Raiseaconcern.com

1. Introduction

Your use of this website and its Service is as an acknowledgment that you have read, understood and accept these terms and conditions of use and our Data Privacy Policy.

This website and the Service are operated and provided by Raise a Concern Limited, (trading as Raiseaconcern.com), Lodge Park, Straffan, Co Kildare, Ireland. Any references to “we”, “us” or “the Administrator” in these terms and conditions refer to Raise a Concern Limited , while any references to “you” means you personally, or the company, or entity, on whose behalf you are accepting these terms.

2. Updated Terms and Conditions

The Administrator reserves the right to modify these terms and conditions and our Data Privacy Policy at our discretion. The most current version will always be at https://www.raiseaconcern.com. If the revision, in our sole discretion, is material we will notify you via e-mail to the e-mail associated with your Account.  However, failure to notify you will not affect the effectiveness of any modifications. By continuing to access or use the Service after those revisions become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised terms and conditions and will be deemed to have accepted any modification.

3. Territory

This website, its Content and the Service are intended for users in Ireland. The Administrator in no way represents that this website, its Content or the Service are appropriate or available outside Ireland. Users who access this website from outside Ireland are solely responsible for ensuring their compliance with the laws of that jurisdiction and the Administrator accepts no liability or responsibility for any extra territorial use of the website, its Contents or Service.

4. Data Privacy Policy

Our Data Privacy Policy deals with how we may use the information you provide to us and information we collect during your use of the website. Please carefully read our Data Privacy Policy as it, along with these terms and conditions, will govern your use of this website.

Any information that you provide to the Administrator is subject to our Data Privacy Policy, which governs our collection and use of your information. You understand that through your use of the Service you consent to the collection and use (as set forth in our Data Privacy Policy) of this information.

5. General Terms and Conditions

You may use the Service only in compliance with these terms and conditions and all applicable laws, regulations and industry codes of practice. If you violate any of these rules, then we may suspend or terminate your Account.

5.1 Eligibility
To use this website you must be at least eighteen years old and be able to enter into a contract. We may refuse to service, and may close Accounts of any users under the age of eighteen at any time. We may change these eligibility requirements at any time.

5.2 Your Contact Information
You must provide true, complete and up-to-date contact information.

5.3 Responsibility
You agree that you are solely responsible for your own conduct and any Content that you send via the Service, and for any consequences thereof.

5.4 Impersonation
You cannot use the Service to impersonate any person or entity or to misrepresent your affiliation to any person or entity. You must not attempt to avail of the Service using the identity of another person or entity.

5.5 Copyright
You cannot use the Service to distribute or make available for download copyrighted material without the copyright owner's consent.

5.6 Compliance with Laws
You agree to use the Service only for purposes that are legal, proper and in accordance with any applicable laws, policies, guidelines and industry codes of practice. You must not use the Service in a way that violates any laws or regulations.

5.7 Employer Policy
If you are an Employee, you must familiarise yourself with your Employer’s policy regarding Raising Concerns (Whistleblowing) and your use of this website.

5.8 Requests for Information
You are required to respond to the Administrator in a timely manner, and no later than 10 calendar days, in the event that the Administrator requests information from you which the Administrator reasonably requires in order to provide (i) the Service; (ii) any other service which the Administrator is obligated to provide to you under contract; or (iii) any of the Administrator’s obligations under the Contract.

5.9 Management Information
You allow the Administrator to aggregate management information collected from the Employer and from Employees with similar information from other clients of the Administrator and their employees in order to produce comparative management information for dissemination to some or all clients of the Administrator or for publication, provided always that the manner in which this information is used does not disclose: (i) the identity of the Employee; (ii) the identity of the Employer; or (iii) specific Content.

5.10 Mandatory Disclosure
In exceptional circumstances, we may be required by law to disclose your data to the courts, a government agency, law enforcement agencies or our lawyers, in the following circumstances:

• To meet legal requirements such as complying with court orders or the orders of a government agency;
• The prosecution of a court, arbitration or similar proceeding; or
• In order to secure the prosecution or conviction of a criminal offence.

