Terms of Service Last Updated: 29th November, 2022

Here are the important things you need to know about accessing and using the tooting.ch (https://tooting.ch/) website and service (collectively, "Service"). These are our terms of service ("Terms"). Please read them carefully.

Accepting these Terms

If you access or use the Service, it means you agree to be bound by all of the terms below. So, before you use the Service, please read all of the terms. If you don't agree to all of the terms below, please do not use the Service. Also, if a term does not make sense to you, please let us know by e-mailing admin@tooting.ch.

Changes to these Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. For instance, we may need to change these Terms if we come out with a new feature or for some other reason.

Whenever we make changes to these Terms, the changes are effective six (6) weeks after we post such revised Terms to our website (indicated by revising the date at the top of these Terms), or upon your acceptance if we provide a mechanism for your immediate acceptance of the revised Terms (such as a click-through confirmation or acceptance button). It is your responsibility to check the website regularly for changes to these Terms.

If you continue to use the Service after the revised Terms go into effect, then you have accepted the revised Terms.

Third-Party Services

From time to time, we may provide you with links to third party websites or services that we do not own or control. Your use of the Service may also include the use of applications that are developed or owned by a third party. Your use of such third party applications, websites, and services is governed by that party’s own terms of service or privacy policies. We encourage you to read the terms and conditions and privacy policy of any third party application, website or service that you visit or use. Note that while tooting.ch itself does not work directly with advertisers, third party applications may contain advertising or marketing materials provided by such third parties.

Creating Accounts

When you create an account, you may use any name (real, fake or otherwise) for other users to see. However, if you create a "parody" account of a real living person, you must clearly label your account as such. Accounts that are not clearly marked as such and that impersonate other people without permission can be deleted without warning and could face prosecution since it’s a crime under Swiss law.

When you create an account you also agree to maintain the security of your password and accept all risks of unauthorized access to your account data and any other information you provide to tooting.ch.

If you discover or suspect any Service security breaches, please let us know as soon as possible. For security holes in the Mastodon software itself, please contact the developers directly.

Your Content & Conduct

Our Service allows you and other users to post, link and otherwise make available content. You are responsible for the content that you make available to the Service, including its legality, reliability, and appropriateness.

When you post, link or otherwise make available content to the Service, you grant us the right and license to display and distribute your content on or through the Service (including via applications). We may format your content for display throughout the Service, but we will not edit or revise the substance of your content itself. The displaying and distribution of your content happens strictly only according to the visibility rules you have set for the content. We will not modify the visibility of the content you have set.

We cannot be held responsible should a programming or administrative error make your content visible to a larger audience than you had intended.

Aside from our limited right to your content, you retain all of your rights to the content you post, link and otherwise make available on or through the Service.

You can remove the content that you posted by deleting it. Once you delete your content, it will not appear on the Service, but copies of your deleted content may remain in our system or backups for some period of time. Web server access logs might also be stored for some time in the system.

Since Mastodon is a distributed social network, it is possible, depending on the visibility rules set to your content, that your content has been distributed to other Mastodon instances. When you delete your content, we will request those other instances to also delete the content. Our responsibility on the content being deleted from those other instances ends here. If for some reason, some other instance does not delete the content, we cannot be held responsible.

In order to make tooting.ch a great place for all of us, please do not post, link and otherwise make available on or through the Service any of the following:

• Content that is libelous, defamatory, bigoted, fraudulent or deceptive;
• Content that is illegal or unlawful, that would otherwise create liability;
• Content that may infringe or violate any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, right of privacy, right of publicity or other intellectual or other right of any party;
• Mass or repeated promotions, political campaigning or commercial messages directed at users who do not follow you (SPAM);
• Private information of any third party (e.g., addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, Social Security numbers and credit card numbers); and
• Viruses, corrupted data or other harmful, disruptive or destructive files or code.

Also, you agree that you will not do any of the following in connection with the Service or other users:

• Use the Service in any manner that could interfere with, disrupt, negatively affect or inhibit other users from fully enjoying the Service or that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the functioning of the Service;
• Impersonate or post on behalf of any person or entity or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
• Collect any personal information about other users, or intimidate, threaten, stalk or otherwise harass other users of the Service;
• Create an account or post any content if you are not over 16 years of age;
• Circumvent or attempt to circumvent any filtering, security measures, rate limits or other features designed to protect the Service, users of the Service, or third parties.

