Legal
Data sources and licensing
ChartForce retrieves data from 16 public sources: government statistical agencies, central banks and intergovernmental organizations. This page lists all of them and what each one's terms allow you to do with a chart built from it.
1Sources
2Sources needing permission for commercial use
These sources do not permit commercial republication by default. A chart built from one of them is fine for internal work, research and non-commercial publication, but needs the publisher's permission before it goes into anything sold or advertising-supported.
You do not have to check afterwards. Set **Sources: Safe to publish** when you make a chart and the pipeline will not use any of them — the two aggregators included, since those carry whatever their upstream provider's terms are and cannot say in advance what that is.
- Data Commons — Google licenses the Data Commons knowledge graph itself under CC BY, but states that the underlying data "may be subject to different licenses and terms of use, specified in the linked source". The license for a chart is the license of that source, which the provenance panel names — check it before commercial use. See Varies by upstream source.
- DBnomics — DBnomics states that its data carries "the same license and terms of use as its original source provider", and distributes its own compilation under the ODbL. The license for a chart is the upstream provider's, which the provenance panel names — check it before commercial use. See Varies by upstream provider.
- IMF Data — Personal and non-commercial use with attribution is permitted. Commercial use, and any bulk redistribution of IMF datasets, requires prior written permission from the IMF. See IMF Terms and Conditions.
- WHO Global Health Observatory — Non-commercial by default. WHO licenses most Global Health Observatory data for non-commercial use with attribution and share-alike. Commercial republication needs WHO's permission — request it before using a WHO-sourced chart in anything sold or advertising-supported. See CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
ChartForce cannot get that permission for you, and it does not check what you do with an export. The obligation is yours.
Publishing a chart shows its data to the people and websites you choose. When a chart uses one of these sources, we ask you to confirm your use is non-commercial, or that you have the publisher's permission, before it is published — and again each time you update it. Every published chart shows its sources and links their licenses, and that line cannot be hidden.
3Attribution
Most of these licenses require you to credit the source. ChartForce does this automatically: the citation footer on every chart, and the metadata baked into every PNG, SVG and MP4 export, names the publisher, the dataset and the date the data was retrieved.
Do not remove that attribution from an export you publish. Beyond breaching our Terms of Service, it is likely to breach the source's license too.
4Data found outside the catalog
When no catalog source answers a prompt, ChartForce can search the open web for a downloadable dataset, and it can read data out of a chart image you upload. Neither path has vetted license terms, because neither has a known publisher in advance.
Charts built that way record where the data came from, and values measured from an image are labeled as estimates. Before publishing one, check the terms of whatever the provenance panel names as the source. If you would rather the pipeline never left the catalog, tell us — it is a per-account setting we will turn on for you.
5Corrections
If we have described your organization's terms incorrectly, or you publish data and would like it added or removed, email legal@chartforce.ai. We will correct it quickly.