Terms
Website terms of use · Participation Terms (v1.1)
Website terms of use
This website is operated by SparkIntell Inc., a Texas corporation. By using it, you agree to these terms.
- Information only. Content on this site describes AppraTrace and the Founding Appraiser Council. It is not professional, legal, regulatory, valuation or compliance advice. Example charts and figures use synthetic data.
- Applications. Submitting an application does not guarantee selection or create any obligation for either party. Please give accurate information and apply only for yourself (or for a trainee you supervise, with their agreement).
- Acceptable use. Don't misuse the site: no automated submissions, attempts to bypass the security check, probing or attacking our systems, or submitting someone else's information.
- Intellectual property. The AppraTrace name, logo, site content and design belong to SparkIntell. You may not copy or reuse them without our permission, other than linking to or sharing the site.
- No warranty; limitation of liability. The site is provided "as is." To the fullest extent permitted by law, SparkIntell is not liable for indirect or consequential damages arising from your use of the site.
- Privacy. See the Privacy Notice.
- Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, USA.
- Changes. We may update these terms by posting a new version here.
Founding Appraiser Council & Closed Beta Participation Terms
These Participation Terms ("Terms") are an agreement between you and SparkIntell Inc., a Texas corporation ("SparkIntell," "we," "us," or "our").
They govern your participation in the AppraTrace closed beta evaluation program and the Founding Appraiser Council (together, the "Program").
By selecting "I Agree," you acknowledge that you have read and accepted these Terms.
1. Purpose of the Program
AppraTrace is pre-release software designed to help real estate appraisers examine market-time (date-of-sale) evidence, evaluate potential market changes, document their analysis, and maintain a reproducible supporting workfile.
The Program gives invited appraisal professionals an opportunity to evaluate AppraTrace, explore its capabilities, identify usability issues, and offer feedback before broader commercial release.
Participation is voluntary and intended for product evaluation, education, and feedback.
AppraTrace remains under development. Features, functionality, availability, and results may change during the Program.
2. Evaluation Only — No Professional Reliance
AppraTrace is not approved for use in actual appraisal assignments during the Program.
You agree that:
- You will not use AppraTrace outputs, calculations, charts, addenda, or other generated materials in an appraisal report, client deliverable, lending decision, or other professional assignment.
- AppraTrace is an analytical support tool. It does not independently select market adjustments, determine property values, or replace an appraiser's professional judgment.
- Any analytical choices or interpretations entered into the software remain your responsibility.
- Participation does not constitute professional, legal, regulatory, valuation, or compliance advice from SparkIntell.
- SparkIntell does not represent or warrant that the pre-release software satisfies USPAP, UAD, lender, investor, MLS, or other applicable requirements.
You remain solely responsible for your independent professional judgments and for complying with the laws, professional standards, licensing requirements, and client obligations applicable to your practice.
3. Eligibility, Invitations, and Accounts
Participation requires an invitation and approval from SparkIntell.
You agree to:
- Provide accurate professional and contact information when applying or registering.
- Maintain the confidentiality of your account credentials.
- Use the required multi-factor authentication.
- Access only the account, sandbox firm, assignments, and functionality authorized for you.
- Not share access, impersonate another participant, or attempt to bypass account permissions or security controls.
- Notify SparkIntell promptly if you suspect unauthorized access to your account.
SparkIntell may verify professional credentials and may approve, decline, suspend, revoke, or terminate participation at its discretion, subject to applicable law.
An invitation or application does not guarantee acceptance into the Program.
4. Data, Sandbox Environments, and Ownership
4.1 Demonstration-data testing
During the initial phase of the Program, AppraTrace provides demonstration datasets and synthetic appraisal scenarios for evaluation.
You may work with these provided datasets and create analyses within your authorized sandbox environment.
Uploading your own datasets is disabled during this phase.
You must not submit real MLS exports, confidential appraisal workfiles, client records, borrower information, private homeowner information, or other restricted third-party data through the Program, including through feedback or problem-report forms.
