be suspended and access to the Service will be paused until billing resumes. Repeated payment failures may result in subscription termination.

6. No Refunds, No Proration

This policy is enforced at the Stripe Customer Portal layer with cancellation_mode = at_period_end and proration_behavior = none. By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to this policy.

7. SSH Credentials & API Keys

DIY plan — BYO API key. You paste your own Anthropic or Gemini API key into the in-app form. Your key is held in your browser session only; it is sent to our server per request in order to call the AI provider on your behalf, and is not persisted in our database. You can rotate or revoke the key from your provider's console at any time.

SSH/SFTP credentials. When you connect to a remote server, your password or private key is held in your active browser session and used to establish SSH/SFTP transport for that audit run. We strongly recommend using a dedicated, least-privilege service account that has read access to the directory you wish to audit and write access only to the same directory tree. Never use a root account.

DFY plan — managed credentials. Done-For-You customers provide credentials during onboarding. Hotchows handles those credentials under the same constraints: least-privilege service accounts, encrypted at rest, never shared with third parties, and revocable on request. Customers may rotate credentials at any time and notify us via support@hotchows.com.

You are responsible for the security of your account password and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us immediately at support@hotchows.com if you suspect your account has been compromised.

8. Privacy & Data Handling

We collect the minimum information needed to operate the Service:

• Account data: email address, password (hashed via bcrypt), Stripe customer ID, subscription status.
• Audit history: the file paths you scanned, timestamps, the violations identified, and the proposed fixes. We retain this so the Review & Deploy interface can show recent runs and rollback drafts.
• Billing data: Stripe handles all card data per PCI-DSS. We never see, store, or log a card number.
• Server logs: request method, path, timestamp, and IP address, retained no longer than 30 days.

What we do NOT do: sell your data, share it with advertising networks, train AI models on your audit history, or transmit your SSH credentials anywhere except to the destination server you specified for the run.

AI provider data flow. When the AI is called to produce a fix, the relevant HTML snippet is sent to your chosen provider (Anthropic or Google) under that provider's terms. On the DIY plan, this is your own API key with your own provider account; the provider's data-retention rules attach to your account, not ours. On the DFY plan, we use Hotchows-owned API keys for fix generation; AI provider terms apply.

You may request export or deletion of your account-level data at any time by emailing support@hotchows.com. We will respond within a reasonable period, typically under 30 days.

9. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• Audit, scan, or deploy fixes to a website or server you do not own or are not authorized to access.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code from the Service.
• Probe the Service for vulnerabilities, exfiltrate data belonging to other customers, or interfere with normal operation (DoS, fuzzing, credential stuffing).
• Resell or sublicense access to the Service in a way that violates these Terms (legitimate agency use covered by §4 is permitted).
• Submit malware, child sexual abuse material, or content that infringes third-party intellectual property.
• Use the Service to facilitate illegal activity in your jurisdiction.

Violation of this section may result in immediate termination without refund and, where appropriate, referral to law enforcement.

10. Intellectual Property

You own your content. The HTML files you audit, the fixes you deploy, and any compliance certificates issued to you remain your property and are licensed to you for ordinary business use. You may share certificates with auditors, customers, or insurers without restriction.

We own the platform. The Service software, the user interface, the prompt engineering, the audit dashboard, and the marketing materials at hotchows.com/ada are the property of Hotchows. You may not copy, redistribute, or build a competing product on top of the Service.

"Hotchows," the Hotchows shield logo, and the ADA Web Compliance Tool name are trademarks of Hotchows. Other trademarks (Stripe, Anthropic, Gemini, Google, Apple, etc.) are the property of their respective owners.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

• The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement.
• Hotchows is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including without limitation lost revenue, lost profits, goodwill, lawsuits or settlements arising from accessibility complaints, regulatory fines, or business interruption.
• Hotchows's total aggregate liability under these Terms in any twelve-month period is capped at the greater of (a) the amount you paid Hotchows during that twelve-month period, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars (USD $100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow exclusion or limitation of certain warranties or damages; in those jurisdictions, the limitations apply to the maximum extent allowed.

12. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Hotchows, its sole proprietor, contractors, and successors from any claim, damage, liability, settlement, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your use of the Service; (b) your violation of these Terms; (c) your violation of any third-party right, including any intellectual-property or privacy right; (d) your violation of any law or regulation; or (e) any claim that a website you audited via the Service caused harm to a third party.

13. Termination

You may terminate your subscription at any time per §5 (Cancellation). Hotchows may terminate or suspend your account at any time for breach of these Terms — including §4 (Authorization), §9 (Acceptable Use), or non-payment — without refund. Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases immediately. Sections 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 14 survive termination.

14. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in San Mateo County, California, and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there.

If you are a consumer in a jurisdiction that grants you statutory rights to a different governing law or forum, those statutory rights remain in effect to the extent required by your local law.

15. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The current version is always available at https://hotchows.com/ada/terms.html; the effective date appears at the top of this page. Material changes (for example, a price change or a new restriction on use) will be communicated to active subscribers by email at least 14 days before the change takes effect. Continuing to use the Service after the effective date of a change constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

16. Contact