Terms v1.0

This document “Terms v1.0” is identical to the current terms at https://mastodon.green/terms.

The new version “Terms version 2” takes effect 2022-05-20.

Introduction

Mastodon.green is a community and social networking service on the Fediverse. Our server is running an instance of the Mastodon software. For legal clarity we have these written Terms of Service (“Terms”). They describe our commitments to you, and your rights and responsibilities when using our services. These terms also apply to the wider Albin Social network and it’s services including Pixelfed.green, albin.social and albinsocial.com

Privacy policy

What information do we collect?

  • Basic account information: If you register on this server, you may be asked to enter a username, an e-mail address and a password. You may also enter additional profile information such as a display name and biography, and upload a profile picture and header image. The username, display name, biography, profile picture and header image are always listed publicly.
  • Posts, following and other public information: The list of people you follow is listed publicly, the same is true for your followers. When you submit a message, the date and time is stored as well as the application you submitted the message from. Messages may contain media attachments, such as pictures and videos. Public and unlisted posts are available publicly. When you feature a post on your profile, that is also publicly available information. Your posts are delivered to your followers, in some cases it means they are delivered to different servers and copies are stored there. When you delete posts, this is likewise delivered to your followers. The action of reblogging or favouriting another post is always public.
  • Direct and followers-only posts: All posts are stored and processed on the server. Followers-only posts are delivered to your followers and users who are mentioned in them, and direct posts are delivered only to users mentioned in them. In some cases it means they are delivered to different servers and copies are stored there. We make a good faith effort to limit the access to those posts only to authorized persons, but other servers may fail to do so. Therefore it’s important to review servers your followers belong to. You may toggle an option to approve and reject new followers manually in the settings. Please keep in mind that the operators of the server and any receiving server may view such messages, and that recipients may screenshot, copy or otherwise re-share them. Do not share any dangerous information over Mastodon.
  • IPs and other metadata: When you log in, we record the IP address you log in from, as well as the name of your browser application. All the logged in sessions are available for your review and revocation in the settings. The latest IP address used is stored for up to 12 months. We also may retain server logs which include the IP address of every request to our server.

What do we use your information for?

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in the following ways:

  • To provide the core functionality of Mastodon. You can only interact with other people’s content and post your own content when you are logged in. For example, you may follow other people to view their combined posts in your own personalized home timeline.
  • To aid moderation of the community, for example comparing your IP address with other known ones to determine ban evasion or other violations.
  • The email address you provide may be used to send you information, notifications about other people interacting with your content or sending you messages, and to respond to inquiries, and/or other requests or questions.

How do we protect your information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you enter, submit, or access your personal information. Among other things, your browser session, as well as the traffic between your applications and the API, are secured with SSL, and your password is hashed using a strong one-way algorithm. You may enable two-factor authentication to further secure access to your account.

What is our data retention policy?

We will make a good faith effort to:

  • Retain server logs containing the IP address of all requests to this server, in so far as such logs are kept, no more than 90 days.
  • Retain the IP addresses associated with registered users no more than 12 months.

You can request and download an archive of your content, including your posts, media attachments, profile picture, and header image.

You may irreversibly delete your account at any time.

Do we use cookies?

Yes. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow). These cookies enable the site to recognize your browser and, if you have a registered account, associate it with your registered account.

We use cookies to understand and save your preferences for future visits.

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our site, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety.

Your public content may be downloaded by other servers in the network. Your public and followers-only posts are delivered to the servers where your followers reside, and direct messages are delivered to the servers of the recipients, in so far as those followers or recipients reside on a different server than this.

When you authorize an application to use your account, depending on the scope of permissions you approve, it may access your public profile information, your following list, your followers, your lists, all your posts, and your favourites. Applications can never access your e-mail address or password.

Site usage by children

If this server is in the EU or the EEA: Our site, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 16 years old. If you are under the age of 16, per the requirements of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) do not use this site.

If this server is in the USA: Our site, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old. If you are under the age of 13, per the requirements of COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) do not use this site.

Law requirements can be different if this server is in another jurisdiction.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.

This privacy policy is CC-BY-SA. It was last updated 2020-05-24.

Adapted from the Mastodon.social privacy policy.

