Terms of Service

These terms are an agreement between Smart Apps Lab, LLC, a California limited liability company ("we", "us"), which makes Pearla.ai ("Pearla" or the "service"), and the dental practice or other business that uses Pearla (the "practice" or "you"). The section If you called a practice that uses Pearla is for people who call a practice ("callers").

You accept these terms when you sign an order form, quote or other ordering document that refers to them (an "order form"), when you accept them online once we offer that, or when you use the service after they have been made available to you. They work together with your order form and our privacy policy. If your order form conflicts with these terms on price, plan or term, the order form controls for that order.

Please read Patient information, HIPAA and business associate agreements, Call recording, AI disclosure and consent, and Disputes and arbitration: practices and we resolve most disputes by individual arbitration, not in court, and give up class actions and jury trials, unless you opt out within 30 days. Subscriptions renew every month until canceled (see Fees, billing and renewal).

What Pearla does

Pearla is software that answers phone calls to your practice's phone numbers with an AI voice agent. Depending on how your practice is set up, the agent can:

• answer questions using the information your practice gives us, such as hours, services, insurance accepted and price ranges;
• look up a caller in your practice-management system, create a new patient record, and find, book, reschedule, cancel or confirm appointments there (today the supported system is OpenDental);
• take a callback request and notify your team by email that one is waiting;
• transfer a caller to your team, where you've set that up; and
• show your team the calls, transcripts, summaries and, where kept, recordings in the Pearla dashboard.

We provide software. We are not a dental or medical provider, we're not your employee or agent, and we're not a party to your relationship with your patients.

For businesses only

• The service is for dental practices and similar healthcare businesses and their staff. It isn't for personal, family or household use.
• If you accept these terms for a practice, you confirm that you're at least 18 and authorized to bind that practice to them.
• Staff you invite to the dashboard use the service on the practice's behalf. The practice is responsible for making sure they follow these terms.

Your account

• Keep the information you give us accurate and up to date, including staff email addresses.
• Dashboard sign-in uses links sent by email, so keep staff email accounts secure. You're responsible for what happens under your practice's account.
• Remove staff who no longer need access. Tell us right away at support@smartappslab.com if you think your account has been misused.

Not medical advice, and not for emergencies

AI can make mistakes

• The agent uses AI speech recognition and language models. It can mishear or misunderstand callers, give wrong or incomplete answers, fail to book, book the wrong time or patient, or not complete a call.
• Calls can drop, and phone carriers, our providers or the service can have outages. We don't guarantee that every call will be answered, that any call will result in a booking, or that anything the agent says or records will be accurate.
• Review calls, callback requests and bookings regularly, confirm anything important with the patient, and keep a backup way to reach your practice (such as voicemail or staff) in case the service isn't available.

What you tell the agent

• The agent relies on the information and instructions your practice gives us or enters in the dashboard: greeting, hours, services, providers, appointment types, insurance, price ranges, policies and answers to common questions. You're responsible for making sure they are accurate, complete, lawful and kept up to date.
• You're responsible for how your practice-management system is set up, including appointment types, schedules and providers that the agent books into.
• We may decline or change instructions that would make the agent act unlawfully or unsafely, or that conflict with these terms.

Call recording, AI disclosure and consent

Patient information, HIPAA and business associate agreements

California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. To the extent we receive medical information from a California practice as its contractor, we use and disclose it only as needed to provide the service to that practice, or as the law requires or permits, and we don't further disclose it in ways the Act prohibits. You're responsible for obtaining any patient authorization the law requires for your use of the service.

Patient and caller information, and our role

• Ownership. Your practice owns the information the service collects or receives for you, including call recordings, transcripts, summaries, callback requests and information from your practice-management system ("practice data"). You give us a non-exclusive license to host, copy, process, transmit and display practice data only as needed to provide, support and secure the service for you, and to comply with the law.
• Service provider. For personal information in practice data, we act as your service provider (or processor) under privacy laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). We process it for these business purposes only: answering and handling your practice's calls, identifying callers, scheduling, callbacks and transfers, showing records to your team, support, keeping the service secure, and measuring how the dashboard is used (our privacy policy explains what Google Analytics receives).
• What we won't do. We don't sell practice data or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We don't keep, use or disclose it for any purpose other than the business purposes above (including any commercial purpose of our own), or outside our direct business relationship with you. We don't combine it with personal information we receive from anyone else, except as the CCPA allows. We don't use it for advertising or to train our own AI models.
• Compliance and oversight. We'll comply with the CCPA's obligations that apply to us as a service provider and give practice data the level of privacy protection the CCPA requires. We'll tell you if we decide we can no longer meet them. You may take reasonable and appropriate steps to make sure we use practice data consistently with these terms, for example by asking us in writing about our safeguards, and to stop and remediate any unauthorized use.
• Our providers. We use the companies listed under Other companies' services to run the service. They receive practice data only as needed to provide their part of it, under their terms of service with us. Google Analytics receives only what our privacy policy describes, and we're working to stop it receiving any caller information. We'll list any new provider in our privacy policy before it receives practice data.
• Usage data. We may use aggregated or de-identified information that doesn't identify any caller or patient, such as call counts and durations, to operate, support and improve the service. We won't try to re-identify it, and we'll require anyone we share it with not to either.
• Security. We use reasonable measures to protect practice data, including encryption in transit and at rest by our cloud providers, sign-in by emailed links, access limited by role, and signed connections between our voice provider and our servers. No system is perfectly secure, and we can't guarantee that information will never be accessed, lost or changed without permission. If we learn of a security breach that affects practice data, we'll tell you without undue delay.
• Your part. You're responsible for having the right to use practice data with the service, for the notices and consents the law requires, for your own privacy notices to patients, and for answering patients' privacy requests. We'll help with requests about practice data we hold.

