Terms of Service
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to metafact! Our mission is to empower people to make evidence-based decisions from trusted experts to help their lives and the world around them. We do this through the metafact platform, which provides an online service for Users to ask questions and connect experts to answer their questions. This empowers people to learn & discuss the latest evidence, knowledge and facts as reported collectively and directly via verified experts around the world.
Summary to help you understand the main bits: You own the content that you post, are responsible for it and can repost content from the site. You agree to follow the community guidelines for the platform and we accept no liability in respect of any material posted. You are solely responsible for your own use of the site. We are not responsible for the content posted, its accuracy and you realise that expert answers are opinions and should not be treated as a substitute for professional advice for your specific situation or problem.
If you would like to be part of our community or use our Site, you must agree to the full Terms of Service (see below), accept our Privacy Policy and adhere to our Community Guidelines.
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The Company provides the Metafact online platform to connect Users with Experts in answering their questions. Use of Metafact is subject to these Terms of Service.
DEFINITIONS
The following terms are used regularly throughout these Terms of Service and have a particular meaning:
(a) ABN means Australia Business Number.
(b) Agreement means the agreement formed between the Users and the Company under, and on the terms of, these Terms of Service.
(c) Answer means an Expert’s written response to a particular Question.
(d) Business Day means a day (other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday) on which banks are open for general banking business in Sydney, Australia.
(e) Company means Thinkable Pty Ltd ABN 20 166 793 095.
(f) Corporations Act means the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).
(g) Everyday User means a registered User of Metafact who is not an Expert.
(g) Expert means a registered User of Metafact who has been verified and confirmed by the Company as an expert in their particular field.
(i) GDPR means the regulations and principles set by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation for the handling of personal data.
(j) Intellectual Property means all copyright, patents, inventions, trade secrets, know-how, product formulations, designs, circuit layouts, databases, registered or unregistered trademarks, brand names, business names, domain names and other forms of intellectual property.
(k) Metafact means the Metafact online platform accessible at http://metafact.io/;
(l) Personal Information has the same meaning as in the Privacy Act.
(m) Privacy Act means the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
(n) Privacy Policy means the Company’s privacy policy as updated from time-to-time, which can be found at https://metafact.io/privacy_policy
(o) Question means a question submitted by an Everyday User.
(p) Site means http://metafact.io
(q) Tax Invoice has the meaning given by the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (Cth).
(r) Terms of Service means the terms and conditions of using Metafact, as updated from time-to-time, which can be found at https://metafact.io/terms_of_service
(s) TPS means an online third-party service provider with whom a User holds an account.
(t) User means any registered Expert or Everyday User that uses Metfact.
(u) User Content means information, documents or other data that is uploaded or input into Metafact by the User or that forms part of the User’s Intellectual Property.
1. USING METAFACT
1.1 General
(a) To use all features of Metafact, the User must log into Metafact and have set up their account.
(b) The User agrees that all use of Metafact is subject to the terms of this Agreement.
(c) The Company may suspend the account or restrict the access of any User that breaches the terms of this Agreement.
1.2 Expert Account
(a) In order for an Expert to register an account, the Expert must first be invited by the Company to join Metafact, or otherwise submit a request to join Metafact, which may be approved at the complete discretion of the Company.
(b) An Expert may consent in writing to the Company creating an account and posting on the Expert’s behalf.
(c) The Company may request the Expert to provide proof of their qualifications, and/or any published work.
(d) The Expert warrants that any representations as to their qualifications, experience and/or are correct and are not misleading in anyway.
1.3 Features
(a) Metafact may allow an Everyday User to:
i. Submit a Question;
ii. Browse and search Questions;
iii. Comment on an Answer;
iv. Upvote an Answer; and
v. Such other features Metafact may make available from time-to-time.
(b) Metafact may allow an Expert to:
i. Submit an Answer to a Question dependent on their field;
ii. Browse and search Questions;
iii. Comment on an Answer;
iv. Upvote an Answer; and
v. Such other features Metafact may make available from time-to-time.
1.4 Questions & Answers
(a) An Everyday User may submit a Question to be answered by an Expert, subject to the following conditions:
i. The Question is posed as a binary, capable of having a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response;
ii. The Question is not personal in nature, or would otherwise not ordinarily require professional legal, accounting, financial or medical advice as determined by the Company;
iii. The Question is not racist, sexist or otherwise offensive as determined by the Company; and
iv. The Question adheres to any other standards or conditions as may be determined by the Company from time to time.
(b) The Company shall request particular Experts to answer a Question who may accept or decline.
(c) In providing an Answer to the Question, the Expert may rank the Question in terms of likelihood and provide a paragraph of reasoning for their response.
