Terms and Conditions

These Terms are a contract between you and STER STUDIO LTD, a company registered in England and Wales, based in London, United Kingdom. We trade as AskDolphin ("AskDolphin", "we", "us").

"You" means the business that signs up for or uses AskDolphin. If you accept for a company, you confirm you can bind it.

You accept these Terms when you create an account, install AskDolphin (by script, our Shopify app or our Framer plugin), start a trial or otherwise use the Services. If you don't agree, please don't use AskDolphin.

1. The Services

1.1 What we provide. AskDolphin is customer-support and sales-assistance software for businesses (the "Services"): a chat widget for your website; a shared inbox for chat, QR-code chats and email; Dolphin AI by AskDolphin ("Dolphin AI"), an AI assistant that can answer your customers and help your team write replies; the Sales Assistant, which can recommend products and pass requests (such as cancellations and refunds) to your team for approval; visitor tools such as live visitors, purchase-intent scores and session recording; QR codes; and connections to Shopify, Gmail and Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Outlook, business email by forwarding, and Framer.

1.2 No promised results. We don't promise any business result, such as more sales or fewer support requests.

1.3 Business use only. You use AskDolphin for your business, not as a consumer, and everyone using your account is at least 18.

1.4 Privacy. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data. Section 11 below covers personal data we handle for you.

1.5 The agreement. These Terms, and the plans and prices on our pricing page when you buy or renew, are the whole agreement.

2. Your account

2.1 Your team. You decide who joins your account and what each person may do, including who may use AI tools. You are responsible for your team and for everything done in your account.

2.2 Keep it secure. Keep logins safe and give each person their own login. Tell us at once at privacy@askdolphin.com if you think your account has been misused. We are not responsible for losses from unauthorized use of your account unless we caused them.

2.3 True details and sanctions. The information you give us must be true. You confirm you are not subject to UK, EU, UN or US sanctions and won't use the Services in breach of them.

2.4 Verification. We may check your details and suspend an account we can't verify or reasonably suspect of fraud or abuse.

3. Plans, fees and payment

3.1 Prices. Plans, prices and limits are on the pricing page, in US dollars. The version shown when you buy or renew applies.

3.2 How you pay. Directly through our payment provider, or through Shopify if you installed AskDolphin from the Shopify App Store (Shopify's terms then also apply). Plan and add-on fees are charged in advance; usage charges (such as Dolphin AI characters beyond what your plan includes) are charged after use.

3.3 Free plan and trial. The Free plan includes what the pricing page says. A new account may try Pro features free for 14 days with no payment card; when the trial ends, the account moves to the Free plan unless you chose a paid plan. One trial per business. We may change or end the Free plan with 30 days' notice, or sooner to stop abuse.

3.4 Renewal and cancelling. Paid plans renew automatically until you turn renewal off in Billing (or in Shopify). Your plan then stays active until the end of the paid period and moves to Free.

3.5 Dolphin AI usage and your limit. Dolphin AI is charged by the characters it writes, as the pricing page explains. You set a monthly spending limit; when it is reached, Dolphin AI stops and hands conversations to your team. You pay usage up to your limit. Tell us within 30 days of an invoice if you think a charge is wrong.

3.6 No refunds. Fees are not refundable, including for partly used periods or unused usage, unless the law requires it or we end the agreement without cause (section 14.2).

3.7 Taxes. Prices exclude VAT and other taxes; we add them where we must.

3.8 Late payment. If a payment fails, we may suspend paid features or move you to Free until it is paid.

3.9 Price changes. We tell you at least 30 days before a price change applies to your plan; it applies from your next renewal.

4. Acceptable use

4.1 Follow the law wherever you use the Services or reach your customers, including privacy, marketing, consumer and AI laws.

4.2 You must not, and must not let anyone else:

1. use AskDolphin (including QR codes, email or the chat) for phishing, fraud, scams, or to ask people for passwords, codes or card details;
2. create QR codes that lead to harmful, deceptive or illegal places, or place codes over someone else's;
3. impersonate any person, business or brand;
4. send spam or marketing without the consent the law requires; connected mailboxes are for one-to-one conversations, and AI email replies may only answer emails you received;
5. spread malware, or upload unlawful, infringing, hateful, sexually explicit or violent content;
6. present Dolphin AI as a human, tell people they are talking to a person when it is AI, or hide the AI labels we provide;
7. use AI Features for licensed advice (legal, medical, financial) without a professional, or for decisions with legal or similar effects on people (credit, jobs, insurance, housing) without a person reviewing them;
8. record or track people without the notice and consent the law requires, or switch off "Exclude sensitive pages";
9. ask people to send card numbers, passwords, ID numbers or health information through the chat or email;
10. use AskDolphin on services aimed at children;
11. break the terms of any third-party service through the Services, including our providers' and AI providers' usage policies;
12. scrape, load-test, security-test, copy or reverse engineer the Services without our written permission (good-faith security reports are welcome at privacy@askdolphin.com);
13. resell the Services, get around plan limits, or open several accounts for extra free use.

