Terms of use
Whistle Terms of Use
Agreement and publication status
These Terms govern adult use of Whistle's open build beta. A person must be at least eighteen years old and able to form a binding contract to create a parent or provider beta account. Children do not create accounts or accept these Terms. Creating an account records affirmative acceptance of the displayed Terms and Privacy versions. After a version changes, the next authenticated sign-in fails closed until the adult separately accepts the newly displayed versions. A provider account also requires the separately recorded current Provider Agreement. The beta is for discovery, testing, and improvement; it is not a public commercial launch, final operator publication, final legal signoff, or clinical approval. Those milestones remain separate and pending and do not prevent authenticated adults from using the build beta.
What Whistle provides
Whistle provides child-directed, parent-controlled speech-practice activities, prebuilt content, automated practice signals, and adult progress views. It is not emergency care, a diagnosis, a clinically validated assessment, a medical device, insurance or school eligibility advice, or a substitute for evaluation or treatment by a qualified professional. Automated scores may be inaccurate. The responsible adult or clinician must use independent judgment.
Adult accounts and parental consent
An adult account may contain adult identity, contact, authentication, and billing information where billing applies. In the open build beta, only an authenticated parent or legal guardian may create a reader. Before each reader is created, that adult must review the direct children's notice and separately affirm both guardian authority and permission for the disclosed Azure audio processing. This is an authenticated in-app build-beta guardian attestation, not a card-payment or manual identity-verification process and not final commercial or legal approval. Reader setup must use a data-minimized quest alias, never a legal name, initials, school label, patient identifier, birthdate, contact detail, diagnosis, clinical note, or insurance or student identifier. The authenticated parent owns and controls the reader relationship, consent, provider access, and withdrawal.
Provider accounts
An authenticated adult provider may create an open-build-beta account without an invitation or payment. Account creation alone grants no access to a reader. A provider may create a generic, one-time, child-data-free linking code, but only the authenticated parent who owns an active reader may select that exact reader and authorize the link. Provider access also requires acceptance of the current Provider Agreement and the no-PHI and no-school-record restrictions. The parent may remove provider access at any time. Commercial provider access, billing, operator publication, and final legal approval remain separate and pending. The Provider Agreement is incorporated into these Terms for every provider account.
Privacy and child information
The Privacy Notice, Children's Privacy Notice, Subprocessor Notice, and Retention and Deletion Policy describe Whistle's collection, use, necessary disclosures, security, access, withdrawal, deletion, and retention practices. Users must not submit child legal names, recordings through support, contact information, school or health records, diagnoses, clinical notes, or other prohibited identifiers. A provider label and support text must use the approved data-minimized format. Whistle may remove prohibited data, suspend access, and preserve narrowly scoped security evidence.
Subscriptions, automatic renewal, and cancellation
Paid plans are billed through Stripe at the exact price and interval shown immediately before purchase, plus applicable tax. Purchase is disabled unless the adult separately checks the automatic-renewal authorization for the displayed plan and affirms the price, monthly or annual interval, renewal term, any trial or promotion, and cancellation method. Whistle records the authorization version, plan, interval, and time as minimized evidence and provides a retainable post-purchase acknowledgment containing the accepted terms and cancellation method. A subscription automatically renews for successive monthly or annual periods unless cancelled before the next renewal date. Cancellation stops future renewal and ordinarily leaves paid access available through the current paid period; it does not withdraw parental consent or delete data. Whistle will provide any renewal reminder or material-change notice required by applicable law. A material price change applies prospectively after notice and any newly required consent. An adult who cannot sign in may submit a cancellation request through the public privacy/account form; Whistle verifies control of the adult account before changing the subscription.
Refunds and billing disputes
Except where law requires otherwise or Whistle states a different offer at checkout, charges are non-refundable after the paid period begins. Whistle will review duplicate charges, technical billing errors, unauthorized transactions, and legally required refund requests against the Stripe record. A billing dispute does not authorize chargeback abuse and does not eliminate privacy or deletion rights. Refund and billing requests use the authenticated support path or the public privacy/account form when sign-in is unavailable.
Acceptable use and account security
Users must provide accurate adult account information, protect credentials and devices, use only accounts and reader profiles they are authorized to access, and promptly report suspected compromise or incorrect linking. Users may not evade authentication, guardian-ownership, consent, or reader-link controls; scrape or reverse engineer the service except where law permits; interfere with security; upload malicious code; use Whistle for unlawful surveillance or automated high-impact decisions; resell access without written authorization; or use outputs to misrepresent a diagnosis or professional conclusion.