(d) The Answer must:
i. Directly relate to the Question;
ii. Not be specific or personal in nature such that it could be construed as professional advice (whether that be legal, medical, accounting, financial or otherwise);
iii. Not be racist, sexist or otherwise offensive as determined by the Company; and
iv. Adhere to any other standards or conditions as determined by the Company.
(e) Following the publishing of an Answer, Everyday Users may like, vote and/or comment on an Answer.
(f) Users may edit or delete their Answers, Questions or comments at any time.
1.5 Basic Standards.
(a) The User agrees that they shall only use Metafact for legal purposes and shall not use it to engage in any conduct that is racist, sexist, harassment, unlawful, immoral, threatening, abusive or in a way that is deemed unreasonable by the Company in its discretion.
(b) The User agrees that the Company may, in its discretion, cancel the licence granted under this Agreement to any User that materially breaches clause (a).
1.6 Conduct.
The User acknowledges and accepts that:
(a) The Company makes no warranty or representation as to the accuracy of any information or Answer provided by any Expert. Any Answer from an Expert is an opinion only, general in nature, and must not be relied upon as a substitute for professional advice.
(b) The Answers are the opinions of the Experts and do not represent the views or opinions of the Company unless specifically stated.
(c) The Company makes no warranty or representation as to the accuracy of any information or content provided the Company.
(d) The Company accepts no responsibility for the conduct of any User.
(e) The Company accepts no responsibility for any interaction between Users, whether that interaction occurs via Metafact or not.
(f) The Company makes no warranty as to the character or credentials of any User.
1.7 Lodging a Complaint.
(a) If a User believes that another user’s behaviour is threatening, discriminatory, or deliberately offensive, the User may lodge a complaint to the Company via email at support@thinkable.org
(b) The Company may suspend or delete the account of any User that Metafact determines conducts itself inappropriately.
(c) The Company will advise the User of a suspended or deleted account of the decision to do so, but is under no obligation to identify a complainant.
(d) The Company’s decision whether or not to suspend or remove a User account is at its absolute discretion. The Company’s decision shall be final and not subject to review.
2. USER CONTENT
2.1 The User acknowledges and agrees that:
(a) Metafact may enable the User to create User Content, but that by doing so the User shall not acquire an interest to any Intellectual Property owned by the Company, which may exist in Metafact.
(b) User Content is the sole responsibility of the person that provided the User Content to Metafact.
(c) The User indemnifies the Company for any User Content that is illegal, offensive, indecent or objectionable that the User makes available using Metafact.
(d) The Company may suspend a User’s accessibility to Metafact and/or remove any User Content from Metafact (including but not limited to Questions, Answers and comments) that the Company determines in its sole discretion is illegal, offensive, indecent, objectionable or otherwise in breach of the standards set out in this Agreement.
(e) To the extent permitted by law, under no circumstances will the Company be liable in any way for User Content.
(f) The User warrants that it has all necessary Intellectual Property Rights to use User Content, or will otherwise ensure that any third-party sources used in the User Content have been properly referenced. The User shall indemnify the Company for any infringement the User commits of third-party Intellectual Property Rights by posting User Content on Metafact.
(g) In order to provide the services afforded by Metafact, where the User Content includes the User’s brand, logo or other intellectual property, it grants the Company a worldwide, revocable license to use the User Content, for the term of this Agreement.
(h) The User grants the Company a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish any User Content on external third-party platforms.
3. THIRD PARTY LOGIN AND INTEGRATION
3.1 Registration & Login.
(a) A User may be able to register as a User, access Metafact and use integrated features by connecting their account with certain third-party services (TPS) (e.g, Facebook, Twitter etc).
(b) As part of the functionality of Metafact the User may connect their profile with a TPS by:
i. Providing their TPS login information to the Company through the Community; or
i. Allowing the Company to access their TPS in accordance with its terms & conditions of service.
(c) When connecting to Metafact using a TPS the User warrants that they are not in breach any of the TPS’ terms & conditions of service.
3.2 Ongoing Availability.
(a) The User agrees that User access to Metafact may be unavailable if the TPS becomes unavailable, and that the User may lose functionality or content that is shared between the TPS and Metafact.
(b) The User may disconnect the connection between Metafact and the TPS at any time.
(c) The Company has no relationship with any TPS and cannot guarantee the efficacy of any TPS connection.
3.3 Data from TPS.
Where a User connects and or registers their account using a TPS, the User authorises the Company to use data from that TPS to create the User’s profile within Metafact.
4. GENERAL CONDITIONS
4.1 Licence
(a) By accepting the terms and conditions of this Agreement, the User is granted a limited, non-exclusive and revocable licence to access and use Metafact for the duration of this Agreement, in accordance with the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
(b) The Company may issue the licence to the User on the further terms or limitations as it sees fit.
