Terms
Terms of use.
These terms cover the website, the public registry, our published templates, the license to display the Ethicality Badge, and the limits of an Ethicality certification.
Ethicality is a private certification program based in Ontario, Canada. It does not certify compliance with any law. Nothing here is legal advice.
01
Using this site
The material on this site is published for information only. It is provided as-is, without warranty of accuracy, completeness, availability, or fitness for any purpose. It is not advice for your situation and it does not create a client, advisory, or professional relationship.
02
The registry
The public registry records certifications we have issued. You may consult it, link to it, and cite an entry. Do not present a registry entry as covering AI use outside the scope shown, or as valid after the expiry date shown.
03
Templates and examples
Our published templates and examples may be copied and adapted for your own use, including inside your organization. Using them does not imply that we have assessed or certified you.
Templates are illustrative examples, not legal advice, and adopting them does not guarantee that an assessment will be passed. They may be adapted for internal use. They may not be resold, distributed as a commercial product, or presented as documents that Ethicality has certified.
04
License to display the certification mark
The Ethicality name, wordmark, and badge marks are ours.
Subject to these terms, a certified organization is granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable and revocable license to display the Ethicality Badge. The license is limited to the certified legal entity, to the scope stated on its certificate, and to the artwork supplied by us, which may not be altered, recolored, or combined with other marks. Every instance must link to the organization's public registry entry. The badge may not be used in a way that implies accreditation, government endorsement, or compliance with any law. The license ends automatically, without notice, on expiry, suspension, or withdrawal of the certification, and the holder must remove every instance of the badge within ten business days.
05
What certification is and is not
A certification confirms that an organization has agreed to use AI in accordance with a published Ethicality standard and that the practices it disclosed were assessed as meeting that standard, at a point in time and within an agreed scope. It is not a guarantee of any outcome, and it is not a certificate of compliance with any law or regulatory framework.
06
What third parties may rely on
A registry entry may be relied on as an accurate record of what we assessed: the organization certified, the standard and version applied, the scope, the certificate number, the issue and expiry dates, and the current status. We stand behind that record and keep it current.
What may not be relied on is anything beyond it. A certification is not a warranty of the certified organization's conduct, of the quality or safety of its AI use, or of compliance with any law, and we give no warranty, express or implied, to any person about those matters. We accept no duty of care to any third party in respect of that organization's conduct, there are no third-party beneficiaries to these terms, and anyone dealing with a certified organization remains responsible for its own due diligence.
07
Accuracy of information supplied
An assessment is based on the information and evidence the applicant supplies. Each of the fifteen published requirements is assessed as met, not met, or not applicable, using only the evidence submitted for that requirement. There are no scores, percentages or levels. An artificial intelligence model assists with that first review, and every finding is verified against your documents and signed by a named certification officer, who may override any of them in writing. We review that evidence against the standard; we do not independently verify that what we are told is true, and we do not test, inspect, or audit AI systems. A certification obtained on the basis of information that was false or materially incomplete is void from the date it was issued, and may be withdrawn and the registry entry updated accordingly.
08
Suspension and withdrawal
We may suspend or withdraw a certification if the certified information turns out to be materially inaccurate, if the scope changes substantially without reassessment, if the mark is misused, on non-payment of fees, or where the organization fails to complete its annual re-attestation.
Before suspending or withdrawing a certification we give the holder written notice of the grounds and at least ten business days to respond or to remedy. Where a response is not accepted, the reason is given in writing and the decision may be escalated once. The escalation is heard by a person who did not take the original decision wherever the program has one available; where it does not, we say so in writing and set out in full the reasons the decision was upheld. A registry entry that has been suspended or withdrawn records only the status and the date, and no further detail.
09
Indemnity
The certified organization indemnifies us against claims, losses, and costs arising from its own use of AI, from its display or misuse of the badge, and from any statement it makes about what its certification means.
10
Complaints and appeals
A complaint about an assessment, a certification decision, or a certified organization's use of the badge is handled under our published complaints and appeals process. That process is contractual, not marketing copy: it sets the routes, the timelines, and the named contact, and an appeal is reviewed by a member of the Ethicality Advisory Board who did not take the original decision.
11
Registry availability
The registry is provided as-is. We do not warrant uninterrupted availability, and inability to verify a certificate at a particular moment is not evidence of its status.
12
Confidentiality
Assessment evidence, draft findings, and failed assessments are not published; how we handle the information you give us is set out in our privacy notice.
13
Fees
Fees are set out in the published fee schedule and are fixed by the organization size you declare at submission; headcount is counted as set out on the pricing page, and organizations above the largest published size tier are quoted on scope before any charge is made. There is a single annual certification fee. Assessment is included at no charge; a valid payment method is provided at submission and is charged only where a certification is issued. The annual certification fee covers issuance, the badge license, the public registry entry, certification administration and the annual re-attestation, and renews each year. Where an assessment does not result in a certification, a re-review requested within 90 days is included at no extra charge.
Certification is maintained by payment of the annual certification fee; where it is unpaid, the certification lapses, the registry entry is updated to show it is no longer active, and the license to display the badge ends. A disputed assessment finding is not grounds for withholding fees; the route for disputing a finding is the appeals process.
You may withdraw a certification at any time by writing to us. The registry entry is updated to show the certification is no longer active, the license to display the badge ends, and every instance must be removed within ten business days. Fees already paid for the current certification period are not refunded, and no further annual fee is charged. Where we withdraw a certification for a reason that is our own error, we refund the fee for the unexpired part of the period.
14
Use of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence tools were used in the creation of this website, including in the generation of copy, code, and visual assets. All content is reviewed by us before publication.
Ethicality holds itself to the EAUS standard it publishes: it is open about where it uses AI, keeps written rules for its own AI use, protects confidential information, and names a person responsible for reviewing AI-assisted work.
15
Precedence
These terms are the agreement under which certifications are issued; there is no separate engagement letter in the standard program. Where we do sign a separate written agreement with an organization, that agreement prevails for the certification it covers.
16
Changes and contact
We may update these terms as the program develops; the current version is always the one published here. Questions go to aiden@ethicality.ai. Our address is 2770 Dufferin St #223, North York, ON M6B 3R7, Canada.
Where a change materially affects a current certification holder, we give 30 days' written notice, and the version in force at the date of your application continues to apply for the remainder of that certification period.
17
General
If any provision of these terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in force. The clauses covering limits of certification, no third-party reliance, indemnity, confidentiality, and the certification mark survive termination or expiry of any certification. A failure or delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver of it. These terms, together with any separate written agreement signed by us, are the entire agreement between us on their subject matter.
18
Governing law and jurisdiction
These terms and any certification issued under them are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable in Ontario. The courts of Ontario have exclusive jurisdiction.
See also our privacy notice and our complaints process.