Terms

Terms of Service

The agreement between Studio Zero and the organisations that use it, with schedules for schools, employers, healthcare, public bodies and families.

Part 1 — The basics

1. Who these terms are between

These terms are an agreement between 1548705 B.C. Ltd., operating as Studio Zero, a company registered in the Province of British Columbia, Canada ("we", "us"), and the organisation or person that opens a Studio Zero workspace ("the Customer", "you"). If you accept them for an organisation, you confirm you have the authority to bind it.

Every person who signs in under a Customer's workspace — staff, guests, students, parents, volunteers ("Users") — also agrees to the Acceptable Use rules in Part 4 and the parts of these terms that apply to them.

2. What Studio Zero is

Studio Zero is an online operating system for organising work: tasks and phases, groups and group chat, comments, files and folders, sheets (such as requests for information, submittals and change requests), people directories and permissions, progress figures (key performance indicators, team activity and time figures), translation, and an optional AI assistant. It runs in a web browser and as an installed app on computers and phones.

The phone app. The phone app is for paying Customers and their Users. It is offered through a private download link sent after purchase (for example in a new User's welcome message), not through a public app store listing. It is free to download, nothing is sold inside it, and it does not include the AI assistant, which is available only in the web version.

3. Who may use it

• Organisations of any kind, including businesses, schools, public bodies, charities, faith groups, clubs and professional firms, and individuals and families.
• Minimum age. A person under the age of digital consent where they live (13 in the United States and most of Canada, 14 in Quebec) may use Studio Zero only:
• through a school or organisation that has given the consent the law requires (Schedule A), or
• through a parent or guardian's account, with that parent's consent (Schedule E).
• You may not use Studio Zero if the law where you are forbids it, or if you are on a government sanctions list.

4. The documents that make up the agreement

1. These Terms of Service.
2. The Privacy Policy — what we collect and why, and your rights.
3. The Data Processing Agreement (DPA) — applies automatically when you put other people's personal information into Studio Zero.
4. Any Schedule in Part 6 that applies to you (schools, employers, healthcare, public sector, families, AI).
5. Any order form or signed agreement. If one conflicts with these terms, the signed document wins.

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Part 2 — Your workspace and your data

5. Your workspace is yours

• You own your data. Everything you and your Users put into Studio Zero — tasks, comments, chat, files, sheets, the people directory — belongs to you. We claim no ownership of it.
• We use it only to run Studio Zero for you: to store it, show it to the people you allow, translate it when a User asks, back it up, keep it secure, and fix problems. We do not sell it, rent it, use it for advertising, or build profiles of your people for anyone else.
• Each Customer's data is kept in its own separate database. One Customer's data is never mixed with another's.

6. Who controls what

• You decide who gets in and what they can see. Your administrators add people, set each person's role, and set what each role and each person can see and do (full, view only, or none). Only your owner and administrators can add, change, disable or remove people.
• Removing a person, or disabling them, ends their access.
• Guests. You may invite people from outside your organisation (clients, consultants, contractors, parents) to one project only. They see only what you share with them.
• You are responsible for the people you invite and for what your administrators do in your workspace.

7. Signing in

• Users sign in with their email address and a password, set from the invitation their administrator sends. Keep your password private; you are responsible for activity under your sign-in. The same sign-in works in the browser and in the phone app.
• A sign-in works only while the person is on the Customer's roster and not disabled, so removing or disabling a person in People & Access ends their access. The Customer is responsible for keeping its roster current.
• Staff sessions can stay signed in on a device until the person signs out or an administrator removes them. If a device is lost or shared, sign out on it or tell your administrator straight away.
• Tell us at once at info@studio-zero.ca if you think someone has got into an account.

8. What happens to deleted items

• When a User deletes an item, it moves to a deleted-items area your administrators can see, and it can be restored. This protects you against mistakes.
• Your administrators can permanently delete items. Deleted items stay in that area until one of your administrators permanently deletes them; we never empty it on our own.
• Backups. We back up every Customer's data every night. Nightly backups are kept for 30 days and then destroyed. A monthly archive copy is kept for 12 months. A permanently deleted item disappears from backups when the backup containing it expires.

