Smartass' Terms of Service.

Last update: May 2024

The following terms of use govern your access to and use of the Smartass platform. These terms and conditions apply to all content, functions and services offered via the website www.heysmartass.com. The Smartass Platform is referred to as “Smartass”, “we” or “us”. The terms “you” or “user” refer to you, the user of the platform.

Please read these terms of service carefully and thoroughly before using the platform. By using the platform, opening an account or expressly agreeing to the terms of service, you represent and agree, either on your own behalf or on behalf of your employer or other legal entity, that you are bound by and will comply with these terms of service. In addition, you acknowledge that you have read and understood our privacy policy (which you can find here). If you do not agree to the terms of service or the privacy policy, you are prohibited from accessing or using the platform.

The platform is only available to users who have reached the legal minimum age for concluding binding contracts, which is at least 18 years. If you are between the ages of 14 and 18, use of the platform is only permitted with the consent of one of your parents or legal guardians, who must create an account for you. Persons under the age of 14 are not permitted to use the platform and any of its services. By using the platform, you confirm that you meet the above requirements. If you do not meet these requirements, you are not permitted to access or use the platform.

If you have any questions about the platform or the terms of service, you can contact our customer support team at support@heysmartass.com at any time. We will endeavor to answer your questions as quickly as possible.

The original language of these Terms of Use and all other legally relevant texts on this platform is English. The legal basis refers to Austrian law. Smartass only provides translations for reasons of user-friendliness. In the event of contradictions between a translated version and the original English-language version, the latter shall take precedence.

1. Key Terms

“Customers” are users who make use of teaching services on Smartass.

“Requests” are tenders addressed to teaching service providers in order to receive an individual offer.

“Offers / Teaching Services” refer to services related to teaching that are offered on Smartass.

“Individual offers” are exclusive offers that a teaching service provider has created for a customer on the basis of a request.

“Orders” are formal agreements between a customer and a teaching service provider.

“Teaching service providers” are users who offer and provide teaching services on Smartass.

2. Summary (the most important agreements in brief)

Only registered users can offer and use teaching services on Smartass. Registration is free of charge. By registering an account, you agree to provide us with accurate, complete and up-to-date information about yourself. It is prohibited to create an account for fraudulent or misleading purposes. You are solely responsible for all activity on your account and are also responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of your password. We assume no liability for any acts or omissions by you in connection with your account.
Teaching service providers are obliged to fulfill their orders in accordance with the agreed conditions and may not cancel them regularly or without sufficient reason. Cancellations can have a negative impact on the reputation and status of the teaching service provider.
Smartass reserves the right to use all content published on the platform for marketing and advertising purposes.
Your privacy is important to us. You can find our privacy policy here.

3. Teaching Service Provider

3.1 Basics

Teaching service providers create and publish offers on Smartass so that customers can make use of their teaching services.
In addition to the standard offers, teaching service providers can also create customized offers in response to customer requests.
Teaching service providers may not advertise their teaching services or any Smartass content via the Google Ads platform.
Teaching service providers are responsible for taking out liability insurance relevant to their teaching service. The sums insured must be sufficient to cover all risks associated with the provision of their service.

3.2 Offers

Offers created on Smartass count as user-generated content.
Teaching services or users may be removed from the platform if they violate our terms of service or community standards. This can happen for the following reasons
- Illegal or fraudulent teaching services
- Copyright infringement, trademark infringement or violation of a third party's terms of service.
- adult, pornographic or inappropriate/obscene educational services
- Spam, nonsense or violent educational services
- Teaching services that mislead customers or others
- Legally restricted educational services
Offers that are removed for any of the above reasons may result in the account of the responsible teaching service provider being blocked.
Removed offers cannot be restored or edited.
Offers may be removed from Smartass due to poor performance or misconduct by the responsible teaching service provider.
Offers may contain pre-approved website URLs in their description. Listings that contain websites that violate our terms of service or community standards will be removed.
Content or statements in a listing that undermine or circumvent our terms of service are prohibited.

3.3 Functions for Teaching Service Providers

Smartass offers teaching service providers several exclusive features that allow them to customize the way they want to offer their teaching services.

Individual Offers

Teaching service providers can send customized offers directly to customers to specifically address their requirements.
Customized offers are sent via real-time chat.
Teaching services offered as customized offers must not violate our Terms of Use and Community Standards.

4. Customers

4.1 Basics

Smartass reserves the right to use all content published on the platform for marketing and advertising purposes.
Customers can request a specific teaching service via the “Create request” function. The requested teaching service must comply with Smartass guidelines. The use of this function for other purposes is prohibited.

5. Disputes

We recommend that our customers and teaching service providers resolve disputes with each other. If this fails for any reason or if you notice any unauthorized use of the platform, please contact our customer support at support@heysmartass.com.

