1. Introduction
Welcome to Compass Political Intelligence Platform (hereinafter “Compass”), operated by CL Corporate Affairs Consulting E.I. (hereinafter “CL” or “CL Corporate Affairs Consulting”, used interchangeably throughout this document), with its registered office at 1 avenue de l’Observatoire, 75006 Paris, France, and a representation office at Avenue de Tervueren 103, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium. CL Corporate Affairs Consulting is registered in the French Business and Establishment Directory under number 902 992 189.
These Terms and Conditions govern your use of the Compass platform accessible at compass.eu.com. By logging in and using the platform, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not accept any of these provisions, you must stop using the platform.
2. Access and accounts
Access to Compass requires a user account created by an administrator. Accounts are personal and non-transferable. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials. You must notify the administrator immediately of any unauthorised use of your account.
The administrator reserves the right to deactivate any account at any time, without prior notice, in the event of a breach of these Terms or for any other legitimate reason.
An account may be requested directly through the account request form. Submitting a request does not create an account: it is reviewed by hand, and an account is opened only if the request is accepted. Where it is, the platform generates the password itself and sends it to the address given; it is never chosen by, nor shown to, the administrator.
An account may carry additional users, either sharing one collaborative workspace or each holding their own separate workspace, up to the number of seats agreed when the account is opened. The holder adds them from Manage my account: a colleague at the organisation’s own email domain is created immediately, anyone at another domain only after CL Corporate Affairs Consulting has approved it. Every user added this way receives their own password and finalises their own account by reading and accepting these Terms and the Privacy Policy at first sign-in.
Finalising an account. An account opened for you becomes definitive only once you have read and accepted these Terms and the Privacy Policy at first sign-in. Until then it gives no access and holds nothing. If you decline them, the account is deleted immediately, together with everything it holds, once you have confirmed that choice explicitly. Nothing is kept, and a new account request has to be made if you change your mind. You may likewise withdraw an account request at any time, before or after it has been accepted, from the link in the acknowledgement email; the request and anything supplied with it, together with any account already opened for it but not yet finalised, are deleted at once.
Where an account is simply left unfinalised, the administrator answerable for it is reminded after 30 days and again after 60 days, and the account is deleted automatically 90 days after its creation or approval. Past that point, a new account request has to be made. Those reminders are addressed to the administrator, never to the account that has not been finalised. Retention is described in section 11 of the Privacy Policy.
3. Eligibility and access requests
Compass is intended for professionals across the full spectrum of the public affairs and institutional relations ecosystem, including in-house public affairs teams, trade associations, think tanks, non-governmental organisations and any organisation whose activity involves engaging with policymakers.
Because Compass is built and operated by a working public affairs consultancy, access to the platform is granted in strict compliance with the ethical rules of the profession, and subject to compatibility with the professional engagements of CL Corporate Affairs Consulting and its clients. CL Corporate Affairs Consulting reserves the right to decline or revoke access where a potential conflict of interest is identified, at its sole discretion.
Account requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Where a potential overlap with existing engagements exists, it will be discussed with the prospective user before access is granted or denied. Acceptance of an account does not create any obligation on CL Corporate Affairs Consulting to continue to provide access should a conflict of interest emerge during the course of the relationship.
Beyond this contractual and ethical framework, the platform itself is designed to give each user a high degree of verifiable control over their own data. The optional end-to-end encryption described in section 10.1 of the Privacy Policy, and the strict opt-in policy applied to any AI processing described in section 9 of the same document, are the technical translation of the ethical commitments stated in this section: where a guarantee can be enforced by the platform itself rather than only by trust, we have chosen to enforce it by the platform itself.
How access is revoked, and what happens to your data. The right reserved above may be exercised on two distinct grounds, which do not carry the same consequences. Where access ends because of a conflict of interest, the holder has done nothing wrong, and the account is deactivated, never deleted: deactivation is reversible, suspends sign-in and erases nothing. The holder is notified as promptly as circumstances allow, and the grounds are stated on request. A copy of the data does not have to be asked for: an archive of everything CL is technically able to read is prepared automatically and a download link is sent to the holder’s registered address, on the same terms and with the same safeguards as in section 11 of the Privacy Policy. Should the incompatibility later cease, access may be restored.
