These Terms of Use were last updated on, and therefore its effective date is, 18 May 2023.

Introduction.

These Terms of Use, and any documents referred to herein, set out the terms and conditions on which you are permitted to use the Hub, www.vihub.org (the Hub).  By using the Hub, you agree to be bound by and to comply with these Terms of Use.

Please read these Terms of Use carefully.  If for any reason you do not agree to these Terms of Use or do not wish to be bound by them, you must not access or use the Hub.

1. Our details.

1.1 The VI Insight Hub (the Hub) is operated by the VI Charity Sector Partnership (The Partners).

1.2 The Partners own the Hub and direct the content that appears on it.  The Partners are the following organisations:

Blind Veterans UK

Glaucoma UK

Retina UK

Royal National Institute of Blind People

The Guide Dogs For The Blind Association

The Macular Disease Society

Thomas Pocklington Trust

Visionary

2. Your responsibility for others who access the Hub using your device or internet connection.

2.1 You must ensure that any persons who access the Hub on your computer(s) or device(s), or who are permitted or able to access the Hub on your computer(s) or device(s), or who use your internet connection, are aware of these Terms of Use and all other documentation referred to in them and that such persons also agree to be bound by and to comply with these Terms of Use.  If for any reason whatsoever, such persons do not agree to these Terms of Use or do not wish to be bound by them, they must not access or use the Hub, and you must not permit them to do so.

3. Other documents governing your use of the Hub.

3.1 In addition to these Terms of Use, your use of the Hub as a Service User is also governed by the following documents:

(a) Our Privacy Policy governs our use of your personal information.

(b) Our Cookies Policy governs our use of cookies and similar technologies on the Hub.

3.2 By accessing and using the Hub, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use and also you acknowledge that we will process your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy and accept our use of cookies and similar technologies in accordance with our Cookies Policy.

4. Availability of the Hub.

4.1 We make no representations and provide no warranties that:

(a) The Hub will be made available at any specific time or from any specific geographical location;

(b) Your access to the Hub will be continuous or uninterrupted; or

(c) The Hub will be accessible or optimised on all browsers, computers, tablets, phones or viewing platforms or aids.

4.2 We reserve the right to suspend access to all or part of the Hub for any reason, including for organisational or operational reasons, such as improving the appearance or functionality of the Hub, content updates, periodic maintenance, or resolving any issues that we become aware of.  Wherever we anticipate that we need to suspend access to the Hub for a considerable period of time, we will try to provide you with prior notice when reasonably practicable.

4.3 The Hub is provided for users worldwide.  Although it may be possible to access the Hub from other countries, we make no representation that the Hub is compliant with any legal requirements in force in any jurisdiction other than the United Kingdom, or that the content available on the Hub will be appropriate for users in other countries or states.

5. Changes we may make to these Terms of Use and other documentation.

5.1 We reserve the right to update these Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy, our cookie policy and any other documentation referred to in any of these documents from time to time.  We may change our Terms of Use and other documentation for any reason, including:

(a) To reflect any changes in the way we carry out our organisational conduct;

(b) To account for any changes we make to the Hub, including, without limitation, any new features or functionality we provide, any adjustments to the means by which we provide notices to you, or any changes in the content, purpose or availability of the Hub;

(c) To accurately describe our current data-processing activities so that you are kept up to date with our latest practices;

(d) To inform you of any changes in the way that we use cookies or similar information-gathering technologies; or

(e) To ensure that our documentation complies and remains compliant with any and all current and future applicable laws, regulations and official guidance.

5.2 If required by law, we will provide you with notice of any changes in these Terms of Use or the other documentation referred to in them by posting a notice on the Hub and/or by posting an updated version of these Terms of Use or other such documentation on the Hub with a new effective date stated at the beginning of them.

5.3 By continuing to access the Hub after we have updated our Terms of Use, you agree to be bound by those updated versions.  You also acknowledge that by continuing to access the Hub after we have updated our Privacy Policy and/or our cookie policy, the practices set out in those updated policies will apply to our handling of your information and our use of cookies and similar technologies.

5.4 You must check these Terms of Use and all other documentation referred to in them each time you access the Hub in order to ensure that you are aware of the terms that apply to you at that time.