Originally adapted from the Discourse privacy policy.

Impressum

Johan Sundström,
c/o Grosch Postflex #442
Emsdettener Straße 10
48268 Greven
Germany
email: post@albinsocial.com

Terms of service

Our services

We provide a social networking service where people, organizations and companies can post and share stuff; text, photos, videos and more. The following terms and conditions (“Terms”) govern all use of Mastodon.green, all content, all our services, and all our products available at or through the websites, including, but not limited to, mastodon.green, pixelfed.green and albinsocial.com, (taken together, our “Services”). Our Services are offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules, policies (including, without limitation, our privacy policy and community guidelines) and procedures that may be published from time to time by Albin Social (collectively, the “Agreement”). You agree that we may automatically upgrade our Services, and these Terms will apply to any upgrades. We refer to Johan Sundström, collectively as “Albin Social”, “Mastodon.green”, “us”, “our” or “we” throughout this agreement.

Please read this Agreement carefully before accessing or using our Services. By accessing or using any part of our Services, you agree to become bound by the Terms of this Agreement. If you do not agree to all the Terms of this Agreement, then you may not access or use any of our Services. If these Terms are considered an offer by Mastodon.green, acceptance is expressly limited to these Terms.

Our Services are not directed to children. Access to and use of our Services is only for those over the age of 16. If you are younger than this, you may not register for or use our Services. Any person who registers as a user or provides their personal information to our Services represents that they are 16 years of age or older.

Funding

Mastodon.green is funded by membership fees and sponsorships.

Paid membership

Albin Social is using a secure and well known distributor of memberships; Steady GmbH. When you buy a membership in Albin Supporters Club it is Steady GmbH that sells it to you. They are the distributor of our memberships and their Terms and Privacy policy apply in your relation with them. More info at: https://steadyhq.com/.

Your Mastodon.green account

You can use a pseudonym on your Mastodon.green account, but you must provide us with accurate and up to date information if needed. If you create a Mastodon.green account, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account.

Please use a good password, it’s your responsibility to keep it secure, and consider enabling two factor authentication. You are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the account. You must immediately notify Albin Social of any unauthorized uses of your account, or any other breaches of security. Albin Social will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.

Without limiting any representations or warranties, Albin Social has the right (though not the obligation) to, in Albin Social’s sole discretion, (i) change or reclaim your username or website’s URL due to prolonged inactivity or for any other reason, (ii) refuse or remove any content that, in Albin Social’s reasonable opinion, violates any Albin Social policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (iii) terminate or deny access to and use of Mastodon.green or other services to any individual or entity for any reason. If anything has been paid, for example membership fees, donations or sponsorships, Albin Social will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.

Our services are for people in the European union and you must live within the EU (EEA) to sign up for an account at the moment.

Federation

Mastodon.green is connected, in a Federated network “the Fediverse”, with third party servers, software and services.

With an account on Mastodon.green you will be able to follow people on a large number of connected third party servers in the Fediverse.

We federate with as many servers as technically, practically and ecomomically possible, despite this we may block some servers for various reasons. Some individuals and some server owners may misbehave and break the law or share inappropriate content.

As a first line of action we may block/suspend individual accounts, but we may block domains/servers that have large amount of content that is not aligned with our community guidelines, terms and policies, or that are known to host illegal content. We may block servers that run outdated or incompatible software. We may block servers who are running software different from the software we are using in our services. We may block servers if the stream of content is overburdening our small server, the storage capacity or our economical resources.

Content

You own your content that you create and share on our Services. You keep all rights to your content, but you must give us the legal permission we need to provide the Services. When you share, post or upload content, for example photos or videos, that is covered by intellectual property rights, on or in connection with our services, you grant us a

non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content for the purpose of making Albin Social’s services and products available.

When you delete your content or account, this license ends. Be aware that your content may continue to appear if you have shared it, and others (including third party server owners) have not deleted it.

If you delete Content, Albin Social will use reasonable efforts to remove it as soon as possible, in accordance with our privacy policy, but you acknowledge that caching, backups or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable.