Where the platform has been put to an unlawful use, CL Corporate Affairs Consulting may either deactivate the account or delete it, which is final. The grounds are stated on request, the holder is notified in either case, and where the account is deleted the 30-day window described in section 11 of the Privacy Policy applies before anything is erased, the same automatic archive being prepared and sent. In every case, ending the service is a decision about access to the platform, not a decision about the content you entrusted to us, of which you remain the controller.
What a request involves. The form asks for identity and contact details, the organisation and, where the applicant acts for clients, the clients represented, so that the check described above can actually be carried out. A logo may be attached for the organisation and for each client; this is optional and serves only to personalise the applicant’s own maps, lists and exported documents. If the request is declined, the applicant is notified, a reason may be given, and everything supplied is deleted. We aim to reply within 48 working hours. A request left undecided for 30 days expires and is deleted on the same terms.
4. Permitted use
Compass is an internal professional tool designed for public affairs practitioners. You agree to use the platform solely for lawful professional purposes related to legislative tracking, stakeholder mapping and engagement management within the framework of European Union public affairs.
The following are strictly prohibited:
- Any use of the platform for purposes unrelated to professional public affairs activities.
- Any attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the platform, the server, or any connected system.
- Any use of automated systems (bots, scrapers, etc.) to access the platform, except as explicitly provided by the platform itself.
- Sharing login credentials with third parties.
- Using the data accessed through Compass for purposes that would violate applicable data protection legislation.
5. Intellectual property
All content, code, design, logos and software constituting the Compass platform are the exclusive property of CL Corporate Affairs Consulting and are protected by French and international intellectual property laws. No reproduction, distribution or modification of any part of the platform is permitted without prior written consent.
Data entered by the user (notes, engagement logs, manual entries) remains the intellectual property of the user or their organisation. CL Corporate Affairs Consulting does not claim ownership of user-generated content.
6. Data and privacy
Use of the Compass platform is subject to our Privacy Policy, which explains how we collect, process and protect personal data.
The platform processes publicly available information about political stakeholders in compliance with the GDPR and in accordance with the sector-specific framework established by French public affairs professional associations in concertation with the CNIL.
7. Data processing roles and user responsibility
By using the Compass platform, the user acknowledges and accepts that they act as data controller within the meaning of Article 4(7) of the GDPR for all personal data they enter, import, modify or otherwise process within the platform. This includes, without limitation, stakeholder names, functions, positions, contact details, engagement records, notes and any other information relating to identified or identifiable natural persons.
The user is solely responsible for:
- Ensuring that their processing of personal data complies with the GDPR and any other applicable data protection legislation;
- Identifying and documenting the appropriate legal basis for each processing activity (e.g. legitimate interest, consent, legal obligation);
- Responding to any request from a data subject to exercise their rights (access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection);
- Ensuring the accuracy, relevance and proportionality of the data they enter.
CL Corporate Affairs Consulting, as operator of the Compass platform, acts exclusively as data processor within the meaning of Article 4(8) of the GDPR. CL provides the technical infrastructure, user authentication and access to the service. CL does not determine the purposes of processing stakeholder data entered by users and does not access, use or share such data for its own purposes.
These Terms and Conditions, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the data processing agreement between the user (controller) and CL Corporate Affairs Consulting (processor) within the meaning of Article 28 of the GDPR.
8. Third-party data sources
Compass retrieves data from publicly accessible institutional sources (European Parliament, Council of the EU, European Commission, EU Transparency Register). This data is provided as-is and may be subject to change. CL Corporate Affairs Consulting does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of data retrieved from third-party sources.
Compass is an independent product operated by CL Corporate Affairs Consulting. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or otherwise officially connected to the European Union, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of the EU, or any other EU institution, body or agency. References to these institutions, and any use of their publicly available data or visual identifiers, are made solely to identify the origin of the information displayed and do not imply any partnership, sponsorship or official relationship.
9. AI-assisted content and third-party services
Compass includes an AI layer that supports analytical tasks such as position classification, stakeholder analysis, strategic briefings, and suggesting positioning and rewrites on the texts under discussion. The platform’s AI scope is deliberately restricted to Mistral, the European AI provider headquartered in Paris (France). No other third-party AI provider, whether OpenAI, Anthropic, or any non-European model, is integrated into the platform, and none is contemplated for future integration.