(c) The Company may revoke or suspend the User’s licence(s) in its absolute discretion for any reason that it sees fit, including for breach of the terms and conditions in this Agreement by the User.
4.2 Modification of Terms
(a) The terms of this Agreement may be updated by the Company from time-to-time.
(b) Where the Company modifies the terms, it will provide the User with written notice, and the User will be required to accept the modified terms in order to continue using Metafact.
4.3 Software-as-a-Service
(a) The User agrees and accepts that Metafact is:
i. Hosted on servers managed by the Company and shall only be installed, accessed and maintained by the Company, accessed using the internet or other connection to the Company servers and is not available ‘locally’ from the User’s systems; and
ii. Managed and supported exclusively by the Company from the servers managed by the Company and that no ‘back-end’ access to Metafact is available to the User unless expressly agreed in writing.
(b) As a hosted and managed service, the Company reserves the right to upgrade, maintain, tune, backup, amend, add or remove features, redesign, improve or otherwise alter Metafact.
4.4 Support
(a) The Company provides user support for Metafact via the email address support@thinkable.org
(b) The Company shall endeavour to respond to all support requests within 3 Business Days.
4.5 Use & Availability
(a) The User agrees that it shall only use Metafact for legal purposes and shall not use it to engage in any conduct that is unlawful, immoral, threatening, abusive or in a way that is deemed unreasonable by the Company in its discretion.
(b) The User is solely responsible for the security of its username and password for access to Metafact. The User shall notify the Company as soon as it becomes aware of any unauthorised access of its Metafact account.
(c) The User agrees that the Company shall provide access to Metafact to the best of its abilities, however:
i. Access to Metafact may be prevented by issues outside of its control; and
ii. It accepts no responsibility for ongoing access to Metafact.
4.6 Privacy
(a) The Company maintains the Privacy Policy in compliance with the provisions of the Privacy Act and GDPR for data that it collects about the User.
(b) The Privacy Policy does not apply to how a User handles personal information. If necessary under the Privacy Act and/or GDPR, it is the User’s responsibility to meet the obligations of the Privacy Act and/or GDPR by implementing a privacy policy in accordance with law.
(c) The Company makes no warranty as to the suitability of Metafact in regards to the User’s privacy obligations at law or contract, and it is the User’s responsibility to determine whether the Metafact is appropriate for the ’s circumstances.
(d) The Company may use cookies (a small tracking code in your browser) to improve a User’s experience while browsing, while also sending browsing information back to the Company. The User may manage how it handles cookies in its own browser settings.
4.7 Data
(a) Security. The Company takes the security of Metafact and the privacy of its Users very seriously. The User agrees that the User shall not do anything to prejudice the security or privacy of the Company’s systems or the information on them.
(b) Transmission. The Company shall do all things reasonable to ensure that the transmission of data occurs according to accepted industry standards. It is up to the User to ensure that any transmission standards meet the User’s operating and legal requirements.
(c) Storage. Data that is stored by the Company shall be stored according to accepted industry standards.
(d) Backup. The Company shall perform backups of its entire systems in as reasonable manner at such times and intervals as is reasonable for its business purposes. The Company does not warrant that it is able to backup or recover specific User Data from any period of time unless so stated in writing by the Company.
4.8 Intellectual Property
(a) Trademarks. The Company has moral & registered rights in its trade marks and the User shall not copy, alter, use or otherwise deal in the marks without the prior written consent of the Company.
(b) Proprietary Information. The Company may use software and other proprietary systems and Intellectual Property for which the Company has appropriate authority to use, and the User agrees that such is protected by copyright, trademarks, patents, proprietary rights and other laws, both domestically and internationally. The User warrants that it shall not infringe on any third-party rights through the use of Metafact.
(c) The Metafact platform. The User agrees and accepts that Metafact is the Intellectual Property of the Company and the User further warrants that by using Metafact the User will not:
i. Copy Metafact or the services that it provides for the User’s own commercial purposes; and
ii. Directly or indirectly copy, recreate, decompile, reverse engineer or otherwise obtain, modify or use any source or object code, architecture, algorithms contained in Metafact or any documentation associated with it.
4.9 Disclaimer of Third Party Services & Information
(a) The User acknowledges that Metafact is dependent on third-party services, including but not limited to:
i Banks, credit card providers and merchant gateway providers;
ii. Third party Service Providers;
iii. Telecommunications services;
iv. Hosting services;
v. Email services; and
vi. Analytics services.
(b) The User agrees that the Company shall not be responsible or liable in any way for:
i. Interruptions to the availability of Metafact due to third-party services; or
ii. Information contained on any linked third party website.