No human rights protection for hate speech

(Defamation, slander and insult (including aggravating criteria such as racism or homophobia))

Incitement to hatred directly and indirectly places victims in a state of fear and anguish, thus creating a breeding ground for physical and violent aggression. Such calls are not protected on the Internet either, because the network is not a lawless area. Bloggers, social media users or persons expressing themselves in comment forums are certainly protected by freedom of expression (art. 10 ECHR). However, this right may be restricted in all matters relating to the prevention of crime, the protection of health and morals or the protection of the rights of others.

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Swiss Federal Constitution stipulate that fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression (art. 16 and 17 of the Constitution), may be restricted under certain conditions (art. 36 of the Constitution). With regard to comments on the Internet, there are criminal barriers in Swiss legislation in particular. Thus, defamation, slander and insult (art. 173 ff. of the Swiss Criminal Code), public provocation to crime or violence (art. 259 of the Criminal Code) and discrimination towards ethnicity or sexual orientation and racial discrimination (art. 261bis of the Criminal Code) are prohibited. In addition, the Civil Code provides protection against aggressive messages, in particular in the event of a violation of personality (art. 28 of the Criminal Code).

Hate speech on the Internet is punishable in Switzerland. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that attacks on honor such as defamation, slander or insult are punishable under Swiss law, that targeting someone on the basis of their sexual orientation or ethnicity are aggravating circumstance, and can lead to severe and costly sentences

Bloggers are, as a rule, responsible as authors for their texts or comments published on the Internet. However, many bloggers use a pseudonym and therefore surf the Internet anonymously. If it is not possible to determine the identity of a blogger, the editor responsible for the media is punishable under art. 28 of the Criminal Code. If there is no editor, the person responsible for the publication is punishable. Similarly, where there is a failure to prevent a punishable publication, art. 322 of the Criminal Code applies. Discriminatory statements (art. 261bis para. 4 of the Criminal Code) are considered serious violations of freedom of expression, so that not only bloggers are held responsible but also all those who participated in the publication.

Source code and materials

This Service runs on a Mastodon social network server. This source code is licensed under an AGPLv3 license which means you are allowed to and even encouraged to take the source code, modify it and use it.

For full details about the Mastodon server see here.

Hyperlinks and Third Party Content

tooting.ch makes no claim or representation regarding, and accepts no responsibility for third party websites accessible by hyperlink from the Service or websites linking to the Service. When you leave the Service, you should be aware that these Terms and our policies no longer govern.

A lot of the content on the Service is from you and others, and we don't review, verify or authenticate it, and it may include inaccuracies or false information. We make no representations, warranties, or guarantees relating to the quality, suitability, truth, accuracy or completeness of any content contained in the Service. You acknowledge sole responsibility for and assume all risk arising from your use of or reliance on any content.

Unavoidable Legal Stuff

The Service and any other service and content included on or otherwise made available to you through the Service are provided to you on an as is or as available basis without any representations or warranties of any kind. We disclaim any and all warranties and representations (express or implied, oral or written) with respect to the Service and content included on or otherwise made available to you through the Service whether alleged to arise by operation of law, by reason of custom or usage in the trade, by course of dealing or otherwise.

In no event will tooting.ch be liable to you or any third party for any special, indirect, incidental, exemplary or consequential damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the Service or any other service and/or content included on or otherwise made available to you through the Service, regardless of the form of action, whether in contract, tort, strict liability or otherwise, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages or are aware of the possibility of such damages. This section will be given full effect even if any remedy specified in this agreement is deemed to have failed of its essential purpose.

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold us harmless from and against any and all costs, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including attorneys' fees, costs, penalties, interest and disbursements) we incur in relation to, arising from, or for the purpose of avoiding, any claim or demand from a third party relating to your use of the Service or the use of the Service by any person using your account, including any claim that your use of the Service violates any applicable law or regulation, or the rights of any third party, and/or your violation of these Terms.

