Terms and Conditions

HMS Tools & Widgets

Last updated: September 10, 2026

This section covers HMS interactive tools, shared tool links, widget builders, and widgets embedded on other websites, including Road Trip Planner, Meet for a Meal, Branch Explorer, Halal Nearby, Halal Lookup, Community Guide, and Business Badge. It supplements the general HMS Terms and Conditions. Certification application, inspection, and business-compliance obligations apply to certification applicants and certified businesses, not merely to people using a tool or hosting a widget. If provisions conflict about tools or widgets, this section controls for those features, subject to rights that applicable law protects.

Organizations and people covered

Halal Monitoring Services (“HMS”) is a service of Shariah Board of America / Rahmat-e-Alam Foundation. For this section, the “HMS Parties” means Halal Monitoring Services, Rahmat-e-Alam Foundation, Shariah Board of America, and their respective trustees, directors, officers, employees, volunteers, and authorized agents acting in connection with these tools and widgets. The warranty disclaimers, limitations of liability, and applicable indemnity in this section expressly benefit each of the HMS Parties, subject to all stated exceptions and applicable law.

Each HMS Party is an intended beneficiary entitled to invoke those protections to the extent permitted by law. This definition does not make a website owner, listed business, meetup organizer, or participant an agent, partner, or representative of any HMS Party, or authorize them to bind an HMS Party.

Information and certification limits

Tools and widgets help you find and review information; they do not issue or extend certification. A badge or listing refers only to the business, location, products, departments, and scope identified in the current HMS certification record. Certification of one branch does not certify every branch or everything sold there. Hosting a widget does not make a website or its owner HMS-certified, an HMS partner, or endorsed by HMS.

Results can be incomplete, delayed, incorrectly matched, or unavailable. A missing result or “Not Certified” label means current HMS certification could not be confirmed; it does not establish that food is non-halal. Before relying on a result, review the current HMS verification page for the specific location and scope, and contact HMS if information is unclear or appears incorrect.

These features do not guarantee food safety, allergen absence, nutrition, or suitability for an individual’s medical or dietary needs. Confirm ingredients, preparation, availability, prices, and opening hours directly with the business. A listing is not a guarantee of a third party’s conduct or service.

Travel, maps, and location

Routes, distances, travel times, map positions, and nearby results are estimates and may be inaccurate or out of date. Use your judgment, follow traffic laws and actual road conditions, and do not operate these features while driving. These features are not emergency, safety-monitoring, or dispatch services. Location information must not be used to track or endanger someone without their permission.

Meet for a Meal and shared links

HMS provides planning and voting features; it does not organize, supervise, screen participants in, or guarantee the safety or outcome of a meetup. Participants are responsible for their invitations, meeting arrangements, transportation, purchases, and conduct. A vote or selected venue is not a reservation or a commitment by HMS or the venue.

Share invitations and trip links only with people you intend to include. Recipients may forward links, and information shared with a group may be seen or copied by other participants. Provide only information you have the right to share, respect other people’s privacy, and do not share another person’s contact details or location without permission. Keep membership credentials private. Shared sessions and their contents may expire; retain any arrangements you need independently.

Permission to embed widgets

Subject to these terms, HMS grants website owners a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable permission to embed widgets using the code and configuration options HMS provides on websites they own or are authorized to manage. HMS retains its rights in its software, branding, and certification marks. This permission does not grant a certification-mark license beyond the widget’s authorized display or permit resale of the widget service.

Keep HMS attribution, verification links, status messages, and certification limitations visible and functional. Do not falsify certification status, substitute an unrelated business, conceal an unavailable or expired status, copy a badge into a misleading static certification claim, or alter the widget to misrepresent HMS information. Website owners are responsible for their surrounding content and their implementation’s compliance with applicable law and third-party rights.

When permission ends or HMS requests removal because of misuse, remove the embed and any unauthorized copies of HMS branding. HMS may disable new widget generation or existing widgets independently, including for security, misuse, inaccurate presentation, or service changes.

Acceptable use and submitted content

Do not use these features for unlawful activity, harassment, impersonation, spam, malicious code, unauthorized access, or interference with other users. Do not bypass access controls, disabled features, or reasonable rate limits, or extract data through abusive automated requests. Report suspected vulnerabilities privately to HMS.

You retain your rights in content you submit. You grant HMS only the permission needed to host, process, and display that content to operate the feature and share it with your intended recipients, as described in the Tools & Widgets Privacy Policy section. Do not submit content you lack permission to provide. HMS may restrict access or remove content that violates these terms or applicable law. Nothing in these terms restricts lawful, honest reviews or reports to regulators.

Third-party services and privacy

Businesses, host websites, mapping services, and linked services operate independently of HMS and may have their own terms and privacy practices. HMS does not control their content, availability, security, or transactions. Questions about purchases, bookings, or a host website should be directed to the relevant provider.

Information handling and available privacy choices are described in the HMS Privacy Policy. These terms do not replace any separate consent required by applicable law.

