One of the things most wonderful about writing this column is learning from all of you. I hold no false pride of having all the answers but i especially realise that when I get notes such as the one I received this morning about yesterday’s Taiwan column. I attach it in full for your perusal.
Last updated: January 25, 2023
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
The website Spoutible.com along with any other URL, mobile application or similar technology that redirects to or facilitates access to the website (together, "Spoutible", “we”, “us” or “the Platform”) is owned and operated by Spoutible Inc., a corporation duly incorporated in and existing under the laws of the State of Delaware and Registered Office at 442 5th Avenue #2107, New York, NY 10018.
PLEASE READ THIS DOCUMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE SPOUTIBLE PLATFORM. BY USING, ACCESSING, UPLOADING OR DOWNLOADING ANY INFORMATION TO OR FROM THE PLATFORM, YOU CONFIRM THAT YOU ARE OF AT LEAST 13 YEARS OF AGE AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET FORTH BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS, YOU ARE ADVISED NOT TO CONTINUE USING THE PLATFORM ANY LONGER.
Spoutible is a free microblogging and social media platform, where users can post, share, discover, discuss and directly message various types of textual and graphical content (“Content”) across the world. In order to successfully use Spoutible, you must be at least 13 years of age and must complete the registration process by submitting your first name, last name, email address, gender, date of birth, and telephone number. You must not use any other person's account to access Spoutible. You must not allow any other person to use your account to access Spoutible. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account login information and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your Account. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorised use, or suspected unauthorised use of your account or any other breach of security. Under no circumstances shall Spoutible have any liability to you for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use (or inability to use) of the Platform or reliance on any content and information provided on the Platform. Your use of the Platform and your reliance on any content therein is solely and completely at your own risk.
Spoutible allows all registered users to post, share, publish and otherwise upload and make available various types of Content in or through the Platform. You are solely responsible for such Content and hereby ensure that it does not offend any third-party rights, including but not limited to any applicable intellectual property rights, privacy rights, publicity rights, contractual rights and does not in any way be considered against applicable laws. We make no representation as to the completeness or accuracy of any Content in the Platform and nothing herein shall be considered as a referral, endorsement, recommendation, verification, warranty or guarantee with respect to the validity, accuracy, availability, completeness, safety, legality, quality or applicability of any Content on the Platform. Spoutible reserves the right, but is not obligated to, delete, modify, edit or update any Content that we, in our sole discretion, deem to be in violation of these Terms and Conditions or deem to be otherwise unacceptable. Notwithstanding the above, by accepting these Terms and Conditions you grant us the right and license to use, modify, display and distribute such Content by and through the Spoutible Platform and make it available to others, who may also use such Content subject to these Terms and Conditions.
In order to maximize your user experience in using the Spoutible Platform, and avoid, eliminate or minimize disruptive activities, we kindly ask you to maintain the following:
Spoutible reserves the right to fully or partially suspend, discontinue, or cease providing, at any time and from time to time, temporarily or permanently, any of the Services with or without notice, and shall have no liability or responsibility to you in any manner whatsoever if it chooses to do so. All provisions of these Terms and Conditions which by their nature should survive such suspension or termination shall survive, including, without limitation, intellectual property ownership, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.
Spoutible may provide external links and advertisements submitted by or directed towards third party websites and services. Unless expressly stated otherwise, such advertisements do not signify that Spoutible endorses and/or is associated with such third-party websites and services in any manner including, but not limited to, the content, accuracy, quality, nature, appropriateness, decency, functionality, performance, reliability, completeness, timeliness, validity, safety, legality or any other aspect thereof. We accept no responsibility for third party advertisements contained within Spoutible. If you agree to purchase goods and/or services from any third party who advertises in this Platform, you do so at your own risk and these Terms and Conditions remain no longer applicable for such third party goods or services.
By using the Spoutible Platform, you hereby acknowledge and agree that such usage is at your sole risk and responsibility. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Spoutible is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis without warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, all warranties of quality, accuracy, completeness, reliability, conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the products and services offered through Spoutible will meet your specific requirements, that the Platform will be uninterrupted or error-free or free from viruses or similar harmful matter or that any defects in Platform will be immediately corrected. No oral or written communication offered by Spoutible will create any warranty for this purpose.
Under no circumstances will Spoutible and any of its directors, shareholders, employees and agents be liable for any incidental, consequential, or indirect damages including, but not limited to, business interruption, damages for loss of profit, loss of data, loss of goodwill and the like arising out of the use or inability of use of the service/ information provided on or downloaded from the Platform, or any delay in the processing of such information or services. For removal of doubt, this includes situations where there is any failure or delay in performance of any of the obligations under these Terms and Conditions that is caused by events outside our reasonable control (force majeure events). Notwithstanding the above, nothing under these Terms and Conditions will limit or exclude any liabilities that may not be excluded under applicable law.