9. Getting your data back, and deleting it

• Export. You can export your data at any time while your account is active, and for 30 days after it ends. Ask within those 30 days and we provide it in a standard format.
• Deletion when you leave. We keep your data for 30 days after the agreement ends, in case you come back. After that we permanently delete your workspace's data, including from nightly backups as they expire and from monthly archive copies, and on request we confirm in writing that we have done so.
• Everyone's access ends with the workspace. When a workspace is closed, every User in it loses access, in the browser and in the phone app.
• Deletion on request. A Customer may ask us to delete its whole workspace sooner, in writing.
• Where the law requires us to keep something (for example billing records), we keep only that, only for as long as the law says.

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Part 3 — Privacy and protection

10. How we protect data

• Data is encrypted while it travels over the internet and while it is stored.
• Access by our own staff is limited to the people who need it to run or repair the service, and it is logged.
• The platform owner can enter any workspace. Studio Zero's creator account can open any Customer's workspace to support it, repair it or investigate misuse. Every entry is recorded, and a Customer can ask us for the record of entries into its workspace.
• Every Customer's data sits in its own database.
• Nightly backups, and automatic checks that the data is complete and consistent.
• Product updates install automatically and are designed never to lose a User's work in progress.
• We test our changes before they reach you.

11. Where data is stored, and who helps us run Studio Zero

• Studio Zero is hosted by Cloudflare on servers that are currently in the United States.
• The AI assistant runs on our AI service provider. It processes text only when a User uses the assistant, and it does not use your data to train its models.
• Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store full card numbers.
• The full list of the companies that help us process data ("sub-processors"), what each one does and the country it works in, is at studio-zero.ca/privacy, section 5. We give Customers 30 days' notice before adding one, and a school or public body may object.
• Where data leaves the country it came from, we protect it with the contracts and safeguards that country's law requires (for example the transfer assessment required in Quebec). Quebec: before data leaves Quebec (our US hosting and our AI provider both count), the Customer carries out the privacy assessment Law 25 requires, and we provide the information pack for it. California: our Data Processing Agreement carries the terms that make us a "service provider" under the CCPA.

12. If something goes wrong (security incidents)

• If we learn that personal data in Studio Zero has been accessed without permission, we tell the affected Customer without undue delay and within 72 hours. We say what happened, what data was involved, and what we are doing about it.
• We help the Customer meet any notice duties it has to its own people and regulators. Some laws set shorter deadlines for particular Customers (for example schools in New York). Where a signed agreement sets a shorter deadline, we meet it.

13. People's rights over their own information

• People can ask to see, correct or delete their personal information, or object to how it is used. Where a Customer put the information in, the request goes to that Customer, and we help them answer it. Where the information is ours (a Customer's billing contact, for example), we answer directly.
• Parents' rights over their children's information are in Schedules A and E.
• Requests go to info@studio-zero.ca. Our privacy officer is the Studio Zero Privacy Officer, reachable at info@studio-zero.ca.

14. Messages we send

We send service messages (sign-in links, password resets, notifications Users turn on). We send marketing only to people who have agreed to it, and every marketing message has a way to unsubscribe. We never send marketing to children, or to Users inside a school workspace.

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Part 4 — Acceptable use

15. What no one may do in Studio Zero

• Break the law, or help someone else break it.
• Harass, threaten, bully or discriminate against anyone.
• Upload content that is sexual and involves a minor, or that exploits anyone. We report this to the authorities.
• Upload something you have no right to share (someone else's copyright, trade secrets, or private information).
• Upload patient or medical records (Schedule C), full payment card numbers, or government identity numbers (social security, SIN, CURP, passport) unless a signed agreement allows it.
• Try to reach another Customer's data, get round a permission, test our security without written permission, or overload the service.
• Copy, resell or rebuild Studio Zero, or use it to build a competing product.
• Use the AI assistant to make a decision about a person that the law says a human must make (Part 5).
• Send spam or bulk unsolicited messages through Studio Zero, including through its chat, push notifications or the emails it sends.
• Let anyone on a US or Canadian sanctions list use it, or use it in a sanctioned country.
• Use Studio Zero to secretly watch people. If you review your staff's or students' chats or work, you must tell them first, in the way your local law requires (Schedules A and B).

16. What we can do about misuse

• How we find it: both automatic protections (sign-in rate limits, permission checks, no path from one company's data to another's, and, when a workspace reaches its storage limit, background work paused while people's own work keeps saving) and review by a person when something is reported or flagged.
• What we do, in steps: (1) a warning, with the chance to fix it; (2) suspension of the content, the person or the workspace while it is fixed; (3) ending the account if the problem is serious, repeated or not fixed. We skip straight to suspension or ending the account for illegal content, for harm to other Users, or where the law requires it. We tell the Customer why unless the law forbids it.
• Content removed for misuse is kept for the same period as other deleted items (§8), then permanently deleted, unless the law requires us to keep it longer (for example to report child sexual abuse material).
• You are responsible for your Users. Your administrators control who is in your workspace and what each person can do, so the Customer is responsible for what its Users do in Studio Zero.

