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IMPORTANT! PLEASE CAREFULLY READ THESE TERMS OF USE AS THEY AFFECT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS.

This agreement contains the legal foundation for your engagement with TranscribeMe. To perform work on the TranscribeMe Workhub platform, you must agree to these Terms of Service.

  1. TranscribeMe – Crowd-Worker Relationship

These Terms of Service govern the relationship between TranscribeMe, Inc. (“TranscribeMe”) and you (“You”, “Your”, “Transcriber” or “Crowd-Worker”), and your contracted engagement with TranscribeMe, and upon acceptance constitute a legally binding contract.

  1. Privacy

We value our client and transcriber confidentiality, and as such, you are not permitted to share or distribute any Client’s personally identifiable information or transcription content to others. This includes, but is not limited to: customer names, company names, physical or email addresses, worker names, worker IDs or email addresses, phone numbers, and transcription content.

You are explicitly prohibited from sharing any and all information related to Clients as well as client audio, video, image, and text content, and information relevant to client orders.

For information about how TranscribeMe protects your privacy, please read the TranscribeMe Privacy Policy for Transcribers. This policy explains how TranscribeMe treats your personal information, and protects your privacy when you use the TranscribeMe Service.

  1. Nondisclosure Agreement

TranscribeMe provides secure and confidential audio-to-text transcription, translation, data annotation, and audio collection services to its Clients. Upon acceptance of these Terms, you commit to holding all TranscribeMe materials that you have access to secure and confidential. You will do everything in your power to protect TranscribeMe materials from eyes and ears not approved for access to these materials.

This includes but is not limited to: audio and video files, text transcripts, micro- tasks, review reports and all information contained therein, proprietary training materials, and certification materials. You are forbidden from recording, copying, saving, sharing, or discussing these materials at any time, in any manner, including by means of the Internet. If you have access to files for offline work, you are required to delete the files immediately upon project completion.

You also agree that at all times during or after your engagements on the TranscribeMe platform, you will keep confidential and not divulge, communicate, or use information related to either TranscribeMe or our Clients. You agree not to cause the transmission, removal, or transport of tangible embodiments of, or electronic files containing TranscribeMe or Client Information, whether in physical or electronic form.

You are forbidden from discussing or sharing private client details on all forms of internal communication, including Yammer and associated corporate social networking channels. While general questions regarding how to transcribe a particular part of audio are acceptable, no sensitive client information can be discussed or shared at any point in time unless it is with internal TranscribeMe staff. Should it become necessary to share any client or internal TranscribeMe data with TranscribeMe staff you must do so in a secure manner and with utmost care.

  1. Use of AI/Machine translation

Clients ordering from TranscribeMe require human quality transcription and translation. As such, using AI to assist with assigned transcription is expressly prohibited. 

  1. Quality Requirements and Rejection of Work/Payments

All work that is submitted is subject to review prior to being approved and payment being made.

The standard expected quality level is 98% minimum, counted as 2 permitted corrections within each 100 words of the output, including spelling and grammar. Work must be submitted in accordance with provided instructions, style guides, and format. We reserve the right to reject work, with or without pay, at our discretion, for work that does not meet the 98% quality threshold.

Certain projects have different requirements, which will be communicated to you in advance.

  1. Restriction on Delegation

You acknowledge and agree that you will provide your real name, state and country of residence in your TranscribeMe Workhub account. You acknowledge and agree that you will not delegate your assigned engagements to any other person or party.

  1. Professionalism and Business Ethics

We expect you to demonstrate and maintain professional behavior throughout your course of engagement with TranscribeMe. Obscene, abusive, threatening and/or harassing behavior or language geared toward team members, partners, affiliates or any members of our Crowd-Worker team will not be tolerated. Solicitation of any kind to other crowd members is expressly prohibited.

  1. Qualifications

TranscribeMe provides a system of online qualifications and certifications. We reserve the right to create, edit, or revoke qualifications at any time, for any reason or for no reason. TranscribeMe will further remove certifications for repeat errors in production work related to the certification.

  1. Liability

You are fully responsible for any violation of the Terms and are liable for all consequences that may result from such a violation. This includes any loss or damage suffered by TranscribeMe or its Clients as a result of your violation of these Terms of Service.

  1. Rates

TranscribeMe reserves the right to set, change, and expire various payment rates for work conducted on the TranscribeMe platform at any time. Payment rates can change frequently as they are related to particular projects and tasks that may be assigned.

  1. Payments

Payments for completed work are processed via PayPal, however the method of payment may change at any time for any reason. TranscribeMe is not responsible for any delay in payment caused by the payment processor, non-delivery of payment due to payment processor, or denial of payment by the payment processor for any reason.

  1. Reporting Inappropriate Content

The contents of all audio, video, image, and text files provided by TranscribeMe for transcription, translation, annotation, or any other task type are subject to any applicable local, state, national, or international laws and regulations. If you become aware of any content that you feel may violate such laws or regulations, please report this content to TranscribeMe immediately.

  1. Workhub Platform Usage

As part of your engagement with TranscribeMe you will be authorized to access the TranscribeMe Workhub, our online worker platform, and other online assets as required by your engagement. You agree that you will not attempt to access jobs, content, or data for which you have no authorization. You agree not to hack, reverse engineer, or otherwise attempt to access areas of the TranscribeMe Workhub for which you are not authorized.

  1. TranscribeMe Intellectual Property

The use of TranscribeMe’s brand names, logos, domain names, trademarks, service marks, copyrighted materials, patents, or any other brand elements unique to TranscribeMe and our Services is strictly prohibited.

