These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a contract between Sample CSI, Inc. ("SampleCSI," "we," "us") and the company, firm, or agency using SampleFire ("Customer," "you"). They govern the samplefire.net website, the SampleFire mobile and web applications, and related services (the "Services").
SampleFire is a product of SampleCSI. SampleCSI is a separate company whose parent company is SampleServe, Inc. SampleServe is not a party to these Terms.
By using the Services, you agree to these Terms. If you use the Services for an organization, you confirm that you are authorized to bind it. If the Customer has a signed agreement with SampleCSI for SampleFire (a "Customer Agreement"), it controls where it conflicts with these Terms.
1. Definitions
- Customer Data: claim files, evidence records, photos, video, notes, custody history, and other content submitted to the Services by or for the Customer.
- Authorized Users: Customer employees, investigators, adjusters, and contractors the Customer allows to use the Services.
- Audit Log: the append-only record of actions taken on Customer Data.
- AI Features: optional features of the Services that use artificial intelligence.
- Order Form: a quote, purchase order, or ordering document that states the plan, term, and fees.
2. Use of the Services
2.1 License. Subject to these Terms and payment of fees, SampleCSI grants the Customer a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Services during the subscription term for its internal business or official purposes.
2.2 Changes. We may update the Services. We will give reasonable advance notice before removing a feature that materially reduces the core functions of a paid plan, unless the change is needed for security or legal reasons.
2.3 Pilots and betas. Pilot, trial, and beta features are provided without warranty, may change, and may end at any time. Pilot Customer Data is protected the same as all other Customer Data.
2.4 Eligibility. Authorized Users must be at least 18 years old.
3. Accounts and acceptable use
3.1 Account security. The Customer is responsible for its Authorized Users, for removing access promptly when personnel leave, and for keeping credentials and devices secure. Tell us right away at security@samplefire.net if you suspect unauthorized access.
3.2 Acceptable use. The Customer and its Authorized Users will not:
- Use the Services except for lawful purposes.
- Reverse engineer, decompile, or try to extract source code, except where the law does not allow this restriction.
- Get around security controls, access another Customer's data, or try to alter or delete Audit Log entries.
- Upload malware or interfere with the Services.
- Access the Services by automated means other than our documented APIs.
- Resell the Services or provide them to third parties, except as a Customer Agreement allows.
- Use AI Features to determine the origin or cause of a fire, make coverage, claim, fraud, or underwriting decisions about a person, or identify people through facial recognition.
We may suspend access to protect the Services, the Customer, or Customer Data. We will limit any suspension to what is necessary.
4. Customer Data
4.1 Ownership. The Customer owns all Customer Data. SampleCSI owns the Services and its technology.
4.2 Our use. The Customer allows SampleCSI to host, process, transmit, and display Customer Data only as needed to provide, secure, and support the Services. We will not sell Customer Data, use it for advertising, use it to train AI models, or combine it with other Customers' data.
4.3 Separate systems. Customer Data is stored on SampleCSI's own platform, separate from the systems of SampleServe, Inc. We will not share Customer Data with SampleServe or with any other Customer.
4.4 Service Data. We may use data about how the Services operate (for example, uptime, sync success rates, and feature usage) to maintain and improve them. Service Data will not identify the Customer, its personnel, any person in Customer Data, or any loss location.
4.5 Legal demands. If a third party demands Customer Data from us, including by subpoena in litigation or subrogation, we will refer the requester to the Customer and notify the Customer before responding, unless the law forbids notice. We disclose Customer Data only as legally required.
4.6 Records custodian testimony. If a SampleCSI employee is asked to testify or give a declaration about the Services in a proceeding involving the Customer's claim, we will cooperate. The Customer will reimburse reasonable costs, unless the Customer Agreement says otherwise.
5. Customer responsibilities
5.1 Authority and access. The Customer is responsible for having legal authority and any required permission to enter the fire scene and collect evidence, and to record information about policyholders, occupants, and other people.
5.2 Investigation standards. The Services help document evidence and custody. The Customer and its investigators remain responsible for the methodology, conclusions, and professional qualifications behind any origin and cause determination, and for following applicable standards such as NFPA 921 and NFPA 1033.
5.3 Evidence preservation and spoliation. The Customer is responsible for its evidence preservation decisions, for notifying interested parties before altering or removing evidence, and for its obligations related to spoliation. SampleCSI does not give advice on these obligations.
5.4 Admissibility. SampleCSI does not guarantee that any record, photo, or custody history will be admitted as evidence or accepted in a claim, subrogation, or litigation matter.
5.5 Claim decisions. The Services do not make coverage, claim, underwriting, or pricing decisions. The Customer is responsible for those decisions and for complying with the insurance laws that apply to them.
5.6 Offline use and sync. Evidence can be collected offline. Authorized Users must sync their devices when a connection returns. Custody transfers require a network connection so that only one custodian holds an item at a time. SampleCSI is not responsible for data lost on a device that is damaged, lost, or reset before it syncs.
6. Electronic signatures and records
The Customer agrees that signatures, biometric confirmations, and scans captured in the Services are intended to be electronic signatures and electronic records under the federal ESIGN Act and state Uniform Electronic Transactions Act laws, where those laws apply.
7. Artificial intelligence features
7.1 Customer choice. AI Features are off until a Customer administrator turns them on. The Customer can turn them off at any time.
