Terms of service

Last updated: 11 May 2026

Plain language, no surprises. These terms govern your use of Shield Index. By signing up you agree to them.

1. Who we are

Shield Index ("Shield", "the service") is operated by White Ace AI Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales. "We" or "us" refers to White Ace AI Ltd; "you" refers to the individual or organisation using the service.

2. The service

Shield is a commercial-risk intelligence platform for UK construction subcontractors. It captures emails forwarded to your project address, classifies them with AI, stores them with a SHA-256 integrity hash, and lets you export dispute-ready PDFs.

AI classifications are indicative risk signals based on automated analysis. They are not legal advice. We are not solicitors, quantity surveyors or contract administrators. Decisions on disputes, notices and claims should be made with appropriate professional advice.

3. Account and access

To use Shield you must create an account (via Clerk) and provide accurate information. You're responsible for keeping your sign-in credentials secure and for activity on your account. Don't share your account with people outside your organisation — that's what additional seats are for.

4. Free trial

New accounts get a 14-day free trial of the tier you select. We capture a payment method at sign-up but no charge is made until day 15. You can cancel any time during the trial from your billing page and you won't be charged.

5. Subscription and billing

• Subscriptions are billed monthly in advance via Stripe.
• Prices are in GBP and exclusive of VAT where applicable.
• Upgrades take effect immediately and are pro-rated. Downgrades take effect at the end of the current billing period.
• Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period — you keep access until then.
• The Business tier includes a soft cap of 25,000 classified emails and 25 contract scans per month. Usage above the cap is billed at £0.005 per email and £0.10 per scan. You'll be notified when you cross 80% of the cap.

6. Refunds

The 14-day free trial is intended to let you decide before paying. If you're charged in error or there's a service failure on our side that materially affects what you paid for, contact us and we'll refund the affected period. Outside that, monthly subscriptions are non-refundable for partial periods.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use Shield for any unlawful purpose, or in any way that violates UK or international law.
• Upload content that infringes someone else's intellectual property or privacy rights.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile or attempt to extract the source code of the service.
• Resell or sublicense access without our written consent.
• Submit content known to be misleading or fabricated with the intent of producing a false evidence trail.

8. Your content

You own the content you put into Shield (your emails, documents, project data). You grant us a limited licence to process it solely to deliver the service to you. We don't sell your data, share it with advertisers, or use it to train AI models. See the privacy policy for full detail.

9. Service availability

We aim for high availability but don't guarantee 100% uptime. We may need to perform maintenance, fix issues, or apply security updates. We'll give reasonable notice for planned downtime.

10. Liability

We're a small SaaS company and our liability is limited as far as the law allows. To be specific:

• Our total liability to you under or in connection with these terms is limited to the fees you've paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim.
• We're not liable for indirect or consequential losses (loss of profit, contracts, goodwill, etc.).
• Nothing in these terms excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, fraud, or any liability that cannot be excluded under UK law.

11. Termination

You can cancel any time from the billing page. We may suspend or terminate your account if you breach these terms or use the service in a way that damages other users or the service. After termination, your data is retained for 90 days for export, then permanently deleted.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms occasionally — we'll email you about material changes at least 30 days before they take effect. Continued use after the change date means you accept the updated terms.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any dispute is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

14. Contact

Questions about these terms? Email support@shieldindex.app. For data and privacy matters, privacy@shieldindex.app.