Ficus Education Website Terms, Privacy Policy, and Accessibility Statement

Effective Date: January 1, 2023
Last Updated: January 1, 2026

Please read these Terms carefully. By accessing, viewing, browsing, submitting information through, copying, downloading, indexing, crawling, scraping, scanning, or otherwise interacting with this website, you agree to these Terms, Privacy Policy, and Accessibility Statement. If you do not agree, you are not authorized to access or use this website.

For purposes of these Terms, “Ficus,” “Ficus Education,” “Ficus Group,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Ficus Group, LLC, doing business as Ficus Education.

These Terms apply to all visitors, users, customers, prospective customers, vendors, competitors, bots, crawlers, scrapers, automated tools, artificial intelligence systems, data collection tools, and any person or entity accessing the website directly or indirectly.

Acceptance and Access

Your access to or use of this website constitutes your agreement to these Terms. If you access or use the website on behalf of another person, company, organization, automated system, bot, crawler, or tool, you represent that you have authority to bind that person or entity.

Ficus may deny, suspend, limit, block, or terminate access to the website at any time, with or without notice, including for suspected violation of these Terms.

Website Content and No Professional Advice

Website content is provided for general informational purposes only. It may describe employer-sponsored education benefits, university partnerships, tuition benefit programs, administrative services, student support resources, employer subscription programs, Pathways by Ficus, or other offerings.

Website content is not legal, tax, financial, educational, admissions, scholarship, accreditation, employment, benefits, or professional advice. It is not a quote, guarantee of admission, promise of academic credit, promise of graduation, guarantee of financial aid, guarantee of scholarship eligibility, or guarantee that any university, degree, course, pathway, provider, benefit, or service will remain available.

You are responsible for verifying information before relying on it. Ficus may change, remove, revise, suspend, discontinue, or update website content at any time without notice.

No University, Employer, or Fiduciary Relationship

Ficus is not a university, college, accrediting body, financial-aid administrator, employer, tax advisor, legal advisor, or guarantor of academic outcomes.

Ficus may provide access to, information about, administrative support for, or referrals to independent universities, education partners, employers, service providers, technology vendors, or other third parties. Ficus does not control those third parties and is not responsible for their acts, omissions, admissions decisions, academic decisions, course availability, credit-transfer decisions, scholarship decisions, financial-aid determinations, billing decisions, employment decisions, or service decisions.

Use of this website does not create a student-university relationship, employer-employee relationship, fiduciary relationship, attorney-client relationship, confidential relationship, or professional advisory relationship with Ficus.

Franchise Brand Disclaimer

Ficus Education serves independent franchisee business owner/operators and independent businesses nationwide. Ficus Education is not affiliated with, sponsored by, approved by, or endorsed by any franchise brand, franchisor, parent company, or brand system unless expressly stated in a written agreement signed by Ficus and the applicable brand owner.

Ficus does not claim ownership of any client, franchise, franchisor, university, partner, or third-party trademarks, logos, names, copyrights, or other intellectual property.

Separate Agreements

These Terms govern website access and use only. They do not replace or modify any separate written agreement, master services agreement, employer agreement, university agreement, student-facing document, vendor agreement, privacy agreement, data-processing agreement, plan document, policy, certificate, client agreement, or other contract signed or approved by Ficus. If a separate written agreement applies, that agreement controls as to the covered service or relationship.

Intellectual Property

All website content, including text, images, graphics, logos, icons, design, layout, software, data, downloads, documents, videos, forms, service descriptions, and other materials, is owned by or licensed to Ficus and protected by copyright, trademark, trade dress, unfair competition, and other laws.

You may view the website for personal, informational, non-commercial purposes only. You may not copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, modify, distribute, sell, license, scrape, harvest, mirror, frame, display, create derivative works from, or otherwise exploit website content without Ficus’s prior written consent.

Ficus Group, Ficus Education, Employer-Sponsored Higher Education, ESHE, Pathways by Ficus, related logos, and related names are trademarks, service marks, trade names, or proprietary identifiers of Ficus Group, LLC or its affiliates. You may not use them without prior written permission.

Prohibited Uses

You may not access or use this website for any unlawful, abusive, commercial, competitive, automated, misleading, or unauthorized purpose.

Prohibited activities include:

1. Scraping, crawling, harvesting, copying, indexing, scanning, downloading, extracting, or collecting website content by automated means.
2. Using bots, crawlers, spiders, scrapers, automated browsers, AI agents, machine learning tools, data mining tools, monitoring tools, or similar technology to access, collect, analyze, or copy website content.
3. Using website content to train, fine-tune, develop, test, validate, benchmark, prompt, ground, supplement, operate, or improve any artificial intelligence system, machine learning system, large language model, generative AI system, search tool, retrieval system, database, or automated content-analysis platform.
4. Accessing the website to create, solicit, manufacture, identify, support, or assert copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity-rights, accessibility, consumer-protection, unfair-competition, or similar claims or demands based on automated, bulk, artificial intelligence, or non-human review.
5. Copying, mirroring, framing, republishing, redistributing, displaying, reselling, licensing, or making website content available on another website, platform, database, network, AI system, or repository.
6. Circumventing, ignoring, bypassing, or misrepresenting compliance with any robots.txt instruction, metadata instruction, rate limit, access control, header, security measure, technical restriction, or other restriction posted or implemented by Ficus.
7. Conducting vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, load testing, credential stuffing, password spraying, probing, reverse engineering, or security testing without Ficus’s prior written authorization.
8. Introducing malware, spyware, ransomware, malicious code, tracking tools, or other harmful technology.
9. Interfering with the operation, security, performance, availability, or integrity of the website.
10. Misrepresenting your identity, affiliation, purpose, user agent, location, authority, or permission.

