Terms of Service

1. Who operates Imperium Americanum

Imperium Americanum is operated by John Schmitt personally, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. In these terms, we, us and our refer to that operator. Imperium Americanum connects information about people, public policy, political money, elections and accountable predictions.

Use the site's problem-report form for terms, privacy, support, copyright or editorial questions. Do not include passwords, payment-card details or unnecessary sensitive information. Final legally required operator and contact disclosures will be completed before customer accounts launch.

2. Agreement and account eligibility

When account registration becomes available, you must affirmatively agree to the displayed version of these terms before we create your account. The agreement box is not preselected. We record the accepted version, its document fingerprint and the time of agreement. Creating an account does not itself purchase a subscription or consent to marketing.

You must be legally able to enter the agreement, or have the participation and authorization of a parent or guardian where required. Any legally required child-privacy notice and verified parental consent must be completed before collecting a child's account information. A payment or agreement checkbox alone does not satisfy those requirements. Child enrollment is not offered until those requirements can be met.

Provide accurate account information, use only accounts and workspaces you are authorized to access, and protect your sign-in and API credentials. Report suspected unauthorized access through the support channel. Signing in with a third-party identity provider is also subject to that provider's terms.

3. Research, sources and corrections

Imperium Americanum provides information for research, discussion and public accountability. It is not personalized financial, investment, tax or legal advice, a wagering service, or an official government record. Evaluate the original sources and relevant context before making consequential decisions.

Coverage can be incomplete, delayed or incorrect. Polling, financial reports, vote records, prediction quotes and scores have different source dates and limitations. Automated processing can make mistakes, including in transcription, attribution, identity matching and interpretation. Connections show documented shared fields, not proof of influence, wrongdoing or agreement.

The published methodology explains prediction scoring. Reports initiate review, not an automatic verdict change. Supported corrections retain their history. Paying for a plan does not buy a favorable score, remove unfavorable reporting or control editorial decisions.

4. Your information and shared work

You retain your rights in material you submit. You give us only the permission reasonably needed to store, process and display it to you and the people you authorize, operate requested features, and meet applicable legal obligations. This is not an unrestricted transfer of ownership or permission to sell private research.

Only submit material you are entitled to use and share. Account information and private workspace material are not made public merely because you subscribe. An administrator's permissions apply only within the workspace they are authorized to manage; payment does not confer platform-wide administration.

Shared-workspace seat prices, who pays, member limits and ownership of a departing member's shared contributions are deferred. Final shared-account terms must explain those matters before the feature is offered. This draft does not settle them or authorize deletion of another member's work.

5. Acceptable use and source rights

Do not impersonate others, submit unlawful or abusive material, compromise accounts, bypass access controls or quotas, interfere with availability, or probe non-public systems without authorization. Do not attempt to obtain other users' private information or credentials.

Third-party source materials, trademarks and linked services remain subject to their owners' rights and terms. Imperium Americanum does not claim their endorsement. Public access, an export or an API subscription does not expand upstream licenses, authorize redistribution of restricted material, or grant access to private transcripts. Preserve applicable attribution and source limitations.

6. AI search, workflows and API access

The planned AI research assistant uses an open-source model to search Imperium Americanum's database within the information you are permitted to access. It is not promised as an open-web search service. AI output can be inaccurate or unsupported; inspect the cited records rather than treating a generated answer as verified fact.

Workflows and API keys may perform only actions permitted for the associated user and workspace. Keys cannot exceed the granting user's authority, bypass review or access another customer's data. Keep keys private and revoke compromised keys. Feature descriptions are not promises that unactivated capabilities are already available.

7. Free access and future subscriptions

Public research remains available without a paid subscription, except features explicitly identified as paid when offered. Planned paid benefits include ad-free use, AI-search allowances, notifications, workflow tools and shared/API features. Advertising is deferred; none is introduced by these terms.

Before any purchase, checkout must clearly show the actual available features, total price, taxes where applicable, billing frequency, renewal terms, cancellation method and limits. Tentative prices discussed during development are not an offer. No free trial is planned.

The planned annual option is billed annually at a 10 percent discount to twelve equivalent monthly payments; checkout must show the full annual charge. A subscription renews only on terms separately disclosed and accepted at purchase. Agreement to these general terms is not authorization to charge you.