6. User Behavior and Protection

Smartass enables people worldwide to offer a variety of teaching services. Members of the Smartass community interact both internally via features such as requests and real-time chat, and externally via social media.

We strive for a friendly, community-oriented and professional environment on Smartass. We expect our users to adhere to these principles when participating in activities and developing the platform. This section refers to appropriate behavior expected of users when interacting with each other on the platform.

If you notice a violation of our Terms of Use or Community Standards, wish to report a user, or have questions about your account, please contact our customer support at support@heysmartass.com.

6.1 Basics

Providing or requesting the provision of personal contact details such as email addresses, telephone numbers, social media accounts or similar in order to circumvent or misuse Smartass' internal communication system is prohibited.
Any exchange of personal data that is necessary for the performance of a teaching service is permitted.
Smartass does not guarantee the quality of the teaching services offered.
Smartass offers no protection for users who interact outside the platform.
Any exchange of information between teaching service providers and customers must take place exclusively via the platform.
Rude, abusive or violent messages and inappropriate language will not be tolerated and may result in a warning, suspension or deletion of your account.
Smartass is open to everyone. You agree not to discriminate against other users based on their gender, origin, age, religion, sexual orientation or any other reason. Failure to comply with this policy may result in the suspension or removal of your account.

6.2 Offers

Users can report offers to customer support that may violate the Smartass Terms of Use.
Teaching service providers warrant that the content contained in their offers are original works conceived by them and do not infringe any third party rights, including but not limited to copyrights, trademarks or service marks.
Smartass will respond to clear and complete notices of alleged copyright or trademark infringement.

6.3 Reporting Violations

If you come across content that violates our terms of use or community standards, please report this via the appropriate channels in accordance with our terms of service. All cases will be reviewed by our team. The results of this review will not be shared for privacy reasons. For more information, please see our privacy policy.

6.4 Violations

User accounts may receive a warning if they violate our terms of use or community standards or if misconduct has been reported by our team. In such cases, a warning will be sent to the email address of the user in question. Although warnings do not affect the activity of your account, repeated violations may result in certain benefits and features of your account being restricted or your account being permanently deactivated.

Prohibited Use

Adult services and pornography** - Smartass does not allow the exchange of adult or pornographic materials and services.
Inappropriate behavior and language** - Communication on Smartass should be friendly, constructive and professional. Any form of bullying, harassment or hateful language towards other users is prohibited.
Phishing and Spam** - The security of our users is our top priority. Any attempt to post or send malicious content aimed at compromising other users' accounts or systems is strictly prohibited.
Privacy and Identity** - Respect the privacy of our users by not contacting them with offers, questions or other concerns that are not directly related to their offers or requests. Do not publish private or confidential information of other users. Any exchange of personal data for the performance of a teaching service must take place via the platform.
Authentic Smartass profile - You may not assume a false identity or use the identity of another person. Your profile must contain complete and non-misleading information. Smartass reserves the right to require users to complete a verification process in order to use the platform.
Intellectual Property Claims** - Smartass will respond to notices of copyright or trademark infringement or violations of third party terms of use.
Fraud and Unlawful Use** - The use of Smartass for unlawful purposes or to conduct illegal activities is prohibited.

6.5 Ownership Restrictions

The platform, including the general layout, look and feel, design, information, content and other content available thereon, is the exclusive property of Smartass and is protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws. Users have no right and expressly agree not to do any of the following with respect to the Site or any portion, component or enhancement thereof:

(i) copy, transmit, adapt, modify, distribute, transmit, display, create derivative works from, publish or reproduce in any way;

(ii) disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer or otherwise attempt to derive the source code, underlying ideas, algorithms, structures or organizations;

(iii) remove any copyright notices, labels or other proprietary notices;

(iv) use automation software (bots), hacks, modifications (mods) or other unauthorized third party software designed to modify the Website;

(v) attempt to gain unauthorized access to, interfere with, damage, or disrupt the Website or any computer systems or networks connected to the Website;

(vi) circumvent, remove, alter, disable, degrade or defeat any technical or content protection measures of the Website;

(vii) use any robot, spider, crawler or other automatic device, process, software or query that intercepts, “mines”, scrapes or otherwise accesses the Website to monitor, extract, copy or collect information or data from or about the Website, or perform any manual process to do the same;

(viii) introduce viruses, trojan horses, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful into our systems;

(ix) use the Website in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the Website or interfere with any other user's enjoyment of the Website; or

(x) access or use the website in any manner not expressly permitted by our terms of service.

Users also agree not to permit or authorize anyone else to do any of the above.

Except for the limited right to use the platform under these terms of service, Smartass owns all right, title and interest in and to the site (including all intellectual property rights therein) and you agree not to take any action inconsistent with such ownership interests. We reserve all rights in connection with the Website and its content (excluding User Generated Content), including but not limited to the exclusive right to create derivative works.

