Spread stories, not the virus was founded in March 2020 as a platform for citizens to share their experiences and reflections in their locked-down cities. Our initiative is non-profit and is self-funded. Everyone involved in this project does so on a non-remunerated voluntary basis.

Terms of Use

The Privacy Policy (scroll down) is incorporated as an integral part of the Terms of Service.

1. GENERAL RULES AND DEFINITIONS

1.1 If you choose to use Spreadstoriesnotthevirus.com (the “Site”), any of the site’s features, you will be agreeing to abide by all of the terms and conditions of these Terms of Service between you and Spread Stories, Not The Virus (“us” or “we”).

1.2 We may change, add or remove portions of these Terms of Service at any time, which shall become effective immediately upon posting. It is your responsibility to review these Terms of Service prior to each use of the Site and by continuing to use this Site, you agree to any changes.

1.3 If any of these rules or future changes are unacceptable to you, you may cancel your subscription by logging into your account and canceling your subscription.

1.4 We may change, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the Services at any time, including the availability of any Services feature, database, or content. We may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict your access to parts or all of the Services without notice or liability.

2. CONTENT ON THE SERVICES

2.1 The contents of the Services, including the Site, are intended for your personal, noncommercial use. All materials published on the Services (including, but not limited to news articles, photographs, images, illustrations, audio clips and video clips, also known as the “Content”) are protected by copyright, and owned or controlled by Spread Stories Not The Virus or the party credited as the provider of the Content. You shall abide by all additional copyright notices, information, or restrictions contained in any Content accessed through the Service.

2.2 The Services and Contents are protected by copyright pursuant to EU and international copyright laws. You may not duplicate, copy, modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, sell, resell, reproduce (except as provided in Section 2.3 of these Terms of Service), create new works from, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit, any of the Content or the Services (including software) in whole or in part.

2.3 You may download or copy the Content and other downloadable items displayed on the Services for personal use only, provided that you maintain all copyright and other notices contained therein. Copying or storing of any Content for other than personal use is expressly prohibited without prior written permission from Spread Stories Not The Virus, or the copyright holder identified in the copyright notice contained in the Content.

3. USER GENERATED CONTENT: SUBMISSIONS INCLUDING COMMENTS, READER REVIEWS AND MORE

3.1 You shall not upload to, or distribute or otherwise publish on to the Services any libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, or otherwise illegal material.

Spread Stories Not The Virus reserves the right to refuse contributors access to the site if they threaten or verbally abuse other site users or content authors. Site access may also be revoked if you use defamatory language, deliberately disrupt discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or “spam”; or if you use language that abuses or discriminates on the basis of race, religion, nationality, gender, sexual preference, age, region, disability, etc.

3.2 The Services shall be used only in a noncommercial manner. You shall not, without the express approval of Spread Stories Not The Virus, distribute or otherwise publish any material containing any solicitation of funds, advertising or solicitation for goods or services.

3.3 You acknowledge that any submissions you make to the Services (i.e., user-generated content including but not limited to: comments, forum messages, reviews, text, video, audio and photographs, as well as computer code and applications) (each, a “Submission”) may be edited, removed, modified, published, transmitted, and displayed by Spread Stories Not The Virus and you waive any rights you may have in having the material altered or changed in a manner not agreeable to you. Submissions made to the Services may also be included in our RSS feeds, APIs and made available for republishing through other formats.

3.4 You grant Spread Stories Not The Virus a perpetual, nonexclusive, world-wide, royalty free, sub-licensable license to the Submissions, which includes without limitation the right for Spread Stories Not The Virus or any third party it designates, to use, copy, transmit, excerpt, publish, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, create derivative works of, host, index, cache, tag, encode, modify and adapt (including without limitation the right to adapt to streaming, downloading, broadcast, mobile, digital, thumbnail, scanning or other technologies) in any form or media now known or hereinafter developed, any Submission posted by you on or to the Services or any other Web site owned by Spread Stories Not The Virus, including any Submission posted on or to the Services through a third party.

3.5 You are solely responsible for the content of your Submissions.

3.6 By making a Submission, you are consenting to its display and publication on the Site and in the Services and for related online and offline promotional uses.

