These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a contract between you and Phonetico, a company registered in Minnesota, United States, with operations in the United States, Canada, and Ethiopia ("Phonetico," "we," "us," or "our"). They govern your use of:
- the Phonetico contributor platform, websites, and mobile and web applications through which you record, transcribe, or otherwise contribute voice and language data (together, the "Platform"); and
- the Phonetico app, which transcribes speech on your iPhone (the "App").
The Platform and the App together are the "Services." Sections 2 to 8 and Section 11 apply to contributors on the Platform, Section 19 applies to the App, and the rest applies to both.
Use of our developer and API products is governed by a separate agreement, the Developer Terms, not by these Terms.
Please read these Terms together with our Privacy Policy and our Acceptable Use Policy, and, if you contribute, our Data License Agreement. By creating an account, using the Platform, or using the App, you agree to these Terms and to those documents. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.
1. What Phonetico does
Phonetico builds high-quality voice and language datasets for Ethiopian and other languages, and uses them to develop speech recognition, speech synthesis, and related language technology. The Platform is how contributors record speech, transcribe audio, take part in recorded conversations, and receive compensation for work that passes review. Recording, transcribing, and licensing this data is the service. Every contribution task exists to create data we and our customers can use to build and evaluate these models, as described in the Data License Agreement and the Privacy Policy.
We will tell you, before you contribute, what each task involves and how the resulting data may be used.
The App puts that technology on your iPhone: it transcribes your speech on the device, and what you record in it is not contributed to any dataset.
2. Eligibility and accounts
2.1 Age. You must be at least 18 years old to use the Platform. A person under 18 may contribute only where a parent or legal guardian provides consent through our guardian consent process and accepts these Terms on the minor's behalf.
2.2 Registration. You must provide accurate account information and keep it current. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account and for keeping your credentials confidential. Tell us promptly if you believe your account has been used without your permission.
2.3 One account. You may hold one account unless we agree otherwise in writing. You may not share an account, sell or transfer it, or let another person contribute under it.
2.4 Identity. We verify your identity before we pay you, and may ask you to verify it at other times. Section 8 explains how.
3. The Platform and the services
3.1 What we provide. We provide tools to record audio, transcribe and review recordings, take part in recorded conversations, track accepted work, and request payment. We may add, change, or withdraw any feature, task type, language, or service at any time.
3.2 Availability. We work to keep the Platform available, but we do not guarantee that it will be uninterrupted or error-free. The Platform may be unavailable for maintenance, updates, or reasons outside our control. Many contributor features work offline and sync when you reconnect; we are not responsible for data that is lost before it syncs.
3.3 Changes to tasks and rates. We may change task types, quality standards, rate cards, and payment methods. A change to compensation rates applies only to work you do after the change takes effect.
4. Recording and transcription contributions
4.1 Your obligations. When you record or transcribe, you agree to use your own natural voice, unless a task expressly calls for something else; to follow the prompt, script, or instructions for the task; and to transcribe honestly and to the standard the task sets, against the audio provided. What you must not do is set out in the Acceptable Use Policy, Sections 2 and 3.
4.2 Your right to contribute. You confirm that you have the right to make each contribution, that your contributions are your own work, and that they do not infringe anyone's rights or break any law. For any voice in a recording that is not your own, you confirm you have that person's informed consent.
4.3 How your contributions are used. The rights you grant in your contributions, the rights you keep, and the choices available to you are set out in the Data License Agreement and in the consent you accept for each contribution path. The Privacy Policy explains how we handle your voice and your other personal information.
5. Conversations with other people
Some tasks pair you with another contributor to record a conversation. The Platform is not a social or dating service, and these tasks are recorded for data collection.
5.1 Recording notice and consent. Before a conversation begins, every participant sees a clear notice that the conversation is recorded and will be used to build datasets. Taking part is consent to that recording and use.
5.2 Identification and accountability. Participants in a conversation are identified to each other and to us by name. We do not anonymize conversation participants to one another, because accountability keeps these sessions safe. By joining, you agree to be identified to the people you are paired with.
5.3 Conduct. The Acceptable Use Policy, Section 4, sets the rules of conduct in a conversation. You may end a conversation and block another participant at any time, and you may report conduct to us. We review reports. A breach can cost the payment for that session and can lead to action under Section 11.
6. Quality review and acceptance
All contributions are subject to automated and human review. We reasonably decide whether a contribution meets the standard for its task. Submitting a contribution does not by itself earn payment; the contribution must be reviewed and accepted. We may reject work for reasons that include unusable audio, the wrong language, padding or silence, a voice that is not your live voice, recorded or synthetic speech, a transcript that does not match the audio, or a breach of these Terms. Where we can, we tell you why work was rejected so you can improve.
7. Earnings and payment
7.1 Earning. If you are a paid contributor, you earn compensation for contributions that pass review, at the rates shown for each task on the active rate card.
7.2 Payment is contingent on verification. We pay only for contributions that pass review and only after your identity is verified. We pay through the methods available in your region, which may include TeleBirr, CBE Birr, and bank transfer. We may add or remove payment methods. A minimum balance may apply before a payout is made.
7.3 Independent contribution. You contribute as an independent person, not as an employee or agent of Phonetico. We do not guarantee that work will be available to you. You are responsible for any taxes due on what you earn, and for reporting your earnings to the authorities where you live.
