Terms of Use

1. Agreement to these terms

These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the TrendShield platform, website and associated services ("the Service"). By creating an account, registering for the pilot programme, or using any part of the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

If you are accessing TrendShield on behalf of a school, multi-academy trust, local authority or other organisation ("your Organisation"), you represent that you have authority to bind that Organisation to these Terms. In that case, "you" and "your" refers to both you and your Organisation.

If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use the Service.

2. Access and accounts

Eligibility

The TrendShield platform is intended for use by safeguarding professionals, school staff and education sector organisations. Access is limited to adults (18+) acting in a professional safeguarding or educational capacity.

Account responsibilities

• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials.
• You must not share your account credentials with others.
• You must notify us immediately at hello@trendshield.co.uk if you suspect unauthorised access to your account.
• Each account represents a single named individual. Multi-seat access is available for organisations — contact us for arrangements.
• You are responsible for all activity carried out under your account.

Accuracy of information

You agree to provide accurate, current and complete information when registering and to keep this information up to date. We may suspend accounts where information is found to be materially false or misleading.

3. Acceptable use

You may use TrendShield for lawful safeguarding and educational purposes in accordance with these Terms. You must not:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law or regulation
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Service, its systems, or other users' accounts
• Use automated tools (bots, scrapers, crawlers) to access or extract data from the platform without our prior written consent
• Reproduce, redistribute or commercially exploit TrendShield's intelligence briefings, alerts or content without our written permission
• Upload or transmit any malicious code, virus or harmful content
• Use the Service in a manner that places unreasonable load on our infrastructure
• Impersonate any person, school or organisation
• Use TrendShield intelligence to investigate, surveil or profile specific individuals
• Share or publish TrendShield briefings or alerts in a manner that could compromise the privacy of individuals mentioned therein
• Use the Service for any commercial purpose other than your own internal school safeguarding operations without a commercial licence from us

Safeguarding use only

4. Subscription terms

Fees and billing

Access to TrendShield's paid features is subject to the subscription plan selected at the time of purchase. Subscription fees are payable in advance on a monthly or annual basis as agreed. All prices are exclusive of VAT unless stated otherwise.

Renewals and cancellation

• Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period unless cancelled before the renewal date.
• To cancel, contact us at hello@trendshield.co.uk at least 5 working days before your renewal date.
• Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. We do not provide refunds for partial periods unless required by law.

Price changes

We will provide at least 30 days' notice of any change to subscription pricing. Continued use after a price change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the new price.

Free trial and pilot access

Free trial or pilot access is governed by Section 5 below.

5. Pilot programme

Participation in the TrendShield pilot programme is subject to the following conditions:

• Pilot access is provided free of charge for the agreed pilot period (typically six weeks).
• There is no obligation to subscribe at the end of the pilot.
• Pilot participants agree to provide structured feedback as set out in their pilot agreement.
• All Terms of Use apply to pilot participants in full, including acceptable use provisions.
• We reserve the right to withdraw pilot access in the event of a material breach of these Terms.
• Pilot access may not be transferred to another individual or organisation.

6. Intellectual property

Our intellectual property

All content, software, design, data, algorithms, models, briefing formats and intelligence produced by TrendShield are owned by or licensed to TrendShield and are protected by copyright, database rights and other intellectual property laws.

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to access and use the Service for your internal safeguarding purposes during your subscription period. This licence does not include the right to:

• Copy, reproduce or distribute TrendShield content beyond internal safeguarding use
• Create derivative works based on our intelligence, briefings or methodology
• Reverse-engineer any part of the TrendShield platform
• Sublicence access to third parties

Your content

You retain ownership of any content you submit to TrendShield (such as concern submissions or feedback). By submitting content, you grant us a limited licence to use that content to provide and improve the Service.

7. AI-generated content

TrendShield uses artificial intelligence to assist in trend analysis, risk scoring and briefing generation. You acknowledge and agree that:

• AI-generated intelligence is provided for information and professional guidance purposes only.
• AI outputs may contain errors, inaccuracies or outdated information.
• All AI-generated content is subject to human review before publication, but this review does not guarantee accuracy.
• You must exercise independent professional judgement when acting on any TrendShield intelligence.
• TrendShield is not liable for any loss or harm arising from reliance on AI-generated content without appropriate professional review.

See our AI Transparency Notice for a full explanation of how AI is used in the platform.

8. Service availability

We aim to maintain a high level of platform availability, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted access. The Service may be temporarily unavailable due to:

• Scheduled maintenance (we will provide advance notice where possible)
• Emergency maintenance required to protect the security or integrity of the platform
• Third-party infrastructure outages (hosting, database, email providers)
• Circumstances beyond our reasonable control (force majeure)

We will endeavour to minimise disruption and to communicate any planned or unplanned downtime to registered users by email.

9. Liability limitations

Disclaimer of warranties

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, TrendShield disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, TrendShield's total liability to you in connection with these Terms or the Service shall not exceed the greater of:

• The fees paid by you to TrendShield in the 12 months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or
• £500 (five hundred pounds sterling)

TrendShield shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for loss of data, profits, revenue, goodwill or business opportunity, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Important exclusions

Safeguarding decisions

TrendShield is a supplementary intelligence tool for safeguarding professionals. We are not liable for any safeguarding decisions, actions or omissions made by you or your organisation, whether or not those decisions were informed by TrendShield intelligence.

10. Termination

Termination by you

You may close your account at any time by contacting us at hello@trendshield.co.uk. Closing your account terminates your access to the Service. If you are on a paid subscription, your access continues until the end of the current billing period.

Termination by us

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service immediately if:

• You materially breach these Terms and fail to remedy the breach within 7 days of written notice
• You use the Service for unlawful or harmful purposes
• You misrepresent your identity, role or organisation
• Continued provision of the Service to you would be unlawful
• Non-payment of subscription fees after reasonable notice

On termination, your right to access the Service ceases immediately. We will retain your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

11. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

Before commencing legal proceedings, we encourage you to contact us at hello@trendshield.co.uk to seek an informal resolution. We will respond to all formal dispute notices within 10 working days.

12. Contact

For questions about these Terms, please contact: