ICAEW's terms and conditions for ION details your conduct and responsibilities while using the community.

Each time you use the site you agree to the following terms and conditions. These terms and conditions should be read in conjunction with the ICAEW privacy policy.

Explanatory terms

Username: for ICAEW members and students who've been registered automatically, your username is your Institute member/student number. If you registered through the website (without using your member/student number), this is the username you entered as part of the registration process. For non-ICAEW members this is the username you created/received when you registered for the first time.

Password: the password you created with your login.

The community/the website: means all of the open and closed communities, plus the main corporate website.

We or us: means the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

You: means you the customer and user. References to 'person' or 'user' includes references to businesses and corporations as well as to individuals.

ICAEW community

The ICAEW community is provided by us to ICAEW members, ICAEW students, subscribers to various ICAEW services and members of the public in some cases. All email addresses are kept confidential, although messages can be sent between users using the community private messaging system.

Our agreement with you

This agreement constitutes your agreement with ICAEW with respect to your use of the ICAEW community. You agree to abide by all of the terms and conditions contained in this agreement if you become or remain an authorised user of the community or otherwise gain access to the site.

Your use of the community

Your right to use the community is subject to any limitations, conditions and restrictions established by us. At our discretion we may alter, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the community at any time. We may also impose limits on certain features and aspects of the community or restrict your access to parts or all of the community without notice or liability.

Do not use the community unlawfully

You may only use the community for lawful purposes. In particular you may not use the community to transmit defamatory, racist, offensive or abusive material or material of an obscene or menacing character, or in breach of copyright or any other intellectual property rights, or in contravention of the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Do not use the community for advertising

You may not use the community for the purposes of advertising, campaigning or for any other financial gain. User to user advice with respect to products and services is permitted if it is relevant to the question/discussion in that community. Repeated (in one post or many posts) endorsement of a company/product, is considered as advertising and will be removed. If you continue to post in this way you will be removed from the community completely.

Please read the instructions below (under the heading “Your conduct and responsibilities”) for further conditions on the use of the community. You acknowledge that, if you do use the community in contravention of these terms and conditions, we may terminate your use of the community without providing you with any prior notice.

You are responsible for any contributions you may make to this site including but not limited to any feedback, blogs comments or questions. Contributions must not:

• contain any material which is defamatory of any person;
• contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;
• promote sexually explicit material;
• promote violence;
• promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
• infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person;
• 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 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;
• 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 such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.

By posting your contributions you confirm that all intellectual property rights in any content posted is yours and you grant to ICAEW a non-exclusive worldwide perpetual royalty free licence to use, reproduce, modify, publish, translate and distribute the content.

You agree to indemnify us for any cost, expenses damages or liabilities we may incur relating to your contributions. We reserve the right to remove or edit any contributions as we deem appropriate without notice.

Community security

You should not disclose your username and password to any other person.

Availability of the community

We may have to suspend the community at any time without being able to give you prior notice of this. We will do all that we can to restart the community as soon as possible in such circumstances.

Terminating access to the community

We may, at our sole discretion, terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the community at any time, with or without notice, for any reason, including, without limitation, breach of this agreement.

Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, any fraudulent, abusive, or otherwise illegal activity, or that may otherwise affect the enjoyment of the community by others may be grounds for termination of your access to all or part of the community at our sole discretion, and you may be referred to appropriate law enforcement agencies.

You may also face disciplinary action if you are an ICAEW member or student. Once registered, subject to the above, you may use the community for as long as you wish.

Limitation of our liability, warranties and indemnity

We accept no liability in contract, tort or otherwise including but not limited to negligence for inability to gain access to the community as a result of routine or emergency maintenance on the system or excessive demand.

You acknowledge that we are not responsible for suspension of the community, regardless of the cause of the interruption or suspension.

We do not warrant that this service will be uninterrupted or error-free. There may be delays, omissions, and interruptions in the availability of the community.

Where permitted by law, you acknowledge that the community is provided without any warranties of any kind either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

You acknowledge that use of the community is at your own risk. We do not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any member profile, advice, opinion, statement or other information displayed, uploaded or distributed through the community by us, our partners (if any) or any user of the community or any other person or entity.

You acknowledge that any reliance upon any such opinion, member profile, advice, statement or information shall be at your sole risk.

We do not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information displayed, uploaded or distributed through the community.

You agree to indemnify:

• us, our officers, directors, employees and agents,
• other users, and
• any other person affected by any posting you make or action you take

from any loss or damages, including without limitation reasonable legal fees, which we may suffer from your activities on or use of the community, including without limitation any breach by you of this agreement or any charges or complaints made by other parties against you. You shall cooperate as fully as reasonably required in the defence of any claim. We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you provided, however, that you shall remain liable for any such claim.

