Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of These Terms

You accept these Terms by clicking “agree” where we offer that option, or by downloading, installing, accessing or using the Service, whichever happens first. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service. You may be using the Service on behalf of a school or organization; if so, you confirm that you have authority to accept these Terms for it.

2. About iSpeak and Its Academic Status

iSpeak is a public speaking practice tool. It lets you record speeches and receive automated feedback on pace, clarity (pronunciation, enunciation and filler words) and energy (pitch and loudness), in English and Filipino, together with learning resources such as scripts, guided tasks and challenges. It is made for students in the Philippines from Grade 7 (about 12 years old) and up, and it runs only on Android phones and tablets.

The Service is developed by Allan Eduard Alibo Jr., Aprille Bermoy, John Laurence Salinas and Maverick J-Ceale Reapor as an academic thesis project of the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science program, STI College-General Santos, Inc. It is currently offered free of charge and is a temporary project that we plan to shut down after the thesis concludes, unless the Institution asks us to continue it. It may be in a testing or prototype stage, and features may be incomplete, may change, and may contain errors.

3. Eligibility and Parental Consent

• You must be at least 12 years old (the usual age of Grade 7 students in the Philippines) to use the Service.
• If you are under 18 (or under the age of majority where you live), you may use the Service only with the permission of a parent or legal guardian, who agrees to these Terms on your behalf and is responsible for your use.
• If you are 18 or older, you confirm that you have the legal capacity to accept these Terms.
• Whatever your age, you must not be barred from using the Service under any applicable law.

4. Your Account

You need an account to use any part of the App, and you sign in with your email address and a password. When you create one, you agree to provide accurate information, including your real age and grade level, because the App uses them to check that you are at least 12 and to set your level and feedback. You also agree to keep your password confidential, and to tell us promptly at alibo.356750@gensan.sti.edu.ph if you suspect unauthorized access. You are responsible for activity under your account. We may ask you to change your password, or suspend an account that appears compromised.

You may ask us to delete your account at any time by emailing alibo.356750@gensan.sti.edu.ph. Deletion is handled as described in the Privacy Policy.

5. Downloading and Installing the App

The Android App is distributed as an APK file directly from our website rather than through an app store. Installing an app this way is called “sideloading”. Please keep in mind:

• The App works only on Android phones and tablets running Android 7.0 or later. It cannot be installed on iPhone or iPad.
• On an Android device, the download button on our website downloads the APK directly. On a computer, the website shows a QR code instead: scan it with your Android phone’s camera to download the App on your phone.
• Download the App only from our official website. We are not responsible for copies obtained from other sources, which may be modified or contain malware.
• Your browser or phone may warn that the file “might be harmful” or comes from an “unknown source”, and Google Play Protect may show a notice. This is normal for apps installed outside an app store. You decide whether to proceed.
• To install the App you may need to allow your browser or file manager to install apps from unknown sources. We recommend turning that setting off again afterwards.
• You are responsible for having a compatible device, a working microphone, and any data or internet charges incurred.
• To check that your download has not been altered, compare its SHA-256 checksum with the one for the current version: 0986021cca6e4268597631357d31331475a9a61da8f3b632489ac17a9ab2f5d4
• Because the App is not installed from an app store, it does not update automatically. New versions are published on our website, and older versions may stop working with our server.

6. License to Use the Service

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to install and use the App on devices that you own or control, for your own non-commercial learning and practice.

You agree not to:

• copy, modify, translate or create derivative works of the Service, except as allowed by law;
• reverse engineer, decompile or attempt to extract the source code, except where the law expressly permits this despite this restriction;
• sell, rent, lease, sublicense or redistribute the App or the APK file, or host it elsewhere;
• remove copyright, trademark or other proprietary notices; or
• use the Service to build a competing product or to train or benchmark other automated systems.

7. Your Recordings and Content

“Your Content” means the voice recordings, transcripts, scripts and other material you submit to or create in the Service.

• You own Your Content. These Terms do not transfer ownership of it to us.
• You give us a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to store, process and analyze Your Content solely to operate the Service for you — for example, to generate your feedback and show your progress — as described in our Privacy Policy. This license ends when the content or your account is deleted, whether at your request or when the project ends, except for backup copies (removed within thirty days) and anonymized data.
• Any use of Your Content for academic research, beyond operating the Service for you, happens only with your separate consent as described in the Privacy Policy.
• You are responsible for Your Content. Record only your own speech. Do not record other people or conversations without their consent; in the Philippines, secretly recording private communications can violate the Anti-Wiretapping Act (Republic Act No. 4200) and other laws.
• Do not read out or record other people’s sensitive personal information, passwords, or confidential information.

8. Acceptable Use

You agree to use the Service lawfully and respectfully. You must not:

• violate any applicable law or regulation, including the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10175), the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173) and the Intellectual Property Code (Republic Act No. 8293);
• submit content that is unlawful, defamatory, obscene, threatening, harassing or hateful, that exploits or endangers minors, or that infringes someone else’s rights;
• impersonate any person or misrepresent your identity or affiliation;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other accounts, our servers or networks, or to probe, scan or test their vulnerabilities without our written permission;
• introduce viruses, malware or code intended to disrupt or damage the Service or any device;
• overload, scrape or interfere with the Service using automated means, or bypass any technical limit or security measure; or
• use the Service in a way that could harm us, other users or third parties.