8. Cancellation, changes and refunds

You may stop renewal through the disclosed account billing controls, or contact support if those controls are unavailable. Cancellation preserves access through the paid period unless you request complete account deletion or applicable law requires a different result. We will provide any confirmations and renewal notices required by law.

An upgrade takes effect immediately with the prorated amount disclosed before you confirm it. A downgrade takes effect in the next billing period. A price change will be disclosed before it applies and will not retroactively change a completed purchase.

The proposed policy is no discretionary refunds for unused access or credits. This does not restrict mandatory withdrawal, refund, remedy, dispute or other consumer rights, including rights for unauthorized charges or defective services where applicable. Any legally required refund will be honored. A waiver of a statutory withdrawal right, where allowed, requires its own valid disclosure and agreement; this checkbox is not that waiver.

9. Credits and usage limits

Higher paid tiers are planned to include larger AI-search allowances. Included unused credits expire instead of rolling over. Exact allocations, reset times and expiry rules will be shown before purchase. Optional additional credit purchases may be offered; their price and any lawful expiry must also be disclosed before purchase.

Usage stops at the applicable allowance. There are no automatic overage charges or automatic credit purchases. Credits do not guarantee a correct answer or a particular result. Purchased-credit rules remain to be finalized before credits are sold.

10. Notifications and availability

Customer research notifications are planned as in-app notifications only. These terms do not opt you into promotional email or text messages. Necessary account, billing or legal communications will use the channels disclosed when those services are enabled.

Alerts and timelines cover supported sources, not every relevant event. Source outages, missing records and processing delays may affect them. We do not promise uninterrupted service, exhaustive coverage or a customer service-level guarantee. We may maintain, repair or change the service, subject to applicable law and any commitments made at purchase.

11. Privacy and complete account deletion

The Privacy Notice explains actual data practices; acceptance of these terms is not blanket consent to unrelated processing. You may request access to or export of your account information and complete account deletion through account controls when available, or the problem-report form. We will verify the request proportionately and process it within applicable legal requirements.

For a completed deletion, we will close account access, revoke associated credentials, stop subscription renewal and remove account-associated personal data from active systems, except narrowly necessary records retained on a lawful basis. For example, applicable tax, accounting, fraud-prevention or legal-claims obligations may require limited retention. Retained records must be restricted to that purpose, kept only as long as necessary, and not used to keep providing or marketing an account you deleted.

Residual backup copies may remain until the documented backup cycle expires. They must be restricted from ordinary use, and a restoration must reapply completed deletion requests. Exact retention periods and backup expiry will be documented before account launch; this draft does not promise immediate erasure from every backup.

Independently sourced public editorial records are not customer account records. Account deletion does not automatically erase published reporting or its correction history; separate correction, privacy and other applicable rights requests remain available. Shared-workspace ownership remains deferred and must be resolved before shared-account launch. The existing deletion interface currently records a request for review; it does not itself perform deletion.

12. Suspension and termination

We may restrict access when reasonably necessary to address material misuse, security threats, nonpayment or legal obligations. Where lawful and practicable, we will explain the restriction and provide a way to seek review. Immediate protective action may be necessary in urgent cases. Termination does not eliminate mandatory consumer rights, valid deletion requests or legally required refunds.

13. Warranties and responsibility

To the extent allowed by applicable law, the service is provided as available without a guarantee of accuracy, completeness, uninterrupted operation or fitness for a particular purpose. Nothing in these terms excludes liability or rights that cannot lawfully be excluded. This draft does not impose a monetary liability cap, mandatory arbitration or a class-action waiver; any proposed provisions require separate legal review.

14. Legal rights, changes and contact

The operator is based in Minnesota, United States. Governing-law and dispute-forum language remains for counsel review. These terms do not remove mandatory protections that apply where you live, restrict lawful reports to regulators or require you to give up a non-waivable right.

New versions will have a visible version and date. We will give notice of material changes and obtain renewed agreement where required. We will not backdate acceptance or silently overwrite the version recorded for an account. If you do not agree to applicable changes, you can stop using the account and use the cancellation and privacy-request processes.

For a question or complaint, use the site's problem-report form. Counsel must review this draft, the actual account/privacy implementation and applicable launch markets before final terms are adopted.