Terms and Conditions

1. Acceptance of These Terms

By accessing or using this website, submitting an enquiry, replying to our communications, approving a proposal, paying an invoice, or otherwise engaging with ShieldStone Labs, you agree to these Terms and Conditions.

If you use the website or communicate with us on behalf of a company, firm, organization, or other legal entity, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity to these terms. In that case, "you" and "your" refer to both you and that entity.

If you do not agree to these terms, do not use the website, submit an enquiry, or engage ShieldStone Labs for services.

2. Company Information

The website and services are operated by ShieldStone LLC d/b/a ShieldStone Labs.

3. Website and Enquiries

The website is provided for general informational and business-development purposes. It describes ShieldStone Labs, selected experience, service areas, and ways to contact us.

Submitting a contact form, sending an email, scheduling a call, or receiving a response does not create a client relationship, fiduciary relationship, partnership, joint venture, employment relationship, or obligation for ShieldStone Labs to accept work.

We may decline any enquiry or project for any reason, including conflict concerns, fit, timing, capacity, payment risk, legal or regulatory concerns, abusive conduct, requests for unethical work, or requests outside our capabilities.

4. Services

ShieldStone Labs provides software engineering, product engineering, automation, AI engineering, technical discovery, systems review, advisory, and related implementation services.

Any paid service must be confirmed in writing before work begins. Written confirmation may include a signed agreement, statement of work, proposal, invoice, email, or other written record that identifies scope, price, timing, assumptions, and payment terms.

If a separate signed agreement, proposal, statement of work, or invoice conflicts with these website terms, the more specific written document controls for that engagement. These terms continue to apply to website use and any topics not covered by the separate written document.

Unless specifically agreed in writing, estimates, strategy notes, technical comments, or discovery observations are not final specifications, warranties, security audits, legal opinions, compliance certifications, or guarantees of business outcome.

Change orders and out-of-scope work

Requests outside the confirmed scope, including new features, integrations, revisions, emergency support, additional meetings, production support, vendor coordination, data cleanup, migration work, compliance review, or material changes to requirements, may require a written change order, revised quote, new milestone, or separate engagement.

ShieldStone Labs is not obligated to perform out-of-scope work unless the parties confirm the additional scope and commercial terms in writing.

Delivery dates and acceptance

Delivery dates are estimates unless expressly stated as firm deadlines in a written agreement. Delays caused by missing access, delayed feedback, third-party services, changing requirements, or client-side decisions may extend timelines.

Unless a written agreement provides a different acceptance process, deliverables are deemed accepted when you approve them in writing, use them in production, pay the related invoice without written objection, or do not provide a specific written rejection within 10 business days after delivery.

5. No Legal, Financial, Medical, or Compliance Advice

ShieldStone Labs is an engineering and product services company. We do not provide legal, financial, accounting, tax, medical, insurance, investment, or regulatory advice.

Software we build or discuss may support regulated workflows, but you remain responsible for obtaining qualified professional advice and for determining whether your operations, policies, data practices, and use of software comply with applicable laws and industry rules.

6. Client Responsibilities

You agree to provide accurate information, timely decisions, appropriate access, necessary credentials through secure channels, and complete context needed for the work. You are responsible for your business decisions, operational policies, data quality, user training, and approval of deliverables.

You are responsible for ensuring that any data, documents, prompts, credentials, systems, third-party accounts, or materials you provide may lawfully be used by ShieldStone Labs for the requested work.

Delays in access, decisions, feedback, data, approvals, payment, or third-party vendor response may delay delivery dates and may require scope, timeline, or pricing changes.

Access, credentials, and approvals

You are responsible for granting and revoking access to your systems, accounts, repositories, infrastructure, data, vendors, and communication channels. Credentials should be shared only through reasonable secure methods, not in public channels or unnecessary plaintext messages.

You are responsible for confirming who on your side has authority to approve scope, accept deliverables, request production changes, approve invoices, provide credentials, and direct ShieldStone Labs' work.