5.5 The date that these Terms of Use and/or any other documents (including our Privacy Policy and cookie policy) were last amended is set out at the top of that document and is referred to as that document’s “effective date”.

6. Ownership of material on the Hub - copyright, credit and logo.

6.1 The copyright in these Terms of Use is either owned by or licensed to us and is protected by copyright laws around the world and copyright protection software.  Unless expressly indicated otherwise, all intellectual property rights in this document and elsewhere on the Hub, including any content on the Hub, are reserved.

6.2 All trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos, copyright, images and other intellectual property rights in the Hub and its content are either owned by us, controlled through a data sharing agreement or licensed to us.  All such rights are protected by intellectual property laws around the world, and all rights are reserved.  Any use of the Hub and its contents, other than as specifically authorised herein, is strictly prohibited.  Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved by us.

6.3 The trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos, images and other branding owned by third parties and used or displayed on or via the Hub (collectively, “Third Party Mark(s)”) may be trademarks of their respective owners, who may or may not endorse or be affiliated with or connected with us.  Except as expressly provided in these Terms of Use, or in terms provided by the owner of a Third-Party Mark, nothing in these Terms of Use or on or via the Hub should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any licence or right to use any of our or any Third Party Marks that are used or displayed on the Hub, without the respective owner’s prior written permission, in each instance.  All goodwill generated from the use of our trademarks will benefit us exclusively.

6.4 Images and photographs on this Hub must not be reproduced or copied in any way.  If you have any queries or require information regarding images and copy please contact us.  Please note that clearance on copyrighted images has been given for The Partners use only.  Commercial users identifying an image that they wish to reproduce on a commercial basis should contact us.

7. Information and content on the Hub provided on a non-reliance basis.

7.1 The Hub is made available to you in order to provide you with accessible, up-to-date, and authoritative sources of evidence, insights and statistics from research and other sources and literature relating to people living with sight-loss as well as general information about us, the Partnership and any services that we offer from time to time.  We do not make the Hub available for any other purposes, except as expressly provided in these Terms of Use.

7.2 The Partners have tried to ensure that the contents of this Hub are accurate.  However, visitors who use this Hub and rely on any information do so entirely at their own discretion and risk.  The content on the Hub is not intended to be construed as specific, tailored advice to you.  You must not wholly rely on any of the content of the Hub for any purposes whatsoever, and you must, where appropriate, seek your own independent professional advice before deciding to take any course of action on the basis, whether in whole or in part, of any of the content available on the Hub at any time.

7.3 The Partners, the trustees, officers, employees or advisers make no representations and provide no warranties whatsoever, whether express or implied, that any of the content, information or materials available on the Hub from time to time are accurate, up to date or complete.  No liability or responsibility is accepted.

8. Permitted use of materials on the Hub.

8.1 The content on the Hub is provided for your non-commercial use only.  You may print or share the content from the Hub for lawful, non-commercial purposes, and you may also make others within your organisation aware of the content on the Hub.  You may not otherwise extract, reproduce or distribute the content of the Hub without our prior written consent.

8.2 Whenever you print, download, share or pass on content from the Hub to others, you must not make any additions or deletions or otherwise modify any text from the Hub, you must not alter or change any images, media or graphics from the Hub in any way, you may not remove any accompanying text from such images, media or graphics, and you must ensure that all content passed on to any third party is an accurate representation of the content as it appears on the Hub.

8.3 You are prohibited from using any robots, spiders, data mining or scraping technology, or any similar third-party tools for the extraction or reproduction of any data or content from the Hub without our prior written consent.

8.4 Whenever you pass on any content or materials from the Hub to anyone, you must acknowledge us as the authors of such content or materials (or any other authors wherever credited by us) at the time when you pass on such content or materials.

9. Prohibited uses of the Hub.

9.1 You must not reproduce, duplicate, copy or resell any part of the Hub or any content from the Hub, save and except to the extent expressly permitted in these Terms of Use.

9.2 You must not, without our prior written consent, access, interfere with, damage or disrupt in any way the Hub or any part of it, our systems, any of our hardware or equipment or any networks on which the Hub is hosted, any software that we use to create or modify the Hub or to make the Hub available to you, or any hardware, equipment, network, server, software or technology owned or operated by us or any third party.

