We believe that this initiative will allow Al Jazeera's supporters and defenders of truth and anti-censorship to shine light on notable and newsworthy government and corporate activities which might otherwise go unreported by publishing original source material. The below Terms of Use are provided to both inform you of your protections and vulnerabilities and protect Al Jazeera in our shared mission to expose information in the public interest.
Terms
These terms of service (the “Terms”) govern your access to and use of Al Jazeera Transparency Unit (“we”, “our”, “AJTU”) websites and services (“Services”), so please carefully read them before using the Services.
By using the Services you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you are using the Services on behalf of an organization, you are agreeing to these Terms for that organization and agreeing that you have the authority to bind that organization to these terms. In that case, “you” and “your” will refer to that organization.
These Terms are between you and us and not any third party, and these Terms are not intended to confer any rights of any nature upon any party other than you and us and our legal associates.
By using our Services, you represent that you are of legal age in your jurisdiction for accessing these services. If you are under the legal age, you either are an emancipated minor, or have obtained the legal consent of your parent or legal guardian to enter into these Terms, submit content, utilize our Services, and fulfill the obligations set forth in the Terms, which forms a binding contract between you and AJTU.
You may use the Services only in compliance with these Terms. You may use the Services only if you have the power to form a contract with Al Jazeera. The Services may continue to change over time as we refine and add more features. We may stop, suspend, or modify the Services at any time without prior notice to you. AJTU shall have the right at any time to change or discontinue any aspect or feature of the Services.
AJTU may change these Terms from time to time. While we may change them without advance notice by posting revised Terms, any revised terms will be consistent with AJTU’s stated mission and AJTU will place notice of changes on this page if we make any substantive changes to our policies. If the Terms have been changed, the "Last Updated" notation at the top of this page will reflect the date of those changes. Any access of our Services by you after such notice shall be deemed to constitute acceptance by you of such changes, modifications or additions.
If you have any queries or concerns relating to our Services or these Terms please forward your query to the following email address: transparency@aljazeera.net
Disclaimer
You understand and accept that to the fullest possible extent permitted in law, we accept no responsibility for any loss or damage or injury caused to you or your hardware or software whether we cause such loss or injury directly or indirectly. We also accept no responsibility for any claims of defamation or any other legal claims you may incur as a result of submitting content through our Services.
AJTU Property and Feedback
These terms do not grant you any right, title, or interest in the Services, Software, or the content in the Services. While we appreciate it when you send us feedback, please be aware that we may use any submissions, feedback, comments, or suggestions you send us or post in our forums or chat rooms without any obligation to you. These Terms do not grant you any rights to use the Al Jazeera trademarks, logos, domain names, or other brand features. All other trademarks, logos and service marks appearing on AJTU Services are the property of AJTU or their respective owners.
The Services provided by AJTU allow you to share your content with AJTU. There are many things that AJTU may do with submitted content (for example, copy it, modify it, re-share it, or make it public). You grant us that right. Please consider carefully what you choose to share with us. AJTU will take no responsibility for your decision to share content with us.
AJTU will make every attempt to ensure your identity is confidential while using the Services. However, while we do not maintain the security of how you choose to submit your content, we can not guarantee your content submissions are deemed confidential and private. Because of this, AJTU is not able to claim an obligation to the confidentiality of any information, in whatever form, contained in any submission. Please review the Your Security section for more information.
You are solely responsible for anything contained in submitted content. AJTU does not promise to verify, endorse or otherwise vouch for the contents of any content to our Services. You may be held legally liable for the contents of submitted content and may be held legally liable if the content is protected by copyright, trademark, patent or trade secret law or other proprietary right without permission of the author or owner, or defamatory comments.
By submitting content, you are granting AJTU a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide license to edit, telecast, rerun, reproduce, use, create derivative works from, syndicate, license, print, sub-license, distribute and otherwise exhibit the content you submit, or any portion thereof in any manner and in any medium or forum, whether now known or hereafter devised, without payment to you or any third party. Also, providing content through our Services does not guarantee its publication.
You represent and warrant to AJTU that you have the full legal right, power and authority to grant AJTU the license provided for herein, that you own or control the complete exhibition and other rights to the materials you submitted for the purposes contemplated in this license and that neither the materials nor the exercise of the rights granted herein shall infringe upon or violate the right of privacy or right of publicity of, or constitute a libel or slander against, or violate any common law or any other right of, any person or entity.
Content submissions from you to AJTU do not represent the views of AJTU, or any individual associated with AJTU. In no event shall you represent or suggest, directly or indirectly, AJTU's endorsement of your submissions. AJTU does not vouch for the accuracy or credibility of any content submitted by users on our AJTU however AJTU may confirm the truthfulness and accuracy of the content of your submission.
Through your use of AJTU Services, you may be exposed to content that you may find offensive, objectionable, harmful, inaccurate or deceptive. There may also be risks of dealing with underage persons, people acting under false pretense, international trade issues and foreign nationals. By using AJTU Services, you assume all associated risks.
Your Responsibilities
By uploading, posting or otherwise making available content on AJTU Services or to AJTU, you represent that you own or otherwise have the intellectual property rights to submit such materials. Intellectual property rights of others may protect files and other content you might choose to share with AJTU. You may have rights, however, under relevant legal exemptions to intellectual property rights in your nation. These exemptions could include the right to fair use for criticism, parody, or newsworthiness. You warrant that you have a good faith belief that you have the right to share your content with us. You shall be solely liable for any damage resulting from any infringement of copyrights, proprietary rights, or any other harm resulting from such a submission.
You, and not AJTU, are responsible for maintaining and protecting your content. AJTU will not be liable for any loss or corruption of your content, or for any costs or expenses associated with backing up or restoring any of your property. You agree that all information, photographs, video, documents and other content of any nature that you provide is submitted by your own free will.
All information that you supply to us under any circumstances shall be to the best of your knowledge and belief, true and accurate, and not misleading in any manner.
Your Security
Please take full responsibility for your own security and do not under any circumstances disclose personal information or content unless you are confident it will not be misused. Please also ensure that you do not leave your personal computer unattended while it is in operation unless it is safe to do so, and be aware that online services are often used by people as a means of exploiting others and obtaining personal information about you. In spite of our best efforts, by agreeing to these terms you acknowledge and understand it is impossible to guarantee complete security and anonymity over the Internet or our Services.
You are responsible for safeguarding the way you choose to access our Services. You fully assume any risks or actions that may be taken against you for accessing or contributing to our Services, and that we are under no obligation whatsoever to provide any defense or assistance in any criminal or civil action that may arise from any unlawful action you undertake.
We encourage you to remove any identifying information from any content you share with us. We encourage you to remove any information that you may have stored. We recommend reviewing EFF’s “Develop a Data Retention and Destruction Policy”. You are responsible for any activity using the Services, whether or not you authorized to use the Services. You acknowledge that if you wish to protect your transmission of data or files to AJTU, it is your responsibility to use a secure encrypted connection to communicate with the Services. We recommend reviewing EFF’s “Learn to Encrypt Your Internet Communications”
Your Privacy
For users of our Services, we temporarily log standard technical information, such as the numerical Internet protocol (IP) address of the computer you are using; the browser software you use and your operating system; and the Internet address of the outside website from which you followed a link to our Services, for up to 48 hours. The information is kept for 48 hours primarily to assist AJTU in diagnosing technical problems and defending against attacks on the site.
After 48 hours, AJTU makes anonymous, obfuscates, aggregates and/or deletes unneeded technical information. Circumstances in which AJTU may need to retain technical information longer than 48 hours include when we believe it is reasonably necessary for conducting site testing, diagnosis of technical problems, and defending against attacks on the site. In those instances we will delete the information as soon as it is apparent the information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was kept. For more information on the method's AJTU is taking on data logging and techniques we use to make anonymous, obfuscate, aggregate and delete information, see EFF’s “Best Practices for Online Service Providers”, a list of best practices AJTU has mostly employed already.
Disclosure of Your Information
While AJTU endeavors to provide the highest level of protection for your information, we may disclose personally identifiable information about you to third parties in limited circumstance, including: (1) with your consent; or (2) when we have a good faith belief it is required by law, such as pursuant to a subpoena or other judicial or administrative order.
If we are required by law to disclose the information that you have submitted, we will attempt to provide you with notice (unless we are prohibited) that a request for your information has been made in order to give you an opportunity to object to the disclosure. We will attempt to provide this notice by email, if you have given us an email address, or by postal mail if you have entered a postal address. If you do not challenge the disclosure request, we may be legally required to turn over your information.
In addition, we will independently object to requests for access to information about users of our site that we believe to be improper.
Third-Party Service Providers
Portions of our Services are may be operated or made available by third-party service providers ("Providers" or “Provider”). Providers could include a third-party search engine to help make Service content easier to find, Content Delivery Network providers to help make Services as fast as possible, or upstream Internet Service Providers to connect our Services to the Internet, among others. The Providers may log standard technical information, such as the numerical Internet protocol (IP) address of the computer you are using; the browser software you use and your operating system; the date and time you access our site; and the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site. Unfortunately, the information collected by the Providers is not under our control, may be collected by the Provider, and is subject to Providers own policies.
From time to time, AJTU may work with third-party consultants or other Providers who may have access to personally identifiable information. In such cases, we will restrict their use of personally identifiable information in accordance with their assigned tasks and subject to the limitations of this policy. AJTU may change Providers from time to time, and will transfer stored information to the new Providers subject to similar restrictions.
AJTU Services may link to a wide variety of third-party providers and their services. AJTU is not responsible for, and does not have any control over, the privacy practices, terms of service, or the content of such third parties. We encourage users to read the policies of any third-party or other website visited and reviewing EFF’s “Learn to Encrypt Your Internet Communications” to reduce the identifying information available to our Third-Party Service Providers.