Backups and production systems

Unless expressly agreed in writing, you are responsible for backups, disaster recovery, business continuity, and maintaining copies of data and systems before work is performed. You should not authorize production changes unless you understand and accept the operational risk.

7. Payment, Taxes, and Refunds

Fees, deposits, milestones, payment schedules, due dates, reimbursable expenses, and refund terms must be stated in the applicable written proposal, invoice, statement of work, or agreement.

Unless a written document says otherwise, invoices are due Net 5, meaning payment is due five calendar days after the invoice date. Work may pause for late payment, and paid discovery or consulting work is non-refundable once performed or delivered.

You are responsible for taxes, bank fees, payment-processing fees, wire fees, currency-conversion costs, and third-party vendor charges unless a written agreement says otherwise.

ShieldStone Labs may charge interest or collection costs on overdue amounts to the extent permitted by law and may suspend or terminate work for non-payment.

8. Third-Party Services and Accounts

Projects may involve third-party platforms, vendors, APIs, cloud providers, databases, AI model providers, analytics tools, payment processors, hosting services, email providers, or software libraries.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, third-party accounts, subscriptions, usage fees, platform charges, licensing costs, and vendor terms are your responsibility. ShieldStone Labs is not responsible for third-party downtime, policy changes, price changes, data handling, API changes, model behavior, security incidents, or service discontinuation.

When feasible and appropriate, client-owned infrastructure and accounts should be in your name so you retain control of your systems, billing, and data.

Open-source and third-party components

Deliverables may include open-source software, third-party libraries, frameworks, APIs, model providers, or other components that are governed by their own licenses and terms. Those third-party terms control your use of those components.

ShieldStone Labs does not warrant that any third-party component will remain available, secure, maintained, compatible, or free of licensing restrictions. You are responsible for any compliance obligations that apply to your use, distribution, or commercialization of third-party components unless a written agreement assigns that responsibility differently.

9. Intellectual Property and Work Product

ShieldStone Labs owns its pre-existing tools, know-how, methods, templates, reusable code, libraries, workflows, internal processes, documentation patterns, and general engineering knowledge.

You retain ownership of materials, data, trademarks, content, and confidential information you provide to us, subject to the rights you grant us to perform the services.

Ownership or license rights in custom deliverables must be stated in the applicable written agreement, proposal, statement of work, or invoice. Unless a written proposal, statement of work, or agreement specifically transfers ownership, ShieldStone Labs retains ownership of its work product and grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use delivered work solely for your internal business purposes after full payment.

Nothing in these terms prevents ShieldStone Labs from using general skills, ideas, concepts, know-how, techniques, and experience learned or developed during an engagement, provided we do not disclose your confidential information.

Portfolio, publicity, and attribution

ShieldStone Labs will not use your non-public name, logo, confidential project details, or testimonial in marketing without your permission. Publicly available facts and anonymized descriptions may be referenced, provided they do not disclose your confidential information.

You may not use ShieldStone Labs' name, logos, or statements in your own marketing, investor materials, press, or public communications without our prior written permission.

10. Confidentiality

We treat non-public business, technical, operational, and personal information you provide as confidential when it is identified as confidential or would reasonably be understood to be confidential from the nature of the information and the circumstances of disclosure.

Confidentiality does not apply to information that is already public, independently developed without use of confidential information, lawfully received from another source, approved for disclosure, or required to be disclosed by law.

If an engagement requires regulated data, unusually sensitive information, special security requirements, or a formal nondisclosure agreement, those requirements should be addressed in a separate written agreement before the information is provided.

Security incidents and required disclosures

If either party becomes aware of unauthorized access, loss, disclosure, or compromise involving confidential information provided for an engagement, that party should notify the other party reasonably promptly after confirming the issue and should cooperate in good faith on containment and required notices.

