Welcome to SpeechGradebook. These Terms of Service (“Terms” or “Agreement”) govern your access to and use of the SpeechGradebook web application, hosted at speechgradebook.com (the “Application”), and any related services provided by ValidBound LLC (“ValidBound,” “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) via validbound.com (together, the “Services”).
For purposes of these Terms, “Customer” means you personally, and if you use the Services on behalf of an institution, school, or business, that entity as well. By creating an account, accepting these Terms, and accessing or using the Services, Customer agrees to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you may not use the Services. Our Privacy Policy describes how we handle personal and educational data.
You must have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement to use this Application. If you are using the Application on behalf of an institution, school, or business, you represent that you have the authority to bind that entity.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account login credentials. You are entirely responsible for all activities that occur under your account.
The platform provides distinct service workflows for Instructors/Programs (structured evaluation and grading workflows) and Practice Users (self-directed rehearsal and automated tracking). You agree to use the platform only within your designated account tier.
You may not use the Application to violate any law, infringe others’ rights, or misuse student or institutional data. You must obtain any required institutional authorization or notice before using the Application in a manner that involves sharing or processing educational records.
You retain all ownership rights to any video recordings, audio tracks, speech text, rubrics, or other data you upload or submit to the Application (“User Content”).
By uploading User Content, you grant ValidBound a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, process, analyze, transmit, and display your Content solely to provide, maintain, and improve the speech evaluation tools and features for you and authorized users of your institution or coaching relationship.
For educational institutions utilizing the Application, both parties agree to comply with applicable data protection laws, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) where applicable. When ValidBound processes student education records for an institution, ValidBound acts as a “School Official” with a legitimate educational interest under 34 CFR Part 99, solely to provide the contracted services.
Evaluation materials for institutional courses are stored for instructional use by the instructor and authorized unit administrators. Affirmative student consent (18+) is required before ValidBound includes materials in LLM training or R&D exports; decline or no response does not block instructional storage or instructor/admin export. Institutional pilots may also be governed by a signed Higher Education Pilot Addendum.
SpeechGradebook uses automated, research-informed algorithms and artificial intelligence to generate rubric-aligned assessment drafts. Evaluations may use ValidBound models or carefully selected sub-processors.
In the default hosted configuration, evaluations use the SpeechGradebook Model via ValidBound’s backend proxy and do not send student media to consumer LLM APIs (such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google Gemini). ValidBound does not use student voice recordings, video streams, transcripts, or rubric results to train public third-party models. Sub-processors that process such content for inference are engaged to provide the service (for example job-duration model hosting), not to use that content for their public training corpora. ValidBound may use deidentified and aggregate data to improve its own private models, as described in the Privacy Policy.
Automated feedback and drafts are intended strictly as an instructional aid. Final evaluation, editing, and official grade tracking remain the sole responsibility of the human instructor or evaluator. ValidBound does not guarantee the accuracy of AI-generated feedback, specific academic outcomes, grades, or proficiency gains.
The Application, its underlying software, rubrics, algorithmic assessment designs, interfaces, branding, logos, and the validbound.com and speechgradebook.com websites are the exclusive intellectual property of ValidBound LLC and its licensors. You may not copy, modify, distribute, reverse engineer, or create derivative works of our platform except as expressly permitted in writing.
Access to certain platform features, early-access pilots, or institutional deployments may be subject to recurring subscription fees or enterprise contract terms. All payment conditions will be detailed during checkout or via explicit service orders.
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account at our sole discretion if you violate these Terms, infringe upon intellectual property, or engage in behavior that disrupts service infrastructure. For institutional pilots and contracts, within thirty (30) days after expiration or termination ValidBound will archive or delete student recordings and gradebook data associated with that engagement through operational procedures, unless the institution transitions to a continuing commercial agreement or requests an earlier return/export.
Acceptance of Services. By creating an account, accepting these Terms, and accessing or using the Services, Customer acknowledges and agrees that: (a) Customer has had the opportunity to evaluate the Services; (b) the Services as made available by ValidBound substantially conform to Customer’s requirements as of the date of acceptance; and (c) Customer accepts the Services in their current state. Continued use of the Services following any update, enhancement, or modification by ValidBound shall constitute Customer’s acceptance of the Services as so modified. Any claim by Customer that the Services do not conform to this Agreement must be submitted in writing to ValidBound within thirty (30) days of the event giving rise to the claim; failure to do so shall constitute Customer’s irrevocable acceptance of the Services.
Disclaimer of Warranties. Except as expressly set forth in this Agreement, the Services are provided “as is” and “as available,” with all faults, and without warranty of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, ValidBound and its affiliates, licensors, and suppliers hereby disclaim all warranties, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, quiet enjoyment, accuracy, and any warranties arising from course of dealing, course of performance, or usage of trade. ValidBound does not warrant that the Services will be uninterrupted, secure, error-free, or free from viruses or other harmful components, or that any defects will be corrected. Customer acknowledges that it has not relied on any warranty or representation not expressly set forth in this Agreement. Without limiting the foregoing, ValidBound does not guarantee specific academic outcomes, grades, proficiency gains, or the accuracy of AI-generated feedback.
Limitation of Damages. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall ValidBound, its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, or suppliers be liable to Customer or any third party for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including but not limited to lost profits, lost revenue, lost business opportunities, loss of goodwill, loss or corruption of data, business interruption, cost of substitute goods or services, or loss of academic standing or instructional outcomes, arising out of or relating to this Agreement or the Services, whether based in contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability, or any other legal or equitable theory, even if ValidBound has been advised of the possibility of such damages and even if a remedy set forth in this Agreement is found to have failed of its essential purpose.
Aggregate Liability Cap. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the total cumulative liability of ValidBound and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, and suppliers, arising out of or relating to this Agreement or the Services, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability, or any other legal or equitable theory, shall not exceed the total fees actually paid by Customer to ValidBound for the Services during the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim. This limitation applies in the aggregate to all claims, regardless of the number of incidents or the form of action, and applies even if any limited remedy is found to have failed of its essential purpose. For clarity, if Customer has not paid fees for the Services during that period (including free or complimentary pilots), that amount may be zero.
These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Tennessee, without regard to its conflict of law principles.
For questions or concerns regarding these Terms, please contact us at:
ValidBound LLC / SpeechGradebook
Knoxville, Tennessee
Email: info@validbound.com
Or use our contact page.