1. Introduction
Welcome to DolphinParents, operated by s-ais LLC ("Company," "we," "us," or "our"). We provide college planning services through our platform at DolphinParents.com, our AI assistant at AskDolphin.ai, and related applications and services (collectively, the "Services").
By accessing or using our Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with any part of these Terms, please discontinue use of our Services.
2. Eligibility
Our Services are available to users who meet the following criteria:
- Users must be at least 13 years of age to create an account.
- Users under the age of 18 must have verifiable parental or legal guardian consent before creating an account or using the Services.
- Counselors, tutors, and advisors must be at least 18 years of age and legally authorized to provide services in their jurisdiction.
- Organizations must be legitimate business entities with proper authorization to represent the organization.
- You must provide accurate and current information during registration.
3. Your Profile & Data Ownership
DolphinParents is designed around a simple idea: your profile belongs to you. Information you add to your profile remains associated with your account and under your control.
3.1 What You Add to Your Profile
When you use DolphinParents, you build a personal profile to organize your college planning. Depending on your role, this may include:
Name, email address, password, user type (student, parent, counselor, tutor, or organization), and basic profile details.
Grade level, school name, GPA, courses, test scores (SAT/ACT), activities, college list, essays, scholarships, and task lists.
Credentials, service rates, client engagement notes, session schedules, and marketplace profile details.
Messages, chat conversations, session notes, uploaded files, and other content you choose to add to your profile.
3.2 You Control Your Profile
You maintain control over your profile, which means you can:
- Edit or update any information at any time
- Choose what to share with other users (parents, counselors, tutors)
- Adjust privacy settings for each type of information
- Export your data in a standard format
- Delete your account and associated profile data
3.3 Content Ownership
You retain ownership of the content you add to your profile (such as essays, documents, notes, and communications). By using the Services, you grant s-ais LLC a limited, non-exclusive license to store, display, and process your content solely for the purpose of providing the Services to you and users you have authorized.
This license ends when you delete the content or your account, except where we are required to retain information for legal, security, or technical backup purposes.
4. Who Can See Your Information
DolphinParents is a collaborative platform, which means your information may be visible to different people depending on how you configure sharing. By default, your profile is private and visible only to you. You control all sharing.
4.1 Sharing Is Your Choice
You choose who can see what on your profile. You can adjust these settings at any time from your account controls. When a sharing relationship ends (for example, you stop working with a counselor), access is revoked for that party.
4.2 Special Rules for Minors
For users under 18, parents or legal guardians may have default access rights to the minor's profile. This is required to comply with laws protecting minors online and to ensure appropriate oversight. Parents can:
- View their child's profile and activity
- Monitor communications with counselors and tutors
- Request corrections or deletions
- Withdraw their consent at any time
5. How We Store and Process Your Data
As the operator of DolphinParents, we store and process the information on your profile to provide the Services. Here's exactly what we do — and what we don't.
What We Do
- Store your information on secure servers
- Display your information to you and users you've authorized
- Power platform features (tasks, reminders, progress tracking)
- Provide AI assistance when you request it
- Use aggregated, de-identified data to improve our Services
- Secure your information and detect abuse
- Back up data to prevent loss
What We Don't Do
- Sell your information to third parties
- Use your data for advertising
- Share your information with schools without your consent
- Allow other users to access your profile without authorization
- Use your content to train AI models without disclosure
- Monetize data outside the scope of providing the Services
5.1 Where Your Data Lives
Your information is stored on secure servers located in the United States. We use industry-standard encryption both in transit (TLS) and at rest to protect your data. While we implement strong security measures, no system is 100% secure.
5.2 Service Providers Who Help Us Operate
To provide the Services, we work with trusted service providers (called "sub-processors") who may process your data on our behalf. All sub-processors are bound by confidentiality and data protection obligations. A current list is maintained in Section 12.
5.3 Legal Disclosures
We will only disclose your information to outside parties:
- With your explicit consent
- To comply with legal obligations or valid legal requests
- To protect our rights, property, or safety, or that of our users
- In connection with a business transfer (merger, acquisition), subject to your rights
5.4 Parental Rights (Users Under 18)
Parents and legal guardians of minors may request: access to their child's profile information, correction of inaccurate information, deletion of their child's account and data, and withdrawal of consent at any time. To exercise these rights, contact info@dolphinparents.com.
5.5 Our Commitment to Student Privacy
We align our practices with the core principles of FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act). We are actively working toward formal compliance certification as the platform matures.
6. AI Features & Data Handling
DolphinParents includes AI-powered features, including AskDolphin.ai and our in-platform Dolphin AI assistant. We believe in being transparent about how AI works with your data.
Your data is not used to train AI models, and you have full control over whether AI features are active on your profile.
6.1 How AI Features Use Your Profile Data
When you use an AI feature on DolphinParents, relevant information from your profile may be processed to generate personalized responses. For example:
- When you ask Dolphin AI to find scholarships, your GPA, school, and activities may be referenced.
- When you ask Dolphin AI to build a college list, your academic information and preferences are considered.
- When you chat with AskDolphin.ai, context from your profile may be used to provide relevant guidance.
6.2 AI Provider Data Handling
DolphinParents uses third-party AI providers (such as Anthropic's Claude) to power AI features. When an AI feature is used:
- Your information is transmitted to the AI provider solely to generate a response to your request
- Our AI provider(s) do not use your data to train their models
- Data is transmitted securely using encryption
- AI conversations are stored on your profile and accessible only to you and users you have authorized
6.3 Your Controls Over AI
- Disable AI features in your account settings
- Delete AI chat history at any time
- Choose what information is available to AI features via your profile settings
- Opt out of specific AI-powered recommendations
6.4 AI Limitations & Responsibility
AI responses are generated automatically and may occasionally be inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated. You should verify important information independently and not rely solely on AI for high-stakes decisions (admissions, financial aid, legal matters). Consult qualified professionals when needed.
