Terms and Conditions

1. Definitions

1.1 The Company (“We,” “Us,” “Our”)

“Social Media Loyalty” (also referred to as “SML”) refers to Social Media Loyalty, a data analytics marketplace headquartered in the State of Texas, United States of America.

1.2 Account Owner (“You,” “Your”)

“Account Owner” (also referred to as “Brand Manager,” “Campaign Owner,” “Page Owner,” or “Client”) refers to any individual, business entity, organization, brand, agency, or authorized representative who registers for an account on the SML Platform, creates or manages marketing campaigns, and is the rightful owner of the associated Instagram business or creator account(s).

1.3 End User

“End User” (also referred to as “Participant,” “Consumer,” or “Instagram User”) refers to any individual who holds an Instagram account and interacts with content published by the Account Owner. End Users are not direct customers of SML.

2. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing, registering for, or using any part of the SML Platform, You acknowledge that You have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and our Cookie Policy. If You do not agree, You must not access or use the Platform.

If You are using the Platform on behalf of a business or legal entity, You represent and warrant that You have the legal authority to bind such entity to these Terms.

3. Nature of Services

What SML Does:

• Campaign Management tools linked to Account Owner's Instagram accounts
• Engagement Analytics (scoring of likes, comments, story shares)
• Leaderboard Generation and ranking
• Reporting and visualization
• Sharing Tools (public leaderboard links, counter pages)

What SML Does NOT Do:

• SML does not scrape, crawl, or extract data from Instagram. All data retrieval is performed by Third-Party APIs at the Account Owner's direction.
• SML does not have a partnership or agreement with Meta Platforms, Inc. or Instagram.
• SML does not independently decide which accounts or users to analyze.
• SML does not provide legal advice.

4. Eligibility and Age Requirements

To register as an Account Owner, You must be at least eighteen (18) years of age, have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract, and be the rightful owner of the associated Instagram business or creator account(s).

The Platform relies on Instagram's own age restrictions for End Users (minimum 13 years in most jurisdictions, subject to stricter requirements in certain regions).

The Platform is designed exclusively for business-to-business (B2B) use.

5. Account Registration and Security

You agree to provide accurate information, maintain the confidentiality of Your login credentials, and are solely responsible for all activities under Your account. Sessions expire after 24 hours of inactivity.

6. The Three Parties

7. Account Owner Obligations

The Account Owner hereby acknowledges and irrevocably agrees that:

1. The Account Owner personally requests the extraction of information from their own business Instagram account and accepts all responsibilities.
2. The Account Owner makes this request with full knowledge of all governing and judicial laws of Meta (Instagram) and their own country.
3. SML is solely a data analytics marketplace that processes data at the Account Owner's direction.
4. Data extraction and scraping is NOT performed by SML. It is performed by Third-Party APIs, and the Account Owner has assumed full responsibility.

Compliance Obligations:

• Comply with GDPR, CCPA, PIPEDA, COPPA, and Meta/Instagram Terms of Service
• Inform End Users that their engagement data is being tracked (Instagram bio, post captions, links to Privacy Policy and Delete My Data page)
• Obtain required consent from End Users as required by applicable law
• Respond promptly to End User inquiries and deletion requests
• Maintain records of compliance activities

Responsibility for Public Display:

All data is private by default, accessible only to the Account Owner and authorized team members. Any public disclosure (share links, counter pages) is the Account Owner's sole responsibility.

8. End User Data and Privacy

Data Processed:

• Public profile information (username, display name, profile picture)
• Engagement activity (likes, comments, story shares on campaign posts)
• Derived metrics (scores, rankings, loyalty analysis)

Data NOT Collected:

• Private or direct messages
• Email addresses or phone numbers of End Users
• Precise geolocation of End Users
• Financial information of End Users
• Data from private Instagram accounts

9. Data Collection Methods

SML cannot guarantee uninterrupted access to data. Third-Party APIs may become unavailable at any time.

10. Privacy by Default

11. Consent and Opt-In

End Users may voluntarily Opt-In to campaigns to have their full identity revealed to the Account Owner. Opt-In requires providing an Instagram username, email verification, and explicit consent. End Users may Opt-Out at any time.

12. Public Display of Data

By default, all data is private. The Account Owner may choose to generate public leaderboard links or counter page links. Any public release of data is performed with the Account Owner's responsibility and through the Account Owner's personal account.

13. Right to Erasure (Delete My Data)

Any End User may request deletion of all personal data associated with their Instagram username, in accordance with GDPR Article 17, CCPA Section 1798.105, and PIPEDA Principle 4.3.8.

Deletion requests are processed within 30 calendar days. Visit: Delete My Data

14. Subscription, Fees, and Payment

• Fees are billed in advance (monthly or annual) in USD.
• Late payment may result in account suspension after 15 days.
• Annual: Pro-rata refund within first 30 days. No refunds after.
• Monthly: No refunds for current billing period.
• Campaign data retained for 90 days after cancellation for export.
• All fees are exclusive of applicable taxes (sales tax, VAT, GST).

