Terms of Service

1. Agreement to Terms

By accessing or using everyiowan.comand related services (the "Service"), operated by Theito Tech LLC, doing business as Every Iowan ("we," "us," "our"), located in Urbandale, Iowa, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service, our Privacy Policy, our SMS Terms & Consent, and our Community Guidelines. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years of age to create an account. Users aged 13 through 17 may browse and use basic features; however, they may not:

• Post in community groups or group threads
• Enroll in SMS alerts or provide a mobile phone number
• Purchase any paid membership or Business Access subscription
• Create a user-generated group or act as a Steward
• Submit a business claim or enter into a paid client engagement

For paid agreements, SMS enrollment, and any binding contract, you represent that you are at least 18 years of age (or the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction) and authorized to bind yourself to this agreement.

3. Description of Service

Every Iowan provides:

• Public StoreFront pages for Iowa businesses, schools, agencies, nonprofits, and other organizations, with search, discovery, and directory tools.
• A community bulletin board for signed-in users to post time-limited posts (e.g., services, events, help-wanted), moderated under these Terms and our Community Guidelines.
• Community Groups— fully private, creator-owned spaces. A Premium member creates a Group and owns it outright; members join by invitation. Groups are not searchable or publicly listed. See Section 7.
• Optional user features including referrals("I Know a Guy / I Know a Gal"), reviews (moderated), bookmarks, and similar tools.
• Business claim requests and a business portal for verified representatives.
• Job listings and the hiring tools described in Section 11.
• Optional paid Parent Membership, Family plans, and per-entity Business Access subscriptions (see Section 12).
• Contact forms and inquiry handling.

We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time with reasonable notice.

4. User Accounts

You may create an account using Google, X.com, or email one-time codes. You are responsible for:

• Maintaining the security of your authentication credentials
• All activity that occurs under your account
• Providing accurate and current information
• Notifying us promptly of any unauthorized access

You may delete your account at any time from your account settings or by contacting us. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful or fraudulent purpose
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Service or its infrastructure
• Interfere with, disrupt, or degrade the performance of the Service
• Scrape, crawl, or systematically collect data from the Service without written permission
• Upload malicious code, spam, or harmful content
• Impersonate another person or entity, including businesses you do not represent
• Use the Service to harass, abuse, harm, or dox another person
• Create multiple accounts to circumvent bans, rate limits, or integrity controls
• Use automated tools to generate endorsements, reviews, or engagement

6. SMS and Text Messaging

SMS enrollment, consent, frequency, rates, and opt-out (reply STOP) are governed by our SMS Terms & Consent, which form part of this agreement. The flow that collects your consent is documented at /sms-opt-in. Consent to SMS is never required to use any free part of the Service, and you may revoke consent at any time.

7. Community Groups

Every Iowan provides Community Groups as a tool for Iowans to run their own private spaces. Groups are not public forums, civic infrastructure, or platform-moderated communities — they are private, creator-owned spaces governed by the person who created them, subject only to these Terms and the Community Guidelines.

7.1 Creator Ownership

A Group is created by an active Premium member (the “Owner”). The Owner has full authority over membership, content, rules, and lifecycle of the Group. Every Iowan does not appoint, elect, or maintain moderators inside user Groups. The Owner is solely responsible for moderating content within the Group, subject to the prohibitions in Section 17.

7.2 Privacy

Groups are fully private. Non-members cannot see a Group’s contents, member list, or existence through any public directory, search, or listing. Membership is by invitation only; anyone with a valid invite link the Owner (or a member acting on the Owner’s behalf) has shared may join, subject to the Owner’s approval and the membership ratio in Section 7.3.

7.3 Membership Ratio

Each Group is limited to a membership ratio where every one (1) Premium member enables up to two (2) free-tier member slots. Owners may require Premium membership of all members; in no case may free members exceed twice the Premium count. Existing members are not evicted if the ratio later tightens through other members’ departures.

7.4 Ownership Transfer

An Owner may voluntarily transfer ownership of their Group to another Premium member at any time. If an Owner becomes inactive for ninety (90) consecutive days (defined as no sign-in to Every Iowan during that period), a current member of the Group may petition us at [email protected] to transfer ownership. Petitions are adjudicated by Every Iowan on a case-by-case basis; the petitioner must be a current member in good standing and a Premium subscriber. Our decision is final.

7.5 Platform Role

Every Iowan’s role inside a Group is limited to: (a) removing content that violates Section 17 (Prohibited Content) upon lawful report; (b) adjudicating ownership-transfer petitions; and (c) suspending or removing Groups whose Owners persistently violate these Terms or applicable law. We do not review, approve, or moderate routine Group content and do not provide platform-side moderators.

8. Reviews, Referrals, and Recommendations

Reviews, group endorsements, and personal referrals ("I Know a Guy / I Know a Gal") reflect the views of individual users and are not endorsed, verified, or guaranteed by us. You must have a real experience with the business or service you recommend, and you may not accept payment or other consideration for posting or removing a recommendation. We may moderate, remove, or refuse to publish any recommendation at our discretion.

9. Business Directory

Our directory contains publicly available information about Iowa businesses and organizations. We make reasonable efforts to ensure accuracy but do not guarantee that directory information is complete, current, or error-free. See How We Work for how our data is gathered.

If you represent a listed entity and wish to update or remove your listing, please contact us. We will process removal requests within 30 days.

10. Business Claims and Portal Access

Business claims must be made in good faith by a person authorized to act on behalf of the organization. We verify claims through email-domain matching, document review, or direct contact. Unverified claimants do not receive portal access. False claims are a material violation of these Terms and may be reported to the claimant’s employer, referenced organization, or law enforcement.