AI processing runs exclusively on Mistral’s European commercial API: requests are sent to api.mistral.ai (hosted in the European Union by default, per Mistral’s representation), exclusively through a personal Mistral API key held by a user (independent capacity, billed to and governed by that user’s own Mistral account), with the key stored encrypted at rest. The publisher holds no shared key and provides no AI capacity of its own; the platform’s server relays the user’s requests without storing or logging their content. Because the request passes through that relay, content protected by end-to-end encryption is decrypted in the browser and is momentarily readable in transit — by Mistral, and in memory by the platform’s server — so the technical impossibility that applies to stored encrypted fields does not apply to an AI request; nothing is written to disk, and this transient exposure is the reason AI is a deliberate opt-in and is off by default. In a collaborative workspace, a member who has not added a key of their own uses the key of their account manager: usage is then billed to the manager’s Mistral account and governed by the manager’s plan and settings, and only the standard model is used. Every user is invited to add their own key; outside a collaborative workspace, a personal key is required and without one the AI features remain unavailable. Whether Mistral may use API data to improve its models depends on Mistral’s own terms and on the settings of the user’s own account: users should review the terms they have accepted with Mistral and their account’s privacy and training settings. Mistral retains API data for up to 30 rolling days for abuse-monitoring purposes, then deletes it.
User control. By using the Compass platform, you acknowledge that AI-assisted features are not enabled by default and require a deliberate, explicit choice to enable AI in Manage my account. Outside a collaborative workspace this must be accompanied by the provision of a personal Mistral API key; inside one, a member who has not added a key of their own runs on the account manager’s key, as described above. You may disable AI entirely at any time. The default state of every account is “no AI”.
AI-assisted research of public sources. Upon explicit user action, the AI may consult publicly accessible sources (an organisation’s official website, public position statements) to help characterise a positioning or to identify the declared clients of a consultancy. Such consultation is never automatic, is logged, and its output is subject to user validation before any storage. The Transparency Register is consulted locally, with no external request.
Third-party provider obligations. Where you enable AI (Mistral’s European API, via your own personal key), data exchanged with the API is governed by Mistral’s commercial terms, including its Data Processing Addendum and applicable privacy policy, available at legal.mistral.ai/terms. You are invited to review those terms before activation. A more detailed description of the data-protection framework applicable to this configuration is set out in Section 9 of the Privacy Policy.
Personal API keys. Where you use your own Mistral API key — always, outside a collaborative workspace — you are Mistral’s direct customer, and the terms you have accepted with Mistral, including your plan, billing, and your account’s privacy and training settings, govern that use. You are responsible for ensuring that your Mistral account type permits such use (a commercial / La Plateforme account, not a consumer account), and for the confidentiality and revocation of your key. CL Corporate Affairs Consulting acts solely as a processor relaying your requests on your instructions, and provides technical support only; it is not a party to your agreement with Mistral.
AI-generated content is provided for informational purposes only and should always be reviewed and validated by the user before being acted upon or shared externally. CL Corporate Affairs Consulting does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or reliability of AI-generated outputs.
10. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, CL Corporate Affairs Consulting disclaims all liability for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages arising out of or in connection with your use of the Compass platform, including any loss of data, reputation or business opportunity.
The platform is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We do not warrant that the platform will be error-free, secure or uninterrupted.
10.1 Service interruption and discontinuation
Compass may be temporarily unavailable, in particular for maintenance, updates, a technical incident, or because a third-party data source has failed. Where an interruption occurs, CL Corporate Affairs Consulting will use the reasonable means available to it to restore the service as promptly as it can. This is a best-efforts undertaking: no availability, no restoration time and no service level are guaranteed.
Should the platform cease to operate, users will be notified in advance and will be able to download their data. The notice period will be reasonable in the circumstances, and the export function will remain available throughout it.
No indemnity, compensation or refund is claimable on account of an interruption, a degradation or the discontinuation of the service. That limitation is proportionate and legitimate given how the service is provided: Compass is made available entirely free of charge, with no payment, no subscription, and no commercial exploitation of users' data. No paid service is therefore owed, and no availability obligation has been undertaken whose breach could give rise to compensation. This limitation does not extend to damage that the law does not permit to be excluded.
10.2 Transfer of the platform
Should the Compass platform be transferred, users will be informed within two weeks of the agreement with the acquirer being concluded. The acquirer will ascertain all legal obligations incumbent upon it, where applicable, in order to ensure continuity of service.
