Terms of Service

The agreement

This is a legal agreement between you and NTScore ("NTScore," "we," or "us"), based in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of a business or organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind that entity, and "you" refers to that entity. If you do not have that authority, or you do not accept these Terms, do not use the service.

What NTScore is

NTScore computes a 300–850 trust score for college athletes from public Instagram signals and on-platform deal history, displays athlete profiles to participating local businesses, and — when we enable payments — facilitates transactions between athletes and businesses. The product is in active development and may change significantly between releases. Nothing on NTScore is financial, legal, tax, or career advice.

Eligibility

• You must be at least 16 years old. Users between 16 and 18 must have permission from a parent or legal guardian to use the service.
• Athletes must be eligible under their school's NIL policy and the rules of the NCAA or other applicable sports organisation.
• Businesses must be lawfully operating in their jurisdiction and must not fall within the prohibited categories listed in the Athlete responsibilities section below.
• International student athletes on F-1 or other non-immigrant visas are responsible for confirming that participation in NIL activity is permitted under their visa status before signing up.

Accounts & verification

• Provide truthful information when you sign up. Misrepresenting your identity, age, school, or eligibility is a breach of these Terms.
• You are responsible for keeping your password and account secure. Notify us immediately if you suspect unauthorised access.
• Athletes claim ownership of an Instagram handle by placing a short verification code in the bio of that account. The claim is exclusive — once a handle is verified, no other account on NTScore can claim it.
• We may suspend or remove accounts that fail verification, misrepresent ownership, or otherwise violate these Terms.

Electronic communications. By creating an account you consent to receive communications from NTScore — including these Terms, the Privacy Policy, account notices, security alerts, and deal-related messages — in electronic form, by email and within the product. Electronic delivery has the same legal effect as a paper copy. You can withdraw this consent at any time by closing your account, in which case we will no longer be able to provide the service to you.

Athlete responsibilities

NTScore does not act as your school, your athletic department, your agent, or your tax advisor. As an athlete using the service you are solely responsible for the following:

• Compliance with the NCAA Interim NIL Policy (and any successor policy) and your school's NIL disclosure rules at all times. Posting a deal on NTScore does not satisfy your school disclosure obligations.
• Reporting deals to the NIL Go clearinghouse where the deal value meets the applicable threshold (currently $600 or higher), and to your athletic department's disclosure platform where required.
• Not promoting, through NTScore, any of the following prohibited categories: alcohol, tobacco or vaping, gambling or sports betting, cannabis, firearms or weapons, adult entertainment, prescription drugs, or performance-enhancing substances banned by your sport.
• Your own taxes. Deals you complete are your income; you are responsible for any U.S. federal and state tax filing obligations, including those triggered by 1099-NEC or 1099-K issuance. We may require a completed W-9 before paying you.
• Confirming, if you are on an F-1 or similar non-immigrant visa, that the activity you intend to perform is permitted under that visa. NTScore cannot determine your visa status for you.
• University trademarks. You may identify yourself by school and position (e.g. "State University quarterback"), but you may not claim to be an "official" representative of, or use logos owned by, your school without that school's licence.

Business responsibilities

• Operate lawfully in your state and do not use NTScore to promote any of the prohibited categories listed above.
• Provide accurate descriptions of the deal, the deliverables, and the compensation. Do not misrepresent yourself, your company, or the relationship to the athlete.
• Honour the agreed-upon payment terms. When you use our payment and escrow features, follow the release schedule built into the deal flow.
• Respect the athlete's school NIL policy and disclosure obligations. Do not ask an athlete to violate, evade, or conceal those obligations.

About the score

The NIL Trust Score is a heuristic estimate, not a credit score and not a guarantee of any business outcome. Its inputs and methodology may change as we learn what works. When third-party Instagram data is unavailable, the score is computed from a deterministic estimate seeded by the handle, which is shown to the user as such. Do not rely on the score as the sole basis for a financial, legal, or professional decision.

Your content

You retain all rights in the content you submit to NTScore — your name, your bio, the photos you upload, and the public information we cache from Instagram. By submitting that content, you grant NTScore a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, cache, display, and transmit it solely for the purpose of operating and promoting the service. You can revoke this licence for future processing by deleting your account.

Prohibited uses

You agree not to:

• Use the service for any unlawful purpose.
• Violate the NCAA NIL policy, your school's NIL policy, or applicable state law (including Connecticut PA 21-132 and PA 22-11).
• Submit a score or profile that does not belong to you, or attempt to circumvent the Instagram bio-code claim flow.
• Scrape, copy, resell, or otherwise extract the platform's data — including athlete profiles, scores, or marketplace listings — for use outside NTScore.
• Reverse engineer, probe for vulnerabilities, or interfere with the operation of the service.
• Harass, defame, or discriminate against other users on the basis of any protected characteristic.
• Upload malware, send spam, or transmit any content that infringes the rights of others.

Intellectual property

The NTScore name, logo, the visual design of the product, the scoring methodology, and the underlying software are owned by NTScore and protected by copyright, trademark, and trade-secret law. These Terms do not grant you any licence to use those marks or that software beyond the use of the product as intended.

Copyright complaints (DMCA)

NTScore respects intellectual-property rights and complies with the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 512). If you believe content on the service infringes your copyright, send a written notice to legal@ntscore.com that includes:

• Your physical or electronic signature.
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed.
• Identification of the material that you claim is infringing, with enough detail for us to locate it (a direct URL is best).
• Your contact information — name, address, phone, and email.
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act on behalf of the owner.

We may remove or disable access to the material identified in a valid notice and we may terminate the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe. If you believe content of yours was removed in error, you may submit a counter-notice to the same address with the elements required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(g).

Payments & escrow

Payment functionality is rolled out in stages. When you opt in to a paid deal, the funds are held in escrow with our payment processor and released to the athlete after the agreed deal milestones are confirmed. NTScore charges a platform fee on completed deals; the current fee range is disclosed inside the deal flow before you confirm. We are not a bank and do not hold your funds outside the escrow window.

Disclaimers

The service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the maximum extent permitted by law, NTScore disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or that any score, profile, or deal listed on the service is accurate.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, NTScore and its officers, directors, employees, and contractors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising out of or related to your use of the service. Our aggregate liability for any claim arising from these Terms or the service is capped at the greater of (a) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100) and (b) the amount you paid to NTScore in platform fees during the twelve months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless NTScore from any third party claim, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from (a) your use of the service in breach of these Terms, (b) your violation of any law or third-party right, or (c) any content you submit to the service.

Termination

You can stop using the service at any time and delete your account from the in-product settings or by writing to us. We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these Terms, mislead other users, or expose the platform to legal or reputational risk. Sections that by their nature should survive termination — disclaimers, liability cap, indemnification, governing law, and these survival rules — survive.

Governing law & dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Connecticut, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The exclusive venue for any dispute arising out of these Terms or the service is the state and federal courts located in Connecticut, and you submit to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page reflects the latest revision. For material changes we will email registered users and post a notice in the product before the change takes effect. Your continued use of the service after the effective date of a revision constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

Contact

Questions about these Terms? Write to legal@ntscore.com. Mail can be addressed to NTScore, Hartford, Connecticut, USA.