Terms of Use

Last updated: 2026-08-22 · Drafted for pre-launch review. This document has not yet been reviewed by outside counsel — see docs/LEGAL_REVIEW_REQUIRED.md in the project repository, particularly regarding dispute resolution and governing law, which require entity information not yet available.

BNIE is a technology and information service, not an insurance company. BNIE Inc. is not a licensed insurance agency, carrier, broker, or producer; not a public adjuster; and not a law firm, attorney, financial adviser, or fiduciary. BNIE does not sell, bind, issue, cancel, or modify insurance coverage, does not guarantee that any carrier will pay a claim, and does not give licensed insurance, legal, actuarial, or financial advice. Everything BNIE shows you is informational and educational, generated in part by AI systems that can make mistakes. Your policy document and applicable law control, and you should verify anything important with your carrier, your agent, or a licensed professional. See Sections 3–6 below for the full disclaimer.

1. Agreement to these Terms

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and BNIE Inc. (“BNIE,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) governing your access to and use of the BNIE website, application, and related services (the “Service”). By creating an account, uploading a document, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

Where the Service presents an acceptance checkbox (for example, at account creation), you must affirmatively check it — it is never pre-checked — and doing so constitutes your acceptance of both this document and the Privacy Policy.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and capable of forming a binding contract to create an account or use the Service. If you are using the Service on behalf of a household, business, or other organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that organization to these Terms, and “you” refers to both you and that organization.

3. What BNIE is — and is not

BNIE reads insurance documents you upload, organizes what it finds into a structured summary, points out things that may be worth your attention, and answers questions you ask about your own documents. That is the entire scope of the Service.

Unless a specific written agreement with BNIE says otherwise, BNIE is not, and does not act as:

an insurance company, carrier, or underwriter;
an insurance agency, broker, or licensed insurance producer;
a public adjuster or any other licensed claims-representation professional;
an attorney, law firm, or provider of legal representation;
a financial adviser, investment adviser, or actuary; or
a fiduciary of any kind to you.

BNIE does not itself issue, sell, bind, cancel, or modify any insurance policy; does not guarantee that any coverage exists, applies, or will be honored; does not make coverage determinations on behalf of any insurer; does not guarantee that a carrier will accept or pay any claim; does not guarantee savings from any comparison or observation; and does not guarantee that any particular policy, coverage, or limit is appropriate for you. Outputs are informational and educational.

4. No insurance, legal, actuarial, or financial advice

BNIE may, through a combination of automated extraction and AI-generated content:

explain policy language in plain terms;
summarize what a document contains;
identify provisions, coverages, exclusions, and endorsements;
highlight differences between documents you’ve uploaded;
identify possible gaps or terms worth a second look; and
suggest questions to bring to a licensed agent, your carrier, or another qualified professional.

None of the above constitutes licensed insurance advice, legal advice, actuarial advice, or financial advice, and none of it creates an insurance-producer, attorney-client, fiduciary, or advisory relationship between you and BNIE. Before making a decision that affects your insurance coverage, your finances, or your legal rights, you should independently verify BNIE’s output against your actual policy documents, endorsements, and declarations, and consult your insurer, a licensed insurance professional, an attorney, or another qualified professional as appropriate. The actual insurance contract, and applicable law, always control — BNIE’s summary of a document is not a substitute for the document itself.

5. AI-generated content and its limitations

Much of what BNIE shows you — summaries, plain-language explanations, the “where you stand” observations, and chat answers — is generated in whole or in part by artificial intelligence and automated extraction from the document you uploaded. AI systems, including the ones BNIE uses, have real and material limitations. AI-generated output may:

contain factual errors or omissions;
misread, misclassify, or fail to detect a coverage, limit, exclusion, or endorsement;
misread tables, riders, or dense policy formatting;
overlook or misinterpret an exclusion or condition;
fail to account for jurisdiction-specific insurance rules;
rely on outdated general knowledge that does not reflect a recent policy change; or
produce inconsistent results for the same or similar input, or incorrectly compare two documents.

You must not rely solely on BNIE for any decision with substantial financial, insurance, legal, safety, or claims consequences. Where BNIE cites a page or document in support of an answer, that citation is provided to help you verify the source yourself — it does not guarantee that BNIE’s interpretation of that source is correct. Always confirm important information directly against the underlying document.

