Terms
Website and engagement terms.
Terms for website use, enquiries and accepted professional assignments.
Aperture Research Works may supply an approved final document as a professional PDF, Microsoft Word document or comparable editable format, according to the agreed scope. A PDF is intended to preserve a stable presentation, but identical rendering cannot be guaranteed across different devices, browsers, operating systems, fonts, printers, conversion tools, document-management systems or client environments.
Where exact layout cannot be reliably reproduced, or where the client must apply its own branding, house style, publication system or technical format, Aperture Research Works may supply the approved research content in Word or another editable format. The client may then reproduce the final document in the format it prefers, either internally or through an appointed designer.
Aperture Research Works remains responsible for the approved research content delivered within the agreed scope and disclosed limitations. It is not responsible for pagination shifts, substituted fonts, rendering differences, conversion errors, broken formatting, omitted material, added material, design choices, publication decisions or later alterations introduced by the client, its software, its service providers or any third party after delivery.
Any requirement for a fixed client template, print-ready production, accessibility tagging, specialist typesetting, publication design or exact cross-platform reproduction must be disclosed before scope and price are agreed. Such work may require a separate production service or external specialist.
Domain, scope and external communications
The domain name does not expand the engagement.
ApertureForensic.com is a shared web and communications domain within the broader Aperture environment. Aperture Research Works remains limited to the research and verification services expressly described and agreed. Use of “forensic” in the domain does not confer forensic, investigative, legal, laboratory or other regulated authority.
Each assignment starts and ends at the written scope, evidence cut-off and agreed delivery. Continuous monitoring, later developments, external letters, third-party approaches, interviews, right-of-reply requests, records requests, fieldwork, formal forensic examination and specialist opinions are excluded unless separately agreed in writing. The client should ordinarily obtain external confirmations and responses directly.
Read the full domain, research-limit and external-communications disclaimer.
Documents and language
Document format, language and governing edition
English is Aperture Research Works’ standard, preferred and governing working language unless a written engagement expressly provides otherwise. Clients may communicate in another practical language, and a translated client-facing edition may be agreed where appropriate.
Final work is normally supplied as a professionally prepared PDF. Rendering can vary between devices and software. Where a dependable layout cannot be reproduced, Aperture may also supply the approved content in Microsoft Word or another agreed editable format.
The approved research content and stated limitations remain Aperture’s responsibility within the agreed scope. Later client or third-party reformatting, conversion, additions or omissions are outside that responsibility. Where a translated edition is supplied, the English governing edition remains authoritative unless the engagement expressly states otherwise.
International website and engagement terms
Terms for enquiries, quotations, research assignments and use of this website.
These terms apply to website use and preliminary communication. An accepted assignment may also be governed by a quotation, scope document, engagement terms, confidentiality arrangement or other written agreement.
No automatic engagement
An enquiry, estimate, discussion, client reference or submission of documents does not require Aperture to accept work and does not by itself create a professional engagement, privilege, exclusivity or duty of care. Work begins only after scope, output, timing, fee and applicable terms are agreed in writing.
Written communication only
Aperture does not handle voice calls. Official communication, instructions, scope changes, approvals and case discussions must remain in writing by email. WhatsApp is available only for urgent attention and progress checks and is not the official case channel.
Scope, estimates, quotations and fixed price
Early figures are estimates based on information available at the time. A quotation is prepared when the anticipated work can be defined more accurately. The price becomes fixed for the accepted scope once Aperture confirms readiness to begin. New questions, additional entities, new jurisdictions, extensive documents, changed deadlines or unexpected evidence requirements may require written variation and additional fees.
Currency and payment
Commercial pricing and final quotations are expressed in USD unless otherwise agreed. Payments are currently processed through Payfast in South Africa. Aperture may issue a ZAR payment request or link using the applicable conversion basis at the time of invoicing or payment. Clients are responsible for payment-provider, bank, card, tax, withholding and currency-conversion charges that apply to them.