9.3 You must use the Hub for lawful purposes only and in accordance with these Terms of Use.  You must not use the Hub:

(a) For any purpose that is unlawful or that in any way breaches any applicable laws or regulations, whether local, national or international;

(b) For any fraudulent purposes whatsoever;

(c) To conduct any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or direct or indirect marketing to anyone by any means, or to otherwise spam, communicate with, or market to anyone any goods, services, or business not authorised by us;

(d) To upload, host or transmit any viruses, malware, adware, spyware, worms, Trojan horses, keystroke loggers, spyware, logic bombs, time bombs, or any other harmful programs or code which could adversely affect the use or operation of the Hub, our hardware or systems, or the computers, tablets, phones or other devices of any users or other third parties, or to upload any content or materials containing any such content;

(e) To communicate with, harm, or attempt to harm children in any way; or in any way or for any purpose that breaches these Terms of Use or the terms of any of the documents these Terms of Use refer to.

9.4 You must not submit any information about you to us if you are under the age of 18, or about any other person who is either:

(a) Under the age of 18; or

(b) If they are aged 18 or above, where you have not received their prior written consent to submit information about them to us.

9.5 You must not submit to us any information which is considered ‘sensitive personal information’.  ‘Sensitive personal information is information about you or any other person which reveals your or their racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership or which is genetic data, biometric data, information which concerns your or their health, sex life or sexual orientation.

9.6 If you accidentally or intentionally submit such information to us, you will be considered to have consented to our processing of that information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

10. Links to other websites.

10.1 Links to third-party content or websites may appear on the Hub from time to time.  We are not responsible for the content of any websites or content accessible via any link(s) on the Hub.  All content on third-party websites or Hubs is outside of our control, and we do not represent or warrant that such content is related to us or the Hub, suitable or appropriate for use or viewing, lawful or accurate.

10.2 Any third-party websites accessible via a link on the Hub may collect and process your information.  We are not responsible for any data-processing activities carried out by any third-party websites that are linked to the Hub, and we disclaim any and all liability in respect of the same.  You should check the Privacy Policy of any such third party to establish how they may use your information before you decide to use their website and its features.

11. Links to the Hub.

11.1 You may link to the Hub without our prior written consent, but you must inform us that you have done so.

(a) You may provide links to the Hub on other websites or Hubs owned by you, provided that such websites or Hubs and the use of any links to the Hub comply with these Terms of Use;

(b) Wherever you post a link to the Hub on any other websites or Hub, you agree that you will do so in an appropriate manner, and not in any way which is defamatory or disparaging towards us, which misrepresents us or our organisation, or which causes any harm whatsoever to us or our organisation or Partners; and

(c) You must not link to the Hub in order to suggest any form of a joint venture, partnership, collaboration, affiliation, business relationship, approval or endorsement in connection with us where none exists and, in any event, without having first obtained our prior written consent.

11.2 We may withdraw permission to link to the Hub at any time.  In the event that we withdraw permission to link to the Hub and inform you of the same, you must immediately remove or cause to be removed any links to the Hub.

12. Exclusions and limitations of liability.

12.1 We do not exclude our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so, for example, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.  If applicable law does not allow all or any part of the below limitations of liability to apply to you, the limitations will apply to you only to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

12.2 Subject to the aforesaid, in no event shall we (including our parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, associates, partners, supporters, officers, directors, members, employees, volunteers, or agents) under any circumstances whatsoever be liable to you or to any party for any loss, damage (whether direct, indirect, punitive, actual, consequential, incidental, special, exemplary or otherwise) costs, expenses, liabilities or penalties, whether in contract, tort, breach of statutory duty or otherwise, whether foreseeable or unknown, arising from, in connection with or relating to:

(a) Your use of the Hub;

(b) Any corruption or loss of data;

(c) Any inability to access the Hub, including, without limitation, any interruptions, suspension, or withdrawal of the Hub (for any reason whatsoever);

(d) Any use you make of any content or materials on the Hub, including any reliance you make on such content or material;

(e) Any loss of savings, profits, sales, business or revenue;

(f) Any loss of reputation or goodwill;

(g) Any loss of savings;

(h) Any loss of a chance or opportunity; or

(i) Any other secondary, consequential or indirect losses,

12.3 Even if we have been advised of the possibility of such loss or damage, without limitation you assume and shall be liable for the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction in the event of any such loss, damage, costs, expenses, liabilities or penalties arising.