6. Registration

6.1 Setting up your account
To avail of the Service provided by the Administrator, Employers and Employees must register and set up an Account. The Employer’s Account will be accessible to users designated by the Employer, such as persons who work within the Organisation, sub contractors of the Employer and service providers to the Employer. As part of this registration process you will be required to provide certain information, this information must be accurate and it is your responsibility to keep this information up to date. The Administrator will not disclose an Employee’s identity to an Employer.

You warrant that all information provided is accurate and you have authority to provide the information to us. Furthermore you agree to indemnify us from any claim made against us or loss suffered by us resulting from the above warranty. Should you provide false information or fail to adequately update your information we retain the right to suspend or discontinue your use of the Service.

6.2 Your Responsibility For Your Account
The Administrator bears no liability for any activity carried out through your Account. You are solely responsible and liable for all use made of the Service through your Account, whether authorised by you or not.

You are required to ensure that no persons who are not authorised to operate your Account will have access to your Account or Content or copies thereof. In particular, Employees are only permitted to access their Account via a personal computer which has adequate anti-virus and firewall protection. We recommend that Employees do not access their Account via a computer or other device provided by your Employer. If an Employee chooses to do so, their Employer may be able to identify them.

You may not disclose information which you obtain by using the Service to any party other than:

• the Administrator or its sub-contractors or legal advisers;
• your legal advisers;
• any party pursuant to an order to satisfy applicable laws, regulations, legal process or a governmental request which you are required to comply with; or
• in the case of an Employer, (i) those persons who are employed or contracted by the Employer who are responsible for investigating an allegation of wrongdoing which is made by an Employee via this website; and/or (ii) persons the Employer is reasonably required to communicate with in order to investigate an allegation of wrongdoing which is made by an Employee via this website, including for the avoidance of doubt senior management and the board of the Employer.

6.3 Multiple Accounts
You are entitled to set up one Account. The Administrator reserves the right to cancel any Accounts where we find that you have more than one Account.

6.4 Password/Username
You are responsible for safeguarding your raiseaconcern.com password and for any activities or actions under your password. You may not disclose your password to any party other than the Administrator. The Administrator cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with the above.

The Administrator will provide you with a replacement password upon request, provided you meet the appropriate security checks. However, the Administrator will not be liable for any loss you suffer as a result of you forgetting your username and password.

The Administrator reserves the right to require you to change your password at any time, without cause.

6.5 Service Messages
As part of providing you the Service, we will need to provide you with certain communications, such as service announcements, updates, feedback and administrative messages. These messages are part of the Service and you will not be able to opt-out of them while using the Service. You consent to the use of your personal contact details by the Administrator, for these purposes.

7. Your licence to use the Service

The Administrator gives any Account holder a personal, non-assignable and non-exclusive license to use the software that is provided to you by the Administrator for the sole purpose of allowing you to receive the Service, in the manner permitted by these terms and conditions and all applicable laws.

8. Use of the service

8.1 Your Account
You are responsible for ensuring that you have the necessary permissions to submit Content to the website.

8.2 Account Information The Administrator recommends that an Employee does not include in Content his/her name or any other information which is reasonably likely to identify him/her. The Administrator cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with the above.

Employees can only avail of the protections under the Protected Disclosures Act, 2013 if their Content is Relevant Information. We cannot guarantee that you will be eligible for such protections.  The Administrator has provided guidance on what constitutes Relevant Information on the following section of the website https://www.raiseaconcern.com/legislation.  You acknowledge that you have read and understand this section.  An Employer’s policy on Raising Concerns (Whistleblowing Policy) may offer protection to Employees who disclose content which is not Relevant Information.  We cannot guarantee that you will be eligible for such protections.

Employees should note that the Contract requires that Employers do not treat Content submitted by an Employee as a breach by the Employee of any duty of confidentiality or secrecy arising from their employment, whether written or implied.

