Rules of Acceptable Use
What are the rules for creating content in my open portfolio?
This service is provided for your personal, strictly non-commercial use to help you develop your academic and professional skills after leaving the University. By using this service you agree to the University’s Terms of Website Use, Privacy Policy and Copyright Policy and the following terms:• You are responsible for your online conduct and the contents of your portfolio
- You are responsible for ensuring your content does not infringe any intellectual property rights, including but not limited to the patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any third party
- You must not use your portfolio to store, display or publish material that is offensive, defamatory, discriminatory, obscene, hateful, fraudulent, discriminatory, racist, pornographic, may bring the University into disrepute, constitutes bullying or harassment or is abusive or threatening, may encourage or constitute illegal activity, promotes or encourages violence, or is otherwise unlawful or generally unacceptable.
- You must not create or upload material which breaches any contractual or legal duty owed to a third party
- You must not directly or indirectly give the impression that the University maintains any involvement with or responsibility for your portfolio or its content
- You must not use the service for business purposes and/or use or permit the service to be used for commercial advertising or promotional materials
- You must not create or upload material which is in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998, has been disclosed to you in confidence or which, by its nature, is confidential
- You must not compromise the privacy or security of anyone other than yourself
- You must not place on your portfolio any material that concerns personal grievances or complaints about the University, as there are other mechanisms for raising such matters
- You must not upload any inappropriate images to your portfolio
- You must not place on your portfolio, or link to a third party site, any material which will give rise to any third party claims or provide a link to a third party site which may do so
- You must not place any links in your portfolio where those links take users to unlawful material or material that otherwise contravenes these Rules of Acceptable Use
- You are wholly responsible for any unsolicited contact you receive as a result of personal information you have publicly released via your portfolio
What will happen if I breach these Rules?
- Where the Open Portfolio system administrator receives a report of a breach of these Rules of Acceptable Use, your access to portfolio may be disabled immediately. Any complaint made by a third party will be considered under the University’s Complaints Handling Procedure.
- Where such a breach amounts to conduct that may constitute a criminal offence, give rise to legal proceedings or where relevant, cause serious concerns about Fitness to Practise, the University reserves the right to take such action as is appropriate. This may include sharing your or your invited users’ information as required by law or as permitted under the Data Protection Act 1998
- You should be aware that a breach of these Rules of Acceptable Use could also lead to legal action being taken against you by an external third party.
What are the rules for communications in other users’ portfolios?
The above Rules of Acceptable Use will apply to any material or content which is uploaded by you or other internal users to another user’s portfolio or to a group space. Any complaint about the behaviour of users of Open Portfolio should be reported using the report objectionable material link. This will be received by the system administrator and may be considered under the University’s Complaints Handling Procedure.
Unacceptable behaviour covers a wide range of misconduct and in addition to the terms in the Rules of Acceptable Use this will include:
- intentionally attempting to load files with virus content; or
- placing inappropriate feedback or comments on any other user's portfolio
Access to Your Open Portfolio
Who will have access to my portfolio?
The contents of your portfolio are private unless you decide to share specific content with other Open Portfolio users, or publically on the internet.
You may add other Open Portfolio users as 'friends' so that they are conveniently listed as contacts. However, your friends will not be able to access your portfolio contents unless you specifically share those contents with them.
Your portfolio 'wall' is visible to all Open Portfolio users who have logged in and they are able to post messages on your wall. To access your wall, click your name at the top of the page, where you can manage any messages or hide your wall entirely.
You can create 'secret URLs' to allow users who do not have an Open Portfolio login to gain access to specific areas of your portfolio. Search engines will not be able to find this content unless you publish the ‘secret URL’ on a web page. Please note that any page which you share as 'Public' will be available to external users.
The Open Portfolio system administrator may access your portfolio and its contents at any time as system administrators however they will only do so where this is specifically required to support your use of Open Portfolios, or to investigate a report or complaint about content in your portfolio.
Whilst the Open Portfolio system administrator will not pre-screen submissions you or others place on your portfolio or Group Space, the University reserves the right at its sole discretion to review, edit, move or delete any material where this is deemed necessary.
What should I know before I give external users access to my portfolio spaces?
In order to gain feedback and comments on your portfolio, you may grant access to specific areas of your portfolio to users who do not have an Open Portfolio login account by creating a 'secret URL'. Please note that you are solely responsible for informing any such external users that:
- these Rules of Acceptable Use and other requirements set out above apply to them
- any comments placed in your portfolio will be visible to yourself, any other users to whom you have granted shared access and authorised system administrators; and
- the University will not be responsible for monitoring or moderating any such third party content and/or any related postings.
Any contents which breach the above Rules of Acceptable Use should be reported using the report objectionable material link. This will be received by the system administrator and may be considered under the University’s Complaints Handling Procedure.
Legal Disclaimer
Subject to applicable law, the University accepts no responsibility for any submissions, statements or other materials placed on the Open Portfolio forums by you or any third party, or for any resultant loss or damage. Further, while every effort will be made to ensure the availability of the service, the University will not be responsible for any loss or damage suffered as a result of any interruption, suspension or withdrawal of the service. The University may at any time revise these Rules of Acceptable Use and/or University documents to which links have been given by publishing them on this page and it will be the responsibility of all users to ensure that they have read and will abide by any such changes.