4.10 Liability & Indemnity
(a) The User agrees that it uses Metafact at its own risk.
(b) The User acknowledges that the Company is not responsible for the conduct or activities of any User and that the Company is not liable for such under any circumstances.
(c) The User agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Company, its employees, contractors, officers and directors, for any loss, damage, cost or expense that the Company may suffer or incur as a result of or in connection with the User’s use of or conduct in connection with Metafact, including any breach by the User of the terms of this Agreement.
(d) In no circumstances will the Company be liable for any direct, incidental, consequential or indirect damages, damage to property, injury, illness, loss of property, loss or corruption of data, loss of profits, goodwill, bargain or opportunity, loss of anticipated savings or any other similar or analogous loss resulting from the User’s access to, or use of, or inability to use Metafact, whether based on warranty, contract, tort, negligence, in equity or any other legal theory, and whether or not the Company knew or should have known of the possibility of such damage, injury, illness or business interruption of any type, whether in tort, contract or otherwise.
(e) Certain rights and remedies may be available under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) or similar legislation of other States or Territories and may not be permitted to be excluded, restricted or modified. Apart from those that cannot be excluded, the Company and the Company’s related entities exclude all conditions and warranties that may be implied by law. To the extent permitted by law, the Company’s liability for breach of any implied warranty or condition that cannot be excluded is restricted, at the Company’s option to:
i. The re-supply of services or payment of the cost of re-supply of services; or
ii. The replacement or repair of goods or payment of the cost of replacement or repair.
4.11 Termination
(a) Either party may terminate this Agreement by giving the other party written notice.
(b) Termination of this agreement is without prejudice to and does not affect the accrued rights or remedies of any of the parties arising in any way out of this agreement up to the date of expiry or termination.
(c) Termination does not affect any of the rights accrued by a party prior to termination, and the rights and obligations under clauses 4.6, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10, 4.12, 4.13 and 4.14 survive termination of this Agreement.
4.12 Dispute Resolution
(a) If any dispute arises between the parties in connection with this Agreement (Dispute), then either party may notify the other of the Dispute with a notice (Dispute Notice) which:
i. Includes or is accompanied by full and detailed particulars of the Dispute; and
ii. Is delivered within 10 Business Days of the circumstances giving rise to the Dispute first occurring.
(b) Within 10 Business Days after a Dispute Notice is given, a representative of each party with the authority to resolve the dispute, must meet (virtually or otherwise) and seek to resolve the Dispute.
(c) Subject to clause (d), a party must not bring court proceedings in respect of any Dispute unless it first complies with the requirements of the dispute resolution mechanism outlined in this clause.
(d) Nothing in this clause prevents either party from instituting court proceedings to seek urgent injunctive, interlocutory or declaratory relief in respect of a Dispute.
(e) Despite the existence of a Dispute, the parties must continue to perform their respective obligations under this document and any related agreements.
4.13 Electronic Communication, Amendment & Assignment
(a) The words in this clause that are defined in the Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Cth) have the same meaning.
(b) The User can direct notices, enquiries, complaints and so forth to the Company as set out in this Agreement. The Company will notify the User of a change of details from time-to-time.
(c) The Company will send the User notices and other correspondence to the details that the User submits to the Company, or that the User notifies the Company of from time-to-time. It is the User’s responsibility to update its contact details as they change.
(d) A consent, notice or communication under this Agreement is effective if it is sent as an electronic communication unless required to be physically delivered under law.
(e) Notices must be sent to the parties’ most recent known contact details.
(f) The User may not assign or otherwise create an interest in this Agreement.
(g) The Company may assign or otherwise create an interest in its rights under this Agreement by giving written notice to the User.
4.14 General
(a) Special Conditions. The parties may agree to any Special Conditions to this Agreement in writing.
(b) Prevalence. To the extent this Agreement is in conflict with, or inconsistent with any Special Conditions made under this Agreement, the terms of those Special Conditions shall prevail.
(c) Disclaimer. Each party acknowledges that it has not relied on any representation, warranty or statement made by any other party, other than as set out in this Agreement.
(d) Relationship. The relationship of the parties to this Agreement does not form a joint venture or partnership.
(e) Waiver. No clause of this Agreement will be deemed waived and no breach excused unless such waiver or consent is provided in writing.
(f) Further Assurances. Each party must do anything necessary (including executing agreements and documents) to give full effect to this Agreement and the transaction facilitated by it.
(g) Governing Law. This Agreement is governed by the laws of New South Wales. Each of the parties hereby submits to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of courts with jurisdiction there.
(h) Severability. Any clause of this Agreement, which is invalid or unenforceable, is ineffective to the extent of the invalidity or unenforceability without affecting the remaining clauses of this Agreement.
This document was last updated on July 24, 2018