Governing Law

The validity of these Terms and the rights, obligations, and relations of the parties under these Terms will be construed and determined under and in accordance with the laws of Switzerland.

Jurisdiction & Waiver of Representative Actions

You expressly agree that exclusive jurisdiction for any dispute with tooting.ch, or in any way relating to your use of the tooting.ch website or Service, resides in the courts of Switzerland and you further agree and expressly consent to the exercise of personal jurisdiction in the courts of Switzerland in connection with any such dispute including any claim involving tooting.ch. You further agree that you and tooting.ch will not commence against the other a class action, class arbitration or other representative action or proceeding.

Termination

If you breach any of these Terms, we have the right to suspend or disable your access to or use of the Service.

Entire Agreement

These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and tooting.ch regarding the use of the Service, superseding any prior agreements between you and tooting.ch relating to your use of the Service.

Feedback

We love feedback. Please let us know what you think of the Service, these Terms and, in general, tooting.ch. When you provide us with any feedback, comments or suggestions about the Service, these Terms and, in general, tooting.ch, you irrevocably assign to us all of your right, title and interest in and to your feedback, comments and suggestions.

Questions & Contact Information

Questions or comments about the Service may be directed to us at the email address admin@tooting.ch.

Privacy Policy Last Updated: December 7, 2019

Our privacy policy applies to information we collect when you use or access our website located at https://tooting.ch/ and social networking services, or just interact with us. We may change this privacy policy from time to time. Whenever we make changes to this privacy policy, the changes are effective six (6) weeks after we post the revised privacy policy to our website (as indicated by revising the date at the top of our privacy policy). We encourage you to review our privacy policy whenever you access our services to stay informed about our information practices and the ways you can help protect your privacy.

Collection of Information

Information You Provide to Us

We collect information you provide directly to us. For example, we collect information when you create an account, subscribe, participate in any interactive features of our services, fill out a form, request customer support or otherwise communicate with us. The types of information we may collect include your name (real of fake), email address and other contact or identifying information you choose to provide.

Information We Collect Automatically When You Use the Services

When you access or use our services, we automatically collect information about you, including:

Log Information
We may log information about your use of our services, including the type of browser you use, access times, pages viewed, your IP address and the page you visited before navigating to our services.
Our services use ipscrub to anonymize IP addresses in log files for non-malicious requests.

Device Information
We may collect information about the computer you use to access our services, including the hardware model, and operating system and version.

Use of Information

We do not use your information for serving up ads.

We may use information about you for various purposes, including to:

• Provide, maintain and improve our services;
• Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts and support and administrative messages;
• Respond to your comments, questions and requests;
• Communicate with you about tooting.ch-related news and information;
• Monitor and analyze trends, usage and activities in connection with our services; and
• Personalize and improve our services.

Sharing of Information

Remember, we don't share your information with advertisers.

We may share personal information about you as follows:

• If we believe disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request;
• To enforce applicable user agreements or policies, including our terms of service; and to protect tooting.ch, our users or the public from harm or illegal activities;
• In connection with any merger, sale of tooting.ch assets, financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company or individual; and
• If we notify you through our services (or in our privacy policy) that the information you provide will be shared in a particular manner and you provide such information.

We may also share aggregated or anonymized information that does not directly identify you.

Third Party Analytics

We may allow third parties to provide analytics services. These third parties may use cookies, web beacons and other technologies to collect information about your use of the services and other websites, including your IP address, web browser, pages viewed, time spent on pages, links clicked and conversion information. This information may be used by the Service and third parties to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content and other websites and better understand your online activity. Our privacy policy does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, third party cookies, web beacons or other tracking technologies and we encourage you to check the privacy policies of these third parties to learn more about their privacy practices.

Security

tooting.ch takes reasonable measures to help protect personal information from loss, theft, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.

Your Information Choices

Account Information

You may update, correct or delete information about you at any time by logging into your online account and modifying your personal profile. You may also delete your account at will via the settings page, but note that we may retain certain information as required by law or for legitimate business purposes. We may also retain cached or archived copies of your information for a certain period of time, for example in backup archives.

Cookies

Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies. Please note that if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect the availability and functionality of our services.