Sheffield Connect - Terms of Use

Please read these terms and conditions carefully before using this site. They contain important information about how you may use it.

Sheffield Connect is an Online Community and Mentoring site for Alumni, Students and Staff of the University of Sheffield only.

 

Who we are and how to contact us

https://www.connect.sheffield.ac.uk/ is a site operated by the University of Sheffield ("We"). We are registered in England, registration number RC000667  and have our registered office at Firth Court, Western Bank, Sheffield, England, S10 2TN.

To contact us, please email  sheffieldconnect@sheffield.ac.uk

 

Service Provider

This service is operated under contract by Aluminati Network Group Limited, company number 04953058 and whose registered office is Hyperion House The Oaks, Fordham Road, Newmarket, Suffolk, England, CB8 7XN  (Aluminati) acting under instruction as our Data Processor under the General Data Protection Regulation.  Aluminati will process personal data strictly for the purposes of operating this service in accordance with the terms of the Data Processing agreement that the University has put in place between Aluminati and the University.

Aluminati is registered with the Information Commissioner under membership number Z8393842.

 

By using our site you accept these terms

By using our site, you confirm that you are over seventeen (17) years of age , that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to comply with them.

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

If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use our site.

We recommend that you print a copy of these terms for future reference.

 

There are other terms that may apply to you

These terms of use refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our site:

  • Our Privacy Policy ,  which sets out the terms on which we process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us. By using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.
  • Our Cookie Policy , which sets out information about the cookies on our site.
  • The University of Sheffield’s  Information Security Policy .
  • Our Community Guidelines, which sets out the code of conduct for users of Sheffield Connect.

We may amend these policies from time to time. The latest version of each policy can be found via the links above.

We may make changes to these terms

We may amend these terms from time to time and any such amendments are binding on you. Every time we make a material change to these terms we will use reasonable endeavours to notify you of the updated terms.

 

We may make changes to our site

We may update and change our site at any time, including but not limited to

  • Adding, removing or changing the content
  • (without limitation) adding, removing or changing the functionality.

We will use reasonable endeavours to notify you of any changes which materially impact your usage of the website.

 

We may suspend or withdraw our site

Our site is made available free of charge.

The right to access our website and its services are provided on a temporary basis only. 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. As such  different parts of the website can be restricted to certain users and have various settings to also restrict specific behaviours.  We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.

 

You must keep your account details safe

Your login credentials must be treated as confidential. You must keep this information secure and confidential and not disclose it to any other person.

Where you have provided any personal information in respect of your account you must keep this up to date

We have the right to remove your access  by any means, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use or we reasonably consider you have used the website to download content, infringe in any manner the rights of another person, or create a security risk.

If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your user login credentials, you must promptly notify us at sheffieldconnect@sheffield.ac.uk

 

Uploading content to our site

Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload content to our site, or to make contact with other users of our site, you must comply with the Content Standards (as defined within the Content Standards section of these terms) and Prohibited Uses (defined within the Prohibited Uses section of these terms).

You warrant that any such contribution does comply with the Content Standards and that you either own the content you upload or have the permission to upload it, and that you will be liable to us and indemnify us for any breach of that warranty. This means you will be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer as a result of your breach of warranty.

Any content you upload to our site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. You retain all of your ownership rights in your content, but you grant us  and other users of our site a world-wide licence to use, store, copy, distribute, display and make available that content and to permit other users of the website to use, download, print and reproduce it in accordance with the Terms of Use.

We also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any content posted or uploaded by you to our site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, their right to privacy, or is defamatory.

We have the sole right to remove any posting you make on our site if, in our opinion, your post does not comply with the Content Standards and Prohibited Uses set out below.

You are solely responsible for securing and backing up your content.

 

How you may use material on our site

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site and the material published on it, excluding content uploaded by or linked to by others. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All trademarks on the platform are owned by the University. All such rights are reserved.

You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal use. You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged.

You must not use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.

If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

 

Do not rely on information on this site

The content on our site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.

We make no warranties, representations, undertakings or guarantees are made that the website or any content on it will be free from errors or omissions.

 

We are not responsible for websites we link to

Where our site 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 us of those linked websites or information you may obtain from them.

We have no control over the contents of third party sites we link to and therefore we accept no responsibility or liability for those sites or their contents.

 

User-generated content is not approved by us

This website may include information and materials uploaded by other users of the site, including comments and discussions raised within groups, resources uploaded, and posts, jobs or events published. This information and these materials have not been verified or approved by us. The views expressed by other users on our site do not represent the views or values of our officers or employees. We are not responsible for the conduct of other users on our website.  If you share any of your personal information with other users, including but not limited to contact details such as telephone numbers and email addresses, we are not responsible for your decision to do so, or any consequences of doing so.

If you wish to complain about user conduct or information and materials uploaded by other users please contact us at sheffieldconnect@sheffield.ac.uk.

 

Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you

We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you in any matter where we are not permitted to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

We exclude all implied conditions, warranties, representations or other terms that may apply to our site or any content on it.

We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:

  • use of, or inability to use, our site; or
  • use of or reliance on any content displayed on our site.

In particular, we will not be liable for:

  • loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;
  • business interruption;
  • loss of anticipated savings;
  • loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation;
  • loss of data; or
  • any indirect or consequential loss or damage.

You agree that the above limitations of liability are reasonable given that your use of our site is free of charge.

 

We are not responsible for viruses and you must not introduce them

We do not guarantee that our site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.

You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software.

