Terms of Service

These terms govern the use of Soundings (soundings.io and app.soundings.io), an organizational climate survey service for maritime crews. Soundings is a Section Nine product, operated from Norway. Questions about these terms: [email protected].

By commissioning a survey or using an administrator account, your organization (“you”) agrees to these terms. Seafarers answering a survey do not enter into any agreement; the service is designed so that respondents remain anonymous, as described in the privacy policy.

1. The service

Soundings runs anonymous organizational climate surveys built on the Organizational Climate Measure (Patterson et al., 2005) with a maritime safety climate section. We set up surveys, provide access links and QR posters, collect responses, and present scored results, group comparisons, industry benchmarks, and trend reports through an administrator dashboard.

2. The free first survey and the benchmark exchange

Your organization’s first survey is free of charge: full survey, full results. In exchange, you grant us the right to include your survey results, in anonymized and aggregated form only, in the cross-industry benchmark that all customers are compared against. This contribution is the consideration for the free survey; it is not optional for free surveys.

Anonymized and aggregated means: statistical values (means, standard deviations, sample sizes) per dimension and group. No respondent-level data, no group smaller than five respondents, and no identification of your organization or vessels in any benchmark shown to others.

Surveys after the first, and additional deliverables where agreed (for example designed report packs), are paid services at the prices agreed with you in writing before the work starts.

3. Your data and ownership

Your organization owns its survey results. We host and process them to provide the service. Respondent answers are collected without names, email addresses, crew identifiers, or IP addresses; optional demographics (vessel, rank, nationality) are used only for grouped statistics with a five-respondent minimum. We never expose respondent-level detail beyond what the service’s anonymity rules allow.

4. Accounts and access links

You are responsible for keeping administrator credentials confidential and for how survey access links and posters are distributed to your crews. Access links are bearer tokens: anyone with the link can submit a response, which is what makes anonymous participation possible. We apply technical measures (expiry, response caps, deactivation, rate limiting) that you control from the dashboard.

5. Acceptable use

The service must not be used to attempt to identify individual respondents, to pressure crews into revealing their answers, or to take action against individuals based on presumed participation. Doing so defeats the instrument and breaches these terms. We may suspend accounts used this way.

6. Availability and warranty

The service is provided as is. We aim for high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted service. Survey results are perception measurements interpreted with published statistical methods; they support management judgment and do not replace it, and we are not liable for business decisions taken on the basis of results.

7. Liability

To the extent permitted by law, our total liability under these terms is limited to the amounts you paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

8. Termination and deletion

You can stop using the service at any time and request deletion of your organization’s surveys and responses, which we honor within thirty days. Anonymized aggregates already contributed to the benchmark under section 2 may be retained after termination; they contain no personal data and are not attributable to your organization.

9. Changes and governing law

We may update these terms; material changes are announced to account holders with reasonable notice, and continued use after the notice period constitutes acceptance. These terms are governed by Norwegian law, with the ordinary courts of Norway as venue.