Retention, deletion and your records

• We keep practice data while your account is active, and afterwards until it's deleted as described here. We don't currently delete call records on an automatic schedule.
• You can ask us at support@smartappslab.com to delete particular recordings or records, or all of your practice's data. We'll do so, except for information the law requires us to keep, and except that copies in backups and system logs are removed as those expire.
• Our voice provider keeps its own copy of call data for up to 30 days, or not at all for audio and transcripts once the zero-retention option is on for your practice.
• We may delete your practice's data at any time after 90 days following the end of your subscription.
• Pearla is not your system of record. Keep the records you're required to keep in your own systems; you can download call transcripts from the dashboard while your account is active, and ask us for copies of recordings.

Fees, billing and renewal

• Canceling. You can cancel by emailing support@smartappslab.com, or as described in your order form or your account's billing settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the month you've already paid for, unless your order form says otherwise. We don't refund partial months, except where the law requires.
• Paying. Card payments are charged when due. Invoices are due by the due date shown on them. By giving us a card, you authorize us, through Stripe, to charge it for fees as they become due until you cancel.
• Late payment. If an amount isn't paid when due, we'll tell you. If it is still unpaid at least 10 days after we tell you, we may suspend the service until it is paid. Amounts you owe remain due.
• Price changes. We may change prices by telling you by email at least 30 days ahead. The new price applies from your first billing period that starts after those 30 days. If you don't want it, cancel before then.
• Taxes. Prices don't include taxes. You're responsible for any sales, use or similar taxes on the service, other than taxes on our income. We don't add tax to invoices today; if the law requires us to collect it, we'll add it.
• Billing questions. If you think a charge is wrong, email support@smartappslab.com within 60 days and we'll look into it and correct any mistake. Please contact us before disputing a charge with your bank.
• Pilots and discounts. Free trials, pilots and discounts are at our discretion, apply only to the practice they're given to, and may have their own conditions. We may end them with notice.

Your practice-management system

• If you connect your practice-management system, you authorize us to access it on your behalf with the credentials you provide, and to read patient and schedule information and write patient records and appointments as callers request.
• Your agreement with your practice-management vendor governs that system. We're not responsible for its availability, errors or changes, or for data it holds.

Acceptable use

Don't use the service to:

• break the law, mislead callers, or pretend to be another business or a human;
• make marketing calls or send messages people didn't agree to;
• handle PHI without a BAA in place, as described above;
• try to get into accounts, data or systems that aren't yours, or get around security or limits; or
• copy, resell, share with another business, or reverse engineer the software, or overload it.

Ownership and license

• We and our licensors own the service, the software, the Pearla name and logo, our agent templates and documentation, and all improvements to them. These terms don't transfer any of that to you.
• While you're subscribed, or otherwise allowed to use the service, we give you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to use it for your practice's business under these terms.
• If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them freely, without any obligation to you. Feedback doesn't include practice data.

Confidentiality

Each of us will keep the other's non-public business information that it receives under these terms confidential, use it only for these terms, and share it only with people who need it for that and are bound to keep it confidential. This doesn't apply to information that is or becomes public through no fault of the receiving party, that it already had or develops independently, or that it gets from someone else lawfully. Either of us may disclose information when the law requires, after giving notice where allowed. Practice data is also protected by the sections above.

Other companies' services

The service relies on other companies: ElevenLabs (the voice agent, speech recognition and speech, and the AI language models it uses to answer and summarize calls), Twilio and the phone carriers (phone numbers and calls), Google Cloud and Firebase (hosting, database, file storage, sign-in and sign-in emails), Google Analytics (website and dashboard usage statistics), SendGrid (notification emails), your practice-management vendor, and Stripe (payments). Their outages, delays and changes are outside our control. We may change providers; our privacy policy lists the current ones.

Electronic communications

You agree to do business with us electronically and to receive notices, invoices, receipts and other communications by email, in the dashboard, or on this website. These meet any requirement that they be in writing or signed. You can read, download or print these terms on this page at any time.

Availability and changes to the service

• We work to keep the service running, but we don't promise any level of uptime. It may be interrupted for maintenance, outages or reasons outside our control.
• We may add, change or remove features. Early or beta features are provided as they are and may change or end at any time.
• If we stop offering the service entirely, we'll tell you at least 30 days ahead and refund fees you prepaid for time after it ends.