AJTU Services are available “AS-IS”
Though we want to provide the best experience possible, there are certain things about our Services we can’t promise.
(We are not shouting- it’s just that these disclaimers are really important, so we want to highlight them)
THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OTHER THAN THOSE WARRANTIES WHICH ARE IMPLIED BY AND INCAPABLE OF EXCLUSION, RESTRICTION OR MODIFICATION UNDER THE LAWS APPLICABLE TO THESE TERMS. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF AJTU’S SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.
Limitation of Liability
THIS DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY APPLIES TO ANY DAMAGES OR INJURY CAUSED BY ANY FAILURE OF PERFORMANCE, ERROR, OMISSION, INTERRUPTION, DELETION, DEFECT, DELAY IN OPERATION OR TRANSMISSION, COMPUTER VIRUS, COMMUNICATION LINE FAILURE, THEFT OR DESTRUCTION OR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO, ALTERATION OF, OR USE OF RECORD, WHETHER FOR BREACH OF CONTRACT, TORTIOUS BEHAVIOR, NEGLIGENCE, OR UNDER ANY OTHER CAUSE OF ACTION. YOU SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT AJTU IS NOT LIABLE FOR THE DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF OTHER USERS OF AJTU SERVICES OR THIRD PARTIES AND THAT THE RISK OF INJURY FROM THE FOREGOING RESTS ENTIRELY WITH YOU.
IN NO EVENT WILL AJTU, ITS PARENT OR AFFILIATED COMPANIES, OR ANY PERSON OR ENTITY INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING OR DISTRIBUTING AJTU SERVICES, BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE AJTU SERVICES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR PERSONAL OR BODILY INJURY, ARISING FROM OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR CREATING CONTENT, BY VIDEOTAPING, PHOTOGRAPHY OR OTHERWISE, FOR SUBMISSION TO AJTU SERVICES, AND YOU HEREBY ASSUME ALL RISK FOR ANY DAMAGES, CLAIMS OR INJURIES. YOU HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE PROVISIONS OF SECTION 10 SHALL APPLY TO ALL CONTENT ON AJTU SERVICES
IN ADDITION TO THE TERMS OF SERVICE SET FORTH ABOVE, NEITHER AJTU, NOR ITS PARENT OR AFFILIATED COMPANIES, INFORMATION PROVIDERS OR CONTENT PARTNERS SHALL BE LIABLE REGARDLESS OF THE CAUSE OR DURATION, FOR ANY ERRORS, INACCURACIES, OMISSIONS, OR OTHER DEFECTS IN, OR UN-TIMELINESS OR IN-AUTHENTICITY OF, THE INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN AJTU SERVICES, OR FOR ANY DELAY OR INTERRUPTION IN THE TRANSMISSION THEREOF TO THE USER, OR FOR ANY CLAIMS OR LOSSES ARISING THEREFROM OR OCCASIONED THEREBY.
NONE OF THE FOREGOING PARTIES SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY THIRD-PARTY CLAIMS OR LOSSES OF ANY NATURE INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOST PROFITS, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. NEITHER AJTU SERVICES, NOR ITS PARENT OR AFFILIATED COMPANIES, INFORMATION PROVIDERS OR CONTENT PARTNERS WARRANT OR GUARANTEE THE TIMELINESS, SEQUENCE, ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THIS INFORMATION. ADDITIONALLY, THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES AS TO THE RESULTS OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE INFORMATION.
Some states and countries do not allow the types of limitations in above section, so they may not apply to you.
Termination
Though we’d much rather you stay, you can stop using our Services any time. We reserve the right to suspend or end the Services at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice. For example, we may suspend or terminate your use if you are not complying with these Terms, or use the Services in any way that would cause us legal liability or disrupt others’ use of the Services. If we suspend or terminate your use, we will try to let you know in advance and help you retrieve data, though there may be some cases (for example, repeatedly or flagrantly violating these Terms, a court order, or danger to other users) where we may suspend immediately.
Indemnification
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless AJTU, its affiliates and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against all claims and expenses, including attorneys' fees, arising out of the use of AJTU’s Services. AJTU reserves the right to take over the exclusive defense of any claim for which we are entitled to indemnification under this Section. In such event, you shall provide AJTU with such cooperation as is reasonably requested by AJTU.
Miscellaneous Legal Terms
These Terms constitute the entire and exclusive agreement between you and AJTU with respect to the Services, and supersede and replace any other agreements, terms and conditions applicable to the Services. These Terms create no third party beneficiary rights. AJTU’s failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of its right to do so later. If a provision is found unenforceable the remaining provisions of the Agreement will remain in full effect and an enforceable term will be substituted reflecting our intent as closely as possible. You may not assign any of your rights in these Terms, and any such attempt is void, but AJTU may assign its rights to any of its affiliates or subsidiaries, or to any successor in interest of any business associated with the Services. AJTU and you are not legal partners or agents; instead, our relationship is that of independent contractors.