Any prohibited access is outside the scope of permission granted by Ficus and may constitute unauthorized access, breach of contract, trespass to chattels, copyright infringement, unfair competition, or other unlawful conduct.

Automated Access, AI, Crawlers, and Search Engines

Ficus permits ordinary access by individual human users for personal, informational review.

Ficus permits limited indexing by Google Search solely for ordinary public search-result display, provided such access complies with Ficus’s robots.txt file, metadata instructions, rate limits, technical restrictions, and other posted instructions.

This limited Google Search permission does not authorize scraping, bulk copying, AI training, AI summarization, dataset creation, republication, resale, competitive use, automated claim generation, automated legal review, or use in artificial intelligence products or services.

No other bot, crawler, scraper, AI system, automated tool, machine learning tool, or non-human user is authorized to access, copy, index, download, analyze, train on, or use website content unless Ficus gives prior written permission.

Any person or entity that accesses the website through, or with the assistance of, an automated tool, crawler, scraper, bot, artificial intelligence system, data mining tool, monitoring tool, or agent is responsible for that access and agrees that any claim, demand, notice, lawsuit, or action arising from information obtained through such access is subject to these Terms, including the prohibited-use, pre-suit notice, exclusive venue, individual-claim, and damages-limitation provisions.

Privacy Policy

Ficus respects the privacy of information provided through this website. We may collect information you voluntarily provide, including name, email address, phone number, address, state of residence, employer or organization name, role, inquiry details, and other information you submit through forms, email, registration tools, or other website features.

We may also collect technical and usage information, including IP address, browser type, device information, pages visited, referring pages, timestamps, user-agent data, cookies, analytics data, server logs, security logs, and similar information.

Ficus uses information to:

1. Respond to inquiries and service requests.
2. Identify prospects, clients, users, and authorized contacts.
3. Provide information about Ficus programs, services, and education-benefit opportunities.
4. Support website operation, security, analytics, and fraud prevention.
5. Improve services and develop new services.
6. Communicate about products or services that may be of interest.
7. Support customer service, account access, and administrative workflows.
8. Comply with law, investigate misuse, enforce these Terms, preserve evidence, and protect Ficus.

Ficus does not rent or sell personal information of online visitors for third-party marketing use. Ficus may disclose information to service providers, technology vendors, business partners, universities, employers, legal or compliance advisors, or other parties as reasonably necessary to provide services, respond to requests, operate the website, comply with law, investigate suspected misconduct, protect rights or safety, complete audits, address security issues, or support a merger, acquisition, sale, or business transfer.

Ficus has implemented reasonable physical, technical, and administrative safeguards designed to protect personal information from loss, misuse, alteration, or unauthorized access. However, no internet transmission or electronic storage method is completely secure, and Ficus cannot guarantee absolute security.

Do not submit Social Security numbers, financial account information, payment card information, medical information, protected health information, sensitive personal information, student education records, or confidential third-party information through the website unless Ficus has expressly provided a secure and authorized method.

Cookies, Logs, and Evidence

Ficus may use cookies, analytics tools, server logs, security tools, tracking technologies, user-agent data, IP information, device information, timestamp records, archived Terms, and technical records to operate the website, improve performance, respond to inquiries, detect misuse, preserve evidence, enforce these Terms, protect Ficus, and comply with law.

By using the website, you acknowledge that website activity may be logged or monitored for security, operational, compliance, and enforcement purposes.

Texting and Mobile Communications

By checking an opt-in box, submitting a form, or otherwise providing consent to receive text messages or calls, you agree to receive recurring text messages and calls from Ficus Education at the number provided. Message and data rates may apply. Consent is not a condition of purchase or participation.

To opt out, reply STOP at any time. For help, reply HELP.

Mobile opt-in data and consent will not be shared with outside parties for their own marketing purposes. Ficus may use service providers to deliver or manage text-message communications on Ficus’s behalf.

Children

This website is not intended for children under 13. Ficus does not knowingly solicit information from or market to children under 13. Parents and guardians are responsible for supervising their minor children’s use of the website.

Third-Party Services and Links

This website may reference or link to third-party websites, universities, employers, providers, vendors, service organizations, resources, or content. Ficus does not control and is not responsible for third-party websites, content, products, services, availability, privacy practices, security practices, representations, acts, omissions, or decisions.

A link or reference does not mean Ficus endorses, sponsors, controls, guarantees, or is affiliated with that third party. You access third-party websites and services at your own risk.