Client responsibilities
The client must provide accurate instructions, disclose intended use and relevant disputes, identify jurisdictions, avoid unlawful requests, supply materials they are authorised to share, preserve originals where necessary and promptly correct material errors. The client must not use the work to mislead, harass, discriminate unlawfully, evade legal duties or support illegal conduct.
Evidence and changing information
Research reflects the evidence reasonably available within the agreed scope and evidence cut-off. Sources may be incomplete, inaccessible, contradictory, revised or later superseded. Aperture does not guarantee that all relevant information exists publicly or can be lawfully obtained.
Deterministic verification and professional judgement
Aperture applies deterministic tests where necessary conditions, chronology, identity, calculations, records or structural requirements can be examined. Wider research conclusions may still require human judgement, evidence weighting and calibrated uncertainty. The service does not promise mechanical certainty where the source record cannot support it.
Assignments are not priced as automated document generation. Fees may reflect human research labour, source acquisition and examination, analytical choices, evidence controls, contradiction review, specialist coordination, drafting, quality assurance and final approval. The length of the deliverable is not the sole measure of the work performed.
Professional boundaries
Unless expressly agreed with an appropriately qualified professional, the work is not legal advice, financial advice, an audit, valuation, medical advice, engineering certification, laboratory testing, licensed private-investigator work, expert testimony, regulatory approval or a guarantee of admissibility.
Intellectual property and permitted use
The Aperture framework, methodology, templates, branding, website and pre-existing materials remain protected. Client-specific deliverables may be used only as provided in the written engagement. Drafts, internal controls, private prompts, research paths and unpublished working material are not transferred unless expressly agreed.
Aperture’s public framework, diagrams, examples and service descriptions explain the professional standard without publishing the detailed non-public methodology used to deliver the work.
Public descriptions do not transfer Aperture’s proprietary methods.
No licence is granted to copy, extract, reconstruct or commercially replicate protected non-public methods, templates, workflows or controls, except where applicable law expressly provides otherwise.
No licence is granted to copy, extract, scrape, decompile, reconstruct, imitate, model, train on, disclose or reverse engineer those protected methods, controls or process architecture, except to the extent that applicable law expressly prevents such a restriction. Access to public material does not transfer ownership or grant a right to create a substantially derived operating system.
Third-party sources and links
Third-party records, publications, databases, websites and payment services remain subject to their own rights, availability and terms. Inclusion or citation does not imply endorsement or control.
Confidentiality and privacy
Confidentiality obligations are governed by applicable written terms and law. Initial enquiries should not contain unnecessary privileged or highly sensitive material. Privacy handling is described on the Privacy page.
Timelines and availability
Aperture responds promptly and remains available to assess suitable work, but no completion date is binding until agreed in writing. Delays may arise from source access, client responses, payment, legal restrictions, specialist input, changing facts or force-majeure events.
Academic & Research Institutions
Aperture's academic practice is primarily an independent research-assurance and evidence-verification service for universities, research institutions, faculty, Principal Investigators and research teams. Doctoral, postdoctoral and research Master's requests may be considered where the proposed support is consistent with the applicable institution's academic-integrity rules. Undergraduate assessed work is not an active target market. Aperture will not impersonate a student, complete prohibited assessed work, fabricate sources or data, conceal deceptive authorship or facilitate academic misconduct. Where requested work may be submitted directly or substantially as the applicant's own assessed work, Aperture may require the relevant institutional rules, permission or disclosure requirements to be established before acceptance.
Academic and institutional work is professional commercial research work. Aperture does not apply an automatic student, academic, self-funded, grant-funded or institutional discount or surcharge. A final quotation is based on the actual scope, evidence burden, professional market, institution and jurisdiction, specialist requirements, timetable, risk and procurement or contracting conditions. Grant, sponsor or budget information may help define feasible scope and administrative requirements, but does not by itself determine the fee.
Limitation and reliance
Reliance must remain within the agreed purpose, scope, jurisdiction, evidence cut-off and stated limitations. No indirect, consequential or unlimited liability is accepted merely through website use or preliminary communication. Any assignment-specific responsibility is governed by the written engagement and applicable law.