Changes we may make to this agreement

We may change these terms and conditions at any time by altering or removing existing terms or adding new ones. We will tell you about any changes by posting an updated version of these terms and conditions on our web site and sending you a message to draw your attention to the new policy.

Any change we make applies from the date we post it on our website.

Data protection

We may use records of your use of the community to aid with fraud detection. Certain details and information provided by you will be monitored from time to time and certain data such as messages sent by you will be retained by us for up to 12 months in accordance with the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act and may be disclosed to the police and law enforcement agencies for the purpose of fraud detection, crime prevention and national security.

We may provide you with information by post, telephone, SMS, or email about other products and services which we consider may be of interest to you, unless you contact us or you make use of the regular opportunities that we provide you with to confirm which channels and products you do not wish to use or hear about or unless you tell us you prefer not to receive direct marketing.

You agree for us to put on the site the notes you write about yourself. You understand that this information may be viewed by any or all users of the site. We will not publish any direct contact details, except where you specifically confirm that you wish such information to be published.

ICAEW is an international organisation, personal data may therefore be made available internationally, including in countries which do not have data protection laws, or laws which provide as much protection as in the country of origin. We seek to require those to whom we transfer your data to protect it and your privacy.

This way the ICAEW works to protect personal data transferred to countries which do not have data protection laws or whose laws are less strict.

Your conduct and responsibilities - code of conduct

Please remember the community is intended for use by people who value good manners. Please respect others in your choice of words and thoughts. You are solely responsible for the content of the messages and postings you publish.

By using the community, you are agreeing to permit us to republish your comments in whole or in part for as long as there is no breach of privacy.

We reserve the right to delete, move, or edit messages that we determine violate the following guidelines: You are not allowed to distribute, upload or publish anything that is defamatory, libellous, pornographic, obscene or abusive, promotes hatred, violence or illegal conduct or that otherwise violates any law or the rights of another.

We do not accept any responsibility for arrangements made between the parties concerned and cannot act as an intermediary.

You agree not to send unsolicited bulk mail.

You must not:

• Repeat the same line four or more consecutive times
• Type gibberish (random keys)
• Repeat the same character excessively
• You must not use swear words or type in capital letters excessively. It is considered rude to conduct all your conversation in capital letters

Monitoring and removal of information

Monitoring of information

We reserve the right to monitor all advertisements, postings and messages to ensure that they conform to the content guidelines which may be applicable from time to time.

Removal of information

We review all postings on the site. Please not that we are not responsible for any content of these postings or materials, and we reserve the right, but are not obligated, to delete, move, or edit postings or materials, including without limitation profiles, postings and messages, that we, at our sole discretion, deem to violate the code of conduct set out above or these terms and conditions or any applicable content guidelines, or to be otherwise unacceptable. You shall remain solely responsible for the content of profiles, public postings, messages and other materials you may upload to the community or users of the community.

If you feel abused, have a problem or dispute, or wish to make a complaint, please email us at communitieshelp@icaew.com.

If you feel you have been abused in a private message, you should print out and save those messages in case you ever need to refer to them and forward them with your complaint to communitieshelp@icaew.com.

If you find offensive material being posted online please contact the community moderators at communitieshelp@icaew.com.

We will investigate the matter, review all reported messages and, if appropriate, remove them. Self-publishing services on the community are offered “as is”. We hereby disclaim any liability for any content appearing in these areas or any technical malfunctions caused by the use of the community.

You understand that we would be unwilling to offer the community without an effective disclaimer, and that your use of the community is at your risk and, further, constitutes acceptance of the terms and conditions of this disclaimer.

You use the community entirely at your own risk and you should remember when using the site that some people may fabricate information about themselves and may not even be who they say they are.

Provision of direct contact details

The community is set up so your personal contact details are not revealed to any other users who may be contacting you via the website. We advise you not to include personal details in your personal notes or messages you write and we reserve the right to remove any messages that do contain such information, although we will not be obliged to do so.

Governing law

This policy and consent forms part of our website terms of use and as such it shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. You irrevocably agree that the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve any dispute or claim of whatever nature arising out of or relating to this policy and consent or otherwise to the use of your personal data, and that the laws of England and Wales shall govern such dispute or claim.

However, we retain the right to bring legal proceedings in any jurisdiction where we believe that infringement of our intellectual property rights or breach of these terms or any tortious act is taking place or originating.

You are responsible for compliance with any applicable laws and regulations of the jurisdiction from which you are accessing this website.

We operate this website from England and make no representation or warranty that the information contained herein is appropriate or available for use in other locations outside England and Wales.