Terms of Use

These terms are the ground rules for using the UpSide Platform (the "Platform"). If anything is unclear, ask us at info@up-side.org.

1. Who we are

The Platform is run by Stichting UpSide ("UpSide", "we", "us"), a Dutch not-for-profit foundation.

Stichting UpSide
Chamber of Commerce (KvK) number: 42123131
RSIN: 869832499

2. What the Platform is

The Platform helps people at civil-society organisations follow European decision-making on the files they work on. It covers what gets tabled, how votes go, who meets whom, and what is submitted to public consultations. It also gives an organisation and its coalition a shared place to keep their working notes on all of this. Material from public sources is linked back to where it came from.

The Platform is a pilot. That means:

• It's provided "as is". We work to keep it accurate, secure and available, but we can't promise it is complete, error-free or always online. The Platform, in its current form, comes with no service levels. It's shared infrastructure we build and run for you to use in your own work, not a consultancy or a service we deliver to you.
• It will change. We may add, change or remove features or sources, or end the pilot.

3. Who may use it, and your account

The Platform is for people who work at, or with, an organisation taking part in the pilot, and who use it for that work. You join either by invitation or by signing up with an email address that is on our approved domain list (through agreement with your organisation).

• One person, one account. Don't share your account or let anyone else sign in as you.
• Keep your sign-in to yourself. That means your password, your authenticator app and your recovery codes.
• Tell us straight away at privacy@up-side.org if you think someone else has got into your account, or if you lose a device with your authenticator on it. We'll close it straight away, and can reopen it for you within 30 days.
• Only use the access you've been given. What you can see and do (for example, whether you can post or only read) is agreed between us and your organisation.
• If you leave your organisation, or your work no longer involves the Platform, your access to the platform will be revoked.
• You're responsible for what's done through your account, unless it happened because of a failure on our side.

4. Using the Platform: the rules

The Platform is for gaining insight into public decision-making and the people and organisations who take part in it publicly, in their public and professional roles. It is explicitly not for looking into private people, or into anyone's private life.

In particular, you must not:

• Profile, track or target private individuals, or look into anyone's private life. That includes the private lives of public figures.
• Harass, intimidate, threaten or expose anyone. Don't spread anyone's private information, or organise action against someone as a person rather than engaging with their public role.
• Try to identify people who responded to a public consultation where their name isn't shown. We remove those names on purpose. Don't try to put them back, whether by combining data, searching elsewhere or any other way.
• Scrape or bulk-extract. Don't systematically copy or download the Platform's content, or reach it with bots, scripts or crawlers. The only exception is export features we provide, used for your organisation's work.
• Probe or get around our security. Don't scan or test the Platform for weaknesses. Don't try to get around sign-in, access controls or the separation between organisations, and don't interfere with how the Platform runs.
• Break the law, including data-protection, defamation, copyright or confidentiality law, or upload malicious code.
• Resell access, or use the Platform's content to build profiles or data products for anyone else.

If you found a security problem when using the Platform, please tell us at privacy@up-side.org and give us reasonable time to fix it. Only do what you need, to show us the problem: don't access, keep or change other people's data. As our Privacy Statement says, we won't take (legal) action against anyone who reports a vulnerability to us in good faith in this way.

5. What you add

If your role lets you add material (such as updates, contributions or notes):

• You're responsible for it. Make sure it's accurate, that you're allowed to share it, and that it doesn't break anyone's confidence or rights.
• Take care with people you mention. Describe people only in their professional role: what they said or did in public, or in a professional setting. Leave out private-life details, health, family, home addresses, personal contact details, and opinions about someone's character. Mention private individuals only when the work needs it, and then as little as you can.
• Check who will see it. Some items are visible only to your organisation, and some to the whole coalition. In anything the whole coalition can see, refer to people only by their public role and conduct.
• Tell us if you see something that shouldn't be there.
• You keep your rights. You, or your organisation, keep your rights in what you add. You let UpSide store it, process it and show it to the people you chose to share it with, to run the Platform, including after you leave (see section 8).

Other organisations' material. Some of what you see comes from other organisations in your coalition. Treat it as confidential. Use it for the coalition's work, and don't share it outside the coalition without that organisation's agreement. In particular, never pass it, or any hint of a coalition's plans, to the people or institutions it concerns. Don't publicly name other people as Platform users without their agreement. UpSide staff with administrator or technical access can technically reach all content. We only do so to run, support or secure the Platform, or where the law requires it, and we do not otherwise read your notes.

