Host Terms of Service

Published: October 19, 2026

1. Scope

1.1 These Host Terms of Service (“Host Terms”) govern the use of the Affini web-based platform (the “Platform”) by community hosts and their authorized administrators (“Host,” “you”). Affini App, LLC, an Illinois limited liability company (“Affini,” “we,” “us”), provides hosts with tools to offer profile-based introductions and matching to the members of their communities. By creating a host account, or using host tools, you agree to these Host Terms and to the Affini Privacy Policy. If you are entering into these Host Terms on behalf of your organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization, and “you” refers to the organization.

1.2 If you also use the Platform as an individual member, that use is governed by the Member Terms of Service. If you or any of your administrators wish to participate in matching as individual members, each such individual must create their own member profile and accept the Member Terms of Service at that time. Accepting these Host Terms does not create a member account for anyone.

1.3 Key terms. “Your Community” is your group as it exists in the world, such as a professional organization, networking group, alumni group, social club, workplace, or team, whether it gathers online, in person, or both, with its own membership and rules; many of its members may never use Affini. Your “Affini Community” is the space you create on the Platform to offer matching to Your Community. A “Membership” is the link created when a person with their own Affini account joins your Affini Community through your invite or your approval; we call that person a member of your Affini Community.

2. Eligibility and Accounts

2.1 Hosts and all host administrators must be at least 18 years old.

2.2 The Platform is currently offered in the United States only. You agree not to invite or knowingly admit members of your Affini Community who are not located in the United States or are under 18.

2.3 You are responsible for the acts and omissions of your administrators and for maintaining the confidentiality of host account credentials.

3. The Host Relationship

3.1 Your community, your members. You control who is invited to Your Community, Your Community’s rules, and your events. Your members are Your Community’s participants, and Affini only provides the connection suggestions based on member profiles. You are responsible for your relationship with your members, including any obligations you have to them under your own policies and applicable law.

3.2 Member consent comes first. Matching is available only for members who create an Affini profile and accept the Member Terms and Privacy Policy. You agree not to condition participation in Your Community on disclosure of members’ individual profile answers, which in any case the Platform is designed not to give you.

3.3 What matching considers. Matching uses background characteristics, such as age, gender, or life stage, only as described in Section 5 of the Privacy Policy, in any Affini Community. Members may set their own preferences about who they would like to meet. Those preferences belong to the members and are never visible to or configurable by you. You agree not to ask Affini for member-level background information of any kind.

3.4 What you see. Host tools show you your Affini Community’s roster, meaning member cards and membership status, together with each current member’s account email address; aggregate analytics; and sub-group compositions for groupings you run. You never see members’ individual match lists, match reasons or scores, or any member’s individual profile answers or matching inputs. The Platform is designed so that hosts do not see those inputs, and you agree not to attempt to reverse, infer, or extract individual member answers from any information the Platform provides.

3.5 Member email addresses. You may use member email addresses solely to administer and communicate about Your Community, not for marketing or solicitation unrelated to it, and never to sell, rent, or share them. These obligations survive a member’s removal and the end of your Host role.

3.6 Aggregate analytics and their limits. Aggregate analytics may include, for example, membership counts and growth, aggregate participation, supply-and-demand balance across member goals and interests, match volume and feedback trends, and members who discovered your Affini Community through Affini discovery. Dashboard data is a read-only, directional snapshot, refreshed periodically and recomputed when you open it if the snapshot has aged. We may add, change, or remove metrics and panels over time. Two protections hold across all of them: analytics are aggregate-only, and no statistic is shown that is computed from a group of members small enough to identify anyone. Segments of fewer than 5 members are hidden, shown as “<5, hidden,” and dashboard panels are withheld entirely for communities with fewer than 10 active members. These protections are enforced by Affini’s systems and are not settings that you, or we on request, can switch off.

3.7 Grouping. For Affini Community events, you may create a grouping of all or selected members of your Affini Community, and then form sub-groups within it (breakout rooms or table seating) or not. Either way, Affini may notify members of the grouping when their matches check in, to encourage attendance. Check-ins on the Platform are not event registrations. If you form sub-groups, you would see the resulting sub-group compositions, meaning which members are grouped together, solely to run the activity, and not any individual matches. You will not see match reasons, scores, or any member’s individual answers, and you may use sub-group compositions only to operate your Affini Community and its events. Sub-group composition is a different calculation from members’ personal match lists and is not a view of them: it balances the whole room among the members who attend. Two members being grouped together does not mean either appears in the other’s list of top matches, and a group of any size, including a group of two, does not indicate that its members are among each other’s top matches. You may add attending members to a grouping directly, and members who do not attend are simply not placed in sub-groups. If you take a sub-group composition out of the Platform, handling it is your responsibility under Section 6 (Data Protection).