International law and disputes
Assignments may involve several jurisdictions. Applicable law, forum and dispute procedures should be stated in the engagement where material. Nothing on this website overrides mandatory rights or obligations that cannot lawfully be excluded.
Changes
Website terms may be updated. The version incorporated into an accepted engagement remains subject to the written agreement for that matter.
US regulatory exclusions and intended use
US-facing assignments are subject to state, intended-use, data and professional-boundary review. Aperture does not provide consumer reports or products for employment, promotion, retention, credit, insurance, residential tenancy, consumer eligibility or statutory background screening. Aperture does not accept work requiring a US private-investigator or similar licence unless appropriately structured through an approved licensed provider.
The client must disclose the intended use and may not repurpose the output for an excluded eligibility, screening, unlawful surveillance, harassment, discrimination or regulated-investigation purpose.
Restricted information
Unless expressly approved under separate written controls, clients must not provide classified information, Controlled Unclassified Information, export-controlled technical data or source code, military design data, critical-infrastructure vulnerability details, protected health information or regulated financial customer data.
Client, sanctions and lawful-purpose review
Aperture may require confirmation of the contracting party, beneficial owners, payer, research subject, countries, relevant state, intended use and government or procurement connections. Aperture may decline, pause or terminate work where sanctions, export-control, licensing, data, conflict, ethical or lawful-purpose concerns cannot be resolved.
Client-supplied information and authority
Clients are expected to provide information honestly, accurately and as completely as reasonably possible, and to have lawful authority to provide it. A client must not knowingly provide false, forged, manipulated, unlawfully obtained or materially misleading information, conceal known material counter-evidence, or attempt to use Aperture to manufacture a predetermined conclusion.
Aperture may test client-supplied material, request provenance or further evidence, qualify reliance, limit scope, suspend work or terminate an engagement where integrity, authority or lawfulness is in doubt. Aperture is not responsible for error materially caused by false, concealed, incomplete or misleading client-supplied information where the defect could not reasonably have been identified within the agreed scope.
Outcome neutrality
Fees purchase the agreed research and deliverables, not a preferred finding. New evidence may qualify, supersede or require reassessment of an earlier conclusion.
Contract formation
Acceptance by clear affirmative email
A formal Engagement Proposal & Fixed-Fee Quotation identifies the scope, fee, validity period and the version of the Engagement Terms incorporated into the offer. To the extent permitted by applicable law, the client may accept the offer without a separate signature by sending an unqualified affirmative email from an authorised address that objectively and unambiguously communicates acceptance, for example: “I accept the Engagement Proposal, Fixed-Fee Quotation and incorporated Engagement Terms.”
A reply that proposes a material change to scope, price, payment, deliverables, liability or another contractual term is a proposed variation or counterproposal and does not activate the engagement unless Aperture confirms the revised terms in writing. A courtesy reply, question or ambiguous expression is not treated as acceptance.
Payment condition
Required payments must settle before chargeable work begins.
No substantive research, evidence review, analysis, drafting, specialist coordination, reserved-capacity work or other chargeable work commences until every amount stated as due before commencement has been received and confirmed as settled or cleared funds, unless Aperture expressly agrees otherwise in writing.
Proof of payment alone does not constitute settlement. Delayed payment or payment-processing time may cause reserved capacity to lapse and may require a revised start date or delivery date. Urgency does not override payment requirements, and Aperture is not responsible for timing consequences caused by late settlement or payment-processing delays outside its control.
PayFast payment link
After acceptance, Aperture normally sends a secure PayFast payment link by email. The client uses the payment methods that PayFast makes available to that client and transaction at the time. Individual payment methods, currency handling and processing availability are controlled by the payment provider and may vary.
Intellectual property
No reverse engineering or competing replication.
The client receives only the agreed rights to use commissioned final deliverables for the authorised purpose. Aperture’s non-public methodology, templates, workflows and controls remain proprietary.
Regulatory acceptance comes before substantive work
Certain investigative, screening and person-specific matters are accepted only after applicable licensing and regulatory authority has been confirmed. Aperture does not undertake regulated activity merely because information may be publicly available.
See Regulatory & Jurisdiction Controls