If you publish content on your profile page, make comments, post material to Mastodon.green and/or our other Services, post links on our services, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make) material available (any such material, “Content”), you are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content or your conduct. That is the case regardless of what form the Content takes, which includes, but is not limited to text, photo, video, audio, or code. By using Mastodon.green, www.albinsocial.com and/or our other Services, you represent and warrant that your Content and conduct do not violate these Terms, our policies or the community guidelines. You must not break copyright law and therefore you must have all appropriate rights to post any content.

Albin Social has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material posted to our Services and also not content posted to third party servers, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating our Services, Albin Social does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful, or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content.

Our Services may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. Our Services may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. If you see objectionable content that break the law or our community guidelines you can and are encouraged to report such content.

Albin Social disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by logged in users or non logged in visitors of our Services, or from any downloading by those, of content there posted.

Content posted on other servers and websites

We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and web pages to which Mastodon.green links, and that link to Mastodon.green. We do not have any control over those non-Albin Social servers, software or websites, and we are not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a non-Albin Social website, Albin Social does not represent or imply that it endorses such website. Albin Social disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-Albin Social websites, software, web pages and connected, or federated, servers, networks and services.

Third party servers

The Mastodon software is made in such a way that data and other information is automatically passed around between several independent servers in the Fediverse. Such third party servers may run other software, be outside of the European Union and have different terms of service.

The Mastodon software we use is under continuous development and changes are made by several developers that work independent from Albin Social. There are no guarantees of any kind that things will be bug free, safe or work as it should. It’s open source so the code can be reviewed if you so wish. We aim to run the latest stable release of the software.

Be aware that some of your content, meta data and/or other data and information may automatically be passed by the Mastodon software to third parties when you use our services, and the respective third party’s terms of service, privacy policy, and other policies may apply.

As can be heard from the name, we’re not running the third party services and have no control at all over what they do or don’t do. We recommend that you don’t share any sensitive information, also not in personal messages as they are not encrypted and can technically be read by any owner of a server. If you do not like the idea of a federated network, please do not use Mastodon.green at all.

Third party services include, but are not limited to servers in federated networking platforms. Examples are GNU social, Mastodon servers including different forks of the Mastodon software, Tusky app, Pixelfed servers, and other ActivityPub and OStatus implementations.

Third Party Services are not vetted, endorsed, or controlled by Albin Social. By using Mastodon.green, you’re exposed to third parties by seeing posts in public feeds, by posting publicly, by posting personally to some other users, and in other ways. All use of Mastodon.green and the connected/federated Third Party Services is at your own risk, and we shall not be responsible or liable to anyone for Third Party Services.

It is your responsibility to review the Third Party’s terms and policies before accepting followers on other services and before interacting with Third Party Services in any way. Some of your data and content, for example when you post publicly or directly to a user on a connected network are transferred to a Third Party Services. Your data and content will handled in accordance with the Third Party’s privacy policy and practices. We do not have control over how a Third Party Service may use your data and content. You should carefully review Third Party Services’ data collection, retention, and use policies.

Third Party Services may not work appropriately with Mastodon.green, and we may not be able to provide support for issues caused by any Third Party Services. If you have questions or concerns about how a Third Party Service operates, or need support, please contact the Third Party directly. At any time, we may at our discretion, suspend, disable, or remove Third Party Services.

Prohibited uses

When using Mastodon.green, you agree not to:

  • Publish material or engage in activity that is illegal under applicable law.
  • Overburden Albin Social’s systems, as determined by us in our sole discretion.
  • Disclose sensitive personal information of others.
  • Send spam or bulk unsolicited messages.
  • Interfere with, disrupt, or attack any service or network.
  • Distribute material that is or enables malware, spyware, adware, or other malicious code.
  • Use unauthorized bots, for example to automatically post or analyze content.

Copyright infringement and DMCA policy

As Albin Social ask others to respect its intellectual property rights, it respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that material located on or linked to by Mastodon.green violates your copyright, you are encouraged to notify Albin Social. Albin Social will respond to all such notices, including as required or appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the infringing material. Mastodon.green will terminate a visitor’s access to and use of the website if, under appropriate circumstances, the visitor is determined to be a repeat infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of Albin Social or others. In the case of such termination, Albin Social will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid to Albin Social.