6. Machine-generated material

Some of what you see is produced or proposed by software, including AI language models: for example tags, summaries and suggested links between meetings and files. We label it where it appears.

• It can be wrong. Treat it as a starting point, not a finding. Before you rely on it, quote it, publish it or act on it, check it against the source it links to. Source records can be wrong or out of date too.
• A machine-proposed assessment is not a fact. Don't present an AI reading of what someone thinks, or where they stand, as established fact or as UpSide's view, whether inside or outside your organisation.
• If you publish text the Platform generated, either take editorial responsibility for it yourself (review it and stand behind it) or say clearly that it was AI-generated.
• Tell us if something looks wrong. The Platform doesn't make decisions about anyone. People do.

7. Intellectual property

The Platform's software and design, and the material UpSide writes itself, belong to UpSide or our licensors. While you have an account, you may use the Platform for your (organisation's) work under these terms. Don't copy, modify, decompile or reverse-engineer it, or use it to build a competing service, except where the law expressly allows.

Material from outside sources (parliamentary records, Commission documents, register entries, news articles) stays under its own licence or terms of reuse. When you reuse it, follow those terms, including any attribution they require. The Platform links to each original to help.

If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them freely, with no obligation to you.

8. Suspension and closure

You can leave at any time. To have your account closed and deleted, email info@up-side.org. Further your account will be closed if your organisation stops taking part in the pilot, or the pilot ends. We may close an account to protect the Platform, its users or the people it records. For example: a breach of these terms, a security incident or a compromised account, your organisation leaving the pilot, or the pilot ending. Where we reasonably can, we'll tell you first and say why. If it's urgent, we may act first and explain afterwards.

Inactive accounts. If nobody signs in to an account for 12 months, we close it automatically.

What happens after closure:

• Closed at your request: we delete the account without delay, normally within a day.
• Closed by us or for inactivity: we keep it for 30 days, so it can be reopened if it was closed by mistake. Then we delete it.
• Deletion removes your account record: email address, display name, scrambled password, authenticator secret and recovery codes.
• What you wrote stays for your organisation and coalition. Wherever your address was recorded as its author, it's replaced with a neutral label ("deleted-user" and a number). The text itself isn't edited, so if you mentioned yourself by name in it, ask us and we'll look at it.
• Records of actions taken on the Platform (the audit log) are kept for 12 months and then deleted.
• Backups can still hold deleted data for up to 30 more days. If we ever restore a backup, we apply the deletions again.

9. Our responsibility

As far as Dutch law allows, UpSide is not liable for any loss or damage from using the Platform, or from not being able to use it. That includes errors in source or machine-generated material, and decisions you or your organisation make based on anything you find here. You decide how to use what you find, and you're responsible for that use. If UpSide can't rely on this section for any reason, UpSide's total liability to you under or in connection with these terms is limited to EUR 500 in total.

The limits in this section don't apply to loss caused by intent or wilful recklessness (opzet of bewuste roekeloosheid) of UpSide or its management, or to any other liability that the law doesn't allow to be excluded or limited.

You indemnify UpSide against claims by third parties, to the extent a claim results from material you added to the Platform or from your use of the Platform in breach of section 4 or 5, and the breach was caused by your intent or gross negligence. This doesn't apply to the extent a claim results from UpSide's own acts or omissions, including machine-generated material you haven't changed. We'll tell you promptly about any such claim, keep you informed, and won't settle it without consulting you first.

10. Your privacy

Our Privacy Statement, at up-side.org/privacy.html, explains what personal data we hold about you, why, for how long, and your rights. Agreeing to these terms is not consent to that processing, and we don't rely on consent for it. For data-protection questions or requests, write to privacy@up-side.org.

11. Changes to these terms

Every version of these terms has a number and a date. If we change them, we'll ask you to accept the new version the next time you sign in. For a significant change, we'll also tell you by email or on the Platform at least 7 days before it takes effect. If you don't accept a new version, you can't keep using the Platform, and you can ask us to close your account. Earlier versions are available on request.

12. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by Dutch law. If something goes wrong, please talk to us first. Any dispute is for the competent court in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

13. The rest

UpSide may transfer its rights and obligations under these terms to a legal successor, or to another entity that takes over running the Platform, such as a cooperative in which civil-society organisations have a stake. By accepting these terms, you agree to such a transfer in advance. We'll tell you by email before the transfer takes effect. If you don't want to continue with the new entity, you can close your account. If any part of these terms turns out to be invalid, the rest still applies.

Contact: Stichting UpSide · info@up-side.org