4.3 What we may do. If we reasonably believe the Services are being misused, we may remove content, disable QR codes, pause email sending or AI Features, suspend or close accounts, and share evidence with the authorities or affected providers, without notice where needed.

5. QR codes

You choose each code's destination and content and are responsible for them, and for where codes are printed and placed. We count scans of support QR codes; custom QR codes aren't tracked. We may disable a code used for abuse. Support QR codes stop working when your account closes.

6. AI features

6.1 How they work. AI Features use models from third-party AI providers. We don't use your data to train AI models.

6.2 AI can be wrong. AI output can be wrong, incomplete or unsuitable, even with correct Data Sources. It is not professional advice. You are responsible for checking AI output, for what your AI says to your customers, and for keeping your Data Sources accurate. Translations, voice-to-text and read-aloud may not always be accurate.

6.3 You stay in control. You decide whether Dolphin AI is on, where and when it replies, which Sales Assistant actions it may use, and whether email agents reply automatically (off until you turn it on). Requests such as cancellations and refunds go to Action Review, where a person on your team decides; the AI never approves them itself. Payments always happen at Shopify's checkout.

6.4 Telling people it's AI. The law in some places (including the EU AI Act) requires that people know when they deal with AI. By default the chat shows when Dolphin AI is answering and AI emails carry an AI footer. Don't hide or contradict these labels, don't present a custom AI name as a person, and mention your use of AI in your own privacy notice.

6.5 Scores. Purchase-intent scores are estimates. Use them to decide when to offer help, never for decisions with legal or similar effects on people.

6.6 Output. As between us, you own the output generated for you, as far as the law allows. Similar output may be generated for others.

6.7 Availability. AI Features depend on third-party providers and may be slow or unavailable at times. We may change AI providers or models.

7. Integrations

7.1 When you connect Shopify, Gmail, Microsoft, email forwarding or Framer, you authorize us to access and use that service's data as needed for the features you use, and to send data to it when you or your settings ask (for example sending a reply or a checkout link).

7.2 Shopify. We alone are responsible for our Shopify app; Shopify is not. You authorize us to contact your shoppers for you when you or your settings ask. After you uninstall, email us to have your store's data deleted.

7.3 Gmail and Microsoft. Our use of Google data follows the Google API Services User Data Policy, including Limited Use. Disconnecting a mailbox stops our access; emails already imported stay as conversations until you delete them or ask us. Microsoft gives no warranties about AskDolphin and has no liability for it.

7.4 Email forwarding. You must own the sending domains you verify. You are the sender of emails sent from your domains for marketing and anti-spam laws. We may pause sending to protect delivery.

7.5 Third-party services. Connected services and the providers we use have their own terms. We don't control them, and we are not liable for their outages, changes or errors.

8. Your responsibilities to your own customers

You decide how your customers' data is used. You confirm that you have a lawful basis and every notice and permission needed to collect your customers' data, to put it into AskDolphin and to let us handle it as these Terms describe. You must:

1. have a privacy notice that tells them you use AskDolphin and AI, that conversations are stored, and (if you use them) that visits are tracked and scored and sessions may be recorded;
2. get any consent your law requires for cookies, the chat widget, the visitor list and recordings, using your own consent banner, and keep "Exclude sensitive pages" on;
3. where the law requires consent to record conversations (for example in some US states), get it before they chat;
4. tell them they are talking to AI (section 6.4);
5. have the right to send any marketing you send;
6. answer their privacy requests (we help, section 11);
7. keep your privacy policy available to the people you chat with. If you add its link in the widget settings, the widget shows "By chatting with us, you agree to our Privacy Policy" with that link; you are responsible for the link and the policy being correct. Showing the link does not by itself give the notice or get the consent your law requires.

9. Your data

9.1 It stays yours. You keep all rights in the data you and your customers put into the Services ("Customer Data").

9.2 Our use. We use Customer Data only to provide, secure and support the Services for you, to prevent abuse, and to meet legal duties. We don't sell it and we don't use it to train AI models. We may use usage data and statistics that don't identify anyone to run and improve the Services.

9.3 Getting a copy. You can export your contacts as a CSV file in the app. For anything else, email privacy@askdolphin.com and we will send you a copy in a common format, free of charge, as soon as we reasonably can (normally within 30 days). This is done by hand today.

9.4 Deletion. You can delete conversations in the app. When your account closes, we delete your Customer Data when we reasonably can, normally within 90 days, except what the law requires us to keep.

10. Confidentiality

Each of us keeps the other's non-public information confidential, uses it only for this agreement, and shares it only with people and providers who need it. This doesn't cover information that is public, already known, or that the law requires to be disclosed.