8.3 Abusive Messaging and Inappropriate Use
You agree that you will not engage in any activity that interferes with or disrupts the Administrator’s servers or networks. You warrant that you will not use the Service to send anything offensive or illegal or to harass or bully anyone. You further warrant that when using the Service you will not send anything pornographic, offensive, racist, hateful, discriminatory, defamatory or libellous.

You warrant not to use the Service to impersonate another person or to distribute anything which would breach the copyright or other intellectual property rights of another without their prior consent.

8.4 Inappropriate Use of the Service
Regardless of legal obligation or whether you use the website in a business or personal capacity the following activities are never permitted:

• the use of the website or Service for unlawful or fraudulent purposes, or to commit a criminal offence or other unlawful activity;
• sending any material that is illegal, offensive, abusive, malicious, threatening, racist, indecent, derogatory, obscene, menacing or otherwise objectionable;
• the use of the website or Service to harass stalk or inconvenience, cause annoyance or needless anxiety to any person, impersonate any person or act in a way which may be reasonably objectionable;
• the use of the website or Service to in any way breach copyright, trademarks, privacy, privilege or infringe on the intellectual property rights of others;
• use of the Service in any way which is likely to cause damage to the Service, the website or the Administrator;
• the use of the website or Service in any way which infringes on other customers’ use of the website and Service;
• to initiate the sending of unsolicited advertising or promotional material including junk-mail for commercial or non-commercial purposes;
• to send anything which consists of or contains viruses, political campaigning, chain letters or spam or which markets services or products; or
• to use the Service in bad faith or for malicious or vexatious reasons or where you know that the Content is false or misleading.

If you use the website or Service for any of the above the Administrator reserves the right to cancel your Account and impose a permanent ban on you using the Service.

8.5 keywords
As part of the Service users will be entitled to select certain keywords which will be associated with their Account, for example, a username or password.

The Administrator retains the right to disassociate a keyword from an Account, without cause. Some of the possible reasons which may lead to the Administrator disassociating a keyword from an Account are:

• trademark infringement;
• impersonation;
• the keyword is deemed to be pornographic, offensive, racist, hateful, discriminatory, defamatory or libellous; and
• the keyword needs to be reserved to ensure the provision of the Administrator Service or we deem it necessary for operational reasons.

The Administrator retains the right to disassociate a keyword from an Account where it has not been used for more than 6 months. A keyword will be deemed not to have been used where no messages have been sent to it in that 6 month period. The Administrator is under no obligation to inform you that it intends to disassociate a keyword from your account due to lack of use, but may choose do so as a courtesy.

You will have no right to compensation of any kind where a keyword is disassociated from your Account.

9. Availability of the website and Service

We aim to ensure that the website and Service are available to you at your discretion. However, there may be occasions where we are forced to withdraw the website or Service for a period of time. While we endeavour to limit any such period the Administrator will not be liable for any loss suffered resulting from such disruption.

9.1 Suspending or Varying website Content
From time to time we will update the website in an effort to ensure we provide the most up to date and efficient Service possible. We may vary any Content or any of the technical specifications of the website at any time. It may be necessary during such variations to suspend access to the website or Service for a period of time. We reserve the right to suspend access to the website or Service for such reasons and, in addition, for operational reasons such as repairs, maintenance, upgrading content or functionality of the Service or for the introduction of new services. We will endeavour to limit the frequency and duration of these disruptions.

9.2 Operations of the Website, Service and Content
We use all reasonable endeavours to provide you with the quality of service generally provided by a competent website provider exercising reasonable skill and care. However, there may be occasion when there may be faults on the website or the website may be impaired by geographic, atmospheric or other conditions or circumstances beyond our control. Due to the nature of the Service and the internet generally the Administrator gives no warranties that the website and Service will be provided in a timely manner free from interruptions or errors.

The Administrator tries to protect the integrity of the website, however, the Administrator gives no warranties that the website will be secure, or that the website or any part of it will be free from infection by viruses or anything else which has contaminating properties or which may cause damage.