If you find a security vulnerability, please report it to us responsibly at alibo.356750@gensan.sti.edu.ph instead of publicizing or exploiting it.

9. Speech Feedback and Educational Content

The Service is a practice and learning aid. Please understand its limits:

• Scores, metrics and suggestions are generated automatically and are estimates. They may be inaccurate or incomplete and are affected by accents, background noise, microphone quality, and mixed-language speech.
• The feedback is not a professional, academic, medical or speech-language pathology assessment, and is not a substitute for guidance from a qualified teacher, coach or therapist. It should not be used as an official school grade.
• We do not guarantee any particular improvement, grade, performance, or result in any presentation, exam, competition, application or job.
• Scripts, guided tasks, challenges and other learning resources are provided for practice only. They are prepared by the project team and reviewed by a professional, who may also add their own materials to the App. Reviewers can only add learning materials: they cannot access the admin or user side of our system, or your data. Reviewers’ views and materials are theirs and are not a guarantee of any outcome. Where a resource is adapted from another work, it remains the property of its owner.

10. Intellectual Property

The Service, including its software, design, text, graphics, the name “iSpeak”, the iSpeak logo and the learning materials we created, is owned by the project team and is protected by Philippine and international intellectual property laws. Except for the license in “License to Use the Service”, no rights are granted to you.

Learning materials contributed by our content reviewers remain the property of their authors, who allow us to publish them in the Service.

If you believe material in the Service infringes your copyright or other rights, email alibo.356750@gensan.sti.edu.ph with a description of the material, where it appears, your contact details and a statement that you are the rights holder or authorized to act for them. We will review it and take appropriate action.

If you send us feedback or suggestions about the Service, you allow us to use them freely to improve it, without obligation to you.

11. Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. Our Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, how we use and protect it, and your rights under the Data Privacy Act of 2012. It forms part of these Terms.

12. Third-Party Services and Links

The speech analysis, sign-in and access control in the Service are handled by our own backend, which runs on a server that we rent from a cloud hosting provider (Railway). The Service may also link to third-party services, such as app stores and external websites. We do not control third-party services, and your use of them is governed by their own terms. We are not responsible for their content, availability or practices.

13. Availability, Updates and Changes to the Service

We try to keep the Service available, but we do not promise that it will be uninterrupted, error-free or always accessible. We may update, modify, suspend or discontinue any part of the Service — or the Service as a whole, including when the thesis project ends — at any time. Where practicable, we will give reasonable notice and a way to export or delete your data. Updates may be required for continued use.

14. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time by uninstalling the App and, if you wish, deleting your account and data as described in the Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or end your access, with or without notice where the situation is urgent, if you breach these Terms, if required by law, if your use poses a security risk or harms others, or if the Service is discontinued. Sections that by their nature should continue — including those on ownership, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and governing law — survive termination.

15. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will meet your requirements, that results will be accurate or reliable, or that it will be free of errors, viruses or harmful components.

Nothing in these Terms affects any rights you have as a consumer under Philippine law that cannot be waived or limited by agreement.

16. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the project team, its members, adviser and the Institution will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, profits, opportunities or goodwill, arising from or related to your use of, or inability to use, the Service. Because the Service is provided free of charge, our total liability for any claim relating to it is limited to PHP 1,000.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, or death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any liability that the Data Privacy Act of 2012 or other mandatory law imposes on us.

17. Your Responsibility

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to be responsible for, and to reimburse us for, losses and claims by third parties that arise from your breach of these Terms or your unlawful use of the Service, including recording or publishing others’ voices or information without permission.

18. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of the Philippines, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. If a dispute arises, we encourage you to contact us first at alibo.356750@gensan.sti.edu.ph so we can try to settle it amicably and in good faith.

If it cannot be resolved that way, you and we submit to the jurisdiction of the proper courts of General Santos City, Philippines (the Hall of Justice, Cabel Street, Lagao, General Santos City). If you live outside the Philippines, this does not remove any mandatory consumer-protection rights you have under the laws of your home country.

19. Electronic Agreement and Communications

You agree that these Terms, and notices we send you, may be given in electronic form. Under the Electronic Commerce Act (Republic Act No. 8792), electronic documents and electronic signatures have the same legal effect as paper documents and handwritten signatures, so accepting these Terms electronically creates a valid and binding agreement.

20. Changes to These Terms

We may revise these Terms from time to time. We will update the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, give notice in the App or by email before they take effect. If you keep using the Service after the changes take effect, you accept the revised Terms. If you do not agree, stop using the Service.

21. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service.
• Severability. If any part is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect.
• No waiver. Our not enforcing a right is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms. We may transfer ours to a successor of the project or to the Institution.
• Events beyond our control. We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as power or internet outages, natural disasters, or outages of our hosting provider.
• Language. These Terms are written in English. If a translation is provided for convenience and the two differ, the English version prevails.

22. Contact Us

Questions about these Terms? Reach the iSpeak team:

• Email: alibo.356750@gensan.sti.edu.ph
• Institution: STI College-General Santos, Inc.