6.6 Rights to Feedback

By providing comments, suggestions or other feedback about the Smartass Platform, the Website in general and other Smartass products or services, you grant Smartass an exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid, perpetual, irrevocable and worldwide ownership interest in your feedback. Smartass is under no obligation to implement user feedback.

6.7 Confidentiality

Teaching service providers should be aware that clients disclose confidential information to them that is necessary for the fulfillment of the teaching service. This confidential information must be protected from unauthorized use and disclosure. For this reason, teaching service providers agree to treat all information received from the customer as highly sensitive, strictly confidential and classified.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, teaching service providers specifically agree to:

(i) Treat all information received as strictly confidential.

(ii) Not to disclose the information to third parties.

(iii) To use the information solely for the performance of the work ordered.

(iv) Not to copy or reproduce any information without the customer's permission.

7. General Conditions

Smartass reserves the right to temporarily suspend or permanently disable an account for any violation of our terms of service or community standards, including substandard teaching services or illegal or inappropriate use of the site or services.
A permanently suspended account may result from a violation of our terms of service or community standards.
Users with deactivated accounts will not be able to book or offer teaching services.
Users whose account has been disabled due to a violation of our terms of service or community standards may contact our customer support for more information about the violation and the status of their account.
To confirm ownership of an account, users may be required to provide materials proving ownership of that account, as requested by our customer support.
Disputes should be resolved by contacting smartass customer support.
Smartass may make changes to its terms of service from time to time. In the event of any changes, Smartass will post an updated version of the terms of service on this page.
By using Smartass after the date on which the terms of service were changed, you agree to the updated terms of service.

8. User-Generated Content

User Generated Content (“UGC”) is the content that is created and added by users, as opposed to content already generated by the platform itself. All content uploaded to Smartass by our users (both customers and learning providers) is considered user-generated content.

Smartass does not review user uploaded/generated content for appropriateness, copyright infringement, trademark infringement or any other rights or violations. The user who uploads/creates such content is solely responsible for it and the consequences of its use, disclosure, storage or transmission.

By uploading or creating content on the platform, you represent and warrant that you have or have obtained all necessary rights, licenses, consents, permissions, authorities and/or power of attorney required to use and/or upload such content. You further warrant that such content or its use on the site will not infringe any intellectual property rights, proprietary rights, privacy rights or publicity rights of any third party, violate any applicable local, state, federal and international laws, regulations and conventions, and will not violate your or any third party's policies or terms of service. We encourage everyone to report violations along with proof of ownership. Reported infringing content may be removed or disabled.

In addition, Smartass assumes no responsibility for the content, quality or level of service provided by the teaching service providers, regardless of whether they are top-rated teaching service providers or whether sponsored offers or other services are provided. No guarantee is made regarding the offers, their implementation, or any communication between customers and teaching providers. Users are encouraged to use our rating system, our community and their common sense when selecting suitable teaching services.

By publishing a teaching service, the teaching service provider undertakes to have sufficient permits, rights and/or licenses to offer the service it provides on Smartass.

9. Ownership

Users (both customers and teaching service providers) agree that the content they voluntarily create and upload to Smartass, including text, photos, videos, usernames, user photos and videos, may be used by Smartass for marketing and other purposes without compensation, unless expressly stated otherwise.

10. Exclusion of Warranty

Your use of the platform, including its content and any educational services obtained through it, is at your own risk. The site, its content and any services or items obtained through the site are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Neither Smartass nor anyone associated with Smartass makes any warranty or representation as to the completeness, security, reliability, quality, accuracy or availability of the Website.

The foregoing is without prejudice to any warranties which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

11. Machine Translations

Certain content created by users on this platform is translated into other languages using translation software. Reasonable efforts are made to provide an accurate translation. However, it is important to note that automated translations are not perfect and are not intended to replace human translators. These translations are provided as a service to users of the Platform and are provided “as is”. No warranty, express or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability or correctness of the translations from English into other languages. Some user-generated content such as images, videos or Flash elements may be translated inaccurately or not at all due to limitations of the translation software.

The official version of the texts is the English version of the website. Any deviations or differences in the translation have no binding legal effect. Should any questions arise as to the accuracy of the information on the translated website, it is recommended to refer to the English version of the website, which is considered the official version.

12. Limitation of Liability

In no event shall Smartass, its affiliates or their licensors, service providers, employees, agents, officers or directors be liable for any damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with your use of or inability to use the Site. This excludes damages under any legal theory, including direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or punitive damages. Such damages include, for example, personal injury, pain and suffering, loss of revenue, loss of profits, loss of business, loss of use, loss of goodwill and loss of data, whether caused by tort, breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable.

However, this limitation of liability does not apply to cases where liability cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.