You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Spoutible, its officers, directors, employees, agents, consultants, representatives and agents from and against all losses, damages, suits, judgments, costs and expenses (including litigation costs and reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or in connection with (a) your use of or inability to use Spoutible (b) your violation of any provision of these Terms and Conditions or your violation of any rights of a third party, or (c) your violation of any applicable laws, rules or regulations. Spoutible reserves the right, at its own cost, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will offer complete cooperation with Spoutible in asserting any available defenses.
All information and content displayed in the Platform including text, graphics, designs, photographs, videos, typefaces, look and feel, format, and the like is owned and/or licensed by Spoutible unless expressly specified otherwise, and are protected by international laws on patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trade names, trademarks (whether registered or unregistered), domain names and other applicable rights. Notwithstanding the above, Spoutible hereby disclaims any and all rights and claims to the copyright or any other right over any third-party content featured in the Platform unless expressly specified otherwise. By agreeing to these Terms and Conditions you understand and agree to not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, or distribute, in any manner, any material on or from Spoutible, including text, graphics, logos and designs for any purpose whatsoever or allow any third party to do so.
If you believe there has been any unauthorized uploading or sharing of your intellectual property by or through our Platform amounting to copyright infringement, please get in touch with us immediately in accordance with the procedure set forth below. We value the intellectual property rights of all copyright holders and will process and investigate notices of alleged infringement and promise to take appropriate actions under applicable intellectual property laws with respect to any alleged or actual infringement.
For us to process your complaint as a Notice pursuant to the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act 17 U.S.C. §512(c), a notification of the claimed copyright infringement should be emailed to Spoutible’s Copyright Agent at: [email protected] with the subject line “DMCA Takedown Request” and containing the following information:
The communications between you and Spoutible use electronic means. For contractual purposes, you (a) consent to receive communications from Spoutible in an electronic form; and (b) agree that all terms and conditions, agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that Spoutible provides to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications would satisfy if it were to be in a hardcopy writing. With your informed consent (opt-in), such electronic communication may also include periodic emails and/or other messages for our internal marketing and promotional purposes. We take all reasonable measures to ensure that our marketing communications are compliant with the applicable laws.
These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York without regard to principles of conflict of laws, and all disputes as to the validity, execution, performance, interpretation or termination of these Terms will be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts thereof. If any provision of these Terms and Conditions is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such invalidity will not affect the enforceability of any other part or provision of this Agreement.
Spoutible reserves the right, at their sole discretion, to modify these Terms and Conditions at any time, and such modifications shall be effective immediately upon posting of the same on the Platform. You agree to review this document periodically to be aware of such modifications and your continued access or use of the Spoutible Platform shall be deemed as a conclusive acceptance of such modified Terms and Conditions.
If you have any further questions, comments or requests regarding these Terms and Conditions, please contact us at [email protected].
Last Updated: January 25, 2023
PRIVACY POLICY
Spoutible is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you use the Spoutible Platform. We will only use the information that we collect about you in accordance with the applicable national and international privacy laws. We reserve the right to update and modify this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. You are encouraged to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed of updates.
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY, YOU ARE ADVISED NOT TO CONTINUE USING THE PLATFORM ANY LONGER.
While it is perfectly possible to visit and browse the Spoutible Platform without disclosing any personal information, if you choose to actively engage by registering your account, you will be asked to provide certain personally identifiable information including your full name, email address, date of birth, phone number and geographical location. We may also collect some additional information from and about your computer like your IP address, web browser type and version, operating system type and version, location information etc. If you are accessing our services through a mobile handheld device, we may request access or permission to certain system information including your mobile device ID number, model, manufacturer, wireless carrier etc. We may also collect further information about you when you request customer support, sign-up for text alert, emails or newsletters, or otherwise communicate with us. If you wish to change any of the access permissions, you may do so in your device’s settings.
We also collect certain personal information about you when you use the Platform’s direct messaging services. When you send direct messages to other users to have more private, one-to-one communications, these are encrypted and saved by us along with certain information necessary for processing them. In the event that a user reports a message for a violation of Spoutible’s Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy or any other applicable law, we store the reported message and associated portions of the related conversation. If you delete your copy of a message sent from your account, the message will not be deleted in your recipient’s account. Recipients will retain their own copy, and can duplicate, store, or re-send your messages. We do not use information collected from direct messages for advertising purposes.
Other than this, we may also receive or collect information about you from third parties when we use an outside service provider to display advertisements. Where these ads contain cookies that store your personal information, your personal information may be collected and stored on our servers with other information we may have already received or collected from you. Such personal information is used to serve relevant ads to you and is based on items that may be considered personal information under the law, such as your IP address, browser type, time and date, and subject of advertisements clicked or interacted with, but that may be anonymized or non-personally identifiable information. Usually, we collect non-personally identifiable usage data involving advertisements you respond to (by clicking or muting); pages of our Platform that you visit; the date, time, frequency, and duration of those visits; posts and comments that you engage in during your visits; the particular features of our Platform that you use etc. We also collect information about the content you upload or share on the Platform and maintain backup copies for backup and data redundancy purposes.
