Terms of service

1. About these terms

These terms of service ("Terms") are an agreement between Maple Technologies Limited, a company registered in Kenya ("Maple", "we", "us"), and the business or person that signs up for or uses our services ("you", the "Customer").

By signing up, signing an order, or using the services, you accept these Terms. If you accept them on behalf of a business, you confirm that you have authority to bind it, and "you" means that business. If you do not agree, please do not use the services.

Our Privacy policy explains how we handle personal data where we are the data controller, and forms part of these Terms. If you have signed a separate order or agreement with us, its specific terms apply where they differ from these.

2. Definitions

• Account: the account created for you on the Platform.
• Account Owner: the person or business that opens the Account and is responsible for it and for its Users.
• Customer Data: all data, including personal data, that you or your Users put into the Services or that the Services collect on your behalf.
• Fees: the charges for the Services set out in your order, quote, invoice or plan.
• Platform: MapleCore™, including its web application, online shops, mobile apps and integrations.
• Services: the Platform, any modules you subscribe to, web hosting, domain services, and related support we provide.
• Users: the people you allow to use your Account, such as your staff.
• Data Protection Laws: the Data Protection Act, 2019 and the regulations made under it, including the Data Protection (General) Regulations, 2021, as amended from time to time.

3. Your account and users

• You must give us accurate information when you sign up and keep it up to date. If you sign up on behalf of your employer, use your work email address; your employer will be the Account Owner.
• The Account Owner decides who can use the Account, and what each User can see and do, using MapleCore's permissions. You are responsible for everything done through your Account by your Users.
• Keep sign-in details confidential and use two-step sign-in where it is available. Tell us straight away at info@maple.co.ke if you suspect unauthorised access.
• We may ask you to verify your identity or your business before activating certain features, such as payment integrations or SMS sender names.

4. Our services

• We grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Services you subscribe to, for your internal business purposes, during your subscription and in line with these Terms.
• We work to keep the Services available and secure, but we do not promise that they will be uninterrupted or free of errors. We may carry out maintenance, and we will try to give notice of planned downtime that is likely to affect you.
• We improve the Services over time and may change or retire features. We will not materially reduce the core functionality of a module you have paid for during the current paid period without giving you notice.
• Modules described as "coming soon" are not part of the Services until we make them available to you.
• Support is provided through the channels we publish. Help with migrating your data, training or custom work may be quoted separately.

5. Acceptable use

You and your Users must not:

• use the Services for anything unlawful, fraudulent or harmful, or to sell goods or services that are illegal in Kenya;
• send messages without the consent the law requires, send messages that do not identify you, or ignore requests to opt out;
• upload malware, or try to access accounts, systems or data you are not authorised to access;
• copy, resell, reverse engineer or build a competing product from the Platform, except where the law expressly allows;
• overload or interfere with the Services, or get around usage limits or security controls;
• infringe anyone's intellectual property or privacy.

When you send SMS, email or chat messages through the Services, you must comply with Kenyan law on electronic communications and direct marketing, including obtaining consent, offering a simple way to opt out, and using sender names you are entitled to use.

6. Your data and data protection

Ownership

You own your Customer Data. You give us the rights we need to host, process, transmit and display it in order to provide, secure and support the Services. We do not sell Customer Data or use it for our own marketing.

Our roles

For personal data in Customer Data, you are the data controller and Maple is your data processor under the Data Protection Laws. Maple is registered with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. This section is our written agreement for that processing.

What Maple will do

• Process personal data only on your documented instructions, which are these Terms and your use and configuration of the Services, unless the law requires otherwise, in which case we will tell you unless the law forbids it.
• Make sure that everyone authorised to process the data is bound by confidentiality.
• Keep appropriate technical and organisational security measures in place, as described in our Privacy policy.
• Use service providers (sub-processors) only under written contracts that give the data the same protection, and remain responsible for their performance. We will inform you of significant changes to the sub-processors we use.
• Help you respond to requests from people exercising their rights, and with data protection impact assessments and consultations with the Data Protection Commissioner, where relevant to our processing.
• Notify you of a personal data breach affecting your data without delay, and where reasonably practicable within 48 hours of becoming aware of it, with the information you need to meet your own obligations.
• Transfer personal data outside Kenya only with the safeguards the Data Protection Laws require, as described in our Privacy policy.
• Return or delete your data when the Services end, as described in section 15.
• Make available the information reasonably needed to show that we meet these obligations.

What you will do

• Have a lawful basis for the personal data you put into the Services, and give people the notices the law requires.
• Obtain any consent the law requires, including for sensitive personal data, for data about children (from a parent or guardian), for marketing messages, and for transferring sensitive personal data outside Kenya.
• Only give lawful instructions, and keep your own registration with the Data Protection Commissioner where the law requires it.
• Respond to requests from your own customers, tenants, borrowers or members about their data. We will forward any such request we receive to you.

Export

You can export your Customer Data using the tools in the Platform at any time during your subscription, and we will help you with reasonable requests for an export.

7. Payment integrations and third-party services

• Some features connect to services run by others, such as payment providers, SMS and email gateways, messaging apps and domain registries. Your use of those services may be subject to their own terms and fees, which you agree to follow.
• Money paid to you through a payment integration is received and settled by the payment provider under its terms. Maple records and matches payments in the Platform but does not hold your funds.
• We are not responsible for outages, changes or charges made by third-party services, but we will help you resolve problems where we reasonably can.

