Terms of Service

Welcome to The First Click ("we", "us", "our"), published at www.the-first-click.com by Agency of Strategy Inc., a Canadian corporation. By accessing the site, subscribing to a newsletter, joining the waitlist, or creating an account, you agree to these Terms of Service and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

1. What The First Click is

The First Click is a publication providing curated news, context, and insights — not just headlines. Content is produced through a combination of human editorial judgment and AI-assisted research tools, as described in our Editorial Policy and AI Use Declaration.

Our content is provided for general information. It is not legal, financial, investment, medical, or other professional advice, and you should not rely on it as such. Always seek qualified professional advice before acting on anything you read here.

2. Accounts and eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. You are responsible for keeping your credentials confidential and for all activity under your account. Provide accurate information and keep it current. We may suspend or close accounts that violate these Terms.

3. Tiers and access

The First Click offers the following tiers, whose exact features and pricing are described on the site and may evolve:

• Free — access to the publication, supported by advertising.
• Ad-Free — an ad-free reading experience, earned through active referrals rather than payment (see section 4). It cannot be purchased.
• Premium — a paid tier adding full archive search and site-wide entity search. Premium is still supported by advertising; it is not an ad-free tier.
• Black — a paid tier combining everything in Premium with an ad-free experience. Black is also granted by editor invitation, in which case no payment is taken and the grant does not expire.

Paid subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period until cancelled. You can cancel at any time from your account settings; access continues until the end of the period already paid. Billing questions and refunds are handled under our Refund Policy via support@the-first-click.com.

We may change tier features or pricing with reasonable advance notice. Price changes never apply retroactively to a period you have already paid for.

The LinkedIn free year. Premium is currently offered free until 31 August 2027 to members who connect a LinkedIn profile to their account. The following applies to that offer:

• One profile, one free year. A given LinkedIn profile can claim it once, ever — including if you close your account and open another one later.
• The offer is personal, non-transferable, and has no cash value.
• It ends on the date above for everyone at the same time; it is not a rolling year from the date you connect, and it does not renew automatically. After that date, Premium continues only if you choose to pay for it.
• Connecting LinkedIn does not change how you sign in — you continue to sign in here with your email address.
• What LinkedIn passes to us, and what we do with it, is described in our Privacy Policy.

4. Referral programme

Ad-Free status is earned by referring new readers who genuinely join The First Click. The following rules apply:

• Referrals must be real people who opt in themselves. Self-referrals, fake or duplicate accounts, purchased sign-ups, bulk unsolicited email ("spam"), and automated sign-ups are prohibited.
• We may require referred accounts to remain active for a qualifying period before a referral counts.
• Earned Ad-Free status is personal, non-transferable, and has no cash value.
• Ad-Free status remains subject to the "active referrals" requirement published on the site; if your referral activity lapses below that requirement, your account may revert to the Free tier with notice.
• We may adjust the programme's mechanics prospectively, and may revoke status obtained through abuse.

5. Intellectual property

All content on The First Click — articles, summaries, analysis, research, graphics, and the compilation itself — is owned by Agency of Strategy Inc. or its licensors and protected by copyright and other laws. Headlines and facts we link to remain the property of their original publishers, whom we credit and link to.

You may read, share links to, and quote brief excerpts of our content with attribution. You may not republish substantial portions, scrape the site, or use our content to train machine-learning models, in each case without our prior written permission (editor@the-first-click.com).

Premium and Black content is licensed for your personal or internal business use. It may not be resold, redistributed, or systematically shared outside your organisation.

6. Acceptable use

You agree not to: circumvent paywalls, ad-free controls, or access restrictions; interfere with the operation or security of the service; use the service for unlawful purposes; misrepresent your affiliation; or abuse the referral programme. We may suspend or terminate access for violations.

7. Third-party content and links

We link extensively to original sources. Those sites have their own terms and privacy practices, which we do not control and are not responsible for.

8. Disclaimers

The service and its content are provided "as is" and "as available". While our editors work to be accurate and our corrections process is public (see the Editorial Policy), we do not warrant that content is complete, current, or error-free, or that the service will be uninterrupted. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all implied warranties and conditions.

9. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Agency of Strategy Inc., The First Click, and their directors, employees, and partners are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, data, or goodwill, arising from your use of the service. Our total aggregate liability for any claim is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose and (b) CAD $50.

Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded under applicable consumer protection law, including rights you may have under Canadian provincial consumer protection legislation.

10. Indemnity

You will indemnify us against claims arising from your breach of these Terms or your unlawful use of the service.

11. Termination

You may close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate the service or your access for breach of these Terms, or discontinue features with reasonable notice. Sections that by their nature should survive (intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability) survive termination.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will post changes here and, for material changes, notify members by email at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

13. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. The courts located in Ontario have exclusive jurisdiction, except where applicable consumer law gives you the right to bring proceedings in your local courts.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms, payments, refunds, privacy, and data requests: support@the-first-click.com
Editorial corrections and advertising enquiries: editor@the-first-click.com