15. Intellectual Property

The SML Platform and all related intellectual property remains the exclusive property of Social Media Loyalty. Account Owners receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Platform.

16. Prohibited Conduct

Account Owners shall NOT use the Platform to stalk, harass, or discriminate against End Users; reverse-engineer or de-anonymize protected identities; resell raw data; or violate any applicable law.

17. Disclaimer of Warranties

18. Limitation of Liability

19. Indemnification

The Account Owner agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless SML from any claims, damages, or legal actions arising from the Account Owner's use of the Platform, breach of Terms, violation of Meta/Instagram Terms of Service, or failure to notify End Users.

20. Termination

Either party may terminate at any time. SML may suspend or terminate access for breach, non-payment, or illegal activity. Sections 7, 17, 18, 19, 21, and 22 survive termination.

21. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States of America. Any legal proceedings shall be brought in Texas courts.

22. Dispute Resolution

Disputes shall first be resolved informally (30 days), then through non-binding mediation, and finally through binding arbitration under AAA Commercial Rules in Texas. Class action waiver applies.

23. International Use

SML serves Account Owners in any country permitted by U.S. federal law. The Platform may not be used from sanctioned countries (Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, etc.).

24. Third-Party Services

The Platform integrates with third-party services (APIs, cloud storage, email, payment). SML is not liable for third-party acts, omissions, or failures.

25. Data Retention

• Active accounts: data retained during service use
• Post-termination: 90 days for data export
• Security logs: retained for platform security
• Deletion request records: retained for compliance
• Research datasets (Academic Research Program): 2 years from collection (Section 32.10)

26. Modifications

SML may modify these Terms with 30 days' notice. Continued use constitutes acceptance.

27-31. General Provisions

• Severability: Invalid provisions do not affect remaining terms.
• Entire Agreement: These Terms supersede all prior agreements.
• Waiver: Failure to enforce does not waive rights.
• Assignment: Account Owner may not assign without consent.
• Force Majeure: SML not liable for events beyond reasonable control.

32. Academic and Research Data Access

Notwithstanding Section 4.3 (Business Use Only), SML may, at its sole discretion, grant an individual or team conducting bona fide, non-commercial academic research (a “Researcher”) access to data collection and analysis services on the Platform free of charge (“Academic Access”), strictly subject to this Section and to all other provisions of these Terms.

Academic Access is a revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable privilege granted as a courtesy. It is not a sale, a service contract, a partnership, a research collaboration, or a co-authorship, and it obliges SML to nothing.

32.1 The Lead Author

Every application must name a single natural person as the “Lead Author” (Principal Investigator or corresponding author), identified by full legal name, institutional affiliation, and institutional email address. The Lead Author personally assumes, on behalf of the entire research team and their institution, every obligation, representation, warranty, indemnity, and liability that these Terms impose on an Account Owner — including Sections 7, 9, 16, 17, 18, and 19 — and is responsible for every request submitted by any co-author, assistant, or student on the project. That responsibility survives any change of employment, institution, or team, and survives completion, abandonment, or non-publication of the project.

Eligibility requires an accredited institutional affiliation or research intended for peer-reviewed publication; genuinely non-commercial purpose and funding (all funding sources must be disclosed); accurate disclosure of the research purpose and the data requested; and all required ethics, IRB, or data protection approvals obtained before any data is requested. Misstatement or omission is a material breach.

32.2 Public Data Only

Neither SML nor the Third-Party APIs it uses can, will, or shall be asked to obtain: data from private, restricted, or closed accounts; private or direct messages; content shared with a limited audience; credentials or any data obtained by circumventing access controls; special categories of personal data under GDPR Article 9 (health, biometric, genetic, religious, political, or sexual-orientation data) unless manifestly made public by the data subject; or any data concerning a person known or reasonably believed to be a minor. Requesting data outside this scope is grounds for immediate termination.

32.3 Mandatory Citation and Attribution

Academic Access is granted solely in consideration of complete, clear, and permanent attribution. Every publication, preprint, conference paper, poster, dissertation, thesis, book chapter, report, dataset deposit, replication package, or presentation relying in whole or in part on data obtained through the Platform must cite Social Media Loyalty clearly and unambiguously.

The citation obligation applies to every derivative, follow-on, and secondary analysis, including outputs published after the project ends, and applies equally where the data has been aggregated, transformed, anonymized, or combined with other sources. It must not be removed, buried in a footnote in place of the reference list, or replaced by a generic reference to “a commercial analytics provider” or similar. It survives termination indefinitely. The Lead Author shall notify SML on submission and again on publication, and SML may list the resulting work publicly.