12.4 We shall not be liable for any damage that you could have avoided by following our advice to apply an update offered to you free of charge or for damage that was caused by you failing to correctly follow installation instructions or to have in place the minimum system requirements advised by us.

12.5 You specifically agree that we shall not be liable for any content or the defamatory, libellous, offensive, or illegal conduct of any third party and that the risk of harm or damage from the foregoing rests entirely with you.  In the event that you become aware of any content (or the actions of any person in relation to the affairs of the Hub) that you consider to be defamatory, libellous, offensive or illegal then you shall immediately draw that content (or those actions) to our attention together with an indication of the steps which you wish us to take in relation to that content (or those actions).

12.6 You agree that in the event that you incur any damages, losses or injuries arising out of, or in connection with, our acts or omissions, the damages if any, caused to you are not irreparable or sufficient to entitle you to an injunction preventing any exploitation of any Hub, service, property, product or other content owned or controlled by us, and you will have no rights to enjoin or restrain the development, production, distribution, advertising, exhibition or exploitation of any Hub, property, product, service, or other content owned or controlled by us.

12.7 To the extent that any of the provisions of this clause 14 (Exclusions and Limitations of Liability) are unenforceable as outright exclusions of liability, they shall be construed as limitations on liability, limiting our liability to you to the maximum extent permitted by law.

13. Indemnification.

13.1 You (and also any third party for or on behalf of whom you operate an account or activity on the Hub) agree to defend (at our request), indemnify and hold us harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and attorneys’ fees and costs, arising out of or in any way connected with any of the following (including as a result of your direct activities on the Hub or those conducted on your behalf):

(a) Your uploads, access to or use of the Hub;

(b) Your breach or alleged breach of these Terms of Use;

(c) Your violation of any third-party right, including, without limitation, any intellectual property right, publicity, confidentiality, property, or privacy right;

(d) Your violation of any laws, rules, regulations, codes, statutes, ordinances or orders of any governmental and quasi-governmental authorities, including, without limitation, all regulatory, administrative and legislative authorities; or

(e) Any misrepresentation made by you.

13.2 You will cooperate as fully required by us in the defence of any claim.  We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, and you will not, in any event, settle any claim without our prior written consent.

14. Disclaimers.

14.1 The Hub is provided on an “as is”, “as available” and “with all faults” basis.  To the fullest extent permissible by law, we do not make any representations or warranties or endorsements of any kind whatsoever, express or implied, as to:

(a) The service;

(b) The Hub content;

(c) User content; or

(d) Security associated with the transmission of information to the Hub.

In addition, we hereby disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, title, custom, trade, quiet enjoyment, system integration and freedom from computer virus.

14.2 We do not represent or warrant that the service will be error-free or uninterrupted, that defects will be corrected, or that the service or the server that makes the service available is free from any harmful components, including, without limitation, viruses.  We do not make any representations or warranties that the information (including any instructions) on the service is accurate, complete or useful.  You acknowledge that your use of the Hub is at your sole risk.  We do not warrant that your use of the Hub is lawful in any particular jurisdiction, and we specifically disclaim such warranties.  Some jurisdictions limit or do not allow the disclaimer of implied or other warranties so the above disclaimer may not apply to you to the extent such jurisdiction’s law is applicable to you and these terms of use.

14.3 By accessing or using the Hub you represent and warrant that your activities are lawful in every jurisdiction where you access or use the service.

14.4 We do not endorse the content and specifically disclaim any responsibility or liability to any person or entity for any loss, damage (whether actual, consequential, punitive or otherwise), injury, claim liability or other cause of action of any kind or character based upon or resulting from any content.

15. Age restrictions on use of the Hub.

15.1 The Hub and any services available on or via the Hub are not intended for use by individuals under the age of 18.

15.2 If you are under the age of 18, you must not use the Hub, attempt to purchase any services, or submit any information about you or anyone else to us.

15.3 We do not knowingly or intentionally process information about any individual under the age of 18.

16. Governing law and jurisdiction.

16.1 These Terms of Use, any documents they refer to, and any disputes arising from or in relation to them or any documents they refer to, whether contractual or non-contractual, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law.

16.2 The courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any claims or disputes arising from or in relation to these Terms of Use and any documents they refer to.