CL Corporate Affairs Consulting will endeavour, so far as possible and always on a best-efforts basis, to limit as far as can be done the operational and functional impact on the platform's users.
Any user who does not wish to continue under the new operator may, during that period, export their data and request deletion of their account on the terms set out in section 11 of the Privacy Policy.
11. Scope of our confidentiality commitment
CL Corporate Affairs Consulting contractually undertakes never to access, read, consult, analyse or otherwise use the content entered by users into the Compass platform for any purpose other than the technical operation and maintenance of the service. This commitment applies to all content, whether or not it is encrypted, and binds CL for the entire duration of the platform’s operation.
In terms of technical enforcement, this commitment operates on two distinct levels depending on the user’s configuration:
- By default (without end-to-end encryption): the content of stakeholder analyses, notes, engagement records, attributed positions and private comments is stored in a form that is technically readable by the server. The non-consultation of this content is guaranteed contractually, not technically.
- With end-to-end encryption activated: the fields listed in section 10.1 of the Privacy Policy are encrypted in the user’s browser before being stored. The server retains only a form of the data that cannot be decrypted by CL. For these specific fields, non-consultation is guaranteed both contractually and technically.
Metadata that remains unencrypted in either configuration. To preserve core platform functionality (search, alerting, enrichment), the following categories are stored without encryption and remain technically readable by the service, regardless of whether end-to-end encryption is activated: the list of dossiers a user tracks, institutional reference data drawn from public sources, timestamps, user identifiers, and functional metadata. These categories remain subject to the contractual non-consultation commitment stated above.
Narrowly defined exceptions: unencrypted data only. For data that is stored in unencrypted form on the server (whether by default configuration or because it falls outside the encryption scope described in section 10.1 of the Privacy Policy), CL may technically access and read that data in the following circumstances: (i) where required by a final and binding legal order issued by a competent authority; (ii) where strictly necessary to investigate a security incident or a substantiated breach of these Terms; or (iii) with the explicit prior authorisation of the user concerned. In case (ii), only the minimum data strictly necessary for the investigation will be accessed, and the user will be notified unless notification would compromise an ongoing investigation or a legal obligation. These three circumstances are exhaustive.
Encrypted fields: technical impossibility of access. For fields that have been encrypted with end-to-end encryption on the user’s account (as listed in section 10.1 of the Privacy Policy), CL Corporate Affairs Consulting, any third party gaining access to the servers, and any public authority seeking compelled disclosure are technically unable to read or decrypt the content, by virtue of the cryptographic design itself. The key that unlocks it is derived from the user’s password inside their own browser and never leaves the user’s device; CL does not possess it and cannot produce it. This impossibility applies equally to the three circumstances described above: in the event of a legal order or security investigation, CL cannot retrieve the clear-text content of encrypted fields. The responsibility for the production of such data, should it become necessary for the user’s own purposes, rests exclusively with the user. This limitation is an assumed and deliberate consequence of the zero-knowledge design of the end-to-end encryption feature.
Why this matters beyond a separation of legal entities. CL Corporate Affairs Consulting operates both the Compass platform and a public-affairs consulting practice through a single legal entity. The architecture above is deliberately designed so that the strength of the confidentiality guarantee does not rest on a formal separation between those two activities (which a single-entity setup cannot, by definition, provide), but on a property of the system itself: when end-to-end encryption is active on an account, the encrypted content remains unreadable to CL regardless of which activity is being conducted at any given moment. A cryptographic guarantee enforced by mathematics is, in our view, more robust than a separation between corporate entities, which always rests, ultimately, on contractual undertakings and trust.
12. Confidentiality vis-à-vis third parties
All data accessible through the Compass platform, including stakeholder positions, engagement records and strategic analyses, is strictly confidential from the perspective of external third parties. Users must not disclose this information to any third party without the prior written consent of the data controller, except where required by law or where the information is already publicly available. The confidentiality commitments of CL Corporate Affairs Consulting as platform operator are separately governed by section 11 above.
13. Changes to these Terms
We reserve the right to modify these Terms and Conditions at any time. Changes will be published on this page with an updated date. Continued use of the platform following any modification constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.
14. Governing law
These Terms and Conditions are governed by and construed in accordance with French law. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Paris, France.
15. Contact
CL Corporate Affairs Consulting
1 avenue de l’Observatoire, 75006 Paris, France
Avenue de Tervueren 103, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium
Contact: compass.eu.com/contact