Intellectual property

This Agreement does not transfer from Albin Social to you any Albin Social or third party intellectual property, and all right, title, and interest in and to such property will remain (as between the parties) solely with Albin Social.

The words Albin Social, Albin Apps, Albin.cc, the Albin mascot and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with Albin Social or our Services, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Johan Sundström.

Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with our Services may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of our Services grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any Albin Social or third-party trademarks.

Mastodon.green (sometimes called the Green Mastodon server) is the name of our domain and our community, it’s a social network within the Federation.

The word Mastodon on itself, without the “.green” part, refers to the Mastodon software (made by lead developer Eugen Rochko) and/or it refers to the wider Mastodon network of federated Mastodon servers.

The Mastodon software is open source and made by lead developer Eugen Rochko and a large number of other contributors. We would like to thank all of you for the excellent work in making the awesome Mastodon software. It’s highly appreciated and much needed work.

The source code can be found either by using the link in the footer of Mastodon.green or visiting https://github.com/tootsuite. Copyright (C) 2016-2019 Eugen Rochko & other Mastodon contributors (see AUTHORS.md)

They write the following:

“This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.”

Mastodon.green is separate from the name of the Mastodon software and separate from the long list of other communities and domains that have the word mastodon as part of their name. Examples of different communities with ‘mastodon’ in their domain and/or community name include but are not limited to Mastodon.social, Mastodon.scot, Mastodon.eus, Mastodon.cloud, Mastodon.art, Mastodon.xyz and Mastodon.technology. Read more about other communities on joinmastodon.org

Changes

We are constantly updating our Services, and sometimes we have to change the legal terms under which our Services are offered. If we make changes that are material, we will let you know by posting on one of our blogs, official account or by sending you an email or other communication before the changes take effect. The notice will designate a reasonable period of time after which the new terms will take effect. If you disagree with our changes, then you should stop using our Services within the designated notice period. Your continued use of our Services will be subject to the new terms. However, any dispute that arose before the changes shall be governed by the Terms (including the binding individual arbitration clause) that were in place when the dispute arose.

Software updates

By using or downloading our software. You give us permission to download and install upgrades and updates to develop the software.

Termination

Albin Social may terminate your access to all or any part of our Services at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your Mastodon.green account (if you have one), you may simply discontinue using our Services. All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

Disclaimer of Warranties

Our Services are provided “as is.” Albin Social and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither Albin Social nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that our Services will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. You understand that when you download from Mastodon.green, or otherwise obtain content or services, it’s at your own discretion and risk.

Jurisdiction and applicable law

Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this Agreement, any access to or use of our Services will be governed by the laws of Germany.

Limitation of liability

In no event will Albin Social, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with respect to any subject matter of this Agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to Albin Social under this Agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action. Albin Social shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond their reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

General representation and warranty

You represent and warrant that your use of our Services:

  • Will be in strict accordance with this Agreement;
  • Will comply with all applicable laws and regulations (including without limitation all applicable laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content, the transmission of technical data exported from the EU or the country in which you reside, privacy, and data protection); and
  • Will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of any third party.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Albin Social, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees, and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of our Services, including but not limited to your violation of this Agreement.

Translation

These Terms of Service were originally written in English. We may translate these terms into other languages. In the event of a conflict between a translated version of these Terms of Service and the English version, the English version will control.

Miscellaneous

This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between Albin Social and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of Albin Social, or by the posting by Albin Social of a revised version.

If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof.

You may assign your rights under this Agreement to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions;

This agreement isn’t giving rights to third parties. You need our consent to transfer your rights or obligations under this agreement. Albin Social may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition. This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

Regarding feedback,we always appreciate feedback or other suggestions, but may use them without any restrictions or obligation to compensate you for them. We are not obliged to keep feedback confidential.

These Terms

This document is published under CC BY-SA 4.0. A Creative Commons Sharealike license, which means you’re are welcome to re-purpose it for your own use. Just make sure to replace references to us with ones to you, and if you don’t mind we’d appreciate a link to www.albinsocial.com somewhere on your website.

This document was first adapted, 2018-10-05, from Automattics Terms of service. Automattic run a blog and website hosting platform called WordPress.com

This document was updated: 2020-05-24