3.7 Spead Stories Not The Virus has no obligation to monitor the use of the Site. Nevertheless, you acknowledge and agree that Spread Stories, Not The Virus reserves the right to, and may from time to time, monitor any and all information uploaded to the Site for operational or other purposes. During monitoring, information may be examined, recorded, copied, and used for any authorize purpose in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws and regulations. Use of the Site constitutes consent to such monitoring. Furthermore, Spread Stories Not The Virus reserves the right at all times to remove or to refuse to post any information or materials, in whole or in part, that in Spread Stories Not The Virus’ sole and absolute discretion are objectionable or in violation of these Terms of Service. In addition, Spread Stories Not The Virus reserves the right at all times to disclose any information posted on any portion of the Site as necessary to operate the Site, to protect Spread Stories Not The Virus or its employees, directors, officers, or agents, or to satisfy these Terms of Service or any legal or regulatory obligation or governmental request.

4. ACCESS AND AVAILABILITY OF SERVICES AND LINKS

4.1 The Services contain links to other related World Wide Web Internet sites, resources, and advertisers. Since we are not responsible for the availability of these outside resources, or their contents, you should direct any concerns regarding any external link to the site administrator or Webmaster of such site.

5. REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

5.1 You represent, warrant and covenant (a) that no materials of any kind submitted through your account will (i) violate, plagiarize, or infringe upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy or other personal or proprietary rights; or (ii) contain libelous or otherwise unlawful material; and (b) that you are at least thirteen years old.

5.2 THE SITE AND ITS CONTENTS MAY CONTAIN INACCURACIES AND TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. Spread Stories Not The Virus DOES NOT WARRANT THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE MATERIALS OR THE RELIABILITY OF ANY ADVICE, OPINION, STATEMENT OR OTHER INFORMATION DISPLAYED OR DISTRIBUTED THROUGH THE SITE. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT ANY RELIANCE ON ANY INFORMATION ON THE SITE SHALL BE AT YOUR SOLE RISK. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL Spread Stories Not The Virus BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES CAUSED BY YOUR RELIANCE ON THIS INFORMATION. Spread Stories Not The Virus RESERVES THE RIGHT, IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION, TO CORRECT ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN ANY PORTION OF THE SITE. Spread Stories Not The Virus MAY MAKE ANY OTHER CHANGES TO THE SITE AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE.

5.3 Spread Stories Not The Virus DOES NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTY THAT YOUR USE OF THIS SITE OR THE INFORMATION ON THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR FREE, OR THAT DEFECTS, IF ANY, WILL BE CORRECTED. Spread Stories Not The Virus ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES THAT MAY BE SUFFERED BY YOU, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSSES FROM DELAYS, NON-DELIVERIES OF CONTENT OR ANY COMMUNICATIONS, ERRORS, SYSTEM DOWN TIME, MIS-DELIVERIES OR MISCOMMUNICATIONS, DATA BREACHES, NETWORK OR SYSTEM OUTAGES, FILE CORRUPTION, VIRUSES, OR SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS CAUSED BY OR SUFFERED BY Spread Stories Not The Virus, OR YOUR OWN ERRORS AND/OR OMISSIONS. THE SITE, THE INFORMATION AND MATERIALS ON THE SITE, AND ANY SOFTWARE MADE AVAILABLE ON THE SITE, ARE PROVIDED “AS IS”, “AS AVAILABLE”, AND ON A “WITH ALL FAULTS” BASIS AND WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW, NEITHER Spread Stories Not The Virus NOR ANY OF ITS EMPLOYEES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, AND AGENTS MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO: (A) THE SITE; (B) MATERIALS ON THE SITE; (C) CONTENT SUBMITTED TO THE SITE; AND/OR (D) SECURITY ASSOCIATED WITH THE TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION TO Spread Stories Not The Virus VIA THE SITE. YOU AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW FOR THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