11. Hiring and Job Postings

Job listings are free to post but are strictly conditional. By posting a job, an employer agrees to:

• Represent a real, currently open position with genuine intent to hire.
• Respond to candidates who apply in reasonable time and close listings once filled or withdrawn.
• Honor anti-discrimination law and not request legally protected information as a condition of application.
• Refrain from using the Service to build candidate databases or test the market without intent to hire ("ghost" postings).

Failure to meet these obligations — including ignoring applicants, running evergreen postings with no hires, or using the Service to harvest resumes — may result in removal of the listing, suspension of posting privileges, or permanent blacklisting from hiring features.

12. Subscriptions, Fees, and Billing

Some features require payment. Fees, billing cycles, and renewal terms are presented at checkout (via Stripe Checkout) and in your account or portal billing area before you subscribe. Subscriptions renew automatically until you cancel through the Stripe Customer Portal (available from your account or your entity’s billing page) or we terminate access under these Terms.

Refunds. Unless required by law or expressly stated at checkout, fees are non-refundable; cancel before your next renewal if you do not wish to continue.

Price changes.We may change prices or plans with at least 30 days’ notice by email or in your account. Material changes take effect on your next renewal; you may cancel before the next charge to avoid the new price.

You represent that you have the right to use any payment method you provide. Payment processing is provided by Stripe and is also governed by Stripe’s terms and privacy policy.

13. Client Services

Custom software development and client-service engagements entered into directly with us are governed by separate written client agreements. These Terms apply to the Service; client-specific terms, deliverables, and pricing are defined in individual service agreements.

14. Intellectual Property

All content, features, functionality, branding, and software of the Service are owned by Theito Tech LLC and protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.

You may not reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works from our content without written permission. Business data displayed in the directory is sourced from public records and is not claimed as our intellectual property.

15. User-Generated Content and License to Us

Every Iowan does not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy of content posted by users — including bulletin posts, group posts, shortlist endorsements, reviews, referrals, and similar contributions — or content submitted through contact or claim flows. Users are solely responsible for what they submit and must have the rights to grant the license below.

You retain ownership of your content. By posting or submitting user-visible content, you grant Theito Tech LLC a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, distribute, moderate, and otherwise use that content in connection with the Service (including promoting or organizing community features). You may revoke this license for a specific piece of content by deleting it, subject to reasonable delay for backups.

16. Content Moderation

Every Iowan reserves the right to remove, restrict, or modify any user-generated content at its sole discretion. We moderate in good faith to maintain a safe and useful community, consistent with our Community Guidelines and Section 17.

You may report content you believe violates these Terms using the flag feature on any post. We aim to respond to reports within one business day; urgent safety escalations are handled as quickly as possible.

17. Prohibited Content

The following are not permitted on the Service:

• False or defamatory statements about individuals or businesses
• Discriminatory housing, employment, or public-accommodation advertisements
• Harassment, threats, intimidation, stalking, or doxxing
• Content that sexualizes or exposes minors, or that invades a minor’s privacy
• Spam, multi-level marketing solicitation, or commercial promotion outside designated categories
• Impersonation of other individuals, businesses, or government agencies
• Medical, legal, or financial advice presented as professional advice (first-person experience is permitted)
• Calls to coordinated reporting, review-bombing, or brigading against a person or business
• Content that violates any applicable law, including Iowa Code § 708.7 (harassment) and Iowa Code Chapter 716A (computer-related offenses)

18. Copyright and DMCA

We respect the intellectual property of others and expect our users to do the same. If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, please file a notice using our DMCA takedown form. Repeat infringers will have their accounts terminated.

19. Privacy

Your use of the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy. By using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read and understood our Privacy Policy and our SMS Terms & Consent.

20. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

Weather, school-closure, civic, and emergency content on the Service is provided for informational purposes, sourced from the U.S. National Weather Service, school districts, local governments, and similar public bodies. It is not a substitute for official alerts from those authorities. Delivery of SMS or email messages depends on your carrier, device, and third-party providers; we cannot guarantee delivery of any single message.

Business information in our directory is provided for informational purposes only and should be independently verified before making purchase, hiring, or safety decisions.

21. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THEITO TECH LLC AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, USE, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE.

Our total aggregate liability for any claims arising from or related to the Service shall not exceed the greater of one hundred U.S. dollars ($100) or the amount you paid us in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim.

22. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Theito Tech LLC and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from your use of the Service, your content, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any third-party right.

23. Dispute Resolution

Any dispute arising from these Terms or your use of the Service shall first be resolved through good-faith negotiation. If the dispute cannot be resolved within 30 days, it shall be settled through binding arbitration in Polk County, Iowa, under the rules of the American Arbitration Association.

Class-action waiver. You agree to resolve disputes with us on an individual basis and waive any right to participate in a class-action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.

Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction, or small-claims-court relief where permitted.

24. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Iowa, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. For matters not subject to arbitration, the state and federal courts located in Polk County, Iowa shall have exclusive jurisdiction.

25. Termination

We may terminate or suspend your access to the Service at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice. Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases immediately. You may terminate your account at any time by deleting it.

Sections 14 (Intellectual Property), 15 (User-Generated Content license), 17 (Prohibited Content), 18 (DMCA), 20 (Disclaimer), 21 (Limitation of Liability), 22 (Indemnification), 23 (Dispute Resolution), and 24 (Governing Law) survive termination.

26. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect. The unenforceable provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable.

27. Changes to These Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. We will post the updated Terms on this page with a new effective date. Material changes will be communicated through the Service or by email. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

28. Contact

Questions about these Terms?