Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy sets out the terms between you and us under which you may access our website (our site). This Acceptable Use Policy applies to all users of, and visitors to, our site.

Your use of our site means that you accept, and agree to abide by, all the policies in this Acceptable Use Policy, which supplement our terms of website use.

http://www.natcen.ac.uk/ is a site operated by the National Centre for Social Research (“We” or “Us”). We are registered in England and Wales under company number 04392418 and have our registered office at 35 Northampton Square, London, EC1V 0AX. Our charity number is 1091768. We are regulated by the Charity Commission and are a charity as well as a UK limited company.

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;
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 any person in any way;
to transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam); or
to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, trojan horses, worms, logic or time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other material which is malicious or technologically harmful or any 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;
not to attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack; and
not to 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.

If we become aware of any violation of these terms, we reserve the right to take action to stop the violation and, if applicable, report a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. This may include removing information, suspending or removing a user, and disclosing relevant information to external bodies at our sole discretion or where required by law or regulation. In the event of a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

Interactive services

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

discussion rooms; and
blogs.

Where we do provide any interactive service, we will provide clear information to you about the kind of service offered, if it is moderated and what form of moderation is used (including whether it is human or technical).

We will do our best to assess any possible risks for users (and in particular, for children) 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, whether the service is moderated or not.

The use of any of our interactive services by a minor is subject to the consent of their parent or guardian. We advise parents who permit their children to use an interactive service that it is important that they communicate with their children about their safety online, as moderation is not foolproof. Minors who are using any interactive service should be made aware of the potential risks to them.

Content standards

These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to our site, and to any interactive services associated with it.

You must comply with the spirit of the following standards as well as the letter. The standards apply to each part of any contribution as well as to its whole.

Contributions must:

be accurate (where they state facts);
be genuinely held (where they state opinions); and
comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which they are posted.

Contributions must not:

disrupt the normal flow of dialogue within our site;
contain any material which is defamatory of any person;
contain any material which is obscene, vulgar, pornographic, offensive, hateful or inflammatory or in any way against public policy;
promote sexually explicit material;
promote violence;
promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
infringe any copyright, patent, database right, trade secret or trade mark of any other person or proprietary rights, or rights of publicity or privacy in any way;
be likely to deceive any person;
be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence;
promote any illegal activity;
be libellous, menacing, threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience, distress or needless anxiety to any person;
be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;
be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person;
give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case; or
advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act including but not limited to copyright infringement or computer misuse.

Suspension and termination

We will determine, at our absolute discretion, whether there has been a breach of this Acceptable Use Policy through your use of our site. When a breach of this policy has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate.

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 posting or material uploaded by you to our site;
issue of a warning to you;
taking 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;
taking other legal action against you; or
disclosing such information to law enforcement authorities as we consider is necessary.

We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of this Acceptable Use Policy. The responses described in this policy are not limited, and we may take any other action we deem appropriate.

Changes to the Acceptable Use Policy