3.8 Removing and blocking members. You can end a member’s Membership in two ways. A routine removal is non-punitive, for example when dues lapse or a cohort ends, and the member may rejoin later on a new invite. A block prevents the member from rejoining your Affini Community. In both cases the member receives the same neutral notice, which invites them to contact you if they believe the change was an error. You agree to use blocks for genuine conduct or safety reasons, not as a substitute for routine removal. Affini may suspend the Platform account of a member blocked by more than one unrelated Affini Community. A member suspended on this basis may ask us to review the suspension at [email protected].

3.9 Introductions and interest. Affini does not exchange members’ contact details. When two members are matched, each sees the other’s member card together with any contact links that member has chosen to add to their own profile, meaning links to profiles they already maintain elsewhere, which they may add or remove at any time. Some members will add none. You therefore agree to support at least one other way for matched members to reach each other: making introductions yourself when a member asks, or directing members to Your Community’s own channels. Which of these you offer is your choice, and you agree to tell your members which it is.

3.10 Discovery requests. If you choose for your Affini Community to be discoverable, prospective members can request to join it. You are notified by email, and your dashboard lists pending requests. You see the requester’s Affini member card, together with their account email address, so you can run Your Community’s own membership process before deciding. If you decline a request, you will not retain or use the requester’s contact information. If you approve, they become a member of your Affini Community. You can turn discovery off for your Affini Community at any time, and members who join this way appear in your dashboard’s “Discovered via Affini” statistics.

3.11 Inviting your members. Members join your Affini Community through your invite links or through your approval of a discovery request. You agree to invite only people who meet the eligibility requirements in Section 2. Practical guidance on launching and onboarding lives in the Host Playbook.

3.12 Promoting Affini to your members. You may use Affini’s name and logo, and materials we provide, to introduce Affini within Your Community. You agree to describe Affini accurately, in particular the privacy design, and not to state or imply that Affini endorses Your Community. Creating an Affini account is always each member’s own choice under the Member Terms.

3.13 Closing or leaving an Affini Community. If you close your Affini Community or your host account ends, you may transfer the Affini Community to a new host or archive it. Archived Memberships wind down automatically after a transition period. Communicating changes in Your Community, including a transfer, closure, or change of host, is your responsibility, through Your Community’s own channels. Your Affini Community configuration and previously generated aggregate reports are preserved.

3.14 Member content and moderation. Member headlines, photos, and open-text fields in their profiles are entered by members and are automatically screened for personal details and inappropriate content, and flagged text in a matching field holds the member from matching until it is revised, and flagged card content, such as a headline or photo, is withheld from display until it is revised. Screening is a safeguard, not a guarantee, and we do not warrant that member content is accurate or appropriate. If you see content that appears to violate Affini’s policies, report it to [email protected] in addition to acting on it outside the Platform under Your Community’s own policies.

3.15 In-person events. You are solely responsible for the planning, safety, legality, and conduct of your events, including venues, insurance, and compliance with applicable law. Affini does not organize, supervise, or assume any responsibility for events.

3.16 Pilot phase. The Platform is in an early pilot. Features may change, be added, or be removed, host tools and analytics may be adjusted as we learn, and the service may be interrupted while we make improvements. Match quality depends on how many of Your Community’s members have joined and how fully they have answered, so early results may be thin and improve as your Affini Community grows. If something is not working as you expect, please tell us so we can look into it. We welcome your feedback, questions and suggestions at [email protected]. The disclaimers and limits in Sections 10 and 11 apply during this period, though nothing in these Host Terms limits any right you have under applicable law. This clause applies only while the Platform is in its pilot phase, and ceases to apply when Affini announces general availability, without any further change to these Host Terms.

4. Host Responsibilities and Acceptable Use

4.1 You agree not to use the Platform to discriminate against members of your Affini Community in violation of applicable law.

4.2 You agree not to misrepresent Your Community, your affiliation, or Affini’s role, or state or imply that Affini endorses Your Community.

4.3 You agree not to use member information obtained through the Platform for purposes outside operating your Affini Community, including sale of data, advertising lists, or unrelated solicitation.

4.4 You agree not to attempt to access, infer, or reconstruct individual member profile answers, including by comparing dashboard panels, comparing group compositions across events, tracking changes over time, combining aggregate data with outside information, or inferring the composition of hidden segments.