9.3 Supply of the Service
While we endeavour to ensure uninterrupted and timely provision of the Service and to correct any faults which we become aware of within a reasonable period of time we cannot ensure this is always the case. The Service is provided without any warranty or guarantee (including those implied by law).

9.4 Security of the Service
Under the Contract, the Administrator agrees to:

• Take appropriate action to ensure that the staff of the Administrator do not to leave copies of the Content unsecured.
• Maintain protocols with sub-contractors on how they secure data and information.
• Maintain a high level of security for the website and Content database using 128 bit TLS security so as to scramble information while it is moving from one source to another to prevent the information being accessed, viewed or tampered with by others.
• Securely store all Content and updates on a dedicated server positioned behind a firewall with one of Ireland's leading hosting companies.
• Scan all files submitted to the website for malware and virus infection.
• Maintain adequate business continuity contingencies required for the performance of its obligations under the Contract, by backing up all Content and updates 3 times daily to a remote location.

These measures have been adopted for the purposes of providing a secure Service.

10. Acceptable Use of the Service

You understand you are responsible for activities that take place as a result of the use of the Service via your Account (whether authorised by you or not).

You undertake to indemnify the Administrator from any loss suffered resulting from your breach of your legal obligations when utilising the Service. This indemnity includes loss suffered due to damage caused to the Administrator reputation resulting from your breach.

11. Your Content

11.1 Your Responsibility for Your Content
Subject to these terms and conditions all Intellectual Property and other rights in the content of this website and the Service are the property of the Administrator or its licensor. A number of trademarks appear on this website which belong to the Administrator, or their respective owners. Nothing in the terms gives you a right to use the Administrator name or any of the Administrator trademarks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features.

By submitting Content through the Administrator, you grant us permission to store, process and transmit the Content as necessary in accordance with these terms and conditions and our Data Privacy Policy.

Employees acknowledge that Content, with the exception of Registration Details, can be accessed by the Employer and its authorised personnel (such as persons who work within the Organisation, sub-contractors of the Employer and service providers to the Employer). Therefore we recommend that, with the exception of Registration Details, an Employee does not include in Content his/her name or any other information which is reasonably likely to identify him/her. The Administrator cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with the above.

In order to deliver your communications we may need to modify the Content as necessary to meet any requirements or limitations of any networks, devices, services or media.

The Administrator will not be responsible or liable for any use of your Content by the Administrator in accordance with these terms and conditions. You represent and warrant that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the rights granted herein to any Content that you submit.

In addition, you warrant that:

• any Content you create will be civil, tasteful and in accordance with these terms and conditions; and
• the provision of the Content provided by you shall not constitute a criminal offence.

11.2 Copyright
We may remove or refuse to transmit Content alleged to be infringing copyright without prior notice, at our sole discretion, and without liability to you. In appropriate circumstances, the Administrator may terminate a user’s Account if the user is determined to be a repeat infringer of copyright.

11.3 Reviewing, Editing, Removing and Monitoring your Content
You accept that we are under no obligation to edit, review or modify any Content provided by you. However we reserve the right to monitor, edit or remove any of your Content, in whole or in part, at our sole discretion if we believe there to be a breach of these terms and conditions, our Data Privacy Policy or any notifications we have given you.

We may access, read, preserve and disclose any information where we reasonably believe it necessary to do so in order to:

• satisfy any applicable laws, regulations, legal process or governmental request;
• enforce these terms and conditions, including investigating any potential violation thereof;
• detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; or
• protect the rights, property or safety of the Administrator, its staff and the public.

12. Closing your Account

12.1 Closing your account
The Administrator may terminate this Agreement at any time and for any reason by giving you notice.

We also retain the right to immediately suspend the Service to you at any time without cause. During any such suspension of Service these terms and conditions and our Data Privacy Policy will continue to apply, until this Agreement is terminated.

