Terms of Use

1. Voluntary relationship and acceptance

Use of NSA is voluntary. By creating an account or using a member service, you confirm that you have read and agreed to the version of these Terms presented to you. No consent, waiver, transfer of ownership, expansion of authority, or surrender of privacy will be presumed merely from visiting or participating in NSA.

You must be legally capable of entering the agreement for yourself or have authority to accept it for the organization you identify.

2. Purpose of NSA

NSA preserves and organizes participating archives and helps authorized researchers locate evidence within them. Search results may connect historical records, specialist collections, unpublished material, and other sources that ordinary public search engines do not meaningfully connect.

NSA is a research and discovery service. It does not guarantee that archived claims are correct, accepted by contemporary science, complete, or suitable for a particular decision. Search reports should be evaluated with their citations, provenance, limitations, and source context.

3. Accounts and accurate information

You agree to provide accurate registration information, protect your sign-in credentials, and promptly notify NSA of suspected unauthorized access. You are responsible for activity performed through your account unless it results from a failure within systems controlled by NSA.

NSA may require reasonable verification before changing account ownership, releasing protected information, returning an archive, or carrying out an irreversible request.

4. Memberships, credits, and payments

Prices, included services, renewal periods, credit quantities, and refund conditions will be displayed before payment. Search credits have no cash value, are not transferable unless NSA expressly permits it, and are used only for eligible NSA searches. Opening or downloading an already completed report does not consume another credit unless clearly disclosed otherwise.

Payment-card information will be handled by an authorized payment provider. NSA does not intend to receive or store complete payment-card numbers. Additional provider terms may apply to payment processing.

5. Responsible use

You may use NSA only for lawful research, education, preservation, and other authorized purposes. You may not:

• gain or attempt to gain access beyond the permissions assigned to you;
• interfere with security, availability, indexing, or other users;
• upload malware, executable attacks, unlawfully obtained material, classified material, or sensitive personal records that have not been specifically reviewed and approved;
• misrepresent ownership, authority, identity, provenance, or research findings;
• harvest member information or use NSA to surveil, threaten, exploit, or harm another person;
• redistribute protected archive material beyond its stated permissions; or
• use automated means to extract substantial portions of NSA or participating archives without written authorization.

6. Ownership and permitted access

NSA owns or is authorized to use its website design, software, organization, original text, and service marks. Participating Archivists and other lawful owners retain ownership of their respective archives. Search access does not transfer copyright, title, or a general right to reproduce or redistribute source material.

You retain ownership of material you submit. You grant NSA only the authority reasonably necessary to provide the service and permissions you selected, subject to any more specific agreement governing that material.

7. Privacy and confidentiality

NSA will collect only information reasonably needed to operate, protect, support, and improve the service. NSA will not sell member personal information. Private account activity and entrusted archive material will not be made public except as authorized by the owner or account holder.

NSA will use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards. No internet or storage system can honestly promise absolute security; NSA will respond in good faith to a material incident and provide notice when reasonably necessary or required.

8. Legal demands and reservation of rights

NSA does not treat an inquiry or demand as valid merely because it is presented by a governmental or other institutional body. NSA may require proof of jurisdiction, lawful authority, proper service, particularity, necessity, and compliance with applicable protections. Where reasonably possible, NSA may object to, narrow, challenge, or seek review of a demand it considers unlawful, excessive, vague, intrusive, or beyond the issuer’s authority.

If disclosure is ultimately unavoidable under binding law or valid legal process, NSA will seek to disclose only what is required. Unless prohibited, NSA will endeavor to notify the affected person beforehand and allow a reasonable opportunity to seek independent protection.

9. Service availability and changes

NSA is being developed in stages. Features identified as previews, estimates, demonstrations, or planned services are not promises that a feature will be available on a particular date. NSA may maintain, improve, restrict, suspend, or discontinue a feature when reasonably necessary for security, integrity, capacity, or responsible operation.

10. Suspension and closure

NSA may temporarily restrict an account or archive when reasonably necessary to investigate a security problem, rights dispute, material breach, unlawful activity, or threat to another person or collection. When practicable, NSA will explain the concern and allow a reasonable opportunity to respond or correct it.

You may request account closure. Archive return and deletion are additionally governed by the Archivist Agreement when applicable.

11. Research limitations

NSA provides access to evidence and source-linked research assistance, not legal, medical, financial, engineering, or other professional advice. Historical and unconventional claims may be preserved because they are part of the record; their inclusion does not mean NSA endorses or verifies them.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, NSA is not responsible for decisions made without independent evaluation of the underlying evidence or appropriate professional advice.

12. Good-faith resolution

If a disagreement arises, the parties should first communicate directly and make a good-faith effort to understand the facts and reach a fair resolution. Nothing in these Terms requires either party to surrender a right, remedy, defense, or objection that has not been knowingly and expressly waived.

13. Document versions

NSA may revise these Terms as its services develop. The version and acceptance time associated with an account will be recorded when live registration begins. Material changes will be presented for review, and renewed acceptance will be requested when appropriate. Changes will not silently transfer archive ownership or expand NSA’s authority over entrusted material.

14. Related agreements

An Archivist is also governed by the Archivist Agreement. If that agreement provides greater ownership, confidentiality, custody, return, or deletion protection for an archive, the more protective archive-specific provision controls.