Terms of Service

Offendersearch provides programmatic access to U.S. sex-offender data derived from publicly available records (the “API Data”) through a documented API, plus related web, batch, verification-report (PDF), and MCP interfaces and supporting documentation. We may modify or remove endpoints, features, response fields, data-freshness cadence, and rate limits from time to time, and will give notice of material changes when practical. You are responsible for maintaining accurate registration information, safeguarding your credentials and API keys, and all activity under them; key security is your responsibility. A key is activated only once valid billing is on file. We may monitor usage solely for billing, security, abuse-prevention, and audit purposes.

Either party may terminate for any reason on 15 days’ written notice (email suffices). We may suspend or disable your API keys immediately if we reasonably believe you have created a security risk, violated law or these Terms, failed to pay, engaged in fraud or abuse, scraped or bulk-exported the API Data, circumvented rate limits or authentication, or submitted PHI without an executed BAA. If a payment fails and is not cured within 30 days, we may disable your keys until the balance is paid. Your payment obligations for accrued usage, and the provisions that by their nature should survive (including disclaimers, liability, indemnification, confidentiality, and governing law), survive termination.

Fees are usage-based and metered by us per our published pricing: a base per-API-call charge with graduated volume tiers, plus surcharges. Usage as measured by our systems is conclusive absent manifest error.

• Daily-freshness surcharge (+$0.01/call). Each request’s freshness parameter defaults to daily; requests served at daily freshness add $0.01 per call. Requests made at weekly freshness incur no surcharge.
• Verification report / PDF (+$0.02/PDF). Each verification report or PDF generated adds $0.02 per document.

All pricing, tiers, surcharges, and billing terms are administratively adjustable per customer; account-specific terms govern where set. A key activates only once valid billing (credit card or ACH) is on file. Unless an administrator sets other net-N terms, usage is invoiced and charged at the end of each calendar month. An administrator may place an account on a test/waiver period during which usage still accrues and is displayed but charges are waived. A failed payment not cured within 30 days may disable your keys. Undisputed amounts 30 days past due accrue interest at the lesser of 1.5% per month or the maximum legal rate, plus reasonable collection costs. Price changes apply prospectively only. Fees exclude taxes, which are your responsibility (except taxes on our net income).

Subject to these Terms and your payment of fees, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access the API and to integrate and display the API Data within your own products and internal operations during the term. You must not:

• resell or redistribute the raw API Data on a standalone basis, or sublicense your access;
• build, train, or operate a competing sex-offender-data product, database, or API, or replicate our data model or data set;
• reverse engineer, scrape, crawl, bulk-export, or systematically download the API Data beyond your licensed use;
• circumvent rate limits, authentication, quotas, or other technical or security controls;
• use the API Data as the sole basis for any adverse action against an individual (see §5);
• use the Services unlawfully or in violation of any third party’s rights; or remove attribution or provenance we include.

Securing API keys is your responsibility. We may monitor usage only for billing, security, and abuse-prevention purposes.

The API Data concerns sex-offender registry information and is heavily regulated. You represent and warrant that you will comply with all applicable federal, state, territorial, and local laws, and specifically:

• Candidate match, not identity verification. A match on name, DOB, photo, or other attributes is a candidate match only, not proof of identity. You are solely responsible for verifying identity and for any decision you make.
• Not a consumer report; not a consumer reporting agency. The API Data alone does not constitute a “consumer report” under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) or analogous state law, and Offendersearch is not a consumer reporting agency. The Services are not a background-check, eligibility, screening, or adjudication service.
• No FCRA-governed use as sole basis. You must not use the Services or API Data as the sole basis for, or a factor in, eligibility for employment, housing, credit, insurance, education, or any other FCRA-governed purpose, nor to take adverse action without independent verification and your own compliant process.
• Your permissible-purpose responsibility. You are solely responsible for having a permissible purpose and complying with all obligations that apply to your use — including identity verification, required notices, consents, adverse-action procedures, state “mini-FCRA” laws, and “ban-the-box” laws.
• No unlawful use. You must not use registry information to harass, intimidate, threaten, or discriminate against a registrant or their family, or to commit a crime.
• HIPAA / PHI. You must not submit protected health information (PHI/ePHI) unless you and Offendersearch have an executed Business Associate Agreement (BAA). BAAs are available only under an enterprise arrangement; the standard Services are not offered under a BAA.

Within 30 days after termination you must delete all API Data in your possession and, on request, certify that deletion in writing (except records you are independently required by law to retain). We may retain usage, billing, security, audit, and aggregated/de-identified records for our legitimate purposes.

Each party may receive the other’s non-public business, technical, or financial information. The receiving party will use it only to perform under these Terms, protect it with at least reasonable care, and not disclose it except to personnel and advisors with a need to know who are bound by comparable obligations. Excluded is information that becomes public through no fault of the receiver, is independently developed, or is rightfully received from a third party. Disclosures compelled by law are permitted with prompt notice where lawful. Our pricing and non-public documentation are our Confidential Information.

Each party represents it has authority to enter these Terms and that its performance will not violate any other binding agreement. You further represent that all registration and billing information is accurate, that your use of the Services and API Data complies with these Terms and all applicable laws (including §5), and that you have all rights and permissible purposes necessary for your use of the API Data.

The Services and API Data are provided “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE,” without warranty of any kind. The API Data is derived from publicly available records and is not independently verified by Offendersearch. We make no warranty of accuracy, completeness, currency, reliability, or fitness for a particular purpose, and disclaim all implied warranties to the maximum extent permitted by law. Public records change and records may be added, removed, corrected, delayed, or contain errors at the source. Always verify a result against the authoritative public record before relying on it.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or lost profits, revenue, data, or goodwill. Each party’s total aggregate liability is capped at the amounts you paid us in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim. Neither the exclusion nor the cap applies to your payment obligations, your indemnification obligations, your breach of §4, §5, or §6, or a party’s fraud or willful misconduct.

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Offendersearch from third-party claims, damages, liabilities, penalties, and reasonable expenses (including attorneys’ fees) arising from your use of or reliance on the Services or API Data, your products or decisions, or your breach of these Terms or §5 — including any FCRA, HIPAA, privacy, consumer-protection, or discrimination claim. We will defend you against third-party claims arising from our material breach, subject to §9. Offendersearch is not liable for the acts, omissions, accuracy, or availability of any public data source from which the API Data is derived.

We may revise these Terms from time to time. We will post the revised version with an updated “Last updated” date and, for material changes, provide reasonable notice. Your continued use of the Services after the revised Terms take effect constitutes acceptance.

Notices may be given by email to the address associated with your account (for us, to the contact address we designate). Neither party may assign these Terms without the other’s consent, except to a successor in a merger, acquisition, or sale of substantially all assets on notice. These Terms, together with our published pricing, any order forms or account-specific terms, and any executed BAA or addenda, are the entire agreement. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remain in effect. These Terms create no third-party beneficiaries. Neither party is liable for delay or failure due to causes beyond its reasonable control, including the unavailability, change, or discontinuation of any upstream public data source. Our handling of account and usage data is described in our Privacy Policy; do not submit personal data except as necessary to perform a permitted search. We may identify you as a customer and use your name and logo in customer lists and marketing materials — you may opt out at any time by written notice.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, excluding its conflict-of-laws rules. The parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in the State of Delaware and waive any objection to venue there.