16a. Reporting a security problem

If you find a security weakness, tell us at info@studio-zero.ca. We welcome good-faith reports, will answer, and will not take action against a researcher who reports privately, gives us reasonable time to fix it, and does not access or keep other people's data. Testing beyond that still needs our written permission.

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Part 5 — The AI assistant and people figures

17. What the assistant does

The assistant answers questions about your workspace, drafts text, translates, and summarises. It works only on what the User who asks it is allowed to see.

• Your own AI account. At your request, Studio Zero can connect to an AI assistant account of your own. It acts with the permissions of the User it works for, inside your workspace only: it sees what that User can see, and nothing more.
• Use of your own AI account is governed by that provider's terms and limits. Upgrading it is your choice and your cost.
• The phone app does not include AI features. The assistant is available only in the web version.

18. The assistant informs; people decide

• A person always makes the decision. Anything the assistant writes about a person — including a note on someone's effort, contribution or communication — is advice to the person assessing them. It is never a grade, a score, a hiring, firing, promotion or pay decision, or a disciplinary decision on its own.
• It shows its work. Every sentence in a note about a person links to the messages or items it came from, so anyone can check it.
• It comments only on the work — effort, contribution, communication, timeliness. It never comments on anyone's health, emotions, family, religion, politics, sexuality, or other personal life.
• Notes are records the Customer can correct or delete. The person a note is about can ask to see it and correct it, through the Customer.
• Customers can turn the assistant off for their whole workspace, and a person can be excluded from having their chats read for these notes.
• AI can be wrong. Check what it writes before you rely on it.

19. People figures (KPIs, the team podium, team activity)

Studio Zero shows figures such as tasks completed, phases finished and time active. They count what was done in Studio Zero; they do not measure the whole of anyone's work. A Customer must not use them as the only basis for a decision about a person, and must tell its people these figures exist (Schedule B).

20. No training on your data

Neither we nor our AI provider use your data or your Users' chats to train AI models.

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Part 6 — Schedules for particular Customers

Schedule A — Schools and anyone working with students

1. The school owns and controls student data. We process it only on the school's instructions and only to provide Studio Zero for teaching. We act as a "school official" under FERPA (US) and as a processor under Canadian law.
2. Consent. Where the law allows, the school gives consent for its students' use (in the US, the school authorisation recognised under COPPA). The school confirms it has given parents the notices the law requires.
3. Two ways to use Studio Zero with children:
4. School mode — the school runs the workspace; parents get a linked account to see their child's work and give consent.
5. Family or tutor mode — a parent holds the account and gives consent, and the child uses a linked account of their own (Schedule E).
6. Never for advertising. No ads, no selling, no profiling of students, no marketing to students or parents through the school.
7. The assessment note follows Part 5 strictly. The teacher grades. Students are told, on screen in their group chat, that the assistant may read it to help their teacher.
8. Retention. Student data is deleted at the end of the course or contract, on the school's instruction, and we certify the deletion.
9. Breach notice within 72 hours, or sooner where state or provincial law requires.
10. Signed data agreements. We will sign the Student Data Privacy Consortium National Data Privacy Agreement (US) and the state or provincial addenda a school needs.
11. Access requests from parents go through the school, and we help within the time the law sets.

Schedule B — Employers (when staff work in Studio Zero)

1. Tell your people, in writing, yourself. Before you use Studio Zero figures, activity or time figures, or assessment notes about staff, tell them in writing what is collected and how you use it. You do this in your own employment agreement or in a written confirmation you give each employee; we do not supply, and are not responsible for, that notice. Some places require a written notice or policy for reviewing employees' electronic communications (for example New York, and Ontario for employers with 25 or more staff). You are responsible for giving it. Laws that require it include New York Civil Rights Law §52-c, Connecticut §31-48d, Delaware §705, and Ontario's Employment Standards Act Part XI.1. Illinois (HB 3773, from 1 Jan 2026) also requires telling employees when AI is used in employment decisions.
2. No automated employment decisions. Where the law regulates tools used in hiring, promotion or firing (New York City Local Law 144; Illinois HB 3773; California's FEHA regulations on automated decision systems, in force 1 Oct 2025; Colorado SB 26-189, from 1 Jan 2027), you must not use the assistant or the figures to make or substantially make such a decision. Using Studio Zero for hiring or promotion screening in New York City is not allowed unless you run your own Local Law 144 bias audit and notices.
3. Records. California requires records of automated-decision data to be kept for four years. Customers that need this can switch on a four-year retention setting for assessment notes and their sources.
4. Never on protected traits. The assistant and the figures must not be used to infer anyone's health, mental state or other protected characteristic, or a stand-in for one (such as where they live).
5. Fair use. Do not use Studio Zero to single out a person because of a protected characteristic, or to watch someone in a way the law forbids.