In the course of performing work on the TranscribeMe platform, you will be granted temporary bona fide access to client content as well as access to TranscribeMe proprietary systems. You agree that all the intellectual property generated in the course of work performed remains the property of TranscribeMe and our Clients.

  1. Termination

TranscribeMe may terminate your engagement at any time with or without reason. TranscribeMe further reserves the right to suspend your account following violation of these Terms of Service. You are able to petition your account suspension in writing to TranscribeMe.

  1. Changes to the Terms of Service

TranscribeMe reserves the right to change or alter these Terms at any time and for any reason. Notices will be sent to all active crowdworkers 4 calendar weeks before any changes take effect, the revised version will be available via the TranscribeMe website, and updated Terms will be posted within your TranscribeMe Workhub accounts as they become active.

  1. Acceptance of Terms

Your decision to continue your contracted engagement with TranscribeMe is your acceptance of any changes to the Terms. If you do not accept the terms, you must terminate your engagement immediately.

  1. Style Guide Adherence

All work distributed to you by TranscribeMe will always be subject to style guide rules which must be strictly adhered to when completing the task. Any work submitted which does not meet the parameters outlined in the associated style guide may be rejected by TranscribeMe, forfeiting compensation in part or in full for that task. The final determination is at the discretion of the TranscribeMe team. Adherence to style guides is critical for a successful engagement with TranscribeMe.

  1. Rejections Appeal Process

Any submitted work that does not meet the requirements of Quality, Turnaround Time, and Style Guide adherence will be subject to rejection. You will not be compensated for any rejected work. It is possible to dispute work rejections if you can demonstrate that your work was incorrectly rejected. Rejection queries will be sent to the TranscribeMe Helpdesk. You will need to provide an ID number for the file(s) in question. The TranscribeMe Team will conduct a review and make a determination about the merit of the dispute. All decisions made by the TranscribeMe team are final.

  1. Equipment and Tools

The TranscribeMe Workhub is a fully featured online platform that provides all the necessary tools to effectively and accurately complete transcription tasks. If you wish to increase your efficiency, we suggest you make use of a pair of high quality headphones, and potentially a foot pedal to start and pause the audio. TranscribeMe supports a range of foot pedal models to aid in the transcription process. For more details about the make and models we currently support, along with installing instructions, please visit the TranscribeMe Helpdesk and the Transcriber Watercooler community.

  1. Minimum Payment Threshold

Your earnings will accumulate on the Workhub and they must pass a certain threshold before the funds are eligible to be paid out. Any funds under the threshold will not be transferred to you until the minimum threshold amount has been met. TranscribeMe reserves the right to change the Minimum Payment Threshold at any time, with 30 calendar days’ notice. 

  1. Inactive Accounts

TranscribeMe has created an ecosystem to help you monetize your downtime with flexible work hours and diversity of possible work options based on your qualifications. While there are no minimum weekly hours that you need to spend on the Workhub, TranscribeMe reserves the right to deactivate your user account if you have not been actively engaging in paid work within a thirty (30) calendar day period. Any balance remaining in your account after one (1) calendar year will be charged a fee of $11 and the remainder will be sent via the payment method on file. 

 

  1. Age Restriction

TranscribeMe crowd-distributed work is limited to persons aged eighteen (18) years or older, and legally capable, by U.S. law, of entering into a legally binding contract with TranscribeMe. Acceptance of these Terms of Service represents admission of authorization of legal age and binding contractual capacity.

  1. Device Security

It is the responsibility of all users to maintain reasonable security and anti-virus protection for their computers. This includes but is not limited to installing any and all anti-virus and firewall software/hardware, enabling operating system or device encryption and maintaining the most recent patches that may be necessary for (i) the protection and maximum functionality of your computer and related equipment and (ii) the protection of TranscribeMe’s system and customers. Devices found to be vulnerable to compromise, infected by a virus, or otherwise insecure, may be disconnected from TranscribeMe systems until steps have been taken to secure and/or disinfect the system, as required. Failure to comply with these security precautions that results in a security breach is subject to action up to and including termination.

  1. Severability

If one or more of the provisions in these Terms of Service are deemed void or unenforceable to any extent in any context, such provisions shall nevertheless be enforced to the fullest extent allowed by law in that and other contexts, and the validity and force of the remainder of this Agreement shall not be affected.

  1. Taxation and Independent Contractor Relationship

As a crowd worker, you are an Independent Contractor to TranscribeMe. You are solely responsible for the payment of any and all taxes or fees relating to payments to be received by you from TranscribeMe, including without limitation, all Federal, state, and local income taxes, Social Security taxes, Unemployment Insurance taxes and any other such taxes, whether foreign or domestic, and any business license or other fees arising from your engagements on the TranscribeMe platform.

  1. Anti-Discrimination

TranscribeMe does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations. These activities include, but are not limited to, hiring and firing of staff and subcontractors, selection of volunteers and vendors, and provision of services. We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our staff, volunteers, subcontractors, vendors, and Clients. Some projects may require specific demographics in line with client requirements.

  1. Terms of Service in Multiple Languages – Precedence

TranscribeMe maintains and updates these Terms of Service in multiple languages. While localized documentation carries the same meaning within all clauses, contradictions due to translation or localizations may arise. In the case of any contradictions, the English version will be considered the correct version.

  1. Governing Law

The laws of the State of California shall govern the validity, interpretation, construction, and performance of these Terms of Service, without giving effect to the principles of conflict of laws.

These Terms were last modified on the 14th of September, 2022.