Terms of Use

1. Agreement and who may use the service

These terms are an agreement between you and DevX Strategy (“we”, “us”) about your use of MERLBase. By creating an account or using the service you accept them. If you use MERLBase on behalf of an organisation, you confirm you have authority to accept these terms for it, and “you” includes the organisation.

You must be 18 or older. Do not use the service if you do not agree to these terms.

2. Accounts and roles

• Give accurate details and keep your password and your organisation’s join code confidential.
• You are responsible for what happens under your account. Tell us promptly at info@merlbase.com if you think it has been used without permission.
• Each organisation has administrators who decide who joins and what role they have: administrator, manager or field officer. Administrators are responsible for removing people who should no longer have access.

3. Your data and your responsibilities

You own your data. Everything an organisation puts into MERLBase, including projects, forms, answers, photos and reports, remains yours. You give us permission to store, process and display it only so we can provide the service, as described in our Privacy Policy.

Because you decide what to collect, you are responsible for it. In particular, you must:

• have a lawful basis for collecting personal data and use consent where it is needed;
• take special care with information about children and vulnerable people, obtain any parent or guardian consent required, and follow safeguarding rules that apply to you;
• collect only what you need, keep it accurate, and delete it when you no longer need it;
• tell the people you collect from who you are and what you will do with their data; and
• keep to the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and any other law that applies to you.

For personal data you put into the service, you are the controller and we are your processor, acting on your instructions.

4. Acceptable use

You must not use MERLBase to:

• break the law, or collect data unlawfully or deceptively;
• harm, exploit or endanger any person, especially a child;
• send spam, or use shared form links to harass people or collect data under false pretences;
• upload malicious code, or probe, overload or try to get around the service’s security or limits;
• access another organisation’s data, or use someone else’s account;
• copy, resell or reverse-engineer the service, except where the law allows; or
• submit unlawful, abusive or infringing content.

We may remove content, suspend access or close an account that breaks these rules, and we may report unlawful activity to the authorities.

5. Shared form links

Administrators and managers can share a form by link so that people can answer without an account.

• Anyone who has the link can submit, so share it only where you are happy for the people there to see it. You can turn a link off, set a closing date or response limit, or create a new link at any time.
• You are responsible for the questions you ask and for what you do with the responses. Add a consent statement whenever you collect personal data.
• Responses from shared links are unverified. Review them before relying on them. They are kept separate from field-officer submissions.
• We use spam checks and rate limits to protect shared forms, but we cannot guarantee that every automated or unwanted submission will be blocked.

6. Other companies’ services

MERLBase relies on services from other companies for hosting, database, email and spam protection. Their availability and terms are outside our control, and a problem with one of them can affect the service.

7. Cost and changes to the service

MERLBase is currently free to register and use. We may introduce paid plans or change features. If we do, we will give you notice and a fair chance to export your data or stop using the service before any change affects you. We may update the service from time to time, and may add or remove features.

8. Our property

We own the MERLBase software, name, logo and design. These terms give you the right to use the service, not to own any part of it. If you send us feedback, we may use it to improve the service without owing you anything.

9. Availability and support

We work to keep MERLBase available and secure, but we do not promise it will always be uninterrupted or error-free. We may carry out maintenance, and outages can happen. Support is provided on a reasonable-efforts basis at info@merlbase.com. Keep your own copies of anything critical by using the export features.

10. No warranties

To the fullest extent the law allows, the service is provided “as is” and “as available”. We do not give any warranty that it is fit for a particular purpose, that results are accurate, or that it will meet every funder’s or regulator’s requirements. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under law that cannot be excluded.

11. Limit of our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows:

• we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, such as lost funding, lost opportunity, loss of reputation or loss of data you chose to collect; and
• our total liability to you for any claim relating to the service is limited to the amount you paid us for it in the 12 months before the claim, or ₦50,000 if you paid nothing.

Nothing here limits liability for fraud, for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for anything the law does not allow us to limit.

You agree to compensate us for losses we suffer from claims by others that arise from your unlawful use of the service or from data you collected without a lawful basis.

12. Ending your use

• You can stop using the service at any time, and ask us to close your account at info@merlbase.com.
• We may suspend or end your access if you break these terms, if we must by law, or if the service is withdrawn. Where we reasonably can, we will warn you and give you time to export your data.
• When an account is closed we delete its data as described in the Privacy Policy. Sections that by their nature should continue, such as ownership, liability and governing law, continue after the end.

13. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If we have a disagreement, we will first try to settle it by talking. If that does not work, the courts of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, will have jurisdiction, unless the law gives you the right to go elsewhere.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. We will change the date at the top and, for significant changes, notify account holders by email or in the product before they take effect. Continuing to use the service after a change means you accept it.

15. Contact us

• Email: info@merlbase.com
• Phone: +234 912 957 2406
• Post: DevX Strategy, Suite 415 MKK Plaza, Jabi, Abuja, Nigeria