Terms of Service

Effective and last updated: 11 September 2026 Version: 2026-09-11

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of Fit Factor and related account, family, school, and support features ("the Service"). The Service is provided by Amiata Company Limited, a company incorporated in Hong Kong with registration/file number 78275059 ("we", "our", "us"), and may be presented under the names Amiata, Amiata Co., or The UC Bureau. By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

1. The Service

The Service is an interactive online tool that helps students reflect on and prioritize criteria for choosing a university through the Fit Factor Sort. The Service is informational and reflective in nature; it does not provide professional admissions, legal, financial, or career advice.

2. Eligibility

Student accounts are generally available from age 14. An approved country-specific eligibility flow may permit participation from age 13 where the applicable country and purpose-specific requirements are met. Some countries or uses have a higher threshold or are unavailable. Students must provide an accurate date of birth and, when the country-specific flow is available, confirm their country of usual residence and any required state or province.

Where the country-specific eligibility flow is available and guardian authorization is required, a parent or legal guardian must authorize participation after staff have reviewed identity, adulthood and legal authority using evidence obtained outside the app. A family invitation or an email verification alone does not establish that authority. Account participation, family access and sharing with a named university are separate choices. Guardian authorization does not replace the student's affirmative sharing choice. Changes in residence, age, policy or guardian authorization may require a fresh decision or suspend participation or sharing.

An adult creating or using a parent, guardian, counselor, school, university, or other non-student account represents that they have legal capacity and authority to use that role.

3. Your account

To use most of the Service you must create an account. You agree to:

Provide accurate and current information.
Use a unique password and keep it secure. Do not share your account credentials with anyone.
Notify us promptly if you suspect your account has been used without your authorization.
Take responsibility for all activity on your account.

Account registration requires a separate, affirmative agreement to these Terms. It also requires a separate acknowledgment that you received and reviewed the Privacy Policy, including its international-transfer notice. That Privacy Policy acknowledgment is not consent to optional uses or sharing of your information.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that we believe in good faith violate these Terms or applicable law.

Parent-initiated student invitations

A parent may send an invitation to a student's email address, but the parent does not create or control the student's account. The student must create their own account, verify the invited email address, and explicitly decide whether to accept the named parent's request.

Accepting allows the named parent to view the student's Fit Factor Sort results without further qualification while the family link remains active. Acceptance does not grant access to the student's password or broader account and profile information. The student may refuse by not accepting, ignore the request, or choose “Not now” without losing ordinary account or sorting access.

Either linked user may revoke the connection in Settings, which stops future parent access. Turning the invitation feature off blocks new invitation activity but does not revoke a family link the student already accepted.

4. Acceptable use

You agree to use the Service only for its intended purpose. You will not:

Attempt to access another user's account or data.
Probe, scan, or test the security of the Service, except in good-faith research disclosed to us in advance.
Disrupt, overload, or interfere with the Service, our servers, or other users' use.
Scrape, harvest, or programmatically extract data beyond the export of your own information described in our Privacy Policy.
Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive source code, except where applicable law expressly permits.
Use the Service to harass, defame, or harm others.
Misrepresent your identity or affiliation.

5. Your content and data

You retain ownership of the answers and choices you provide while using the Service ("Your Sort Data"). You grant Amiata Company Limited a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, process, and display Your Sort Data only as needed to provide, secure, support, and improve the Service as described in our Privacy Policy.

We may derive aggregated or de-identified statistics for internal improvement and authorized cohort comparisons. We do not sell or commercially share personal information, Your Sort Data, or those derived insights.

6. Service availability and changes

We work to keep the Service available, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted operation. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Service at any time. If we discontinue the Service, we will use reasonable efforts to provide you with notice and an opportunity to export your data first.

We may improve the Service over time. Improvements may change the appearance or behavior of features without notice.

7. Termination

You may close your account at any time through Settings or by contacting us. When you close your account, family access is revoked and your information is deleted, anonymized, or retained as described in our Privacy Policy Section 5.

We may terminate or suspend your account if:

You materially breach these Terms.
We are required to do so by law.
The Service is being discontinued.

Sections 5 (Your content and data, license to aggregated data), 8 (Intellectual property), 9 (Disclaimers), 10 (Limitation of liability), 11 (Indemnification), 12 (Governing law), and 13 (Dispute resolution) survive any termination.

8. Intellectual property

The Service — including the card content, design, layout, logos, software, and underlying methodology — is owned by Amiata Company Limited and its licensors and is protected by copyright and other applicable intellectual-property laws. You may not copy, modify, distribute, or create derivative works of the Service except as expressly permitted by these Terms or applicable law.

9. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

We do not warrant that:

The Service will meet your specific requirements.
The Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free.
The results obtained from the Service will be accurate or reliable as advice for any particular university decision.

Your university selection is your own decision. The Service is a reflective tool only and does not constitute admissions counseling, financial advice, or career advice.

10. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW:

IN NO EVENT WILL AMIATA COMPANY LIMITED, ITS DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, OR SERVICE PROVIDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE.
OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (a) the amounts you have paid us in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) USD $100.

Some jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In those jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Amiata Company Limited, its directors, officers, employees, and service providers from any claim, demand, damage, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from:

Your use of the Service in violation of these Terms or applicable law.
Your violation of another person's rights.
Information you submit through the Service that is inaccurate, infringing, or unlawful.

12. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.

13. Dispute resolution

If you have a concern, please contact us first at the address in Section 16. We will work in good faith to resolve issues informally.

If a dispute cannot be resolved informally, it will be resolved by arbitration administered in Hong Kong under the rules of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), conducted in English by a single arbitrator. The arbitrator's decision will be final and binding.

You and we agree that any dispute will be brought only in your individual capacity, not as a member of any class action or similar proceeding.

This Section 13 does not prevent either party from seeking injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction for misuse of intellectual property or breach of confidentiality.

If the law in your jurisdiction prohibits the arbitration provision above as applied to consumers, that provision does not apply to you and disputes will instead be resolved in the courts of your jurisdiction.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of the page reflects the current version. If a change materially affects your rights, we will notify you by email or through a prominent notice in the Service before the change takes effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of the updated Terms constitutes acceptance of the changes.

15. Miscellaneous

Entire agreement. These Terms together with our Privacy Policy form the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service.
Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in effect.
No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later.
Assignment. You may not assign these Terms. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

16. Contact us

For questions about these Terms or the Service:

Email: legal@ucbureau.org
Postal: Amiata Company Limited, Watson Rd, Sea View Estate 2-8, Rm 102, North Point, Hong Kong