Terms & Conditions

The Site is a personal portfolio operated by Desmond Zhu, a sole individual based in Houston, Texas, United States. Although the Site uses a .co.za domain name, it is operated from the United States.

You may view and use the Site for lawful, personal, and informational purposes. When using the Site, you agree not to:

• Use the Site or its features (including the contact form and AI chatbot) for any unlawful, harmful, fraudulent, or abusive purpose.
• Submit false, misleading, or impersonating information.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of the Site, its administrative areas, servers, databases, or APIs.
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Site, or breach or circumvent any security, authentication, or rate-limiting measures.
• Use automated means (bots, scrapers, crawlers) to access, harvest, or extract data from the Site, except for well-behaved search-engine indexing consistent with the Site's robots.txt.
• Send spam or attempt to overload, flood, or disrupt the Site (including the chatbot or other interactive features).
• Harvest or collect email addresses or other contact information from the Site.
• Introduce malware or any other malicious or harmful code.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source of any non-public part of the Site, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law.

I may limit, suspend, or block access to anyone who violates these Terms or who I reasonably believe is misusing the Site, without notice.

The Site offers an AI-powered chatbot that answers questions about my background and projects and can help you send me an enquiry. By using it, you acknowledge and agree that:

• Responses are generated by an automated AI system and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date.
• Chatbot responses are provided for general information only and do not constitute professional, legal, financial, employment, or other advice, and should not be relied upon as such.
• The chatbot may not represent my views and may produce errors; nothing it says is a binding offer, promise, or commitment by me.
• You should not submit sensitive personal information through the chatbot, and you are responsible for the content you submit.
• Your use of the chatbot is also subject to my Privacy Policy, which explains how conversations and enquiries are handled.

I may change, limit, suspend, or discontinue the chatbot (or any other feature) at any time without notice.

If you submit information through the contact form or chatbot (an “Enquiry”), you represent that the information is accurate and that you have the right to provide it. An Enquiry is not a contract for services. Any actual engagement, project, or paid work would be governed by a separate written agreement between you and me. Nothing on the Site is an offer capable of acceptance, and submitting an Enquiry does not create any obligation on my part to respond or to provide services.

Unless otherwise stated, all content on the Site — including text, the CV and its contents, graphics, layout, design, logos, and the underlying source code — is owned by me or my licensors and is protected by copyright and other intellectual-property laws.

You may view the Site and make incidental, temporary copies in the ordinary course of browsing. You may not otherwise copy, reproduce, republish, distribute, modify, create derivative works from, or commercially exploit any part of the Site without my prior written permission, except where such use is expressly permitted by law (for example, fair use) or by a separate license I provide.

Trademarks, brand names, and logos shown on the Site (including third-party brand logos referenced for identification) remain the property of their respective owners. My use of any third-party logo for identification does not imply endorsement.

The Site may link to third-party websites or rely on third-party services (such as hosting, AI, email delivery, and anti-abuse providers). I do not control, and am not responsible for, the content, policies, or practices of any third-party website or service. Links are provided for convenience and do not imply endorsement.

The Site is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including (to the fullest extent permitted by law) any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, or availability.

I do not warrant that the Site will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of harmful components, or that any information on the Site (including chatbot output) is accurate, complete, or current.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, in no event will I be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or relating to your use of (or inability to use) the Site, the chatbot, or any content — whether based in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, or otherwise, and even if I have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, my total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Site will not exceed USD $100.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations or exclusions, so some of the above may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

You agree to indemnify and hold me harmless from any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your misuse of the Site, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or the rights of any third party.

Your use of the Site is also governed by my Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. Please review it to understand how I collect and handle information.

I may update these Terms from time to time. When I do, I will revise the “Last updated” date above. Material changes take effect when posted. Your continued use of the Site after changes are posted means you accept the revised Terms.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas and applicable United States federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. You agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to the Site or these Terms will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Harris County, Texas, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there.

The .za domain registry may require certain domain-name ownership disputes (i.e., disputes about the right to the domain name itself) to be handled under its own dispute-resolution procedures; that is separate from these Terms, which govern your use of the Site.

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.