12.2 Data Retention after Account Closure
Subject to the requirements of our Data Privacy Policy, we may choose to retain your Account data for six years after your Account is closed.

13. Disputes with Third Parties

You undertake to tell us immediately if anyone makes or threatens to make any claim or issue legal proceedings against you in relation to your use of the Service. You warrant that should we consider it necessary you will, at our request, immediately stop the act complained of. Should we ask, you warrant to provide a written statement detailing any such claims or legal proceedings. You agree that should you fail to stop the acts complained of after being requested to do so by us we may immediately suspend your account or terminate this Agreement.

14. Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither the Administrator nor any of its directors, employees, affiliates or other representatives will be liable for any loss or damage arising out of or in connection with:

• your use of the Service;
• your inability to access or use the Service;
• loss of data;
• claims of third parties;
• failure to store or transmit data maintained by the Administrator;
• any advice, whether oral or written, obtained from the Administrator;
• your provision of incorrect Contact Details;
• our failure to correctly register you for the Service;
• any Content provided by you;
• any failure to do what we have promised because of something beyond our reasonable control such as technical failure, lightning, flooding, exceptionally severe weather, fire or explosion, civil disorder, war, military operations, industrial disputes of any kind (including those involving our employees), natural or local emergency, the acts or omissions of other providers of internet service or the failure of any mobile network or apparatus, anything done by the government or other competent authority:

even if the Administrator has been advised of the possibility of such loss or damages, or such loss or damages were reasonably foreseeable. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained from the Administrator will create any warranty not expressly made herein.

We do not accept liability in these terms and conditions, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, for direct or indirect loss of profits, income, business or anticipated savings, nor for any indirect, incidental or consequential damages, including, without limitation, loss or destruction of data, or other information under any circumstances.

Our maximum aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with these terms and conditions whether in contract, tort, misrepresentation, under statute or otherwise, howsoever caused including by negligence and/or arising from a breach of, or a failure to perform the Service or otherwise in relation to the Service or the website or operation thereof will be limited to the sum of twice the fees paid by the Employer to the Administrator for the Contracted Services in the 12 month period immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim. The financial limit on liability set out above is the maximum liability of the Administrator and any of its directors, employees, affiliates or other representatives.

Notwithstanding any other provision of these terms and conditions, nothing contained herein will operate to exclude or restrict our liability in respect of death or personal injury caused by our negligence or any other liability to the extent that it cannot be excluded or limited by law.

Except as expressly set out in these terms and conditions and our Data Privacy Policy, all representations, warranties, terms and conditions whether express or implied, in relation to the website and the Service, are hereby excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law. Each provision of these terms and conditions which seeks to exclude or limit liability operates separately.

You agree to use reasonable endeavours to mitigate the consequences of any losses, costs, expenses, claims and demands incurred by you from your use of the Service and the website.

The limitations of liability contained herein will apply after as well as before termination of the agreement.

15. Indemnity

You shall fully and effectually indemnify us against any loss or liability which we may incur as a result of any claims or legal proceedings which are brought or threatened against us by a third party arising out of or in connection with your use of this website or Service where such use is a breach of these terms and conditions. We will notify you of any such claims or proceedings and keep you reasonably informed as to the progress of such claims or proceedings. We shall select our own legal advisors.

16. Disclaimer

The Administrator website and Services may contain links to third-party websites or resources. We are not responsible or liable for the content availability or accuracy of these third parties. Links to such websites or resources do not imply any endorsement by us of such websites or resources or the content, products, or services available from such websites or resources. You acknowledge sole responsibility for and assume all risk arising from your use of any such websites or resources.

