Terms of Service

Last Updated: August 27, 2020

Please read this Terms of Service (the “Policy”) carefully because they govern the use of the websites located at forum.minervaproject.com and hub.globalcitizenyear.org (the “Sites”) and educational services accessible via the Sites and corresponding desktop and mobile applications, HiveBrite (“Hub”), Minerva Forum (“App”) offered by Global Citizen Year (“Client”) through Minerva Project. To make these Terms easier to read, the Site, the Hub, our services and App are collectively called the “Services.”

Important notice regarding arbitration: When you agree to these terms you are agreeing (with limited exception) to resolve any dispute between you and client through binding, individual arbitration rather than in court. Please review carefully the Academy Terms and Conditions for details regarding arbitration.

1. Agreement to Terms. By using our Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you don’t agree to be bound by these Terms, do not use the Services. Additional terms and conditions regarding the Services can be found in the Academy Terms and Conditions you have previously signed. Unless otherwise expressly set forth in any such additional terms and conditions applicable to the specific Services, those additional terms are hereby incorporated into this Agreement in relation to your use of the Services.

2. Privacy Policy. Please review our Privacy Policy, which also governs your use of the Services, for information on how we collect, use and share your information. The policy is located here: https://www.globalcitizenyear.org/privacy-policy/

3. Changes to these Terms or the Services. We may update the Terms from time to time at our sole discretion. If we do, we’ll let you know by posting the updated Terms on the Site, to the App and/or may also send other communications. It’s important that you review the Terms whenever we update them or you use the Services. If you continue to use the Services after we have posted updated Terms it means that you accept and agree to the changes. If you don’t agree to be bound by the changes, you may not use the Services anymore. The only exception is for changes to the “Dispute Resolution” section which is located in the Academy Terms and Conditions. Because our Services are evolving over time we may change or discontinue all or any part of the Services, at any time and without notice, at our sole discretion.

4. Who May Use the Services?

You may use the Services only if you are at least 13 years of age (or such other minimum age at which you can provide consent to data processing under the laws of your territory), and not otherwise barred from using the Services under applicable law.

5. Feedback. We appreciate feedback, comments, ideas, proposals and suggestions for improvements to the Services (“Feedback”). If you choose to submit Feedback, you agree that we are free to use it without any restriction or compensation to you.

6. Your Content.

1. Posting Content. Our Services may allow you to store or share content such as text (in posts or communications with others), files, documents, graphics, images, music, software, audio and video. Anything (other than Feedback) that you post or otherwise make available through the Services is referred to as “User Content”. Client does not claim any ownership rights in any User Content and nothing in these Terms will be deemed to restrict any rights that you may have to your User Content.
2. Permissions to Your User Content. By making any User Content available through the Services you hereby grant to Client a non-exclusive, transferable, worldwide, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, modify, create derivative works based upon, distribute, publicly display, and publicly perform your User Content in connection with operating and providing the Services.
3. Your Responsibility for User Content. You are solely responsible for all your User Content. You represent and warrant that you have (and will have) all rights that are necessary to grant us the license rights in your User Content under these Terms. You represent and warrant that neither your User Content, nor your use and provision of your User Content to be made available through the Services, nor any use of your User Content by Client on or through the Services will infringe, misappropriate or violate a third party’s intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy, or result in the violation of any applicable law or regulation.
4. Removal of User Content. You can remove your User Content by specifically deleting it. You should know that in certain instances, some of your User Content (such as posts or comments you make) may not be completely removed and copies of your User Content may continue to exist on the Services. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not responsible or liable for the removal or deletion of (or the failure to remove or delete) any of your User Content.
5. Client’s Intellectual Property. We may make available through the Services content that is subject to intellectual property rights. We retain all rights to that content.
6. Email Address - Your email address is visible on your User Profile by default in the Hub. You can restrict visibility of your email address to only administrators by updating your Privacy settings in the Hub.

