Terms of service

These terms govern the use of tiermark.io and the Tiermark platform, operated by Edwards Consulting Group, Swansboro, North Carolina (“Tiermark”, “we”). By requesting a report, creating an account, or using the platform you agree to them on behalf of the company you represent. If you are signing an order form or a program agreement, that document adds to these terms and wins where the two differ.

1. What Tiermark is

Tiermark builds a supplier map from public federal award records, computes a public-posture grade for companies from passive observation of public signals, collects attestations that suppliers make to the primes that ask for them, and keeps a record of all of it. It is a tool for supplier assurance programs.

Tiermark is not a certification body, an assessor, or a source of legal or compliance advice. Nothing on the platform certifies that any company complies with any regulation, contract clause, or standard. Decisions about your suppliers, your contracts, and your reporting obligations are yours.

2. The free exposure report

The report is free and carries no obligation on either side. We may decline to produce one. It is built entirely from public records at the time it is run, it can be incomplete or out of date because those records are, and it is provided as is. It is prepared for the company named in it; you may share it inside your company and with your advisers.

3. Grades and public-record findings

A grade is Tiermark’s opinion of a company’s public security posture, formed by published rules from signals anyone can observe: DNS records, mail authentication, certificates, and TLS configuration. Each finding names its source. A grade says nothing about a company’s internal controls, its compliance status, or its fitness as a supplier, and must not be represented as doing so.

Screening results (exclusions, sanctions, ownership) are matches against public lists by name and identifier. A match can be a name collision and is labeled when we think it is one. Confirm any match against the source before acting on it.

Any company may ask us to re-read its public record or to correct a factual error at help@tiermark.io. We answer within ten business days.

4. Attestations

An attestation is a statement by a supplier to the prime that requested it. Tiermark records it, timestamps it, and shows it to the primes the supplier chooses. Tiermark does not verify attestations unless a program agreement says otherwise, and does not become a party to them. The supplier is responsible for the truth of what it attests; the prime is responsible for how it relies on it.

5. Accounts and acceptable use

You are responsible for what happens under your account. Multi-factor authentication is required. Keep your credentials to yourself and tell us at once if you think they have been used by someone else.

You may not: submit Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), classified information, or export-controlled technical data in any form; use the platform to harass, defame, or misrepresent any company; scrape, resell, or republish Tiermark data outside the uses these terms allow; probe or test our systems without written authorization; or use the platform in violation of law. If we find CUI or other prohibited material we will delete it and tell you, and you bear any cost that follows from its having been submitted.

6. Scanning

For companies that have not authorized more, Tiermark observes only public records and public signals, the way any visitor to a domain could. Active testing of a company’s systems happens only with a written authorization signed by someone entitled to give it, within the scope it states, from source addresses we publish, and with a record kept of every run. A company may withdraw authorization at any time.

7. Directory and removal

Where Tiermark publishes a directory of companies from public registrations, any company may ask to be removed from it and we will comply. Removal from the directory does not alter public records held elsewhere.

8. Fees

Paid plans and programs are priced on the order form. Subscriptions renew until canceled; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current term and no refund is made for the remainder except where the law requires one. A subscription’s price includes any sales tax that applies to it. Fees on an order form exclude taxes unless the form says otherwise, and those taxes are added where they apply. Payment is processed by Stripe under its terms. If a payment fails we may suspend access after notice.

9. Your data and ours

You own the data you put in the platform and the attestations your company makes. You give us the license we need to store, process, display, and back it up in order to run the service for you, and nothing more. Tiermark owns the platform, the grading rules, the grades, and aggregate information that identifies no customer. On termination we return or delete your data on request, keeping only the audit record of what was accepted and when, and what the law requires us to keep.

10. Confidentiality

Information a customer marks or reasonably treats as confidential is used only to provide the service and is disclosed only to people who need it for that purpose or when the law requires. Public records are not confidential.

11. Disclaimers

The platform, reports, grades, and screening results are provided as is and as available, without warranty of any kind, including accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. Public records are incomplete and change; we do not warrant them.

12. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, Tiermark is not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, contracts, or data, however caused. Tiermark’s total liability for anything arising from these terms or the service is limited to the fees you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or one hundred dollars if you paid none. These limits do not apply where the law does not allow them to.

13. Indemnity

You will defend and indemnify Tiermark against third-party claims arising from material you submitted in breach of section 5, from your misuse of a report, grade, or attestation, or from your violation of law. We will defend and indemnify you against third-party claims that the platform itself infringes a United States intellectual property right, provided you tell us promptly and let us handle the defense.

14. Suspension and termination

Either side may end a subscription at the end of its term. We may suspend or end access at once for a breach of section 5, for non-payment after notice, or when required by law, and we will say why. Sections 3, 4, 9 through 13, and 15 survive termination.

15. Law, disputes, and the rest

These terms are governed by the law of North Carolina and the United States. Disputes are brought in the state or federal courts located in North Carolina, and both sides consent to them. If part of these terms is unenforceable the rest stands. These terms, the privacy notice, and any order form are the whole agreement. We may change these terms; the date at the top changes when we do, account holders are told at their next sign-in, and continued use after that is acceptance. Notices to us go to help@tiermark.io.