You must not misuse our site by knowingly or recklessly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will cooperate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

 

Rules about linking to our site

You may only link to our site where all requirements of this section are met.

You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it.

You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part unless otherwise agreed by the University.

You must not establish a link to our site in any website that is not owned by you. Our site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than the home page.

We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. You must remove the link where linking permission has been withdrawn

The website in which you are linking must comply in all respects with the Content Standards and Prohibited Uses set out below.

If you wish to link to or make any use of content on our site other than that set out above, please contact sheffieldconnect@sheffield.ac.uk.

 

Prohibited uses

You may use our site only for lawful purposes. You may not use our site:

  • In any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation, including but not limited to
    • data protection and privacy laws
    • laws relating to copyright of content
    • laws relating to unsolicited commercial electronic messages
  • In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect.
  • For the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way.
  • To knowingly send, receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our Content Standards and Prohibited Uses.
  • To transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam), including but not limited to
    • chain letters
    • pyramid scheme
    • mail ‘bombing’ or ‘flooding’
  • To post content or links to content for which the owner has not given consent or where it infringes the rights of that owner
  • To knowingly or recklessly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

You also agree:

  • Not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our site in contravention of the provisions of our terms of website use.
  • To ensure the confidentiality and security of other users e.g. you must not post or otherwise distribute the email addresses/telephone numbers of a user without express permission from that user.
  • Not to recklessly or maliciously grant site access to any unauthorised parties, including minors who are specifically prohibited from accessing the site and its interactive services.
  • Not to monitor or collect site data or traffic
  • Not to distribute software
  • Not to effect a denial-of-service attack
  • Not access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
    • any part of our site;
    • any equipment or network on which our site is stored;
    • any software used in the provision of our site; or
    • any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.
 

Interactive services

We may from time to time provide interactive services on our site, including, without limitation:

  • Chat rooms
  • Bulletin boards
  • Events
  • Resources
  • Groups
  • Jobs
  • Discussion areas
  • Messaging services
  • Surveys
  • Mentoring

You can find information about the interactive services we currently offer at https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/connect.

We will do our best to assess any possible risks for users (and in particular) from third parties when they use any interactive service provided on our site, and we will decide in each case whether it is appropriate to use moderation of the relevant service (including what kind of moderation to use) in the light of those risks. However, we are under no obligation to oversee, monitor or moderate any interactive service we provide on our site, and we expressly exclude our liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any interactive service by a user in contravention of our Content Standards and Prohibited Uses, whether the service is moderated or not.

Where we do moderate an interactive service, we will normally provide you with a means of contacting the moderator, should a concern or difficulty arise.

 

Content standards

These Content Standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to our site (Contribution), and to any interactive services associated with it.

The Content Standards must be complied with in spirit as well as to the letter. The standards apply to each part of any Contribution as well as to its whole.

The University of Sheffield will determine, in its sole  discretion, whether a Contribution breaches the Content Standards.

A Contribution must:

  • Be accurate (where it states facts).
  • Be genuinely held (where it states opinions).
  • Comply with all applicable laws.

A Contribution must not:

  • Be defamatory of any person.
  • Be obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory.
  • Promote sexually explicit material.
  • Promote violence.
  • Promote discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
  • Exploit minors
  • Infringe any copyright, database right or trademark of any other person.
  • Be fraudulent or likely to deceive any person.
  • Create a risk to a person’s health and safety or public health and safety.
  • Breach any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
  • Promote any illegal activity.
  • Be in contempt of court.
  • Be threatening, abusive or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
  • Be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person.
  • Impersonate any person, or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person.
  • Give the impression that the Contribution emanates from the University of Sheffield, if this is not the case.
  • Advocate, promote, incite any party to commit, or assist any unlawful or criminal act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.
  • Contain a statement which you know or believe, or have reasonable grounds for believing, that members of the public to whom the statement is, or is to be, published are likely to understand as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
  • Compromise national security or interfere with an investigation by law enforcement or regulatory authority.
  • Contain any advertising or promote any services or web links to other sites.
 

Breach of these terms

If, in our consideration, you breach these terms of use your right to use the website will immediately end.

Failure to comply with this acceptable use policy constitutes a material breach of the terms of use upon which you are permitted to use our site, and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:

  • Immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our site.
  • Immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any Contribution uploaded by you to our site.
  • Issue of a warning to you.
  • Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach.
  • Further legal action against you.
  • Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary, as required by law, and in response to requests for such information from law enforcement..

We exclude our liability for all action we may take in response to breaches of this acceptable use policy. The actions we may take are not limited to those described above, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

Endorsement of products and services

Both of us agree that nothing in these Terms of Use either expressly or by implication constitutes an endorsement of any products or services of the other party and each party agrees not to conduct itself in such a way as to imply or express any such approval or endorsement.

 

Which country's laws apply to any disputes?

If you are a consumer these terms of use are governed by the law of England and Wales and the courts of England and Wales have non-exclusive jurisdiction to determine any dispute arising out of or in connection with them.  If you are resident in Scotland you may also bring proceedings in Scotland and if you are resident in Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland.  As a consumer, you will benefit from any mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which you are resident. Nothing in these terms of use affects your rights as a consumer to rely on such mandatory provisions of local law.

If you are a business user these terms of use (and any non-contractual obligations arising out of or in connection with them) are governed by the law of England and Wales and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction to determine any dispute arising out of or in connection with them (including without limitation in relation to any non-contractual obligations).