7. General Prohibitions and Client’s Enforcement Rights. You agree not to do any of the following:

1. Post, upload, publish, submit or transmit any User Content that: (i) infringes, misappropriates or violates a third party’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy; (ii) violates, or encourages any conduct that would violate, any applicable law or regulation or would give rise to civil liability; (iii) is fraudulent, false, misleading or deceptive; (iv) is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, vulgar or offensive; (v) promotes discrimination, bigotry, racism, hatred, harassment or harm against any individual or group; (vi) is violent or threatening or promotes violence or actions that are threatening to any person or entity; or (vii) promotes illegal or harmful activities or substances;
2. Use, display, mirror or frame the Services or any individual element within the Services, Client’s name, any Client trademark, logo or other proprietary information, or the layout and design of any page or form contained on a page, without Client’s express written consent;
3. Access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of the Services, Client’s computer systems, or the technical delivery systems of Client’s providers;
4. Attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of any Client system or network or breach any security or authentication measures;
5. Avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, impair, descramble or otherwise circumvent any technological measure implemented by Client or any of Client’s providers or any other third party (including another user) to protect the Services;
6. Attempt to access or search the Services or download content from the Services using any engine, software, tool, agent, device or mechanism (including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools or the like) other than the software and/or search agents provided by Client or other generally available third-party web browsers;
7. Send any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, email, junk mail, spam, chain letters or other form of solicitation;
8. Use any meta tags or other hidden text or metadata utilizing a Client trademark, logo URL or product name without Client’s express written consent;
9. Use the Services, or any portion thereof, for any commercial purpose or for the benefit of any third party or in any manner not permitted by these Terms;
10. Forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or newsgroup posting, or in any way use the Services to send altered, deceptive or false source-identifying information;
11. Attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any of the software used to provide the Services;
12. Interfere with, or attempt to interfere with, the access of any user, host or network, including, without limitation, sending a virus, overloading, flooding, spamming, or mail-bombing the Services;
13. Collect or store any personally identifiable information from the Services from other users of the Services without their express permission;
14. Impersonate or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
15. Violate any applicable law or regulation; or
16. Encourage or enable any other individual to do any of the foregoing.

Client is not obligated to monitor access to or use of the Services or to review or edit any content. However, we have the right to do so for the purpose of operating the Services, to ensure compliance with these Terms and to comply with applicable law or other legal requirements. We reserve the right, but are not obligated, to remove or disable access to any content, including User Content, at any time and without notice, including, but not limited to, if we, at our sole discretion, consider it objectionable or in violation of these Terms. We have the right to investigate violations of these Terms or conduct that affects the Services. We may also consult and cooperate with law enforcement authorities to prosecute users who violate the law.

8. DMCA/Copyright Policy. Client respects copyright law and expects its users to do the same. It is Client’s policy to terminate in appropriate circumstances account holders who repeatedly infringe or are believed to be repeatedly infringing the rights of copyright holders.

9. Links to Third Party Websites or Resources. The Services (including the App and Hub) may allow you to access third-party websites or other resources. We provide access only as a convenience and are not responsible for the content, products or services on or available from those resources or links displayed on such websites. You acknowledge sole responsibility for and assume all risk arising from, your use of any third-party resources.

10. Termination. We may suspend or terminate your access to and use of the Services, including suspending access to or terminating your account, at our sole discretion, at any time and without notice to you. You may cancel your account at any time by sending us an email at [email protected] Upon any termination, discontinuation or cancellation of the Services or your account, the Policy still applies.

11. Warranty Disclaimers. THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, WE EXPLICITLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, QUIET ENJOYMENT AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING OUT OF COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. We make no warranty that the Services will meet your requirements or be available on an uninterrupted, secure, or error-free basis. We make no warranty regarding the quality, accuracy, timeliness, truthfulness, completeness or reliability of any information or content on the Services.

16. General Terms.

1. Reservation of Rights. Client and its licensors exclusively own all right, title and interest in and to the Services, including all associated intellectual property rights. You acknowledge that the Services are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws of the United States and foreign countries. You agree not to remove, alter or obscure any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary rights notices incorporated in or accompanying the Services.
2. Entire Agreement. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable by an arbitrator or a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the other provisions of these Terms will remain in full force and effect. You may not assign or transfer these Terms, by operation of law or otherwise, without Client’s prior written consent. Any attempt by you to assign or transfer these Terms, without such consent, will be null. Client may freely assign or transfer these Terms without restriction. Subject to the foregoing, these Terms will bind and inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.
3. Notices. Any notices or other communications provided by Client under these Terms will be given: (i) via email; or (ii) by posting to the Services. For notices made by email, the date of receipt will be deemed the date on which such notice is transmitted.
4. Waiver of Rights. Client’s failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of such right or provision. The waiver of any such right or provision will be effective only if in writing and signed by a duly authorized representative of Client. Except as expressly set forth in these Terms, the exercise by either party of any of its remedies under these Terms will be without prejudice to its other remedies under these Terms or otherwise.