Content, license, and feedback
Whistle and its licensors own the service, software, visual design, and prebuilt content. Subject to these Terms, Whistle grants the adult a limited, revocable, nonexclusive, nontransferable right to use the service for authorized personal family practice or authenticated provider build-beta work. The user retains rights in information lawfully submitted and grants Whistle only the limited rights necessary to operate, secure, and improve the requested service within the published privacy limits. Feedback may be used without compensation if it contains no child personal information or confidential provider information.
Availability, changes, and suspension
Whistle may maintain, change, restrict, or discontinue features; correct errors; and impose reasonable security limits. Whistle will not materially expand child-information collection, use, disclosure, or retention without advance notice and renewed or separate parental consent when required. Whistle may immediately suspend a feature or account to prevent unauthorized child-data processing, prohibited data, security harm, misleading clinical use, nonpayment, or legal noncompliance. Suspension does not eliminate access, deletion, refund, or other nonwaivable rights.
Third-party services
Whistle uses the processors named in the Subprocessor Notice for limited functions. Their terms may also apply to adult payments or communications. Whistle does not authorize advertising, retargeting, sale of child information, unrelated profiling, or general-purpose model training with child information. Optional third-party child story generation and live cloud narration are disabled for the open-build-beta configuration; fixed publisher narration may be generated before deployment and served directly by Whistle.
Disclaimers
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WHISTLE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” WHISTLE DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WHISTLE DOES NOT WARRANT UNINTERRUPTED AVAILABILITY, ERROR-FREE AUTOMATED SIGNALS, A PARTICULAR PRACTICE OR CLINICAL RESULT, OR THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET AN INSTITUTION'S LEGAL OR RECORDKEEPING REQUIREMENTS. THIS SECTION DOES NOT DISCLAIM A WARRANTY OR DUTY THAT APPLICABLE LAW DOES NOT ALLOW WHISTLE TO DISCLAIM.
Limitation of liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WHISTLE AND ITS PERSONNEL WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM THE SERVICE. WHISTLE'S AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR A CLAIM WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT THE CLAIMANT PAID WHISTLE DURING THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT OR ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS. THESE LIMITS DO NOT APPLY TO FRAUD, WILLFUL MISCONDUCT, GROSS NEGLIGENCE, A PARTY'S EXPRESS INDEMNITY DUTY, OR LIABILITY THAT CANNOT LAWFULLY BE LIMITED, AND THEY APPLY ONLY TO THE EXTENT THE REMEDY REMAINS ENFORCEABLE.
Informal dispute process
Before starting arbitration or a non-emergency court claim, a party must give individualized written notice describing the account, facts, requested relief, and contact information through the designated support or legal-notice channel and allow thirty days for good-faith resolution. A person who cannot sign in may initiate that process by selecting the applicable category in the structured public privacy/account form; because that form accepts no narrative or child information, Whistle must first verify the adult account and then provide the restricted channel for the complete notice. Either party may seek immediate temporary relief to protect a child, privacy, security, confidentiality, or intellectual property, and either party may bring an eligible individual claim in small-claims court.
Individual arbitration, Oregon hearing location, and opt out
The Federal Arbitration Act governs this arbitration agreement. Except for the exclusions above, disputes will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its applicable Consumer Arbitration Rules, or its Commercial Rules for a provider acting in a commercial capacity, as modified by these Terms. A consumer hearing will be virtual or in the county of the consumer's primary residence unless the parties agree otherwise. Provider disputes follow the Provider Agreement's Oregon commercial-arbitration clause. Claims may not proceed as a class, collective, consolidated, mass, private-attorney-general, or representative action. A consumer may opt out by submitting the public privacy/account form within thirty days after first accepting these Terms, entering the adult account email and selecting the arbitration opt-out category. Whistle will pay fees it must pay under applicable consumer rules and will not require costs that make a lawful remedy impracticable. A court decides the enforceability of the class-action waiver; the arbitrator decides other arbitrability issues to the extent allowed by law.
Oregon law and general terms
Oregon law governs these Terms without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except where federal law controls or a consumer's nonwaivable home-state law applies. For a dispute not subject to arbitration, the parties consent to state or federal courts located in Oregon, subject to applicable venue law. If a provision is unenforceable, it will be narrowed to the minimum extent necessary and the remainder will remain effective. A failure to enforce is not a waiver. The user may not assign these Terms without written consent; Whistle may assign them with the service or business subject to applicable privacy obligations. These Terms, incorporated notices, and any signed provider order form are the complete agreement on their subject.
Changes and contact
Whistle will post material changes and provide direct notice when required. A change does not retroactively authorize a new child-data practice. The public privacy/account form is the current intake channel. The operating entity, physical notice address, monitored email, telephone number, commercial terms, and final legal signoff remain pending publication before a public commercial launch. Their pending status does not expand beta data practices or prevent authenticated adult build-beta use under the controls described here.