Schedule C — Healthcare organisations

Studio Zero is for non-clinical work only: facilities, projects, scheduling staff tasks, compliance checklists. Do not put patient information into Studio Zero. We are not a health information system and, unless we sign a separate written agreement (in the US, a Business Associate Agreement; in Ontario, the PHIPA service-provider terms), we do not accept patient health information. Storing it encrypted does not change this: under HIPAA an encrypted cloud host still needs a Business Associate Agreement.

Schedule D — Public bodies

1. We will answer procurement privacy questionnaires and support a privacy impact assessment.
2. Data residency: Studio Zero is hosted in the United States today. Public bodies that need data kept in their own country tell us before signing. Nova Scotia public bodies must keep data in Canada, so they cannot use US hosting.
3. Accessibility: we aim to meet WCAG 2.1 level AA. US state and local governments need it under the ADA Title II web rule (deadlines 26 Apr 2027 for large bodies, 26 Apr 2028 for small ones); Ontario bodies under AODA. Accessibility problems can be reported to info@studio-zero.ca, and we answer within 5 business days.
4. Records and freedom-of-information requests: the public body owns its records and answers those requests; we help it export what it needs.

Schedule E — Families and individuals

1. A parent or guardian may open a family workspace and create linked accounts for their children.
2. The parent gives consent for each child under the age of digital consent, and can see the child's work, change the child's settings, and delete the child's account at any time.
3. A parent cannot post as the child. Each child has their own sign-in.
4. Consumer rights. Nothing in these terms takes away rights that consumer law gives you where you live (for example in Quebec). If you buy as a consumer in Quebec, these terms and all communications are available to you in French.
5. You can cancel a paid plan online as easily as you started it. Before a plan renews we remind you as California's automatic-renewal law requires. (The US federal "click-to-cancel" rule was struck down; state law still applies.)

Schedule F — Translation

When a User asks, Studio Zero translates the interface and what other people write into the language that User chose. The original is always kept and one tap away. Translations are automatic and can be wrong; the original is what counts.

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Part 7 — Commercial terms

21. Fees

• Set-up. A new Customer pays a one-time set-up fee of $275 CAD at purchase. All prices are in Canadian dollars (CAD).
• Currency. Studio Zero is a Canadian company and charges in Canadian dollars. If you buy from outside Canada, checkout may show and charge the same price converted into your own currency. That conversion is done by our payment processor, Stripe, at its exchange rate at the time of purchase, which includes its conversion fee and is shown to you before you pay. The Canadian-dollar price is the price under this agreement. Any foreign-transaction fee your own bank or card charges is yours.
• Monthly plan by team size. $150 a month for up to 10 Users, $200 for up to 15, $250 for up to 20, $300 for up to 30, $400 for up to 40 and $500 for up to 50. Teams over 50 Users are priced individually. The prices that apply are the ones shown on our pricing page when you buy.
• Annual plan. You may instead pay for a year ahead, at ten times the monthly price for your team size (two months free): $1,500 a year for up to 10 Users, $2,000 for up to 15, $2,500 for up to 20, $3,000 for up to 30, $4,000 for up to 40 and $5,000 for up to 50.
• Where you pay. Payment is taken on our website. The phone app is included in your plan at no extra charge, and nothing is sold inside it.
• Taxes. Prices do not include sales taxes (such as GST, HST, QST or US state sales tax), which are added where the law requires.
• Refunds. Fees already paid are not refunded, except where the law requires it or §23 says so.
• If a payment fails, we try again and tell your Global Administrator. If the account is still unpaid after a 14-day grace period, the workspace is suspended: nobody can sign in, but nothing is deleted. If it is still unpaid 30 days after suspension, the agreement ends and §9 applies.