4.2 Future data-upload capability
If SparkIntell later introduces a feature permitting participant-provided data, we will provide additional information and obtain any required agreement before that feature is enabled for you.
Any future use of third-party data must comply with applicable licensing, privacy, confidentiality, and contractual restrictions.
Acceptance of these Terms alone does not authorize uploading real appraisal or MLS data.
4.3 Ownership and permitted use
You retain whatever ownership or other rights you have in the original materials and work you create. SparkIntell retains its rights in AppraTrace, its software, demonstration datasets, and other proprietary materials.
SparkIntell may process Program data as necessary to operate, secure, support, maintain, and improve the Program, consistent with these Terms and the AppraTrace Privacy Notice.
We do not sell participant workfiles or disclose one participant's sandbox materials to other unrelated participants. Authorized service providers may process information on SparkIntell's behalf to deliver and secure the Program.
4.4 Separation from production
The Program operates in a testing environment separate from AppraTrace's future production service.
Your Program assignments and workfiles will not automatically transfer into the production product.
Testing environments may be reset, modified, or discontinued as development progresses.
4.5 Data access and deletion
You may request an export of your available Program assignments and generated materials.
When you withdraw or the Program ends, SparkIntell will delete your Program assignments, stored exports, and participant-provided files from active systems within 30 days, subject to any applicable legal retention obligations.
Residual copies in system backups, security records, or disaster-recovery storage will be handled according to the retention and deletion procedures disclosed in the Privacy Notice.
Activity records are subject to the separate retention provisions in Section 5.
Account, consent, and agreement-acceptance records may be retained for a reasonable period where necessary for legal compliance, security, dispute resolution, or demonstrating the terms accepted.
5. Activity Recording, Privacy, and Feedback
5.1 Activity information
Because the Program is intended to improve AppraTrace, SparkIntell records certain information about how participants use the software.
This may include:
- Sign-in and sign-out events.
- Session duration and workflow navigation.
- Features and steps accessed.
- Actions such as creating assignments, performing calculations, and generating exports.
- Error codes, safe diagnostic messages, and software performance information.
- Browser and operating-system information.
- Feedback and problem reports voluntarily submitted by participants.
Activity records may include account, firm, and assignment identifiers needed to investigate issues and understand usage patterns.
We do not intentionally include appraisal sale values, written analytical conclusions, passwords, authentication codes, or session tokens in activity logs.
If you submit a problem report, its written contents will be stored and reviewed by authorized personnel. Please do not include confidential client information, credentials, or actual appraisal data.
5.2 Screen-interaction recording
Where enabled, activity information may include recordings of screen interactions (such as clicks, navigation, and page layout), with typed text and data fields masked. These recordings follow the same use, access, and retention rules as other activity records in this Section.
5.3 Use and retention
Activity information is used to operate, secure, troubleshoot, support, and improve AppraTrace, including understanding where participants encounter difficulties.
It is not intended to assess participants' professional competence, licensing status, or appraisal judgment.
Activity records may be retained for the duration of the Program and up to 12 months afterward. Following that period, records will be anonymized where effective anonymization is possible; records that cannot be adequately anonymized will be deleted unless further retention is legally required.
Access to identifiable activity records is restricted to authorized SparkIntell personnel and service providers performing Program-related functions.
Additional privacy and retention details are provided in the AppraTrace Privacy Notice.
5.4 Product feedback
You are encouraged to report errors, suggest improvements, identify missing functionality, and provide other feedback.
You grant SparkIntell a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, nonexclusive right to use, reproduce, modify, and incorporate your feedback into AppraTrace and related products without compensation or further permission.
This permission applies to product feedback and suggestions. It does not transfer ownership of your independent appraisal work, confidential client information, or third-party datasets to SparkIntell.
6. Confidentiality
AppraTrace is pre-release software.
Nonpublic features, screenshots, demonstrations, technical information, documentation, product plans, and other materials identified as confidential or reasonably understood to be confidential must not be publicly disclosed without SparkIntell's prior written permission.