5.4 UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL Spread Stories Not The Virus, ITS EMPLOYEES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGES OF ANY KIND (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, ECONOMIC, EXEMPLARY, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL LOSSES OR DAMAGES THAT ARE DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY RELATED TO: (A) THE SITE; (B) THE MATERIALS ON THE SITE; (C) CONTENT SUBMITTED TO THE SITE; (D) YOUR USE OF, INABILITY TO USE, OR THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SITE; (E) ANY ACTION TAKEN IN CONNECTION WITH AN INVESTIGATION BY SPREAD STORIES, NOT THE VIRUS OR LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES REGARDING YOUR USE OF THE SITE; (F) ANY ACTION TAKEN IN CONNECTION WITH COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OWNERS; (G) ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN THE SITE’S TECHNICAL OPERATION; OR (H) ANY DAMAGE TO ANY USER’S COMPUTER, MOBILE DEVICE, OR OTHER EQUIPMENT OR TECHNOLOGY INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGE FROM ANY SECURITY BREACH OR FROM ANY VIRUS, BUGS, TAMPERING, FRAUD, ERROR, OMISSION, INTERRUPTION, DEFECT, DELAY IN OPERATION OR TRANSMISSION, COMPUTER LINE OR NETWORK FAILURE OR ANY OTHER TECHNICAL OR OTHER MALFUNCTION, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF GOODWILL, LOSS OF DATA, WORK STOPPAGE, ACCURACY OF RESULTS, OR COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, EVEN IF FORESEEABLE OR EVEN IF SPREAD STORIES, NOT THE VIRUS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR TORT (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WHETHER CAUSED IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY NEGLIGENCE, ACTS OF GOD, TELECOMMUNICATIONS FAILURE, OR THEFT OR DESTRUCTION OF THE SITE). IN NO EVENT WILL SPREAD STORIES, NOT THE VIRUS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANYONE ELSE FOR LOSS, DAMAGE OR INJURY, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY.

5.5 You hereby indemnify, defend and hold harmless Spread Stories Not The Virus and all officers, directors, owners, agents, information providers, affiliates, licensors and licensees (collectively, the “Indemnified Parties”) from and against any and all liability and costs, including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys’ fees, incurred by the Indemnified Parties in connection with any claim arising out of any breach by you or any user of your account of these Terms of Service or the foregoing representations, warranties and covenants. You shall cooperate as fully as reasonably required in the defense of any such claim. Spread Stories Not The Virus reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you.

Updated: 2 April 2020

This Privacy Statement is applicable only to www.spreadstoriesnotthevirus.com and does not apply to any personal information that we may collect through other means, such as through other sites or offline.

We’ve updated our privacy policy to provide clear and direct language surrounding the information we collect, what we use it for, and the few situations in which we share it with others.

In this Privacy Policy (“Policy”), we describe how we collect, use, and disclose information that we obtain about visitors to our website.

Google Analytics

We use Google analytics to record information about the pages a user has seen, for example the URL of the page, time of day, device used, etc. The information that we collect anonymized and sent to Google Analytics for analysis.

Google Analytics mainly uses first-party cookies to report on visitor interactions on this website. Users may disable cookies or delete any individual cookie. Learn more

In addition, Google Analytics supports an optional browser add-on that – once installed and enabled – disables measurement by Google Analytics for any site a user visits. Note that this add-on only disables Google Analytics measurement.

Google Analytics also collects Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to provide and protect the security of the service, and to give website owners a sense of which country, state, or city in the world their users come from (also known as “IP geolocation”).

CONTENT

The rights to all the content published on Spread Stories, Not The Virus is owned by us. All rights are reserved and acknowledged.

CHANGES TO TERMS

We are continually working to update and improve Spread Stories, Not The Virus. As a result, we may make changes to Spread Stories, Not The Virus, including these terms, at any time

EU Data Subjects

This section applies if you are an EU data subject (for these purposes, reference to the EU also includes the European Economic Area countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway and, where applicable, Switzerland). Industry Dive is the data controller for processing Personal Data provided to Industry Dive in relation to the Sites and Services. Unless you have given us your consent for our independent uses of your Personal Data or we have another lawful basis for processing your Personal Data, we act strictly as a data processor for Personal Data that we process through the Services, as described under the “Information Collected Through our Services” section above. For example, we process data on behalf of Clients in relation to transactions you may be conducting or considering with them. We rely on the following legal bases for processing your Personal Data:

