Using Validicate

Validicate is a verification and credential-holding service of Acadasco. These terms apply to everyone who uses it: people checking a credential, holders with an account, and issuers. Using the site, or signing in, means you accept them. Last updated 30 October 2026.

Who provides the service

Fondaris SLU, which operates Acadasco, NIF B26927095, registered office at Calle Guayedra 1, 35009 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain. Email privacy@acadasco.com. The service is free for holders and for anyone checking a credential.

Verification

A verification page reports what the issuer asserted and a status (valid, expired or revoked) computed from that record at the moment you open the page. Valid means the record shows no revocation and no elapsed expiry; it is not a fresh confirmation from the issuer. For a stored record, Validicate checked the issuer's signature, by a key the issuer registered with Validicate, when the record was received; a record answered live by the issuer's own service is labelled as such. Validicate does not assess the quality of the training behind a credential, the accreditation of the issuer, or the identity of the person presenting a link; those judgements are the issuer's and yours.

Holder accounts

Accounts are personal and for people aged 14 or over; by signing in you confirm that you are. You may only claim credentials issued to email addresses you control. What you write on your profile (name, handle, headline) must be accurate and lawful and must not impersonate anyone; you allow us to display it as you choose to publish it. You decide what appears on your profile and whether a degree's grades are shown on public pages; do not present hidden, expired or revoked credentials as current elsewhere. You can unpublish your profile, and delete your account, at any time from the account itself.

Badges and embeds

Validicate signs each credential it holds as an Open Badge with its own key, so that others can check that the file came from Validicate and whether it has been revoked. The signature confirms what the issuer asserted to Validicate, as the verification page does; it is not a fresh confirmation from the issuer. A holder who embeds a credential on their own site must not alter the badge or present it as another person's.

Employer API

Organisations that check credentials can ask us for an API key. A key is for the organisation it was issued to, must be kept secret, and may be used only to check credentials whose code or badge was given to the organisation, never to search for or collect credentials. It returns what the verification page shows and nothing more. We may limit, suspend or revoke a key used otherwise.

Issuers

Each issuer is the controller of its credential records, and Fondaris processes them on its behalf and on its documented instructions. Issuers are responsible for the accuracy of what they send, for revoking credentials they withdraw, for deleting credentials they must no longer publish, for marking a credential as a minor's where the holder is under 18, and for having a legal basis to name the holder and publish the credential for verification, including telling holders that their credentials are verifiable on Validicate. Acadasco academies are onboarded as issuers under their agreement with Acadasco. Any other issuer must sign a data processing agreement with Fondaris (GDPR Art. 28) before its first credential is accepted; it fixes the instructions (verification by code, no indexing unless the holder opts in, grades hidden unless the holder shows them), the security measures, the sub-processors, the help we give with holders' requests, how we notify a breach, and the deletion of every record when the agreement ends. An organisation signs up from a Validicate account, proves that it controls its domain, accepts the issuer terms and that agreement, and may publish only once Validicate has reviewed and approved it; approval is not an accreditation of the issuer or of its training. Each issuer signs its credentials with its own key and keeps the private half; Validicate may suspend an issuer that publishes false credentials or impersonates another organisation, saying why.

Reporting content and contact point

If you believe something on Validicate is illegal or breaks these terms, such as a profile impersonating someone or a credential that is false, write to privacy@acadasco.com with the page's address, why you believe it is illegal or in breach, and your name and email address. We act on reports diligently, tell you what we decided, and tell the holder or issuer concerned why when we remove or restrict anything, together with how to contest it. The same address is our single point of contact for users and for authorities under the Digital Services Act; we answer in English or Spanish.

Suspension

We may suspend or close an account, or restrict a page, that is used to impersonate someone, to publish illegal content, or to attack the service. We say why, and you can contest the decision by replying to our message.

Availability and changes

We run the service with reasonable care but cannot promise it will always be available or free of errors. We may change features. If we decide to discontinue the service we give at least 90 days' notice on the site and by email to holders, so they can download their credentials' Open Badges files first. We tell holders by email before a material change to these terms takes effect.

Liability

Validicate shows what issuers assert; we are not responsible for the accuracy of an issuer's credential, or for decisions others take on the strength of one. Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law does not allow to be limited, including for intent or gross negligence, for death or personal injury, or the rights consumers have under mandatory law.

Law and disputes

These terms are governed by Spanish law. If you use Validicate as a consumer, you keep the protection of the mandatory law of the country where you live, and you can bring a claim before the courts of your place of residence. Other disputes go to the courts of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Questions: privacy@acadasco.com.