Terms of Use

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using BlockAtlas at blockatlas.com (the "Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service. The Service is operated by Hugh Thomas ("BlockAtlas," "we," "us").

2. Description of Service

BlockAtlas is a web platform for exploring United States geographic and demographic data. It provides interactive maps, place pages, tools that estimate the population and demographics within a distance radius or a drive, walk, or bike time of a point, and geography games built on census numbers. It also sells one-time Place Reports for locations selected by a buyer.

Much of the Service is free to use, including place pages, published maps, and game landing pages. Some features require a paid subscription. Which features are free and which are paid may change as the Service develops.

3. Accounts

Many parts of the Service can be used without an account. Creating one requires a valid email address and a display name. A username is optional: if you choose one it is shown publicly on leaderboards and shared results, and if you leave it blank — or clear it later — you appear publicly as "Anonymous User." Your name and email address are never shown publicly.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for all activity under your account. You agree to provide accurate information when registering. We may limit, suspend, or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, and we may restrict new registrations at our discretion.

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service, and at least 18 (or the age of majority where you live) to make a purchase.

4. Purchases, Subscriptions, and Billing

• BlockAtlas is the seller. You are buying the Service from us and these Terms govern that sale. Paid subscriptions are processed through Stripe Managed Payments, under which Stripe acts as merchant of record and facilitates the sale on our behalf — it takes the payment and carries the tax and dispute liability on it, but it is not the seller of the Service and does not book the revenue from your purchase.
• Checkout is hosted by Stripe and presented through Stripe's Link service, so your purchase appears as "sold through Link" and on your card statement as LINK.COM* followed by our name. We do not receive or store your full payment card details.
• Because it is the merchant of record, Stripe calculates, collects, and remits sales tax, VAT, or GST on your purchase in the countries its merchant-of-record service covers; we remain responsible for any tax we are required to collect elsewhere. Prices are listed in U.S. dollars and are exclusive of such tax unless stated otherwise; any tax due is added at checkout, and Stripe may display and charge the equivalent amount in your local currency at its exchange rate.
• Place Reports are one-time purchases, not subscriptions. The checkout page shows the price before payment. A report may be purchased without creating a BlockAtlas account. We email the buyer links to view, download, and temporarily edit the report; those unguessable links grant access to the report, so the buyer is responsible for keeping and sharing them safely. A report bundle contains a separate report for each submitted location.
• A report describes the selected locations using the public datasets and estimation methods identified in Section 7. We store those locations and the purchased configuration so we can deliver the report and regenerate it during its stated editing period. The report remains subject to source revisions, generation changes, and the accuracy limitations below.
• Subscriptions renew automatically until you cancel. Billing is in advance, and at the end of each billing period your subscription renews for another period of the same length, charging the payment method on file the then-current price. You can cancel from your billing settings here or through your Link account, effective at the end of the current billing period. Current prices and what each tier includes are shown on our pricing page. Tiers listed there as forthcoming are not available for purchase and are not promised by these Terms.
• You may cancel at any time, either from your billing settings here or through your Link account (guest purchasers will be prompted to create one). Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep access until then. Deleting your account also cancels your subscription, immediately (see Section 12).
• If a renewal payment fails, Stripe retries the charge, and your access continues during the retry window. If payment ultimately cannot be collected, your subscription may be suspended or cancelled, and paid features lock until payment succeeds.
• Receipts, invoices, refund notices, and certain subscription emails are sent to you by Stripe through Link rather than by us. Payment and subscription support requests are handled by Stripe; questions about the Service itself should come to us.
• Except where required by law, payments are non-refundable, though we may issue a refund at our discretion. Because Stripe is the merchant of record, Stripe may also refund a payment directly, including without our agreement.
• We may change subscription prices with at least 30 days' notice. Changes take effect at your next renewal.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service or its related systems
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service or the servers connected to it
• Scrape, crawl, or systematically extract data from the Service by automated means, outside of features we provide for that purpose
• Circumvent usage limits, rate limits, access controls, or paid-tier restrictions
• Resell or redistribute the Service, or offer it as a competing product
• Upload content that is unlawful, malicious, or infringes the rights of others

6. Your Content

If we grant your account access to features that accept file uploads, you retain ownership of what you upload. You grant us a limited license to store and process it solely to provide the Service to you, and you are responsible for confirming you have the right to upload it. We do not claim ownership of your data and do not use it to build products for other customers.

7. Data Sources and Accuracy

The Service is built on public data. Population counts come from the 2020 United States decennial census; demographic indicators come from the American Community Survey, both published by the U.S. Census Bureau. Travel times and points of interest are computed on data from OpenStreetMap, available under the Open Database License and © OpenStreetMap contributors. Place names — the label on a dropped pin or a game round — come from Who’s On First, published under CC-BY and CC-0 equivalent licenses. Address search and base map imagery are provided by Stadia Maps. These datasets remain subject to their own licenses and terms.

Figures are estimates. American Community Survey values are survey estimates that carry sampling error and lag the present by several years, and our area figures are computed by allocating published geography onto the area you drew. We show a coverage marker where an estimate is weaker than it looks and "—" rather than a number where we have none. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any figure the Service produces. Our methodology page describes how the numbers are computed.

No professional advice. Output from the Service is provided for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional site selection, financial, legal, or other advice. Decisions you make based on the Service are your responsibility.

8. Intellectual Property

The Service, including its design, code, games, and original written content, is our property and is protected by applicable intellectual property laws. These Terms grant you no rights in it beyond the limited right to use the Service. Maps and visualizations you create using the Service remain yours, and you may use them for your own purposes, including commercial ones, subject to Section 5 and to the licenses on the underlying public datasets.

9. Availability and Changes

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." BlockAtlas is a small operation, and we do not guarantee uninterrupted availability. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any feature at any time.

10. Disclaimer of Warranties

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of harmful components.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability arising out of or relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amounts paid for the applicable purchase or for your subscription to the Service in the twelve months before the claim, or (b) fifty U.S. dollars. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, or data. Some jurisdictions do not allow these limitations, in which case they apply to the fullest extent permitted.

12. Account Deletion and Termination

You may delete your account at any time from your account settings; see the privacy policy for what deletion does to your data. We may suspend or terminate access for violation of these Terms. Sections 7 through 11, 14, and 15 survive termination, along with your ownership of your content under Section 6.

Deleting your account cancels your paid subscription immediately, including a subscription in a failed-payment retry state. Unlike an ordinary cancellation, it does not run to the end of the billing period — access ends with the account — and no further charges are made. Amounts already charged are handled under the refund terms in Section 4. If the cancellation cannot be confirmed with Stripe, the account is not deleted; try again or contact us. Deleting your account does not delete Stripe's payment records; those must be requested from Stripe.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may modify these Terms. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated date, and material changes will be announced on the site or by email. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

14. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, United States, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You and we agree that the state and federal courts located in Illinois have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service.

Nothing in this section deprives you of the protection of any mandatory consumer protection rules of the country or state where you live.

15. General

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, it will be limited or severed to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will stay in full effect.

These Terms, together with the privacy policy, are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service.

Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms is not a waiver of it.

You may not assign these Terms without our consent. We may assign them in connection with a merger, sale, or reorganization.

16. Contact Us

Questions about these Terms: [email protected].

By post:
BlockAtlas
1449 S Michigan Ave STE 13935, Chicago, IL 60605