These sections define the compliance, confidentiality, payment, attendance, refund, and payout rules for paid requests and calls.
2.1 Paid Call Compliance Rules
Paid calls may cover general, non-confidential professional experience, role-based needs, industry practices, workflows, purchasing processes, software or vendor evaluation criteria, product use cases, pain points, and market context, including use cases encountered at a participant's current or former employer.
Respondents may not disclose, and requesters may not ask for, material non-public information, information about a public company or security that may not lawfully be disclosed, confidential or proprietary information, trade secrets, non-public employer, client, customer, government, patient, clinical-trial, audit, or legal information, attorney work product, personal data, or information subject to a non-disclosure agreement, fiduciary duty, code of ethics, company policy, professional rule, court order, or similar restriction (collectively, restricted information).
Participants speak in their personal capacity unless an authorized representative relationship is expressly disclosed. Participants must not imply that they speak for an employer, client, customer, government agency, board, patient, audit client, represented party, or other third party without authority.
A participant must decline, stop, or refuse to answer any request or question that would cause the participant to violate these terms, any law, any professional duty, or any duty owed to an employer, client, customer, patient, government agency, exchange, regulator, or other third party. Respondents must not overstate their expertise, accept calls outside their areas of experience, or present third-party or AI-generated material as their own expertise.
Requesters may not use Instant Expert to obtain information for insider trading, market manipulation, illegal competitive intelligence, harassment, bribery, improper influence, evasion of compliance controls, or any unlawful purpose. Requesters must not pressure respondents to answer restricted questions and must move on if a respondent identifies a restriction.
If a participant believes restricted information may have been requested or disclosed, the participant must stop that line of discussion and notify Instant Expert promptly.
2.2 Confidentiality
Unless the parties agree otherwise in writing or information is already public through no breach of these terms, each participant must keep confidential the other participant's identity, contact information, employer, participation, non-public request materials, specific questions, call notes, recordings, transcripts, and the substance of paid requests and calls.
A requester may use or share non-identifying summaries, notes, and generalized learnings from paid requests and calls for lawful product research, customer discovery, product development, sales, marketing, fundraising, or business strategy, provided the requester does not disclose restricted information, the other participant's confidential information, or the other participant's identity, employer, or participation without permission.
A participant may disclose limited request or call information to the participant's employer, legal counsel, compliance personnel, tax or accounting advisors, or similar professional advisors as reasonably necessary to determine whether participation is permitted, obtain required approvals, or satisfy legal, tax, accounting, or compliance obligations, provided the recipient is informed that the information is confidential.
A participant may disclose confidential information only as required by law, regulation, legal process, or a regulator with jurisdiction, and only after giving Instant Expert prompt notice when legally permitted so that protective steps may be considered.
This confidentiality obligation does not authorize anyone to receive or disclose restricted information. If another agreement imposes stricter confidentiality obligations, the stricter obligation controls.
2.3 Paid Call Terms for Requesters
When you submit a paid request, you authorize Instant Expert and its payment processors to place a payment authorization, charge your payment method, capture authorized funds, release holds, issue refunds, and make related payment adjustments consistent with these terms and the checkout terms shown to you.
A respondent's acceptance or booking does not guarantee that the call will be payable. Final charge and payout eligibility depend on the paid call rules, attendance logs, compliance review, dispute review, and any other terms shown in the product.
If a respondent never enters the meeting room during the scheduled time, you will not be charged for that call, and the respondent will not be paid for that call, except where we determine that platform error, fraud, or abuse requires a different result.
If you never enter the meeting room during the scheduled time and the respondent enters the meeting room and is reasonably available for the scheduled call, you may be charged the full call price and the respondent may be paid the full eligible payout.
If the respondent connects late, disconnects early, or is absent while you are present during the scheduled time, the charge and payment may be prorated based on attendance during the scheduled time. Unless we determine that a different result is required, the prorated amount is based on the minutes both parties were in the meeting room during the scheduled time, rounded to the nearest minute, divided by the minutes you were in the meeting room during the scheduled time, rounded to the nearest minute.
We may review, reduce, reverse, refund, withhold, or adjust any charge where we believe a call involved restricted information, fraud, abuse, platform error, inaccurate attendance logs, a no-show, a dispute, or a violation of these terms.
2.4 Paid Call Terms for Respondents
Respondents are independent contractors responsible for their own taxes, licenses, registrations, consents, employer approvals, equipment, connectivity, and legal compliance. Respondents have no authority to bind Instant Expert or any requester.
A respondent earns payment only for eligible paid calls that satisfy the posted request terms, these terms, attendance requirements, compliance requirements, and any review process. Booking a call does not itself guarantee payment.
If you are late or disconnect while the requester is in the call, your payment may be prorated based on the amount of scheduled call time that both you and the requester were in the meeting room. If the requester validly ends the call during the vetting window, you will not be paid for that call.
If the requester never enters the meeting room during the scheduled time and you enter the meeting room and are reasonably available for the scheduled call, you may be paid the full eligible payout. If you never enter the meeting room during the scheduled time, you will not be paid for that call.
We may withhold, reduce, reverse, recover, or refuse payment if we believe a respondent breached these terms, disclosed restricted information, misrepresented expertise, committed fraud or abuse, failed to complete payout onboarding, violated payment processor requirements, or caused legal, compliance, or reputational risk.
Payout timing depends on verification, requester dispute periods, payment processor timing, compliance review, and completion of any required payout onboarding. Respondents are solely responsible for reporting and paying taxes on amounts received.