7.2 How AI Features handle Customer Data. Customer Data sent to an AI Feature is used only to produce a result for that Customer. We will not enable an AI provider unless its terms prohibit training on Customer Data and limit retention. A list of subprocessors is available on request.
7.3 Review required. AI output may be incomplete or wrong. Authorized Users must review AI output before adding it to a record. AI Features do not determine origin or cause, do not make claim or underwriting decisions, and do not alter original photos, the custody history, or the Audit Log.
7.4 Insurer oversight. For insurer Customers subject to state rules on the use of AI by insurers, we will provide reasonable information about our AI Features to support the Customer's oversight of third-party AI systems.
7.5 New uses. We will notify Customer administrators before introducing an AI Feature that uses Customer Data in a new way.
8. Security and vendor oversight
We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards described in our Privacy Policy and security documentation. Customer Data is stored in the United States. For Customers subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or state insurance data security laws, SampleCSI will act as a service provider, protect nonpublic personal information accordingly, and reasonably cooperate with the Customer's vendor risk assessments and security questionnaires.
9. Security incidents
We will notify the Customer without undue delay after confirming unauthorized access to Customer Data, give the Customer the information it needs for its own notifications (including to insurance regulators), and take reasonable steps to contain and fix the incident.
10. Accessibility
SampleFire aims for its website and applications to conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. Report accessibility issues to info@samplefire.net.
11. Third-party hardware and services
Tablets, phones, label printers, labels, evidence containers, and integrations from other companies are governed by those companies' terms and warranties. SampleCSI is not responsible for their performance beyond any warranty we give in writing.
12. Fees and payment
Fees are set in the Order Form. Unless it says otherwise, fees are invoiced in advance and due within 30 days. Fees do not include taxes.
13. Term and termination
13.1 Term. Subscriptions run for the term in the Order Form and renew only as it says.
13.2 Termination for cause. Either party may end these Terms for a material breach that is not fixed within 30 days after written notice.
13.3 Data export and return. For 90 days after termination, the Customer may export all Customer Data, including photos, custody history, and Audit Logs, in standard formats. After that, we will delete Customer Data within a reasonable time, unless the Customer asks in writing for its return or the law requires us to keep it. Deletion is subject to any legal hold the Customer tells us about before deletion.
14. Confidentiality
Each party will protect the other's confidential information with reasonable care and use it only to carry out these Terms. Customer Data is the Customer's confidential information. For public agency Customers, these obligations do not override public records laws.
15. Intellectual property and patents
15.1 Ownership. SampleCSI and its licensors own all rights in the Services and documentation. Our licensors include SampleServe, Inc., SampleCSI's parent company, which holds patents on digital chain-of-custody technology used in the Services. SampleFire is licensed under U.S. Patent Nos. 10,198,676 and 10,281,367. See sampleserve.com/patents.
15.2 Feedback. If the Customer gives us suggestions about the Services, we may use them without obligation.
16. Warranties and disclaimers
During a paid term, the Services will work substantially as described in their documentation. If they do not, we will make reasonable efforts to fix the problem. If we cannot, the Customer may end the affected Services and receive a pro-rated refund of prepaid fees. Except for that promise and to the extent the law allows, the Services are provided "as is," and we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
17. Limitation of liability
To the extent the law allows, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including lost subrogation recoveries or claim outcomes. Each party's total liability is limited to the fees paid or payable in the 12 months before the claim. These limits do not apply to payment obligations, breach of Section 3.2, a party's gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud, or liability that cannot be limited by law.
18. Indemnification
SampleCSI will defend the Customer against third-party claims that the Services infringe a U.S. patent, copyright, or trademark, and pay resulting damages and costs. The Customer will defend SampleCSI against third-party claims arising from Customer Data, its investigation conclusions, or its use of the Services in violation of these Terms. Public agency Customers are not required to indemnify where their governing law forbids it.
19. Public agency Customers
For fire departments, fire marshals, and other government Customers:
- Public records. We may mark our pricing, security documentation, and technical materials as confidential or trade secret for review under public records laws.
- Funding. If the Customer's governing body does not fund a future term, the Customer may end these Terms at the end of the funded period without penalty.
- Immunity. Nothing in these Terms waives any immunity available to the Customer.
- Governing law and venue. The law of the Customer's state governs these Terms, and disputes are heard in that state's courts.
- No arbitration or class waiver applies.
20. Other customers: governing law and disputes
For all other Customers, Michigan law governs these Terms. The parties will first try to resolve any dispute informally for 60 days after written notice, then by binding arbitration by the American Arbitration Association in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, on an individual basis. Either party may go to court for an injunction to stop misuse of its intellectual property or unauthorized access.
21. General
- Export. The Customer will not export or use the Services in violation of U.S. export or sanctions laws.
- Events beyond our control. Neither party is liable for delays caused by events beyond its reasonable control.
- Assignment. Neither party may transfer these Terms without the other's consent, except in a merger or sale of substantially all assets where the new owner agrees to be bound.
- Changes. We may update these Terms. Material changes that reduce Customer rights take effect at the next renewal unless the Customer agrees sooner.
- Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, any Order Form, and any Customer Agreement are the entire agreement on this subject.
- Notices. Send legal notices to legal@samplefire.net and to Sample CSI, Inc., 12935 SW Bay Shore Dr., Suite 200, Traverse City, MI 49684.
22. Contact
Questions about these Terms: legal@samplefire.net. Support: info@samplefire.net.