Terms of Use

1. Agreement and operator

These Terms govern your use of the Pop Datasets website, Open Policing Data Hub, public API, MCP server, and ChatGPT app (collectively, the “Service”). By accessing or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service. The Service is independently provided by Michael Zidar in a personal capacity and not on behalf of any employer, government agency, law-enforcement agency, or data publisher.

2. Informational service only

The Service organizes and retrieves publicly accessible research, records, links, and aggregate data. It may help draft research summaries or problem-oriented policing plans, but it is not an official record system, live incident service, criminal-history service, legal service, professional consultancy, or operational command system. Outputs are general information and decision support, not legal advice or a directive to take action.

3. Your discretion and responsibility

You decide whether and how to use the Service and assume responsibility for that use. You must review source citations, check dates and definitions, verify material facts with the original publisher and relevant local authorities, assess local context, and obtain qualified professional review before making consequential decisions. Never rely on the Service as the sole basis for decisions affecting a person’s rights, liberty, safety, employment, housing, education, benefits, or access to services.

4. Source data and ownership

Pop Datasets does not claim ownership of third-party datasets, research papers, policy documents, agency records, names, marks, or other source materials. Those materials remain subject to the rights, licenses, terms, attribution requirements, and restrictions of their respective publishers and rights holders. Public availability does not necessarily mean that content is free of copyright or other restrictions.

The Service’s original software, organization, selection, design, and explanatory content may be protected by applicable intellectual-property law. No affiliation, sponsorship, approval, or endorsement by a source, agency, OpenAI, or other third party is implied unless expressly stated.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• violate law, another person’s rights, or a source publisher’s terms or license;
• identify, track, profile, rank, or predict the behavior or risk of an individual;
• make automated or unsupported high-impact decisions about people or communities;
• seek credentials, private records, live operational information, or restricted data;
• misrepresent data or generated output as verified, official, complete, or current;
• interfere with security, evade rate limits, introduce malicious code, or overload the Service; or
• remove source attribution or imply endorsement by Pop Datasets or a source publisher.

6. Reports, suggestions, and feedback

You are responsible for information you submit and represent that you have the right to provide it. You grant Pop Datasets a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, adapt, and publish non-confidential reports, source suggestions, and feedback as reasonably necessary to investigate corrections, improve the Service, and document data provenance. Personal information is handled under the Privacy Policy. Do not submit confidential information or content you are not authorized to share.

7. Data and AI limitations

Source data may be delayed, incomplete, duplicated, incorrectly classified, revised, or affected by reporting practices and coverage gaps. Links and external services may fail. Automated transformations, joins, summaries, comparisons, and AI-generated responses may contain errors or omit relevant context. A missing record is not proof that an event, policy, program, or dataset does not exist. See the Data Disclaimer.

8. Third-party services

The Service links to and may interoperate with third-party sites and services, including data publishers, hosting providers, GitHub, and ChatGPT. Their terms and privacy policies govern your relationship with them. Pop Datasets does not control and is not responsible for third-party content, availability, security, accuracy, or practices.

9. No warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service and all content, data, links, and outputs are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, currency, reliability, availability, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, or non-infringement. Pop Datasets does not warrant that errors will be corrected or that the Service will be uninterrupted or secure.

10. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Michael Zidar and Pop Datasets will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, reputational harm, service interruption, or decisions or actions based on the Service or underlying data, even if advised that such harm is possible. Total liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid to use the Service during the 12 months before the claim or US $100. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions, so these limits apply only to the extent permitted by law.

11. Changes, suspension, and general terms

The Service may be changed, limited, suspended, or discontinued at any time. These Terms may also be updated; continued use after an updated effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. If any provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may stop using the Service at any time.

12. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be submitted through the support page. Your use of the Service is also subject to the Privacy Policy.