4.5 You agree not to interfere with the Platform’s security or matching systems, use automated means to access the Platform without our written permission, or scrape, systematically copy, or extract roster or dashboard data other than through features the Platform provides.

4.6 You agree not to use the Platform for any unlawful purpose.

4.7 We may investigate suspected violations and may suspend or terminate host accounts and communities that violate these Host Terms.

5. Fees

5.1 Host tools are currently provided free of charge during the pilot. If we introduce paid host plans in the future, we will present pricing and payment terms before you purchase, and continued use of paid features will be subject to those terms. We will not charge you without your affirmative consent.

5.2 Each party bears its own taxes arising from its own activities.

6. Data Protection

6.1 As between you and Affini, Affini is responsible for the Platform’s handling of member profile data as described in the Privacy Policy, and you are responsible for your handling of any member information you collect or receive outside the Platform or take out of it, such as attendance lists. Each party will comply with applicable data protection laws in its role.

6.2 You will not attempt to re-identify any individual from aggregate or de-identified insights or analytics provided by the Platform, or combine such insights with other information in a manner that identifies or could reasonably identify any member, and you will not permit or assist any third party to do so.

6.3 You will promptly notify us at [email protected] if you become aware of any unauthorized access to your host account or to member data.

6.4 Details of member data retention and deletion, including what happens when a member leaves a community, is removed, or deletes their account, are set out in the Privacy Policy as updated from time to time. We may update those details under the Privacy Policy, with notice as that Policy provides, without amending these Host Terms.

7. Intellectual Property

7.1 Affini and its licensors own the Platform, including its software, matching systems, and branding. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the host tools while you maintain a host account, for the purpose of operating your Affini Community; this license ends when your host account does, while the ownership statement above survives. We also grant you a limited, revocable license to use Affini’s name and logo, and materials we provide, solely to introduce and promote Affini within Your Community, consistent with any brand guidelines we share.

7.2 You grant us a non-exclusive license to use Your Community’s name, logo, description, and other community information you provide, within the Platform to service Your Community and, if you choose to make Your Community discoverable, to display it to prospective members. We will use it in our marketing only with your prior written consent. Feedback you provide about the Platform may be used by us without restriction or obligation.

8. Confidentiality

8.1 Non-public information that either party makes available to the other in connection with the Platform, including non-public platform features and aggregate community analytics, must be used only for purposes of the relationship and protected with reasonable care. This obligation survives termination for as long as the information remains non-public.

9. Term and Termination

9.1 These Host Terms apply from the date you first accept them and continue while you maintain a host account. Either party may terminate at any time: you by closing your host account, and we upon notice if you materially breach these Host Terms, create risk for members or the Platform, or if we discontinue the Platform.

9.2 Upon termination, your host tools access ends. Member accounts and profiles are unaffected, as members’ own relationships with Affini are governed by the Member Terms. Provisions that by their nature should survive, including Sections 3.5, 6, 7, 8, 10 to 13, and 14.2, survive.

10. Disclaimers

10.1 THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, AFFINI DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND MAKES NO WARRANTY REGARDING MATCH QUALITY, MEMBER ENGAGEMENT OR RETENTION, OR THAT THE PLATFORM WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE.

11. Limitation of Liability

11.1 TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW: (A) NEITHER PARTY WILL BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL; (B) AFFINI WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR THE CONDUCT OF ANY MEMBER OR THIRD PARTY, OR FOR YOUR EVENTS; AND (C) EACH PARTY’S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE HOST TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100) OR THE AMOUNTS PAID BY HOST TO AFFINI IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE. THE EXCLUSIONS IN (A) AND (C) DO NOT APPLY TO YOUR INDEMNIFICATION OBLIGATIONS, YOUR BREACH OF SECTIONS 3.4, 3.5, 4.3, 4.4, OR 4.5, OR EITHER PARTY’S GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT.

12. Indemnification

12.1 You will indemnify and hold harmless Affini and its officers, owners, employees, and agents from and against claims, damages, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of Your Community, your events, your handling of member information outside the Platform, or your violation of these Host Terms or applicable law.

13. Dispute Resolution; Governing Law

13.1 These Host Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Host Terms must be brought in the state or federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois, and each party consents to their jurisdiction. THE PARTIES WAIVE TRIAL BY JURY.

14. Changes; General

14.1 We may update these Host Terms with at least thirty (30) days’ notice for material changes, effective on the date stated in that notice.

14.2 These Host Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and Affini regarding host use of the Platform. If any provision is unenforceable, the remainder stands. You may not assign these Host Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. Notices: [email protected], Affini App, LLC.