Failure to cite is a material breach. SML may then terminate Academic Access; require a correction or corrigendum to be published at the Lead Author's expense; notify the publisher, the Lead Author's institution, and any research-integrity office; and invoice the Lead Author for the commercial list-price value of all data collection and processing performed, which becomes immediately due and payable as a debt.

32.4 Researcher Obligations

The Lead Author represents, warrants, and covenants that they shall, at their own cost and under their own responsibility:

• Comply with all applicable law — including GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, PIPEDA, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the data protection, privacy, computer-misuse, copyright, and research-ethics laws of their own jurisdiction, their institution's jurisdiction, and that of the data subjects.
• Act as the data controller for all personal data received, establish the lawful basis for processing, and discharge all controller obligations.
• Comply with the terms of service of the relevant platform, including those of Meta Platforms, Inc. and Instagram, and accept sole responsibility for any conflict.
• Observe data minimization and request only what the stated research question strictly requires.
• Secure the data, restrict access to named team members bound by equivalent obligations, and report any breach to SML within 72 hours.
• Publish only in aggregated, anonymized, or pseudonymized form, never reproducing an unmasked username, profile picture, direct identifier, or quotation that would identify an End User, absent documented informed consent.
• Never attempt re-identification of any masked, blurred, or anonymized individual, and never link the data to another dataset for that purpose.
• Never use the data to target, contact, solicit, profile, score, monitor, or decide anything about any individual, nor for advertising, recruitment, credit, employment, insurance, immigration, law-enforcement, surveillance, or security screening.
• Never sell, license, redistribute, or publish the raw data; where a venue requires a replication package, deposit only aggregated or fully anonymized derivatives.
• Never train or develop a commercial AI or machine learning model on the data without SML's prior written consent (disclosed non-commercial academic model development is permitted).
• Honour erasure requests forwarded by SML within 30 days, across all datasets, backups, and derived files.
• Delete or fully anonymize all personal data on completion of the project, expiry of the approved retention period, or SML's written request — and certify deletion on request.

32.5 Allocation of Responsibility

32.6 No Endorsement, No Review

SML does not review, validate, approve, or endorse any research design, methodology, analysis, interpretation, or conclusion. The Lead Author may not describe SML as a partner, sponsor, collaborator, co-author, or endorser, may not imply that SML has verified any finding, and may not use SML's name, logo, or trademarks other than in the citation required by 32.3. The Researcher is solely responsible for the content, accuracy, ethics, and conclusions of all outputs.

32.7 Verifiability at Source

Datasets supplied under Academic Access include, for each record, the identifier and permalink of the publicly accessible post from which that record was collected, together with the date and time of collection; comment, liker, and engagement records are keyed to the source post. The Researcher, and any supervisor, reviewer, editor, or replication team, may therefore trace and independently verify each record against the publicly accessible source.

32.8 Retention of Research Datasets

Datasets prepared for Academic Access are retained in SML's server database for two (2) years from the date of collection, after which SML may delete them without notice and without liability. During that period, and while the Lead Author remains in compliance with this Section, SML will on request re-supply the same dataset — for example to answer a reviewer's query, to support a thesis defence, or to enable a replication request after publication.

This is an operational commitment, not an archival guarantee, a backup service, or a records-management service. Notwithstanding the retention period: any record subject to a verified erasure request under Section 13 is deleted when that request is processed, whether or not the period has expired (the right to erasure prevails); SML may curtail retention earlier where required by law, by a Third-Party API provider, or by a social media platform; and the Lead Author remains responsible for keeping their own copy of any data required by their institution's data-management plan, funder, or publisher, and shall not rely on SML as a repository of record. Retention by SML does not extend or excuse the Lead Author's own deletion obligations under 32.4 — personal data may not be kept longer than the relevant ethics committee has approved.

32.9 No Warranty and Limitation of Liability

Data retrieval depends on Third-Party APIs and may be partial, delayed, interrupted, or discontinued at any time without notice. The Researcher is solely responsible for independently validating any data before relying on it in any publication.

32.10 Indemnification, Suspension, and Termination

In addition to Section 19, the Lead Author agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless SML from any claim, investigation, proceeding, loss, damage, fine, penalty, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from the research, its publication, any breach of this Section (including failure to cite), any claim by an End User, institution, publisher, regulator, or platform, any allegation of research misconduct or privacy violation, and any failure to obtain or maintain required ethics approval.

SML may suspend or terminate Academic Access at any time, with or without cause, without notice or liability. On termination the Lead Author must cease all collection and, at SML's election, delete or fully anonymize all personal data received. Sections 32.3 through 32.10 survive termination indefinitely.

32.11 How to Apply

Send applications and all notices under this Section to [email protected] with the subject line “Academic Research Program.” SML may require a signed data use agreement, proof of institutional affiliation, and evidence of ethics approval before granting access, and may refuse any application without stating a reason.

33. Contact Information

Summary of Key Points

For the complete legal text, see the full Terms and Conditions document.