22. Term and ending the agreement

• A monthly plan runs month to month and renews each month until you cancel. An annual plan runs for a year and renews each year until you cancel.
• You can cancel at any time. Cancelling stops all future charges: nothing more is charged after the date you cancel, and you keep access until the end of the month (or, on an annual plan, the year) already paid.
• We may suspend or end the agreement if you seriously break these terms and do not fix the problem within 30 days of our notice, or at once for illegal use or for harm to other Users. We give notice where it is practical.
• However the agreement ends (cancellation, non-payment or a breach), Part 2 §9 applies: 30 days to get your data back, then permanent deletion.

23. Changes to Studio Zero and to these terms

• We improve Studio Zero continuously. We do not remove a core feature you are paying for without 60 days' notice.
• We may update these terms. We tell Customers at least 30 days before a change that reduces your rights takes effect. If you do not agree, you may cancel and receive a refund of any prepaid time you have not used.

24. Availability and support

We aim for Studio Zero to be available 99.9% of the time each month, not counting maintenance we announce in advance. Support is by email at info@studio-zero.ca, answered within one business day, Monday to Friday, Pacific time. The Help Centre is at studio-zero.ca/help, with written and video tutorials in every supported language.

25. Our promises, and their limits

• We provide Studio Zero with reasonable skill and care, and in line with these terms and the Privacy Policy.
• Otherwise, and as far as the law allows, Studio Zero is provided "as is". We do not promise it will never have a fault, and the AI assistant and translations can be wrong.
• Limitation of liability. Our total liability for all claims related to Studio Zero is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss such as lost profits. The cap does not apply to our obligations on data protection and security incidents, to fraud, wilful misconduct or gross fault, or to anything else the law does not allow us to limit. In Quebec, under article 1474 of the Civil Code of Québec, no one may exclude or limit liability for material injury caused by intentional or gross fault, or for bodily or moral injury caused to another person, so nothing here does. Consumer law where you live may give you more protection, and that protection stays.

26. Indemnities

• You protect us against claims caused by data or content you upload that you had no right to, or by your breaking the law in how you use Studio Zero (for example not giving staff a notice the law requires).
• We protect you against claims that Studio Zero itself infringes someone's intellectual property.

27. Confidentiality

Each side keeps the other's non-public information confidential and uses it only for this agreement.

28. Intellectual property

We own Studio Zero — its software, design and brand. You own your data (§5). If you send us suggestions, we may use them freely.

29. Copyright complaints

If you think something in a workspace infringes your copyright, write to info@studio-zero.ca with the details required by law. We pass it to the Customer and act on valid notices.

30. Law and courts

• One law for every Customer. These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, wherever the Customer is based. That includes every Canadian province and territory (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon), every US state and the District of Columbia, and anywhere else.
• Courts. Disputes are heard by the courts of British Columbia, and both sides accept their jurisdiction. There is no compulsory arbitration and no waiver of class actions.
• Rights your own law gives you stay. Choosing British Columbia law never takes away a protection that the law where you live gives you and that cannot be given up by contract, such as consumer protection.
• Quebec (civil law). For a Customer or User in Quebec:
• under article 3117 of the Civil Code of Québec, a consumer keeps the protection of the mandatory rules of Quebec law, even though these terms choose British Columbia law;
• under article 3149 of the Civil Code, a consumer (and a worker, for a claim about their work) may bring a claim before the Quebec courts, and that right cannot be waived;
• under section 11.1 of the Consumer Protection Act (CQLR c P-40.1), a consumer cannot be required to go to arbitration or be barred from a class action;
• these terms are a contract of adhesion. Under articles 1435 to 1437 of the Civil Code, a clause in another document they refer to (such as the Privacy Policy) binds a consumer or adhering party only if it was expressly brought to their attention when they agreed; a clause that is illegible or incomprehensible to a reasonable person is null if it causes them injury; and an abusive clause is null or its obligation reduced;
• article 1474 of the Civil Code limits what we may exclude (see §25), and §31 covers the French language.
• United States. Where a state's law gives a consumer rights that cannot be waived, those rights apply.

31. Language

These terms are written in English and offered in French. In Quebec, as section 55 of the Charter of the French Language requires for a contract of adhesion, the French version is given first, and a Customer is bound by the English version only if it expressly asks for it after receiving the French one.

32. General

Notices to 351 Copper Drive, Britannia Beach, BC V8B 1C5, Canada and info@studio-zero.ca. If one part of these terms is unenforceable, the rest stays in force. Neither side is responsible for delays caused by events outside its reasonable control. You may not transfer the agreement without our consent, except to a company that takes over your business.

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