7. Roles & Responsibilities
DolphinParents serves multiple user types, each with specific responsibilities:
✏️ Students
Maintain accurate academic information, engage respectfully with counselors and advisors, and follow community guidelines.
👨👩👧 Parents / Guardians
Review your child's account activity, provide consent where required, and ensure appropriate platform use by minors.
👨🏫 Counselors
Maintain professional conduct, accurate credentials, and comply with all laws regarding student data and advisory services.
🎓 Tutors & Advisors
Deliver services in accordance with agreed rates, maintain appropriate qualifications, and follow platform guidelines.
All users agree to: provide truthful and accurate information, keep account credentials secure, use the Services only for lawful purposes, respect the privacy and rights of other users, and report any suspected misuse or security concerns.
8. Account Security
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account. You agree to:
- Notify us immediately of any unauthorized access or security breach
- Use a strong, unique password
- Not share your account credentials with others
- Keep your account information current and accurate
- Enable two-factor authentication when available
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms or compromise the security of our Services.
9. Prohibited Conduct
When using our Services, you agree NOT to:
- Misrepresent your identity, credentials, or qualifications
- Use the Services for any unlawful, fraudulent, or harmful purpose
- Share, access, or misuse another user's data without their consent
- Attempt to breach, disable, or bypass any security measures
- Upload viruses, malware, or harmful code
- Harass, bully, intimidate, or discriminate against other users
- Scrape, crawl, or extract data from the platform without authorization
- Use the Services to send spam or unsolicited communications
- Reverse engineer or copy our software or platform
- Impersonate any person or entity
10. Payments & Fees
Certain features of our Services require payment. By purchasing a subscription or service, you agree to:
- Pay all fees associated with your selected plan
- Provide accurate billing information
- Authorize us to charge your payment method on a recurring basis (for subscriptions)
- Understand that all fees are non-refundable except as required by law or as explicitly stated
Payments are processed through secure third-party payment processors (see Section 12). We do not store credit card information on our servers. For specific pricing and refund policies, see our Pricing page.
11. Intellectual Property
All content, features, functionality, software, design, text, graphics, logos, trademarks, and all other materials comprising our Services are the exclusive property of s-ais LLC or its licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark, patent, and other intellectual property laws.
You may not reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works of, publicly display, or exploit any portion of our Services without our express prior written consent.
As described in Section 3, you retain ownership of content you add to your profile. You grant us only the limited license necessary to provide the Services.
12. Third-Party Services & Sub-Processors
To provide the Services, we work with trusted third-party service providers. These providers may process your data on our behalf, solely to support the functioning of our platform. All sub-processors are contractually bound to maintain confidentiality and comply with applicable data protection standards.
12.1 Current Sub-Processors
| Provider | Purpose | Type of Data |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Cloud hosting and storage | All user data (stored) |
| Anthropic (Claude AI) | AI feature processing | Profile data sent during AI requests (not used for training) |
| Stripe | Payment processing | Payment information (we do not store card details) |
| Google Meet / Zoom | Video session hosting | Session metadata (name, time) |
| Google Calendar | Calendar integration (opt-in) | Calendar events (with user authorization) |
| Firebase | Push notifications | Device tokens for notifications |
| SendGrid / AWS SES | Transactional email delivery | Name, email, notification content |
This list may be updated as we add or change service providers. Material changes will be communicated to users in advance where feasible.
12.2 Third-Party Links & Integrations
Our Services may link to or integrate with other third-party websites or applications. We are not responsible for the content, policies, or practices of third-party services, any loss or damage resulting from their use, or the availability of third-party integrations.
13. Disclaimers
Our Services are provided "as-is" and "as-available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, as well as warranties that the Services will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure.
Important: DolphinParents is a planning and organizational tool. We do not guarantee admission to any specific college, receipt of any specific scholarship, specific academic outcomes, or the quality or results of services provided by independent counselors or tutors on our platform.
14. Limitation of Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, s-ais LLC and its officers, directors, employees, and affiliates shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, revenue, or data, business interruption, personal injury or emotional distress, any damages arising from academic outcomes or admissions decisions, or damages from reliance on AI-generated content.
Our total liability to you for any claims arising from these Terms or your use of the Services shall not exceed the amount you paid to us in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim.
15. Termination
You may terminate your account at any time by contacting us or using the account deletion feature within the Services. Upon deletion, your profile data will be removed in accordance with our retention policies.
We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms, engage in prohibited conduct, fail to pay required fees, or pose a security or legal risk to the platform.
Upon termination, your right to use the Services will cease immediately. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination (such as intellectual property, disclaimers, and limitation of liability) shall survive.
16. Dispute Resolution
16.1 For U.S. Users
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to its conflict of laws principles. Any disputes shall be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Fort Bend County, Texas, and you consent to the jurisdiction of such courts.
16.2 For International Users
Disputes involving non-U.S. users will be resolved through binding arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) or another mutually agreed arbitration body in a neutral venue.
16.3 Informal Resolution
Before initiating any formal dispute resolution, you agree to first attempt to resolve the issue informally by contacting us at info@dolphinparents.com. We will make a good-faith effort to address your concerns.
17. Changes to These Terms
We may update these Terms of Service from time to time. When we make material changes, we will:
- Update the "Effective Date" at the top of this page
- Notify registered users via email or in-app notification
- Provide a reasonable period for review before changes take effect
Your continued use of the Services after the effective date constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms.
18. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding these Terms of Service, your profile, or your data, please contact us: