Terms of Service

1. What Distinxion Provides

Distinxion is an AI-powered online study platform designed to help South African IEB and NSC matric students prepare for their final examinations. The service includes:

• Uploading and analysing past exam papers (PDF format) using AI to extract questions and generate worked solutions.
• AI-generated practice questions tailored to specific subjects, topics, and difficulty levels.
• Automated AI marking of student-submitted answers with feedback.
• Progress tracking across subjects and topics.
• Weekly study progress reports and reminders (optional).

2. What We Are Not

Distinxion is a supplementary study tool. It explicitly is NOT:

• A guarantee of exam results. Using Distinxion does not guarantee any specific grade or pass rate. Study outcomes depend on many factors beyond our control.
• A replacement for teachers or tutors. The platform is designed to complement classroom learning, not replace qualified educators.
• A replacement for official study materials. Always consult your official textbooks, class notes, and past papers from the IEB or DBE as primary sources.
• An official examining body. Distinxion has no affiliation with the IEB, DBE, NSC, or any official South African examining authority.
• Liable for incorrect AI answers. AI-generated content may contain errors. We do not accept liability for any damage or poor exam performance resulting from reliance on AI-generated solutions. See Section 3 for the full AI disclaimer.

3. AI Disclaimer

Distinxion uses Google Gemini, a large language model, to analyse exam papers and generate worked solutions. You acknowledge and agree that:

• AI-generated worked solutions, model answers, and practice questions may contain factual errors, calculation mistakes, or inaccurate information.
• The AI marking system may incorrectly assess your answers as correct or incorrect.
• You should always verify AI-generated content against your official textbooks, class notes, and the official IEB or NSC memorandum.
• Distinxion accepts no liability whatsoever for errors in AI-generated content or for any adverse exam results arising from reliance on such content.
• Content generated by AI should be treated as a study aid and starting point for understanding, not as a definitive or authoritative source.

4. Age Requirements

• You must be at least 13 years old to use Distinxion.
• Users under the age of 18 must have the consent of a parent or legal guardian. By ticking the consent checkbox at signup, you confirm this consent has been obtained.
• If we discover that a user under 13 has created an account, we will delete the account and all associated data immediately.

5. Acceptable Use

By using Distinxion, you agree not to:

• Share your account credentials with any other person.
• Attempt to hack, probe, or test the security of our systems.
• Use the service to generate content to submit as your own work in any official examination, school assessment, or assignment where such submission would constitute academic dishonesty.
• Scrape, copy, or reproduce any AI-generated content or platform content for commercial purposes without our written permission.
• Impersonate any other person or entity.
• Upload content that is illegal, harmful, or violates the rights of others.
• Use automated tools (bots, scripts) to interact with the platform.

See our Acceptable Use Policy for full details.

6. Subscriptions & Billing

Plan tiers

• Basic (R149/month): 5 paper uploads per month, worked solutions, basic progress tracking, email support.
• Standard (R249/month): 20 paper uploads per month, worked solutions, AI practice questions, progress and weak topic tracking, priority support.
• Premium (R449/month): Unlimited paper uploads, worked solutions, unlimited AI practice, advanced analytics, personalised study plan, 24/7 priority support.

Billing

• Subscriptions are billed monthly in South African Rand (ZAR) via Stitch.
• Billing occurs on the same calendar date each month from the date you first subscribed.
• If payment fails, we will retry the payment up to 3 times over 7 days before suspending access to paid features.
• Prices are inclusive of any applicable taxes.

7. Refund Policy

We want you to be satisfied with Distinxion. Our refund policy is:

• 7-day money-back guarantee: If you are not satisfied with the service, you may request a full refund within 7 days of your initial subscription payment.
• Refund requests must be submitted by emailing privacy@distinxion.co.za within the 7-day window.
• No refunds are issued after the 7-day period has passed.
• Refunds are processed within 5–10 business days and returned to the original payment method.
• Only one refund per customer per 12-month period.

8. Cancellation Policy

• You may cancel your subscription at any time from Account Settings.
• Upon cancellation, you retain access to your paid plan features until the end of your current billing period.
• No partial refunds are issued for the unused portion of a billing period.
• After your subscription ends, your account reverts to free tier. Your data is retained; you can re-subscribe at any time.

9. Intellectual Property

Our content

All software, design, branding, AI-generated worked solutions, and platform content created by Distinxion is owned by or licensed to Distinxion and is protected by South African and international intellectual property law. You may not reproduce, distribute, or commercialise this content without our express written permission.

Your content

Past exam papers, questions, and answers that you upload to the platform remain your property (or the property of the relevant examining body). By uploading content, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive licence to process it through our AI systems solely to provide the service to you. We do not claim ownership over your uploads.

10. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by South African law:

• Distinxion's total liability to you for any claim arising from your use of the service shall not exceed the total amount paid by you in the 3 months immediately preceding the claim.
• We are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including loss of exam results, loss of data, or lost study time.
• We are not liable for any failure or delay caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control (see Section 14).

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Distinxion, its directors, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from: (a) your use of the service in violation of these Terms; (b) your violation of any third party's rights; or (c) any content you upload to the platform.

12. Account Termination

Distinxion reserves the right to suspend or terminate your account with immediate effect if you:

• Violate these Terms of Service or the Acceptable Use Policy.
• Provide false information at signup.
• Attempt to abuse, hack, or defraud the platform.
• Engage in conduct that is harmful to other users or to Distinxion.

In the event of termination for cause, no refund will be issued. You may appeal a termination decision by emailing privacy@distinxion.co.za.

13. Disclaimer of Warranties

The service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We do not warrant that:

• The service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or available at all times.
• AI-generated content is accurate, complete, or suitable for any particular purpose.
• The platform will meet your specific study requirements.

We will endeavour to provide at least 99% uptime but make no binding commitment to any service level.

14. Force Majeure

Distinxion will not be liable for any failure or delay in performing its obligations under these Terms where such failure or delay results from circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to: acts of God, natural disasters, power outages, internet infrastructure failures, government actions, pandemics, or third-party service outages (including those of Supabase, Google, or Stitch).

15. Governing Law

These Terms of Service are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.

16. Changes to These Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. If we make material changes, we will:

• Notify you by email at least 30 days before the changes take effect.
• Update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
• Provide a summary of what has changed.

Your continued use of the service after the effective date of the changes constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms. If you do not accept the new Terms, you must stop using the service and cancel your subscription before the effective date.