Availability and changes

HMS may update, limit, suspend, or discontinue a tool, shared session, widget generator, or existing embed. An unavailable widget may display an unavailability message instead of its usual content. HMS does not promise continuous access, compatibility with every website or browser, uninterrupted storage, a particular response time, or continued availability of a free feature. Advance notice may not be possible, particularly for security or operational issues. You may stop using a tool or remove an embed at any time.

For these features, material changes to terms apply prospectively with notice and renewed agreement where applicable law requires them. Changes do not retroactively remove accrued rights or remedies.

Warranty disclaimer and limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, tools and widgets are provided “as is” and “as available.” The HMS Parties disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, and do not warrant that results will be complete, accurate, error-free, or continuously available.

Subject to the exceptions below and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the HMS Parties will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or lost profits, revenue, business opportunities, goodwill, or data, arising from use of or inability to use these features, even if advised that such losses were possible. This limitation applies regardless of the legal theory of the claim, including contract, tort, or ordinary negligence, and to claims concerning tool results, shared links, embedded displays, third-party conduct, or service suspension.

Nothing in this section excludes or limits liability for fraud, intentional misconduct, gross negligence, death or personal injury caused by negligence where protected by law, or any liability, warranty, consumer protection, or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. Where a limitation is not permitted, it applies only to the extent the law allows. These terms do not prevent you from bringing a lawful claim or exercising a protected right.

Website-owner responsibility for third-party claims

To the extent permitted by applicable law, if you embed a widget in the course of business, you agree to indemnify the HMS Parties for reasonable costs, damages, and legal fees arising from third-party claims to the extent caused by your unlawful use, unauthorized alteration, infringement of another party’s rights, or material breach of the embedding rules. This obligation does not apply to ordinary visitors or to the extent a claim results from an HMS Party’s own breach, negligence, or misconduct. An HMS Party seeking indemnity will give prompt notice of a claim, reasonably cooperate at your expense, and allow you to control its defense with competent counsel. No settlement may admit fault by, or impose an obligation on, an HMS Party without that party’s prior written consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld.

Continuing protections

To the extent permitted by applicable law, the provisions on intellectual property, warranty disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnity, and intended beneficiaries continue after you stop using a feature or an embed is removed, but only in relation to conduct or events occurring while the applicable terms governed your use. Ending use does not eliminate rights or liabilities that have already accrued. These protections do not extend to unrelated services or override any rights that cannot lawfully be waived.

Questions and reporting problems

Contact info@hmsusa.org or use the HMS contact page to report an incorrect result, misleading badge, misuse, or technical problem. Provide the relevant business or website and a description, without sending passwords or private membership credentials. Contacting HMS is not a prerequisite to exercising your legal rights. If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply to the extent permitted by law.

HMS Halal Lens Browser Extension

Last updated: September 10, 2026

This section applies to your use of the HMS Halal Lens browser extension. Certification application, business-compliance, and inspection obligations elsewhere in these terms apply to businesses applying for or holding HMS certification. Those obligations do not apply to you merely because you use the extension.

Purpose

The extension displays HMS certification information on supported websites to help you check restaurants, retailers, and other business listings while browsing.

Meaning of badges

“Not Certified” means that current HMS certification could not be confirmed. It does not establish that the food is non-halal. Extension badges describe HMS certification information; they are not a general determination of the halal status of all food offered by a business.

Certification scope

HMS certification may apply only to particular products or departments, rather than every product or operation at a location. Review the certification details and any stated limitations before relying on a badge for a particular purchase.

Accuracy and availability

Certification information refreshes periodically. Matching errors, outdated information, service outages, and changes to supported websites can affect results or prevent the extension from displaying information. Check the current HMS certification record and contact HMS if a result appears incorrect or its scope is unclear.

Optional accounts and reports

You can use certification lookup without an account. Optional accounts support favorites and related account features.

If you submit a report, provide information that is accurate to the best of your knowledge and distinguish what you observed from what you suspect. Only include information, comments, or attachments that you are authorized to share. Review any selected snippets or screenshots before submitting them.

Third-party websites

The extension is not affiliated with or endorsed by the third-party websites it supports. Those websites operate independently and have their own terms and privacy practices. Support for a website may change as that website changes.

Privacy and analytics choices

Read the HMS Halal Lens Browser Extension privacy-policy section for details about information handling, analytics defaults, and your controls.

Accepting these terms does not constitute consent to analytics or replace any separate analytics consent that is required. You can manage usage sharing in the extension popup or under Settings → Privacy → Share usage analytics.

Support and discontinuation

Report technical problems or incorrect certification matches to info@hmsusa.org or through the HMS contact page. Include the browser and extension version and a description of the problem, and share only information you are authorized to provide. Do not send passwords or session tokens.

You can stop using the extension at any time by disabling it or removing it through your browser’s extension or add-on manager. HMS may update, suspend, or discontinue the extension or individual supported integrations. Disabling or uninstalling the extension does not itself delete information already held by HMS or its service providers; see the extension’s privacy-policy section for deletion requests.