6. We can only analyze what you give us

Insurance documents are often uploaded as a declarations page only, a partial policy, an expired or outdated version, a policy missing its endorsements, or an illegible scan. BNIE analyzes the document actually provided to it and nothing else. The absence of a provision, coverage, exclusion, or endorsement from BNIE’s output does not establish that the provision does not exist — it may simply not appear in, or be legible in, what you uploaded. For the most complete and accurate result, upload the full policy, including endorsements, rather than the declarations page alone.

7. Comparisons, estimates, and savings

Where BNIE compares documents, coverages, or costs, or discusses whether a premium and the protection it buys look proportionate, that comparison or observation:

reflects only the documents you provided, not every insurer, policy, or quote available in the market;
may become outdated as pricing, underwriting, and eligibility change;
is not a binding quote unless we expressly label it as one; and
does not guarantee that you will save money — cheaper is not automatically better, and BNIE does not promise a savings figure.

Final pricing and eligibility are determined solely by the relevant insurance carrier. Any policy terms discussed by BNIE must be verified directly with the carrier before you rely on them. As of the date of these Terms, BNIE does not sell insurance, operate a quote marketplace, or receive commissions or referral fees from any insurer, broker, or marketplace in connection with the Service. If that changes, we will disclose the nature of any such compensation before, or contemporaneously with, offering the related feature.

8. Claims-related limitations

If and to the extent BNIE offers functionality relating to insurance claims, denials, or correspondence, you acknowledge that:

BNIE does not settle, adjust, negotiate, or make coverage determinations on any claim;
BNIE cannot compel any insurer to pay a claim or take any particular action;
BNIE does not represent you before an insurer, and does not act as your public adjuster, attorney, or agent, unless a separate written agreement expressly says otherwise and BNIE is legally authorized to do so;
any explanation of a denial letter or claim correspondence BNIE provides is informational only; and
claims, appeals, litigation, and proof-of-loss processes are frequently subject to strict deadlines set by your policy or by law. You are solely responsible for identifying and tracking those deadlines. BNIE’s output does not identify every applicable deadline and must not be relied on for that purpose. Consult your policy, your carrier, or a qualified professional promptly if a deadline may apply.

9. Your account and your responsibilities

You agree to:

provide accurate information when creating an account or contacting us;
only upload documents you have the right and authority to upload, including that you will not upload another person’s insurance or personal documents without their authorization (except where you are their authorized representative, such as a parent, guardian, or joint policyholder);
keep your login credentials confidential and notify us promptly of any suspected unauthorized use of your account;
independently verify any output you intend to rely on, as described in Sections 4–6; and
comply with applicable law and these Terms in your use of the Service.

You are responsible for activity that occurs under your account, except to the extent it results from our failure to meet our own obligations under these Terms.

10. Your content; license you grant us

You retain all ownership rights in the documents and other content you upload or submit to the Service (“Your Content”). BNIE does not claim ownership of Your Content. You grant BNIE a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, process, parse, transform, analyze, and transmit Your Content to our service providers (Section 11 of the Privacy Policy) solely as necessary to operate, maintain, secure, and improve the Service, generate the summaries, observations, and derived output described above, and provide customer support — and otherwise only as described in the Privacy Policy. This license ends when you delete the relevant content or your account, subject to the retention exceptions described in the Privacy Policy’s Data Retention section.

You represent that you have all rights necessary to grant this license and that submitting Your Content to BNIE does not violate any third party’s rights or any law.

11. Acceptable use

You agree not to, and not to attempt to:

use the Service for any unlawful purpose, or to commit fraud;
impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
access or attempt to access another user’s account or data, or circumvent tenant/account isolation;
upload malware, or any file designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to any system;
probe, scan, or test the security of the Service without our prior written authorization (see security@askbnie.com if you have found a vulnerability and want to report it responsibly);
scrape, harvest, or systematically extract data from the Service other than your own account data through the features we provide;
interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service or its infrastructure;
attempt to circumvent any usage limits, access controls, or rate limits;
reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Service, except to the extent applicable law expressly permits notwithstanding this restriction; or
upload or submit another person’s personal information without the authorization described in Section 9.

Nothing in this Section is intended to, and shall not be interpreted to, waive or limit any right or exception you have under applicable law that cannot be waived by agreement.

12. Intellectual property

The Service — including the BNIE name and logo, the software, interfaces, design, proprietary document-processing workflows, structured-data schemas, and all text and content we author (excluding Your Content) — is owned by BNIE or our licensors and protected by intellectual-property law. Except for the limited right to use the Service as intended by these Terms, we grant you no rights in our intellectual property. We claim no ownership interest in the insurance policies, declarations, or other documents you upload.