No part of our Platform is directed towards children below 13 years of age and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 13. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 years without verification of parental consent, we will promptly delete that information from our database. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13 years, please contact us at [email protected].
Having accurate information about you permits us to provide you with a smooth, efficient, and customized experience. We will securely process your personal information and use it for administration and operation of Spoutible, including but not limited to the following purposes –
Where you have provided us with consent to use your personal information, you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time by contacting us directly with a request that we cease using your personal information or by following the ‘unsubscribe’ link provided in any electronic communications you receive from us.
Any personal information that we process will be stored on a secure server behind a firewall. We will not retain your personal information for longer than is necessary for the processing. Where you have registered and provided your consent to receive communications from us, then we will retain your personal information for this purpose until your consent is withdrawn.
We may share information we have collected about you in certain situations as follows:
We may share your information with third parties that perform services for us or on our behalf, including email delivery, hosting services, data analysis and marketing assistance.
We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit the Spoutible Platform. These companies may use information about your visits to our website and other websites that are contained in web cookies in order to provide advertisements about goods and services that may be of interest to you.
With your informed consent (opt-in) we may share your information with third parties for marketing purposes, as permitted by law.
We may share information with our subsidiaries, successors, or related companies for the purposes described in our respective privacy policies, and to offer, provide, and improve services and products.
If we believe the release of information about you is necessary to respond to legal process, to investigate or remedy potential violations of our policies, or to protect the rights, property, and safety of others, we may share your information as permitted or required by any applicable law, rule, or regulation. This includes exchanging information with other entities for fraud protection and credit risk reduction. We may also need to transfer some of your personal information in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding.
We do not sell any personal information under any circumstances whatsoever. We disclose only that personal information that is necessary for the third party to deliver their specific service and we take all reasonable measures to ensure they keep your information fully secure and not use it for any purpose other than the one under which it was disclosed. All third parties are carefully screened so we can ensure that there are adequate controls in place in accordance with applicable laws.
We may use cookies, web beacons, tracking pixels, Google analytics and other tracking technologies on our Platform to help customize our services and improve your user experience. Cookies are small files that a website or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser. Session cookies are only stored on your computer or mobile device while you use our Platform and are automatically deleted when you close your web browser or mobile application. If you are located in Canada, the United Kingdom, or the European Union, we will request your consent before storing session cookies. Most browsers are set to accept cookies by default. You can remove or reject cookies, but be aware that such action could affect the availability and functionality of the Spoutible Platform. When you access our Platform, your personal information is not collected through the use of tracking technology. You may not decline web beacons. However, they can be rendered ineffective by declining all cookies or by modifying your web browser’s settings to notify you each time a cookie is tendered, permitting you to accept or decline cookies on an individual basis. We use third-party session cookies provided by Cloudflare’s Bot Management technology to protect our Platform from harmful automated attacks. Additionally, we may at times include or offer third party products or services on our Platform. These third-party websites or software may use cookies or similar tracking technology to help manage and optimize your online experience with us. Please note this Privacy Policy will not be applicable in case of any such third-party software and their associated cookies policy. Spoutible bears no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these third-party links or websites.
The personal information collected and processed by Spoutible at our offices and data centres are held securely in accordance with our internal security policy and the appropriate data protection laws as and where applicable. Spoutible has implemented generally accepted standards of technology and operational security in order to protect personal information from loss, misuse, or unauthorized alteration or destruction. Unfortunately, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Whilst we strive to use all reasonable efforts to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. We will notify you promptly in the event of any breach of your personal information which might expose you to serious risk. We will never collect sensitive information about you without your explicit and informed consent.
Spoutible may retain your personal information for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, or as required or permitted by applicable laws. Typically, we retain your account information for as long as your account is active. We will cease to retain your personal information, or remove the means by which the information can be associated with you, as soon as it is reasonable to assume that such retention no longer serves the purpose for which it was collected, and is no longer necessary for legal or business purposes. All third parties are carefully screened before transfer of any personal information, so we can ensure that there are adequate controls in place and, where relevant, that such third parties are fully compliant with the applicable laws. In case any of any international transfer of personal information, Spoutible takes all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information continues to receive a standard of protection that is at least comparable to that provided under the applicable data protection laws.
You have full control through your account settings regarding your personal information that is made available to us and how we use it. In addition to that, according to the applicable data protection laws, you also possess a number of rights in relation to your personal information. These rights include
We are committed to upholding these rights at all times. If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please send us a request that (a) provides sufficient detail to allow us to verify that you are the person about whom we have collected personal information, and (b) describes your request in sufficient detail to allow us to understand, evaluate, and respond to it as soon as possible. Please note we cannot respond to requests that do not adequately meet the above criteria.
As per the applicable laws, Spoutible has a “Data Protection Officer” (DPO) who is responsible for all matters relating to privacy and data protection and they can be reached at –
Attn: Spoutible Data Protection Officer
Address:
Spoutible Inc.
442 5th Avenue #2107
New York, NY 10018
Email: [email protected]
If you have any further questions, comments or requests regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at [email protected].
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