11. Personal data we handle for you

This section applies where we handle personal data for you (as your "processor" under UK and EU data protection law). We will:

1. handle it only on your documented instructions (these Terms and your settings), unless the law requires otherwise, and tell you if we think an instruction breaks the law;
2. make sure our staff who handle it are bound by confidentiality;
3. take the security measures described in section 9 of our Privacy Policy;
4. use other providers (subprocessors) only under written terms that protect the data; you authorize the providers we use, we give you the current list on request; if you ask at privacy@askdolphin.com, we will email you at least 14 days before a new provider starts handling your Customer Data, and if you object to it you may close your account;
5. help you, as far as we reasonably can, to answer your customers' privacy requests and to meet your own security, breach and impact-assessment duties. If one of your customers sends a privacy request to us, we will pass it to you and won't answer it ourselves unless you ask us to or the law requires it. If an authority asks us for your Customer Data, we will tell you first, unless the law forbids it;
6. tell you without undue delay after we become aware of a personal data breach affecting your data;
7. delete or return the data when the Services end (section 9.4), unless the law requires us to keep it;
8. give you the information reasonably needed to show we meet this section. Because we are a small company, we provide this in writing; on-site audits only by agreement and at your cost.

Transfers outside the UK or EU rely on the safeguards in our providers' standard terms (Privacy Policy, section 7).

12. Suitability and our stage

12.1 You decide if it suits you. AskDolphin is a growing service and we keep improving it. You are responsible for deciding whether the Services, and the security measures described in our Privacy Policy, are suitable for your business and the data you put into them. Don't use AskDolphin for highly sensitive data (for example health information, payment-card numbers, government ID numbers, or details of someone's religion, ethnicity, sex life, political views or criminal record), or where the law or your contracts require protections, certifications or service levels that we haven't confirmed to you in writing.

12.2 No backup service. We don't provide a backup or archiving service for your data. Keep your own copies of anything important (for example by exporting contacts and keeping emails in your own mailbox).

12.3 No certifications or service levels unless stated. We don't claim any security certification or offer any uptime commitment or service credits, unless our Trust page or a signed agreement with you says so.

12.4 Some tasks are done by our team. Some requests, such as data exports and deletions, are handled by our team rather than automatically, within the times described in these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

By using AskDolphin you confirm you have read this section and accept the Services on this basis.

13. Disclaimers and liability

13.1 As is. As far as the law allows, the Services are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties or promises beyond those written in these Terms. We don't promise the Services will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or that AI output will be accurate. Don't rely on AskDolphin as your only way to reach your customers.

13.2 What we never limit. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law doesn't allow us to limit.

13.3 Losses we are not liable for. Subject to 13.2, we are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, business, customers, goodwill or savings; loss or corruption of data; any indirect or consequential loss; or loss caused by downtime, by third-party services, by AI output you relied on, by your settings, or by your breach of these Terms.

13.4 Our total liability. Subject to 13.2, our total liability in any 12 months is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim and US$100.

13.5 Time limit. You must bring any claim within one year after you knew, or should have known, of it.

13.6 Your indemnity. You will cover us (STER STUDIO LTD, its directors and staff) against third-party claims, fines and reasonable costs that arise from your Customer Data, your dealings with your customers (including decisions in Action Review), your AI settings, your QR codes, your mailboxes and emails, your missing notices or consents, or your breach of these Terms or the law. We will tell you promptly about a claim.

14. Ending the agreement

14.1 By you. You can stop using the Services, turn off renewal or ask us to close your account at any time. Fees already paid aren't refunded.

14.2 By us. We may end the agreement for any reason with 30 days' notice, and then refund prepaid fees for the unused period. We may suspend or end it straight away if you seriously or repeatedly breach these Terms, don't pay, create legal or security risk, or if the law or a provider requires it.

14.3 After it ends. For 30 days you can ask us for a copy of your data (section 9.3); then we delete it (section 9.4). Moving to another provider or exporting your data is free of charge.

15. Other terms

15.1 Beta features may change or be withdrawn and come with no warranties.

15.2 Changes to these Terms. If a change reduces your rights or increases your costs, we tell you at least 30 days before it applies. If you keep using the Services after that, the new Terms apply. We will never start training AI on your data through a change to these Terms.

15.3 Changes to the Services. We may add, change or remove features, with reasonable notice where we can.

15.4 Our brand. "AskDolphin", "Dolphin AI" and our logos are ours. Don't remove "Powered by AskDolphin" where your plan shows it. We name you publicly as a customer only with your permission. We may use your feedback freely.

15.5 Events beyond control. Neither of us is liable for delays caused by events outside reasonable control (including failures of networks or providers and cyber-attacks we couldn't reasonably prevent).

15.6 Transfer. We may transfer this agreement to a buyer of our business or a group company. You need our written consent to transfer it.

15.7 General. If part of these Terms is invalid, the rest stays in effect. Not enforcing a right straight away doesn't waive it. We are independent businesses. Only you and we can enforce these Terms. Notices go to your account owner's email or in the app, and to privacy@askdolphin.com.

15.8 Law and courts. English law applies, and the courts of England and Wales decide disputes. Please write to us first at privacy@askdolphin.com; we will both try to settle it in good faith within 30 days.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms: privacy@askdolphin.com.