Suspension and ending

• You can stop using the service at any time by canceling as described above, and ask us to delete your practice's data.
• We may suspend or end your practice's access, or a staff member's, if you don't pay as described above, break these terms, put callers, patients, others or the service at risk, or if the law, a carrier or a provider requires it. Where reasonable, we'll tell you first and give you a chance to fix the problem and to download transcripts or ask us for copies of your data.
• We may also end these terms for any reason by telling you at least 30 days ahead; if we do, we'll refund fees you prepaid for time after they end.
• When these terms end, these sections keep applying, along with amounts owed: Patient information, HIPAA and business associate agreements; Patient and caller information, and our role; Retention, deletion and your records; Ownership and license; Confidentiality; No warranties; Limitation of liability; Your responsibility for claims; Disputes and arbitration; Governing law and courts; and General terms.

No warranties

Limitation of liability

Where the law allows, a claim about these terms or the service must be brought within one year after it arose, or it's permanently barred.

Your responsibility for claims

You will indemnify and hold harmless us and our members, managers, employees and agents, and if we ask, defend us, against any claim brought by someone else, including your patients, callers, government agencies and phone carriers, and the losses, damages, fines, penalties, settlements and costs (including reasonable attorneys' fees) that result, to the extent it arises from the following, except to the extent caused by our breach of these terms, our negligence or our violation of law:

• your patient relationships, care, treatment, advice, billing or scheduling, or any dispute with your patients;
• the information and instructions your practice gives the agent or us, and your greeting;
• your compliance with laws on call recording, AI disclosure, consent, telemarketing, privacy and health information (including HIPAA and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act), including any missing notice, consent or authorization;
• your use of the service with PHI without a signed BAA;
• information you or your practice-management system provide, and your right to use it with the service; or
• your use of the service in breach of these terms or the law.

We'll tell you promptly about a claim (a delay only reduces your obligation to the extent it harms you). We may take part with our own lawyer at our cost. You may not settle a claim in a way that admits fault for us or binds us without our written consent.

Disputes with your patients. We're not a party to your dealings with your patients. You release us and our members, managers, employees and agents from all claims, demands and damages, known and unknown, that arise from or relate to disputes between you and your patients or callers, except to the extent a claim is caused by our breach of these terms, our negligence or our violation of law. For this release only, you waive California Civil Code section 1542, and any similar law, which says: "A general release does not extend to claims that the creditor or releasing party does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release and that, if known by him or her, would have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor or released party." This release doesn't cover claims the law doesn't allow to be released.

Disputes and arbitration

Governing law and courts

The laws of the State of California govern these terms and any dispute about them or the service, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. For anything not decided in arbitration, the exclusive venue is the state courts located in Alameda County, California, or the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and each side consents to personal jurisdiction there. The small claims exception above still applies.

General terms

• Entire agreement. These terms, your order form, our privacy policy and any BAA we sign with you are the whole agreement between you and us about the service, and replace any earlier understanding. Purchase orders or other terms you send don't apply.
• Severability. If a court or arbitrator finds part of these terms unenforceable, that part is enforced as far as allowed and the rest stays in effect.
• No waiver. If we don't enforce a part of these terms, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later.
• Assignment. You may not transfer these terms or your account without our written consent. We may transfer them to an affiliate or to a successor in a merger, acquisition or sale of our business or assets.
• Independent parties. You and we are independent contractors. These terms don't create a partnership, joint venture, employment or agency relationship.
• Notices. We send notices to the email address on your order form or your practice's account, and may also show them in the dashboard; they're given when sent. Send notices to us at support@smartappslab.com; they're given when we receive them.
• Events outside our control. We aren't responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, such as outages of internet, power, phone carriers or providers, natural disasters, or government action.
• No third-party beneficiaries. These terms give no rights to anyone else, except the people protected by the limitation of liability, indemnity and release sections.
• Headings. Headings are for convenience only, and "including" means "including but not limited to".

If you called a practice that uses Pearla

• You spoke with an AI voice agent that answers calls for that practice. Your relationship is with the practice: questions about your care, appointments, bills or records go to the practice.
• The agent can make mistakes. Confirm anything important, such as an appointment time, with the practice.
• The agent doesn't give medical or dental advice. In an emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
• Calls are transcribed, and usually recorded, for the practice. Our privacy policy explains how we handle your information for the practice.
• The Disputes and arbitration section doesn't apply to you, and nothing in these terms takes away rights you have under laws that can't be waived.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The date at the top identifies the version. We'll tell practices about significant changes, and about any change to Fees, billing and renewal, Limitation of liability or Disputes and arbitration, by email at least 30 days before they take effect. If you keep using the service after a change takes effect, the new version applies to you from then on; if you don't agree, cancel before then. Changes don't apply to disputes that arose before them.

Contact us

Smart Apps Lab, LLC, Alameda County, California. Email: support@smartappslab.com.