7.4 Third-party payment processors. Payouts are made through third-party payment providers. Once we have sent a payout to the provider for your account, our responsibility for that payout ends, and the provider's terms govern its delivery.
7.5 Withholding and recovery. We may withhold, delay, reverse, or reclaim a payment if we reasonably believe the underlying work was obtained through fraud, breached these Terms, or resulted from error. If we close your account for cause under Section 11, unpaid and pending earnings tied to the conduct in question are forfeited. We will not forfeit earnings for work that was validly accepted and is unaffected by the conduct. For transcription and review work, the Transcriber Agreement, Section 5, sets what is forfeited instead.
8. Identity verification
Before any payout, and at other times when we reasonably need to, we verify your identity. We use what you give us only to confirm who you are, to meet legal and payment obligations, and to prevent fraud. The Privacy Policy, Sections 2.1 and 8, sets out what we collect for verification and how long we keep it.
9. Acceptable use
Your use of the Services is subject to the Acceptable Use Policy, which forms part of these Terms.
10. Intellectual property
The Services, including their software, design, interfaces, documentation, models, and brand, belong to Phonetico or its licensors. We grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to use the Platform for contributing and the App for your own transcription, as these Terms allow. You get no other rights.
11. Suspension and termination
11.1 Your choice. You may stop using the Platform at any time and may ask us to close your account. Section 7 and the Data License Agreement govern earnings and contributions that exist when you leave.
11.2 Our rights. We may suspend or close your account, or withhold access to a feature, if we reasonably believe you have broken these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, created a risk to other people or to the Platform, or acted unlawfully, or if we are required to by law. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will tell you why.
11.3 Survival. Sections that by their nature should continue after your account ends will continue, including the licenses granted in the Data License Agreement, earned-but-unpaid amounts that are not forfeited, and Sections 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17.
12. Feedback
If you send us ideas or suggestions about the Services, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free right to use them for any purpose, without any obligation to you.
13. Third-party services
The Services may link to or rely on services run by others, such as payment providers and Apple. We are not responsible for third-party services, and your use of them is governed by their own terms.
14. Disclaimers
Except where the law does not allow it, the Services are provided "as is" and "as available," and we disclaim all warranties, whether express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Services will be uninterrupted, secure, or free of errors, that a transcript will be accurate, or that any particular amount of work or earnings will be available to you.
15. Limitation of liability
Except where the law does not allow it, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits or data. Our total liability to you for any claim arising out of these Terms or your use of the Services is limited to the greater of (a) the total compensation we paid you, and the amount you paid for the App, in the twelve months before the event that gave rise to the claim, and (b) one hundred United States dollars.
16. Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Phonetico and its officers, employees, and agents from any third-party claim, loss, or expense that arises out of your contributions, your use of the Services, your breach of these Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, or your infringement of anyone's rights, including recording another person without proper notice and consent.
17. Governing law and disputes
These Terms, and the documents that form part of them, are governed by the laws of the State of Minnesota, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, except where the mandatory law of the place where you live gives you rights that cannot be waived, which continue to apply to you. The courts located in Minnesota have jurisdiction over disputes arising from these Terms, subject to those mandatory local rights. Before bringing a claim, you agree to try in good faith to resolve the dispute with us first by contacting [email protected].
18. Changes to the Services and these Terms
We may change these Terms and the documents that form part of them. If a change is material, we will give notice through the Services or by email before it takes effect. Your continued use of the Services after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms. If you do not accept a change, stop using the Services and, where the change concerns how your data is used, you may withdraw consent as the Data License Agreement and Privacy Policy describe.
19. The App
19.1 Your audio and transcripts. The App transcribes on your iPhone. What it keeps, where, and what it sends us is set out in the Privacy Policy, Section 2.2.
19.2 Trial and purchases. The App includes a free trial. After it, you can buy unlimited transcription with the Amharic model as a one-time purchase, or subscribe to Plus for every model and for transcribing audio and video files. What each includes is shown in the App. Purchases and subscriptions are made through Apple, billed to your Apple account, and governed by Apple's terms for payment, renewal, cancellation, and refunds. A subscription renews automatically until you cancel it in your Apple account settings at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. We do not receive your payment details.
19.3 Your license. We grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the App on Apple devices you own or control, as Apple's usage rules allow. The speech models included in or downloaded by the App may be used only in the App.
19.4 Apple. These Terms are between you and Phonetico, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for the App or its content, and has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for it. If the App fails to conform to a warranty that applies to it, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price, if any; to the extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation for the App. Apple is not responsible for any claim relating to the App or your use of it, including product liability claims, claims that the App fails to meet a legal or regulatory requirement, consumer protection claims, and claims that the App infringes someone's intellectual property rights; Phonetico handles those claims as these Terms provide. You confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a United States Government embargo or designated as supporting terrorism, and that you are not on a United States Government list of prohibited or restricted parties. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.
20. General
- Assignment. We may assign these Terms, for example as part of a reorganization or sale of our business. You may not assign yours without our consent.
- Severability. If a provision is found unenforceable, the rest of these Terms stay in effect.
- Waiver. If we do not enforce a provision, we do not waive our right to enforce it later.
- Entire agreement. These Terms, with the Privacy Policy, the Acceptable Use Policy, the Data License Agreement and, for transcription and review work, the Transcriber Agreement, are the whole agreement between you and us about the Services.
21. Contact
- Support: [email protected]
- Legal: [email protected]
- Privacy: [email protected]
- Website: https://phonetico.ai