You may disclose that you are participating in the Program, but you may not publicly share nonpublic software materials or represent yourself as an official spokesperson for SparkIntell.
These obligations do not apply to information that is publicly available through no breach by you, independently developed without use of confidential information, or lawfully received without a confidentiality obligation.
If disclosure is required by law, you may disclose only what is legally required, providing advance notice to SparkIntell when legally permitted.
7. Founding Appraiser Council
Participants approved into the Program are members of the Founding Appraiser Council for the duration of their participation.
Council members may be invited to share professional perspectives, provide structured feedback, discuss appraisal workflows, or participate in product-evaluation activities.
Council participation:
- Is advisory and voluntary unless otherwise agreed in writing.
- Does not create employment, a partnership, a contractor relationship, equity ownership, or an agency relationship.
- Does not provide compensation, benefits, ownership interests, discounts, or future product rights unless separately agreed in writing.
- Does not imply endorsement by any licensing authority, professional organization, regulatory body, or participant.
SparkIntell will not publicly identify you as a Council member or use your name, image, business affiliation, or testimonial for promotional purposes without your separate written permission.
8. Pre-Release Software and Disclaimer of Warranties
AppraTrace is provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" for evaluation.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, SparkIntell disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, availability, security, and noninfringement.
The software may contain defects, produce incomplete or incorrect results, experience interruptions, or change without notice.
SparkIntell does not guarantee continuous access, preservation of test data, or the future availability of any particular feature.
You agree to evaluate the software only for the permitted testing purposes described in these Terms.
9. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, SparkIntell and its officers, employees, and representatives will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages arising from participation in the Program or use of AppraTrace.
This includes lost profits, lost business opportunities, interruption of business, loss of data, or losses resulting from reliance on pre-release software outputs.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, SparkIntell's aggregate liability arising from or relating to the Program or these Terms will not exceed US $100.
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where such exclusion or limitation is prohibited by applicable law.
10. Withdrawal and Termination
You may withdraw from the Program at any time by contacting SparkIntell.
SparkIntell may suspend, discontinue, or terminate your participation or the Program at any time, subject to applicable law.
Following termination:
- Your access to the Program may be disabled.
- Data export and deletion requests will be handled under Section 4.
- Activity records will be handled under Section 5.
- Your obligation to protect confidential information continues as described in Section 6.
- Provisions concerning intellectual property, feedback rights, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and other terms that reasonably need to survive will remain effective.
Participation in the Program, or its termination, does not create an entitlement to access, pricing, discounts, or free use of any future commercial release.
11. General Provisions
Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.
Changes to these Terms. SparkIntell may update these Terms as the Program develops. When a revised version requires your acceptance, you will be asked to review and affirmatively accept it before continuing to use the relevant Program functionality.
Electronic acceptance. By selecting "I Agree," you consent to entering these Terms electronically. SparkIntell records your account identity, the applicable Terms version, and the time of acceptance. A copy of the applicable Terms will be available for your records.
Privacy. The AppraTrace Privacy Notice explains the collection, processing, protection, retention, and deletion of personal information associated with the Program.
Entire agreement. These Terms, together with any separately agreed written Council arrangements, constitute the agreement governing your participation in the Program. Additional terms may apply to features introduced in later phases.
Severability. If a provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue to apply to the extent permitted by law.
Contact. Questions about participation, privacy, or withdrawal may be directed to:
SparkIntell Inc.
AppraTrace Founding Appraiser Council & Closed Beta
support@appratrace.com
Participant acknowledgment
By selecting "I Agree to the AppraTrace Participation Terms," you confirm that:
- You have read and agree to these Terms.
- You understand that AppraTrace is pre-release evaluation software and must not be used for actual appraisal assignments.
- You understand that the initial phase of the Program uses demonstration data only.
- You understand that product-usage activity will be recorded as described in Section 5.