The Administrator will provide guidance to Employees in relation to: (i) how Employees can utilise the Service; (ii) what constitutes Relevant Information; and (iii) protections afforded to Employees under the Protected Disclosures Act, 2013 generally.  However, Employees and all users of this website should take note of the following important notice:

YOU SHOULD NOT CONSTRUE THE CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE OR REGARD OUR SERVICES AS INVESTMENT, LEGAL, BUSINESS OR TAX ADVICE. YOU MUST RELY ON YOUR OWN REPRESENTATIVE(S) (INCLUDING BUSINESS ADVISOR, LEGAL COUNSEL OR ACCOUNTANT) AS TO LEGAL, TAX AND RELATED ASPECTS. IN PARTICULAR, YOU SHOULD NOTE THAT THE ADMINISTRATOR IS NOT A LAW FIRM. THEREFORE ANY EXPLANATION OF LEGISLATION, CASE LAW, REGULATIONS OR OTHER SOURCES OF LAW IS PROVIDED TO YOU FOR INFORMATION ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE. ANY INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE TO US WILL NOT BE SUBJECT TO LEGAL PRIVILEGE.

17. Severability

If any section of this Agreement is found by a court of law not to be enforceable, then that section will be removed or edited as little as necessary, to ensure compliance, and the rest of these terms and conditions shall remain valid and applicable.

18. Survivability

The following clauses of this Agreement shall continue to apply after termination of this Agreement, clauses 11, 12.2, 13, 14 and 15 along will all warranties, indemnities and undertakings given by you.

19. Notices and Communications

Employees may only communicate with the Administrator via the following channels:

Email: admin@raiseaconcern.com

Post: Raise a Concern Limited
          Lodge Park
          Straffan
          Co Kildare
          Ireland

20. Waiver

The failure of the Administrator to enforce any of the provisions of these terms and conditions, and the rights contained therein, will not be deemed to be a waiver of such provisions or rights.

21. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These terms and conditions of use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Ireland, and you hereby agree to take proceedings in relation to these terms before any other court of competent jurisdiction, that the courts of Ireland shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine any action or proceedings that may arise out of or in connection with these terms and conditions of use, and for such purposes you irrevocably submit to the jurisdiction of such courts.

22. Entire Agreement

For Employees, these terms and conditions and our Data Privacy Policy are the entire and exclusive Agreement between you and the Administrator, in relation to the Service. These terms and conditions supersede and replace any previous terms and conditions or prior Agreements between the Employee and the Administrator, regarding the website and the Service.

For Employers, these terms and conditions must be read in conjunction with the Contract. In the event of a conflict between these terms and conditions and the Contract, the Contract will prevail.

Save as provided for in the limitation of liability section, the parties do not intend that any of these terms and conditions will be enforceable by any person other than you, and the Administrator.

23. Definitions

The following terms shall have the following meanings in these terms and conditions:

The following terms shall have the following meanings in these terms and conditions:

Administrator	means Raise a Concern Limited, trading as raiseaconcern.com
Account	means a dedicated section of the Raiseaconcern website accessible by you pursuant to the Service and in the case of an Employer by those in your organisation who are in a position to quote the Organisation ID provided to you by the Administrator.
Agreement	means the agreement between you and the Administrator, this includes these terms and conditions and our Data Privacy Policy
Contact or Contact Details	means your contact details which are stored in your Account
Content	means any text, graphics, photos or other materials uploaded or entered by you via your Account or otherwise pursuant to the Service (including material sent by you to the Administrator by post or fax)
Contract	means the Terms of Reference and Contract entered into between the Administrator and the Employer
Contracted Services	means the services provided to the Employer by the Administrator pursuant to the Contract
Employee	means a user of this website who is an individual who can be categorised as a “worker” (as defined by the Protected Disclosures Act, 2013 (as amended)) of the Employer
Employer	means a user of this website who has entered into a Contract and who employs or previously employed an Employee
Intellectual Property Rights	means copyright, trademarks, confidential information and other relevant proprietary and intellectual property rights
keyword	means a unique set of letters and/or numbers that you can use to access your Account
Organisation	means your current or former employer, provided that the entity is in receipt of Contracted Services
Relevant Information	means “relevant information” as defined in the Protected Disclosures Act, 2013 (as amended)
Service	means the service of enabling you to access www.raiseaconcern.com for the purpose of utilising your Account

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