Nothing in these terms prevents either party from making disclosures required by law, subpoena, court order, regulator, insurer, professional adviser, or other legally recognized obligation.

11. AI, Automation, and Output Review

AI and automation systems can produce incorrect, incomplete, biased, unexpected, or unsuitable outputs. You are responsible for reviewing, testing, validating, and approving any AI-assisted, automated, or software-generated output before relying on it in business, legal, financial, medical, regulatory, employment, customer-facing, or other consequential contexts.

Unless expressly agreed in writing, ShieldStone Labs does not guarantee model accuracy, uptime, determinism, explainability, regulatory compliance, or that an AI system will be fit for a particular high-risk use.

You agree not to use work product in a way that violates law, infringes rights, misleads users, makes unlawful decisions, or bypasses required human review.

12. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the website, communications, services, or work product to:

• Violate any law, regulation, court order, contract, or third-party right.
• Send spam, malware, malicious code, phishing attempts, or abusive content.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to systems, accounts, credentials, data, or networks.
• Reverse engineer, scrape, disrupt, overload, or interfere with the website or related systems.
• Misrepresent your identity, authority, business, or purpose.
• Request work intended to facilitate fraud, evasion, harassment, unlawful surveillance, exploitation, or other harmful activity.

13. Website Availability and Changes

The website is provided on an "as available" basis. We may change, suspend, remove, or discontinue any part of the website at any time without notice.

We do not guarantee that the website will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, current, complete, or free from harmful components.

14. Privacy

Use of the website and contact form is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which describes how we collect, use, disclose, and protect personal information.

Do not send sensitive, regulated, or confidential information through the contact form unless necessary for the initial enquiry. If sensitive data is needed for project work, it should be handled under a separate written agreement.

Client data and regulated data

You are responsible for classifying your data and telling ShieldStone Labs before providing regulated, sensitive, legally privileged, export-controlled, health, financial, employment, biometric, child-related, or other high-risk data.

Unless a written agreement expressly says otherwise, ShieldStone Labs is not acting as your HIPAA business associate, financial institution service provider, payment processor, legal services provider, data protection officer, compliance auditor, or regulated fiduciary.

15. Termination

Either party may end a working relationship as allowed by the applicable written agreement. ShieldStone Labs may decline, pause, or terminate work for non-payment, abusive conduct, unlawful requests, unethical requests, security concerns, repeated delays, false information, or material breach of these terms or any written agreement.

Payment obligations, confidentiality obligations, ownership provisions, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnities, dispute-resolution terms, and any other provisions that by their nature should survive will survive termination.

16. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the website, communications, services, and work product are provided "as is" and "as available" unless a separate written agreement expressly says otherwise.

ShieldStone Labs disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, uninterrupted operation, error-free operation, security, accuracy, business outcome, revenue outcome, cost savings, regulatory compliance, or compatibility with your systems.

No statement on the website, in a case study, in a proposal, or in a communication should be read as a guarantee of a specific result.

17. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, ShieldStone Labs and its owners, officers, employees, contractors, agents, and affiliates will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, punitive, or enhanced damages; lost profits; lost revenue; lost data; business interruption; loss of goodwill; cost of substitute services; or damages arising from third-party services, even if advised that such damages may occur.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, ShieldStone Labs' total aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the website, communications, services, work product, or these terms will not exceed $500.

The liability cap applies regardless of the theory of liability, including contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, warranty, statute, or otherwise, and applies even if a limited remedy fails of its essential purpose.

18. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless ShieldStone Labs and its owners, officers, employees, contractors, agents, and affiliates from and against claims, damages, liabilities, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of or related to:

• Your use of the website, services, or work product.
• Your breach of these terms or any written agreement.
• Your materials, data, instructions, systems, credentials, or third-party services.
• Your violation of law or third-party rights.
• Your business decisions, operations, customer relationships, or downstream use of deliverables.