17. Contact Information. If you have any questions about these Terms or the Services, please contact Client at [email protected]

(415) 963-9293

1625 Clay Street, Suite 400

Oakland, CA 94612

Code of Conduct

We are dedicated to providing a welcoming space where all participants feel respected and encouraged to share their viewpoints. We are also dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, race, ethnicity, native language, disability, national origin, socioeconomic status, physical appearance,  or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. 

This Code of Conduct applies to all participants in Global Citizen Academy, a program of Global Citizen Year. This Code of Conduct governs our community engagement platform known as the Global Citizen Academy Hub (“Hub”).

Honor Code

The Honor Code rests on four pillars: honesty, integrity, mutual respect, and personal responsibility. Academy participants are expected to conduct themselves with the highest levels of these qualities in all components of the program--the classroom; the Hub; and in interactions with other students, instructors, staff, speakers, mentors, Impact Partners, and others outside our community as well. Each participant serves as an ambassador to the community for the Academy. When one participant exhibits inappropriate behavior inside or outside the Academy, it reflects badly on every participant and the Academy as a whole (the public tends not to differentiate between individuals in these situations, and attributes bad behavior to the entire Academy community).

Academy participants are citizens of a community whose members are expected to challenge themselves and one another to achieve greatness with honesty, integrity, mutual respect, and personal responsibility. Each individual who joins the Academy community accepts this commitment in an effort to sustain and enhance personal, professional and institutional reputations.

Principles inherent in this Honor Code include:

• Participants shall treat all members of the community with respect and without malicious intent to ensure that all participants share equal opportunities.
• Participants shall conduct themselves in a manner that upholds the principles for honesty and integrity in order to promote an environment of trust.

Community Expectations

We want to do everything we can to ensure we are creating safe online platforms for all of our community members. It is important for everyone to know our harassment policy and to adhere to our Code of Conduct. 

This Code of Conduct applies to all Hub community spaces, including groups, private messages, and events, both online and off. Anyone who violates this code of conduct may be sanctioned or expelled from these spaces at the discretion of the Hub administrators. Some community spaces may have additional expectations in place, which will be made clearly available to participants. Participants are responsible for knowing and abiding by these community standards.  

Hub administrators have access to all comments, posts, and discussions in the Hub for the purpose of upholding the Code of Conduct. Comments and discussions posted in groups are not actively moderated. 

If you are being harassed by a member of the community, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact the Hub team at academy@globalcitizenyear.org OR report the content by clicking on the arrow next to the post and reporting it to the moderator. If the person you report is harassing you is on the team, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident. We will respond as promptly as we can.

We will take all good-faith reports of harassment by community members seriously. This includes harassment outside our spaces and harassment that took place at any point in time. We reserve the right to exclude people from the Hub if we determine that their conduct on the Hub and/or outside the Hub isn’t consistent with our Code of Conduct.

We will investigate any alleged violations and take action as appropriate. Even in the absence of a formal complaint, Global Citizen Year may initiate an investigation where it has reason to believe that conduct that violates this policy has occurred. To the extent possible, Global Citizen Year will endeavor to keep the reporting of concerns confidential; however, complete confidentiality cannot be guaranteed when it interferes with Global Citizen Year’s ability to fulfill its obligations under this policy. All Hub participants are required to cooperate fully with any investigation. This includes, but is not limited to, maintaining an appropriate level of discretion regarding the investigation and disclosing any and all information that may be pertinent to the investigation. Upon completion of the investigation, if misconduct is substantiated, Global Citizen Year will take appropriate corrective and preventive action calculated to end the conduct up to and including formal discipline where warranted. Further details are outlined in the Terms of Service you agreed to when you joined.