Processing of your Personal Data based on your consent for such processing. You have the right to withdraw your consent, as further described below.
Processing of your Personal Data that you provide to us (such as your name, email address, postal address, telephone number, company name and role) when you request information about the Industry Dive Services or when you otherwise send inquiries about our Services and processing of this data is necessary to respond to or implement your request prior to entering into a contract with us or a data controller that is using our Services.
We use account-related data to set up accounts for users in the Services and to administer and support those accounts (such as usernames, email address and billing information), provide you with access to the Services, contact you regarding your use of the Services or to notify you of important changes to the Services. Such use is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and our Clients or us.
We may send you information by email or through other electronic communications on our new products or services or other promotions if you consent to receiving them. If you have not opted-in to these marketing emails, we do this either because we are relying on an exception to opt-in requirements or because of our legitimate interest to promote the success of our business.
Our use of data relating to your use of the Sites and/or the Services, described above, is necessary for our legitimate interests in understanding how the Sites and the Services are being used by you, to improve your experience on it and our Service offerings.
We also have a legitimate interest in aggregating and/or anonymizing or de-identifying the information that we collect through our Sites and/or the Services and using this information for our business purposes, as described above.
When we process your Personal Data for our legitimate interests, we make sure to consider and balance any potential impact on you, and your rights under data protection laws. Our legitimate business interests do not automatically override your interests – we will not use your Personal Data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you, unless we have your consent for our processing activities or those activities are otherwise required or permitted by law. You have the right to object to processing that is based on our legitimate interests, as further described below.

Subject to applicable law and reasonable steps that we may take to verify your identity with respect to your requests, you have the following rights in relation to your Personal Data:

Right of access: If you ask us, we will confirm whether we are processing your Personal Data and, if so, provide you with a copy of that Personal Data (along with certain other details). If you require additional copies, we may need to charge a reasonable fee.
Right to rectification: If your Personal Data that we control is inaccurate or incomplete, you are entitled to have it rectified or completed. Note that we may not be able to rectify data obtained from a third party such as a governmental agency or other data that we do not control, and you will need to contact that third party directly. If we have shared your Personal Data with others, we will tell them about the rectification where possible. If you ask us, where possible and lawful to do so, we will also tell you with whom we shared your Personal Data so that you can contact them directly.
Right to erasure: You may ask us to delete or remove your Personal Data and we will do so in some circumstances, such as where we no longer need it (we may not delete your data when other interests outweigh your right to deletion, for example if we are required by law to keep it). If we have shared your data with others, we will tell them about the erasure where possible. If you ask us, where possible and lawful to do so, we will also tell you with whom we shared your Personal Data so that you can contact them directly.
Right to restrict processing: You may ask us to restrict or ‘block’ the processing of your Personal Data in certain circumstances, such as where you contest the accuracy of that Personal Data or object to us processing it. We will tell you before we lift any restrictions on processing. If we have shared your Personal Data with others, we will tell them about the restriction where possible. If you ask us, where possible and lawful to do so, we will also tell you with whom we shared your Personal Data so that you can contact them directly.
Right to data portability: Effective 25 May 2018, you have the right to obtain your Personal Data from us that you consented to give us or that is necessary to perform a contract with you, to the extent it is available. We will give you your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
Right to object: You may ask us at any time to stop processing your Personal Data, and we will do so if we are processing your Personal Data for the Services, for direct marketing, or otherwise. However, if we are relying on a legitimate interest to process your Personal Data and we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing we may continue; or you may exercise your rights by contacting us as indicated under “Contact Us”. Note you will be asked to verify your identity when submitting a request.
Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling: You have the right to be free from decisions that we make based solely on automated processing of your Personal Data, including profiling, which produce a significant legal effect on you, unless such profiling is necessary for entering into, or the performance of, a contract between you and us, or with your explicit consent.
Right to withdraw consent: If we rely on your consent to process your Personal Data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Your withdrawal of consent will not apply to or affect prior processing of data that was processed prior to our receipt of your withdrawal of consent.
Right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority: If you have a concern about our privacy practices, including the way we have handled your personal Data, you can report it to the data protection authority that is authorized to hear those concerns.

EU Data Subjects may contact us about these rights at spreadstoriesnotthevirus@gmail.com.

All the above Terms of Use and Privacy Policy are the same for both sites we own: “Spread Stories Not The Virus” (English version) and “Transmite Historias No El Virus” (Spanish version). We reserve the right to choose what content to publish on each site, regardless of which of these two sites the author of the content published it originally. The application of these Terms of Use and Privacy Policy is worldwide.

Get in touch with us if you would like to learn more about our initiative or have (media) inquiries.

Spread stories, not the virus

Spread stories,

not the virus.