Terms of Service.

1. Acceptance of Terms & DPDP Acknowledgment

SOWRegistry operates as a cryptographic institutional verification node. By utilizing our services, you acknowledge that our data processing, masking, and temporary unmasking procedures are designed in strict accordance with the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2026. You grant us explicit, revocable consent to query third-party institutional databases (UIDAI, NSDL, EPFO, eCourts) on your behalf to generate your SOW-ID.

2. Candidate Obligations & Anti-Forgery Clause

Candidates utilizing the "Closed Company" or "SOW-ID Core" verification tiers must submit strictly authentic documentation.

• You agree that you are the legal owner of the documents uploaded to the Secure Vault.
• You agree that your SOW-ID is non-transferable and represents your singular legal identity.

3. B2B Employer Obligations & Data Handling

Corporate entities granted access to the B2B Gateway via Know Your Business (KYB) verification are acting as Data Fiduciaries under the DPDP Act for the duration of the 24-hour consent window.

• Authorized Use: You may only utilize unmasked candidate records for the strict purpose of employment verification and hiring.
• Prohibition on Scraping: You are strictly prohibited from utilizing automated scripts, bots, or web scrapers to harvest SOW-IDs or candidate statuses.
• Anti-Circumvention: You may not attempt to bypass the 24-hour cryptographic lock, nor may you attempt to remove or obscure the forensic watermarks embedded in the Secure Viewer. Attempts to screenshot, print, or extract the DOM elements of the Secure Viewer constitute a material breach of this contract.

4. Payments, UTR Verification & Refunds

SOWRegistry operates on a transparent, one-time fee model for candidates (₹1,999 per core attestation or specialized audit).

• UTR Settlement: Services are only initiated once the 12-digit UPI/Bank UTR number has been manually cross-verified against SOWRegistry's nodal banking ledger.
• No-Refund Policy: Due to the hard costs associated with pinging government APIs (UIDAI, NSDL, eCourts) and the manual administrative hours required for forensic document audits, all payments are strictly non-refundable once the UTR is verified and the dossier enters the "Audit In Progress" queue.
• Rejection Resolutions: If a candidate’s uploaded document is rejected due to poor image quality or innocent clerical errors, they will be granted the opportunity to re-upload the correct document at no additional charge. Rejections for forgery result in fee forfeiture.

5. Intellectual Property & Watermarking

The "SOWRegistry" name, logo, Zero-Trust architectural logic, and proprietary Secure Viewer interface are the exclusive intellectual property of SOWRegistry. The forensic watermarks dynamically generated across candidate records (containing IP addresses and corporate names) are embedded proprietary security measures. Any attempt to reverse-engineer these measures violates intellectual property and cybersecurity laws.

6. Limitation of Liability

SOWRegistry is an intermediary platform providing institutional verification routing. We verify that documents and API responses match the institutional truth at the time of the audit.

• We do not guarantee a candidate's future job performance or behavioral conduct.
• We are not liable for employment decisions, offers, or revocations made by B2B employers based on the SOW-ID status.
• In no event shall SOWRegistry be liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from platform downtime, API failures from government endpoints (e.g., EPFO server outages), or user error.

7. Governing Law & Jurisdiction

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India, specifically harmonized with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2026.

Any disputes arising under or in connection with this Agreement shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts located in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.