13. Third-party services

The Service relies on and may reference third parties — including cloud and AI infrastructure providers, insurance carriers, agents, and brokers, and external websites we link to. We do not control, and are not responsible for, the availability, accuracy, security, content, or conduct of any third party or third-party service, or for the terms and coverage of any insurance policy issued by any carrier. Your use of any third-party service or website is at your own risk and subject to that third party’s own terms.

14. No affiliation or endorsement

Unless we expressly state otherwise, BNIE’s reference to, or analysis of, any insurance carrier, agent, or broker does not imply any sponsorship, affiliation, partnership, or endorsement between BNIE and that party, in either direction. BNIE is independent: as of the date of these Terms, we do not sell insurance, and we do not receive commissions or referral compensation from any carrier, agent, broker, or marketplace for the Service. See Section 7 regarding future changes to this model.

15. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Service and all output (including AI-generated summaries, observations, comparisons, and chat answers) are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. BNIE does not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free, that any output will be accurate or complete, or that any coverage gap, comparison, or savings estimate identified by the Service reflects your actual insurance needs.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so some of the above exclusions may not apply to you, and you may have additional rights that this Section does not limit.

16. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law: (a) BNIE, its officers, directors, employees, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, savings, data, or goodwill, arising out of or relating to your use of, or inability to use, the Service, including any insurance coverage decision, denied or disputed claim, missed deadline, or purchasing decision made in reliance on Service output, even if BNIE has been advised of the possibility of such damages; and (b) BNIE’s total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of (i) the total amount you paid BNIE for the Service in the twelve (12) months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (ii) one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100) [TODO: this cap is a placeholder appropriate for a free consumer product with no paid tier today; counsel should confirm the figure and structure before launch, particularly once a paid tier exists].

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.

[FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW: the scope, cap, and carve-outs in this Section — including whether any exception should apply for gross negligence, willful misconduct, or death/personal injury where such a carve-out is legally required — have not been reviewed by counsel.]

17. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold BNIE and its officers, directors, employees, and agents harmless from third-party claims, damages, liabilities, and reasonable expenses (including attorneys’ fees) arising from: (a) your violation of these Terms; (b) your unlawful use of the Service; (c) documents or information you upload without authorization to do so; or (d) your fraud or intentional misconduct in connection with the Service. [FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW: broad consumer-facing indemnification clauses can raise enforceability and UDAP concerns in some states; counsel should confirm the scope of this clause is appropriate for a consumer product before launch.]

18. Dispute resolution; governing law

[FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT YET FINALIZED.] This section intentionally does not include a binding-arbitration or class-action-waiver clause. The repository does not identify BNIE Inc.’s state of incorporation, principal place of business, or intended governing-law jurisdiction, and inventing one is exactly the kind of unsupported factual claim this drafting pass is designed to avoid. Counsel should decide (a) the governing-law and venue jurisdiction, and (b) whether an arbitration clause and class-action waiver are appropriate for a consumer product like this one, and draft any such clause with the required conspicuousness and any legally mandated opt-out.

[TODO: governing law] These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [TODO: state of incorporation / principal place of business], without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles, and any dispute not otherwise resolved will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in [TODO: venue], and you consent to personal jurisdiction there — subject to counsel’s review above, and subject to your right to bring a qualifying claim in small-claims court instead. Before filing a claim of any kind, we ask that you first contact us at legal@askbnie.com and give us 30 days to try to resolve the issue informally.

19. Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time, and you may delete documents or your account as described in the Privacy Policy. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, or particular features, at any time, with or without notice, if we believe in good faith that you have violated these Terms, if required by law, to investigate suspected abuse, or if we discontinue the Service or a feature. Upon termination, your right to use the Service ends immediately; your data will be handled as described in the Privacy Policy’s Data Retention section, and Sections 3–8, 10, 12, 15–18, and 20 of these Terms survive termination.

20. Changes to the Service and these Terms

We may add, change, or remove features of the Service, and may update these Terms, at any time. If we make a material change to these Terms, we will update the “Last updated” date and, for signed-in users, provide reasonable advance notice (such as an in-product notice or an email) before the change takes effect. Your continued use of the Service after a change becomes effective constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms; if you do not agree, you should stop using the Service and may delete your account.

21. Electronic communications

By creating an account, you consent to receive transactional and account-related communications from us electronically, including confirmations, security alerts, and legal or policy notices, sent to the email address on your account. These are separate from any optional marketing communications, which — if we offer them — will require separate opt-in and will include a way to opt out.

22. General

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and BNIE regarding the Service.

23. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to legal@askbnie.com.