Accessibility Statement

Ficus is committed to providing a website and digital experience that is accessible to the widest possible audience, including individuals with disabilities. Ficus strives to design and maintain digital content and workflows in a way that supports accessibility and usability for all users.

Ficus aims to align its web content with generally recognized accessibility practices, including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines where practical for its platform and third-party services. Because portions of the Ficus experience may rely on third-party platforms, embedded content, or integrations outside Ficus’s direct control, some accessibility features may vary by provider and user environment.

If you encounter an accessibility barrier, need assistance accessing content, or would like to request an accommodation, contact Ficus at the Contact address below. Please identify the page or feature, the issue experienced, assistive technology used, browser used, and requested assistance. Ficus will make reasonable efforts to provide an accessible alternative and improve accessibility over time.

Copyright, Trademark, or IP Complaints

If you believe website content infringes your copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights, provide written notice to Ficus at the Contact address below.

Your notice must include your contact information, identification of the right allegedly infringed, the exact URL or location of the material, the basis for your ownership or authority, and why you believe the use is unauthorized.

Automated, bulk, AI-generated, or crawler-generated copyright, trademark, accessibility, privacy, or similar complaints are prohibited unless Ficus has provided prior written authorization for that automated review.

No Warranties

The website and all content are provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent permitted by law, Ficus disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, completeness, currentness, availability, uninterrupted operation, security, and error-free performance.

Ficus does not warrant that the website will be available, secure, uninterrupted, error-free, virus-free, or compatible with your systems.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Ficus Group, LLC, Ficus Education, their affiliates, owners, officers, employees, contractors, vendors, service providers, content providers, agents, successors, and assigns from all claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, expenses, demands, penalties, and fees, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or relating to your access to or use of the website, violation of these Terms, misuse of website content, automated access, scraping, crawling, copying, publication, redistribution, or violation of any rights of Ficus or any third party.

Liability, Notices, Claims, Venue, and Enforcement

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Ficus shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, punitive, statutory, enhanced, or similar damages arising out of or relating to the website, website content, access to or use of the website, inability to use the website, automated access, scraping, crawling, indexing, copying, publication, reliance on website content, or interaction with third-party services.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Ficus’s total liability for any claim arising out of or relating to the website or these Terms shall not exceed the lesser of: (1) the amount you paid directly to Ficus to access the website, if any; or (2) Five Hundred Dollars ($500). This limitation applies regardless of legal theory, including contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, statute, equity, intellectual property, consumer protection, privacy, accessibility, unfair competition, or any other theory.

Before filing any claim, demand, charge, lawsuit, complaint, administrative proceeding, or other action relating to the website, website content, access to the website, use of the website, privacy, accessibility, or these Terms, you must provide written notice to Ficus at the Contact address below. The notice must identify the specific conduct, webpage, URL, content, alleged harm, legal basis, requested relief, and amount claimed. Ficus shall have thirty (30) days to investigate and, where appropriate, cure, respond, or attempt to resolve the issue. This requirement does not limit Ficus’s right to seek immediate injunctive, equitable, protective, or emergency relief.

These Terms and any dispute, claim, controversy, or cause of action arising out of or relating to the website, website content, website access, website use, attempted website use, automated access, scraping, crawling, indexing, copying, publication, alleged misuse of website content, privacy, accessibility, or online communications shall be governed by Georgia law, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

By accessing, viewing, using, crawling, scraping, indexing, copying, downloading, scanning, submitting information through, or otherwise interacting with the website, you agree that any claim you bring against Ficus must be brought exclusively in the appropriate state or federal court located in Fulton County, Georgia. You waive any objection to personal jurisdiction, venue, inconvenience of forum, or lack of connection to Fulton County, Georgia.

Claims must be brought individually. You may not bring or participate in any class action, collective action, mass action, private attorney general action, consolidated action, or representative proceeding against Ficus arising out of or relating to the website, privacy, accessibility, online communications, or these Terms.

Ficus may bring an action in any court of competent jurisdiction to seek injunctive relief, equitable relief, enforcement of intellectual property rights, protection against unauthorized scraping, crawling, automated access, copying, publication, misuse of website content, security violations, or any other relief necessary to prevent or stop unauthorized activity.

Ficus may update these Terms at any time by posting revised Terms on the website. Revised Terms are effective when posted unless a later effective date is stated. Continued access to or use of the website after revised Terms are posted constitutes acceptance.

If any provision of these Terms is found unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision shall be severed or modified to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions shall remain in effect. Ficus’s failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver.

Entire Agreement

These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and Ficus regarding website access, use, privacy, accessibility, online communications, and related website matters.

These Terms do not modify any separate written agreement signed by Ficus, including any master services agreement, employer agreement, university agreement, service agreement, vendor agreement, provider agreement, data-processing agreement, student-facing agreement, policy, certificate, client agreement, or other contract.

Contact

Questions, notices, accessibility requests, copyright or intellectual property complaints, privacy questions, and other communications regarding these Terms may be directed to:

Ficus Group, LLC
c/o General Counsel, Web Inquiries
11175 Cicero Drive, Suite 500
Alpharetta, Georgia 30022
legal@ficuseducation.com