8. Fees and payment

• Fees are set out in your order, quote, invoice or plan, and are payable in advance for each billing period, which is yearly unless agreed otherwise.
• Fees are payable in Kenya Shillings or US dollars unless otherwise stated. They are based on the Services you subscribe to, not on how much you use them.
• Fees exclude value-added tax and other applicable taxes, which you will pay in addition.
• Fees are not refundable, including for partial periods or unused Services, except where these Terms say otherwise or the law requires a refund.
• If an invoice is not paid by its due date, we may, after giving you notice, suspend access to some or all of the Services until it is paid.
• We may change our Fees with at least 30 days' notice. Changes apply from your next billing period.
• Usage-based charges, such as SMS sent through the Platform, are charged as agreed in your order or plan.

9. Domains, web addresses and hosting

Domain registration and transfer

• We register and transfer domain names on your behalf, subject to availability and to the rules of the relevant registry. We cannot guarantee that a domain is available until registration is confirmed.
• Domains are registered with the details you give us. You must keep those details accurate, as registries require.
• You are responsible for renewal fees. If a domain is not renewed before it expires, it may be suspended and lost, and the registry may allow others to register it.
• To transfer a domain away from us, ask us for the transfer code. We will not unreasonably delay a transfer once any fees due for that domain are paid.

Web addresses we provide

Where the Services include a web address on a Maple domain, for example for an online shop or portal, we do not guarantee that a particular name is available. If Fees remain unpaid after the grace period stated in your plan, the address may be released and could be issued to someone else.

Web hosting

• You are responsible for the content of websites you host with us and for having the rights to publish it.
• We keep backups of the hosting platform, but you should keep your own copies of your website and its content.
• We may limit or suspend a hosted site that harms our systems or other customers, or that breaks section 5, and will tell you why.

10. Intellectual property

Maple and its licensors own the Platform, the Services and all related intellectual property, including the MapleCore™ name and logo. These Terms do not transfer any of those rights to you, other than the right to use the Services. If you send us suggestions or feedback, we may use them freely without any obligation to you.

11. Confidentiality

Each of us will keep the other's confidential information confidential, use it only for the purposes of these Terms and disclose it only to people who need to know it and are bound by similar duties, or where the law requires. This does not apply to information that is public through no fault of the receiving party, or that it already had or developed independently.

12. Warranties and disclaimers

We will provide the Services with reasonable skill and care. Apart from that, and to the extent the law allows, the Services are provided "as is" and "as available", and we make no other warranties, including that the Services will meet every requirement you have, be uninterrupted or be error free. You are responsible for checking that the Services suit your business and for the decisions you make using them, such as lending, pricing or tax decisions.

If you are a consumer, nothing in these Terms affects your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2012.

13. Limitation of liability

• Neither of us is liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profits, revenue, goodwill or business opportunity, however it arises.
• Our total liability arising out of or in connection with these Terms in any 12-month period is limited to the Fees you paid us for the Services in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.
• Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud, or any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under Kenyan law.

14. Indemnity

You will compensate Maple for losses, costs and claims brought by third parties that arise from your Customer Data, from your or your Users' breach of section 5 or of the Data Protection Laws, or from messages you send through the Services without the consent the law requires.

15. Suspension and termination

• Your subscription runs for the period in your order or plan and renews for the same period unless either of us gives notice before it ends.
• You may cancel at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period, and Fees already paid are not refunded.
• We may end these Terms or a subscription by giving you written notice. Unless we end them because you have breached these Terms, we will give at least 30 days' notice and refund any Fees you paid in advance for the period after termination.
• We may suspend the Services immediately if your Account is being used unlawfully, threatens the security of the Platform or other customers, or breaks section 5. We will tell you why and restore access once the issue is fixed.
• When the Services end, you can request an export of your Customer Data for 30 days. After that, we will delete Customer Data within 90 days, except where the law requires us to keep it.
• Any amounts you owe become due on termination. Sections 6, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 18 continue to apply after termination.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will change the "last updated" date above and give you at least 30 days' notice of changes that materially affect you. If you continue to use the Services after a change takes effect, you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree, you may cancel before the change takes effect.

17. Notices

We may send notices about your Account by email or SMS to the contact details on your Account, or through the Platform. Please send notices to us at info@maple.co.ke.

18. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of Kenya.

We will both try to settle any dispute amicably. Any dispute that is not resolved within 30 days after either of us asks for a negotiated settlement or mediation will be referred to arbitration under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. The seat of arbitration will be Nairobi, Kenya, and the language will be English.

Nothing in this section stops either of us from asking a court in Kenya for urgent injunctive, interim or conservatory relief while a dispute is being resolved.

19. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with any order you sign and our Privacy policy, are the whole agreement between us about the Services.
• Severability. If any part of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable, the rest continues in force.
• No waiver. If either of us does not enforce a right, that does not waive it.
• Assignment. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours as part of a reorganisation, merger or sale, and will tell you if we do.
• Events beyond our control. Neither of us is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond reasonable control, such as power or network failures, natural disasters or acts of government.
• Independent parties. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, agency or employment relationship.

20. Contact us

• General and legal enquiries: info@maple.co.ke
• Data protection: privacy@maple.co.ke

Please read these Terms together with our Privacy policy.