19. Informal Negotiation, Mediation, and Arbitration

Before either party initiates arbitration or a court proceeding, the parties must first try to resolve the dispute through good-faith informal negotiation. The party raising the dispute must send written notice describing the dispute, the requested relief, and the factual basis for the request.

The parties will then have 30 days from receipt of the notice to attempt to resolve the dispute informally. Each party agrees to participate in good faith and to make a person with settlement authority reasonably available during that period.

If the dispute is not resolved through informal negotiation, the parties must attempt to resolve it through non-binding mediation in Travis County, Austin, Texas before either party initiates arbitration. Unless the parties agree otherwise in writing, mediation will be conducted before a mutually agreed mediator. If the parties cannot agree on a mediator within 10 business days, either party may ask a court of competent jurisdiction in Travis County, Texas to appoint one.

If the dispute is not resolved within 45 days after a mediator is selected, either party may proceed to binding individual arbitration in Travis County, Austin, Texas, unless the parties agree otherwise in writing. Arbitration will be conducted in English before one neutral arbitrator. The arbitrator may award only the relief that a court of competent jurisdiction could award, subject to the limitations in these terms.

The parties waive the right to have disputes heard by a jury and waive the right to participate in class actions, collective actions, private attorney general actions, or representative proceedings to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Either party may seek temporary or preliminary injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction in Travis County, Texas to protect confidential information, intellectual property, systems, accounts, or data, without first completing informal negotiation, mediation, or arbitration.

Arbitration costs and individual relief

Unless the arbitrator determines otherwise or applicable law requires otherwise, each party will bear its own attorneys' fees and costs, and arbitration provider fees will be allocated under the applicable arbitration rules. The arbitrator may not award relief beyond what these terms allow.

The arbitrator must decide all claims on an individual basis. No arbitration may be consolidated with another proceeding without both parties' written consent.

20. Governing Law, Jurisdiction, and Venue

These terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them, the website, communications, services, or work product are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

Subject to the arbitration requirement above, any court proceeding must be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Travis County, Texas. Each party consents to personal jurisdiction and venue in those courts.

All dispute-resolution activity, including informal negotiation, mediation, arbitration, emergency relief, and court proceedings, must occur in Travis County, Austin, Texas unless the parties agree otherwise in writing or remote participation is permitted by the forum.

21. Miscellaneous

These terms, together with any applicable written agreement, proposal, statement of work, invoice, and the Privacy Policy, form the relevant agreement between you and ShieldStone Labs for the covered subject matter.

If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect, and the unenforceable provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable or, if that is not possible, severed.

No waiver is effective unless in writing. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign your rights or obligations without our written consent. We may assign these terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, or similar transaction.

Force majeure

ShieldStone Labs is not liable for delay, non-performance, or failure caused by events outside our reasonable control, including natural disasters, severe weather, fire, flood, epidemic, pandemic, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labor disputes, supply-chain failures, internet failures, power failures, cloud or vendor outages, API outages, government action, legal restrictions, security incidents, or other events that could not reasonably be prevented.

If a force majeure event materially affects an engagement, timelines may be extended, obligations may be suspended while the event continues, and the parties will work in good faith to adjust scope, timing, or delivery where practical.

Electronic communications and signatures

You consent to receive communications electronically, including by email, website, invoice, proposal, or other written electronic record. Electronic signatures, typed approvals, email approvals, checkbox consents, and payment after receipt of written terms may be treated as acceptance where permitted by law.

Export controls and sanctions

You agree not to use the website, services, or work product in violation of export-control laws, sanctions laws, embargoes, restricted-party rules, or similar trade-control requirements. You represent that you are not located in, organized under the laws of, or ordinarily resident in a comprehensively sanctioned jurisdiction and are not listed on a restricted-party list that would prohibit ShieldStone Labs from working with you.

We may update these terms from time to time. The updated version will be identified by the "Last updated" date above. Continued use of the website or services after an update means you accept the updated terms.

22. Contact

Questions about these Terms and Conditions may be sent to: