Terms and Conditions (Valid from 24/09/2018)

These terms and conditions govern your membership and use of Diabetes UK’s Online Support Forum (the “Forum”). By registering on and using the Forum, you are confirming that you have read and accepted these Terms and Conditions. We may change our Terms and Conditions from time to time. Each time you use this site, please check you understand the terms and conditions that apply at that time.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access the Forum through your internet connection are aware of these terms of use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

Your use of our site is governed by the following policies:

Privacy Policy

Cookie Policy

Terms of Website Us

Acceptable Use Policy

User Guidelines

Please take the time to read these, as they include important terms which apply to you.

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS FORUM.

Contact details

This Forum is operated by Diabetes UK, Wells Lawrence House, 126 Back Church Lane, London E1 1FH. Diabetes UK is the operating name of the British Diabetic Association, a company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales (no. 339181) and a charity registered in England and Wales (215199) and in Scotland (SC039136).

This Forum is intended to be used solely as a peer support service for those living with or affected by diabetes. The forum is directed at people residing in the United Kingdom. We do not represent that content available on or through our site is appropriate for use or available in other locations. You must not use this Forum to advertise goods and services for commercial purposes. We may make changes to the Forum from time to time to reflect user needs or our priorities. Our site is made available free of charge. We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our site for business and operational reasons. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.

If you have any queries relating to your registration or use of the Forum, please Contact Us or email the Online Support Forum team at support.forum@diabetes.org.uk.

Registration

In order to register with the Forum we are required to collect the following data:

Your name or username;

Your email address;

Your IP address; and

Your Date of Birth

In addition to the above listed data, further data may be collected if you choose to share it on the Forum. This includes data you chose to share by filling out fields on your profile or posting comments or messages containing personal details on the Forum.

We collect some or all of the above described information in the following cases:

You register as a member on this site;

You fill out our contact form;

You browse this site. See our Cookie Policy for more information;

You fill out fields on your profile, or

You post messages or comments on the Forum

If you have any queries about the details we hold about you, please Contact Us. You agree that the registration details you provide will be true and accurate.

For more details about how we handle your data, please refer to Diabetes UK’s Privacy Policy.

In order to be eligible to create an account and use the Forum you must be a minimum of 13 years old. Use of the Forum by anyone under the age of 13 is not permitted. When registering an account you will be asked to confirm your age. It is your responsibility to provide true and accurate details of your age.

Data Protection and Privacy

Please refer to Diabetes UK’s Privacy Policyfor details about data protection and privacy.

In addition to the information in Diabetes UK’s Privacy Policy, you should also be aware that as an open forum, the information you post on the Forum is available to the public. If you do not wish for your health information (or any other information) to be publicly available please do not post this on the Forum.

You agree not to disclose or publish any personally identifiable information about another user of the Forum without their express consent.

Intellectual Property

By posting information on the Forum you are granting Diabetes UK a non-exclusive, royalty free, worldwide, perpetual licence to the copyright in your posts. This means that Diabetes UK has the right to reproduce, copy, distribute and use your post (and material contained within it).

To learn more about Diabetes UK’s rights over material published by Diabetes UK on the Forum please refer to the intellectual property rights section in our Terms of Website Use.

When using the Forum you agree not to breach the intellectual property rights of others and to follow the guidance below.

The written word

To avoid intellectual property claims being brought against yourself or Diabetes UK, we ask that you refrain from copy-and-pasting text from other websites and typing up any wording from other content (such as recipe books, news articles, jokes, health research or information). We recommend that if you want to share content contained on another website you share a link to it without copying any text. If you do decide to copy-and-paste text into the Forum you must also include a link to the source of the text and provide the name of the author (where possible).

Images

Similarly to written words, images which are available on the internet will usually be intellectual property belonging to another person or company. We would prefer that you refrain from inserting images into the forum which have not been created by you. If you do decide to insert such images you must also insert a link to the source.

Although it is possible to copy some text or images from other sources without breaching intellectual property rights this is a risky area which has resulted in other charities facing expensive legal disputes in the past. In the interests of protecting our charitable resources and reputation, you must adhere to the requirements above.

Misuse of site

For information about what constitutes misuse of the Forum please refer to our Terms of Website Use.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and to keep Diabetes UK indemnified from and against any costs, claims, demands, expenses and liabilities suffered or incurred by Diabetes UK arising from or which is directly or indirectly related to your access to and/or use of the Forum and/or any other person or entity's use of the Forum where such person or entity was able to access the Forum using your password.

Legal disclaimer

The information presented on the Forum is for general use only and is not intended to provide personal medical advice or be a substitute for the advice of your own healthcare professional. If you have questions or concerns about individual health matters or the management of your diabetes, please consult your diabetes care team.

Although Diabetes UK makes reasonable efforts to update the information it provides on the Forum, Diabetes UK’s makes no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on the Forum is accurate, complete or up to date.

Links and Uploaded Material

Where the Forum contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. Such links should not be interpreted as approval by Diabetes UK of those linked websites or information you may obtain from them. Diabetes UK have no control over the contents of those sites or resources.

The Forum may include information and materials uploaded by other users of the Forum, including links to bulletin boards and chat rooms. This information and these materials have not been verified or approved by Diabetes UK. The views expressed by other users on the Forum do not represent Diabetes UK’s views or values. If you wish to complain about information and materials uploaded by other users please email helpline@diabetes.org.uk. We will investigate complaints in line with our Complaints Procedure.

The Forum is commonly used for sharing health advice from other users who may not be medically qualified, but have personal experience of living with diabetes. Before sharing health advice please refer to our User Guidelines.

Participating in Research

We allow researchers and students to recruit participants for some academic and public health research on the Forum. When participating in a survey, if you are directed through to another website this will be outside of the control of Diabetes UK. Any research and/or surveys conducted by third parties are not in any way endorsed by Diabetes UK.

In no circumstances will Diabetes UK be liable to you or any other third parties for any damage to health resulting from or in any way connected with your use of the Forum or its content, whether caused by negligence, misrepresentation, breach of any statutory duty, or breach of contract or otherwise. Diabetes UK does not limit or exclude its liability for death or personal injury resulting from its negligence.

>Requesting Research Participants

If you are using the Forum for research purposes, you are required to follow best practice at all times You may be asked to supply evidence of ethics committee approvals before using the Forum. We reserve the right to refuse use of the Forum, at our discretion, if we determine the research is not appropriate for the Forum.

If you use the Forum to collect personal data you must ensure you do so in accordance with best practice and all applicable data protection laws, including but not limited the Data Protection Act 2018. You will be fully responsible and liable to any individuals from whom you collect personal data.

Moderating

The Forum is moderated by Diabetes UK employees and volunteers.

The Forum employee and volunteer moderator team reserve the right to refuse to accept registrations on the Forum and retain the right to suspend or terminate any user’s access without notice if they do not abide by the Terms and Conditions.

All content from registered users must follow the User Guidelines and comply with these Terms and Conditions. This applies to all material shared including threads, posts, profile posts, profile information, text in signatures, avatars, usernames and private messages.

The Forum employee and moderator team retain the right to edit and/or remove any content or material which does not observe the forum’s User Guidelines, are in breach of these Terms and Conditions and/or to prevent persistent abusers from adding further contributions.

You may use the Forum to send and receive private messages. You consent to this content being viewed by Diabetes UK in the event there are concerns or a notification about a breach of these Terms and Conditions or the User Guidelines. Diabetes UK may review private messages without any prior notification, in the event that there should be legitimate concerns regarding the well-being of a member.

Account Closure

Diabetes UK reserve the right to permanently retain limited data about banned user accounts including username, email address and IP Address in order to prevent future access to the forum from these accounts.

Should any registered user wish to leave the Forum, they can make a request to the Forum employees and moderator team for their account to be deleted. As deleting posts disturbs the continuity of threads we prefer to anonymise rather than delete posts. Any existing content posted on the Forum from the deleted account will normally remain viewable on the Forum under the general username ‘Guest’, to maintain continuity in forum threads. However, a user of a deleted account may submit a request for their historic posts to be deleted. Username, email address, date of birth and IP addresses must be retained in our database to enable content to remain viewable.

General

Diabetes UK reserves the right to assign or transfer all or any of its rights and obligations under these Terms and Conditions to any of its group companies or to any other third party. In the event of assignment or transfer, notification will either be given to you by e-mail or posted on the Forum.

Failure by Diabetes UK to exercise or enforce any right conferred upon it shall not be deemed to be a waiver of any such right nor operate so as to bar the exercise or enforcement of that or any other right on any later occasion.

These terms are governed by and will be interpreted in accordance with English law. The English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any claim or dispute which may arise out of or in connection with these terms and conditions.

Diabetes UK reserves the rights to change these Terms and Conditions at any time by posting changes online. Your continued use of the Forum after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of this agreement as modified.