Terms of Service

2. Eligibility and Age Requirements

The Service is designed for high school students and college applicants:

• Users Under 13: Registration and use are strictly prohibited. We do not knowingly permit account creation for users under 13.
• Minors Ages 13 to 17: Users ages 13 through 17 are permitted to create an account and access the admissions planning workspace independently. IllumiU does not currently operate separate parent or guardian account management tools or direct guardian consent capture workflows.
• Adult Users 18+: You represent that you possess full legal capacity to enter into these Terms.

3. Account Creation and Registration

To access full platform capabilities, you must create an account via our supported authentication methods. You agree to provide accurate, truthful, and current information during registration and to maintain the accuracy of your profile.

4. Account Security and Credentials

You are responsible for safeguarding your authentication credentials and for all activities conducted under your account. You agree to notify us immediately at legal@illumiu.com if you suspect unauthorized access or a security breach.

5. Permitted Use

IllumiU grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service solely for personal, non-commercial college admissions planning, essay strategy organization, deadline tracking, and scholarship management.

6. Accurate Information Obligation

You agree to input accurate academic benchmarks, genuine extracurricular experiences, and authentic target college selections. IllumiU's deterministic recommendations depend on the integrity of data you provide.

7. Prohibited Uses

You agree not to engage in any of the following prohibited activities:

• Attempting to bypass database Row-Level Security or access another student's account.
• Scraping, crawling, or extracting platform data using automated software without prior written authorization.
• Reverse engineering, decompiling, or disassembling any software component of the Service.
• Introducing viruses, malware, or harmful automated code to the platform.
• Using the Service for any unlawful, deceptive, or fraudulent purpose.

8. Academic Integrity

IllumiU is committed to the highest standards of academic honesty. You agree to uphold our Academic Integrity & Responsible AI Policy. You must not submit fabricated transcripts, falsified test scores, or ghostwritten essays in your official college applications.

9. AI-Assisted Features and Boundaries

IllumiU provides AI-assisted planning recommendations, task scheduling heuristics, and institutional requirement summaries. AI features are assistive tools designed to support student organization—they do not write essays for you. You remain solely responsible for the original authorship of all application prose.

10. Student Content Ownership

You retain full and exclusive intellectual property ownership of all your content. All Story Vault narratives, essay drafts, brainstorming notes, personal statements, and uploaded documents remain your property. IllumiU claims no copyright or ownership over student writing.

11. Limited Operational License to IllumiU

To provide the Service, you grant IllumiU a strictly limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license solely to host, store, process, reproduce technically, display, and transmit your content as necessary to operate features you request (such as displaying your essay matrix, calculating word budgets, or producing your data export).

This operational license does not permit IllumiU to commercialize your personal essays or use them to train generalized AI foundation models. The license terminates upon account deletion, subject to legitimate system backup retention.

12. IllumiU Intellectual Property

The Service, including its user interface design, visual styling, source code, algorithms, heuristic engines, documentation, trademarks, and logos, is the exclusive intellectual property of Third Coast Films, LLC dba MindRiot Labs and is protected by United States and international intellectual property laws.

13. Third-Party Services and Infrastructure

The Service is hosted and operated using third-party infrastructure providers, including Cloudflare, Supabase, and Google Cloud. IllumiU is not responsible for interruptions or outages caused by third-party infrastructure providers beyond our reasonable control.

14. Institutional Information and Public Datasets

College deadlines, admissions requirements, and benchmark data displayed in IllumiU are gathered from public educational sources and university publications. While we strive to maintain accurate, up-to-date information, universities may modify deadlines, testing policies, or prompt requirements at any time. You are responsible for verifying official requirements directly with each institution.

15. No Admissions or Financial Aid Guarantee

16. AI Output Limitations

AI-assisted task rankings, requirement syntheses, and planning insights are generated algorithmically and are provided for informational guidance only. You should review all AI-generated suggestions before incorporating them into your admissions preparation.

17. User Responsibilities

You are solely responsible for meeting all application deadlines, requesting official transcripts and recommendation letters from your high school, completing official application submissions on designated institutional portals, and complying with all university guidelines.

18. Data Portability and Export

You may download a structured JSON export of your personal profile, applications, Story Vault entries, and essay matrix structures via self-service settings without service fees.

19. Self-Service Account Deletion

You may terminate your account and erase your active data at any time via Account Management settings. Deletion purges your credentials, application pipeline, Story Vault assets, and support history from active databases.

20. Suspension and Termination by IllumiU

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to the Service if you materially violate these Terms, engage in security tampering, or use the Service for deceptive or fraudulent purposes.

21. Service Changes and Modifications

We continuously enhance our tools and may modify, update, or discontinue features of the Service with reasonable notice where practicable.

22. Fees and Subscriptions

IllumiU currently offers core admissions command center features free of charge. We reserve the right to introduce optional premium tiers or features in the future, subject to advance notice and transparent pricing disclosures.

23. Warranty Disclaimer

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. ILLUMIU DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE.

24. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL THIRD COAST FILMS, LLC DBA MINDRIOT LABS, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF DATA, ADMISSIONS OUTCOMES, OR LOST OPPORTUNITIES, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

25. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Third Coast Films, LLC dba MindRiot Labs and its affiliates from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses arising out of or in any way connected with your breach of these Terms or your violation of applicable laws or third-party rights.

26. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or related to the Service shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction in which the operating entity is organized, without regard to conflict of law principles, subject to applicable mandatory consumer protection laws.

27. Dispute Resolution

In the event of any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms, the parties agree to first attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute informally through direct communication with our legal team at legal@illumiu.com before initiating formal legal proceedings.

28. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

29. Assignment

You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your rights hereunder without our prior written consent. We may freely assign our rights and obligations under these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets.

30. No Waiver

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or future enforcement of that provision.

31. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and referenced policies, constitute the entire and exclusive agreement between you and IllumiU regarding your use of the Service.

32. Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to update these Terms from time to time. When material updates occur, we will increment the version identifier, update the effective date, and prompt users for acknowledgment or re-consent where appropriate upon their next login.

33. Contact Information

For questions regarding these Terms or legal matters, please contact: