WindowsForum.com — Terms of Use & Privacy (Summary)

Effective date: August 2025

1) About WindowsForum & Acceptance

WindowsForum.com (“WindowsForum,” “we,” “us”) is an independent community for discussion of Microsoft Windows. We are not owned by, affiliated with, endorsed, or sponsored by Microsoft Corporation. We are a member of the Microsoft Partner Program (Organization Partner ID: 5001155). All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

By accessing or using our website, apps, or services (the “Service”), you agree to these Terms of Use and the Privacy terms below. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2) User Conduct (What’s Not Allowed)

You will not post, upload, link, or otherwise submit content (“Content”) that is:

• Illegal or encourages unlawful activity.
• Infringing: copyrighted material without rights/permission; links to pirated or IP-violating software.
• Abusive or harmful: defamatory, knowingly false/misleading, harassing, hateful, racist, sexist, homophobic, obscene/profane, sexually explicit, or invasive of privacy.
• Security-abusive: doxxing, stalking, illegal hacking instructions, attacks on the site or users, or denial-of-service attempts.
• Spam or spam-like: commercial promotion, affiliate/SEO spam, mass posting of full articles/excerpts, duplicate/repetitive posts, or low-effort post-count padding.
• Disruptive: flame-baiting, personal attacks, intimidation, or persistent hostile/argumentative behavior that undermines the community.
• Inappropriate media: extremely violent or sexually explicit material without legitimate context.
• Illegible/off-topic: incoherent or nonsensical posts.

Special rules:

• Software piracy is strictly prohibited.
• Mass posting of third-party articles/news is prohibited. Fair use may apply where lawful; you are responsible for compliance.
• Multiple accounts are not permitted without staff approval.

3) Moderation & Enforcement

We may review Content (manually and via third-party anti-spam/verification tools). Do not submit private or confidential information. We may remove, edit, move, or close any Content or thread; restrict or terminate any account; and deny access at our discretion and without notice. Content reflects the views of its author, not WindowsForum.

4) Your Content: Ownership & License

You retain ownership of your Content, but by posting you grant WindowsForum a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, sublicensable, royalty-free license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, display, and re-publish your Content to operate, improve, and promote the Service (including backup, moderation, search, and syndication). To the extent permitted by law, you waive any moral rights as against WindowsForum for those purposes. This license survives account termination. Content outside WindowsForum remains governed by its own rights.

5) AI Use Policy

WindowsForum is powered by AI (for features such as search, summaries, content assistance, and moderation). By using these features, you agree:

Do not use AI to:

• Violate laws or rights (including IP), enable fraud, generate malware, or facilitate unlawful activity.
• Produce or distribute spam, mass unsolicited messages, or deceptive content.
• Harass, dox, or target individuals or groups with hate or abuse.
• Circumvent safety systems, perform prompt-injection/data-exfiltration, scrape hidden/paid content, attempt model extraction, or probe security.
• Generate or request disallowed content as defined elsewhere in these Terms.

Important notes:

• AI output may be inaccurate or incomplete and is provided for informational purposes only; it is not professional advice. You are responsible for how you use it.
• We may log and review AI interactions to enforce these Terms, improve quality, and prevent abuse. Abuse may result in rate limits, feature restrictions, or account action.

6) DMCA (Copyright)

Respect copyright. Do not post full articles or materials without permission. If you believe your content has been used on the Service in a way that constitutes infringement, please send a DMCA notice via our Contact Us page including: (1) your signature; (2) identification of the work; (3) the allegedly infringing material and its URL; (4) your contact information; (5) a good-faith statement; and (6) a statement under penalty of perjury that you are authorized and the notice is accurate. We may remove or disable access to material and, where appropriate, terminate repeat infringers.

7) Access Restrictions & Unauthorized Access

If your access is restricted or terminated, any attempt to bypass restrictions or to access our servers, services, IP addresses, social media, or related properties without authorization may violate applicable laws on unauthorized access.

8) Disclaimers, Liability Limits, Indemnity

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available.” We do not warrant that it will be error-free, secure, or uninterrupted. Posts (“advice”) are user opinions; you assume all risk from acting on information here.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including loss of data or computer damage arising from or related to your use of the Service. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless WindowsForum, its owners, staff, and members from claims and expenses arising from (a) your Content; (b) your use or misuse of the Service (including AI features); or (c) your violation of these Terms or others’ rights.

9) Privacy (Concise Summary)

What we collect: account info (e.g., username, email), optional profile/form data, cookies/analytics, and limited third-party ad/analytics data (e.g., Google).

How we use it: to operate/improve the Service, personalize features, moderate content, provide support, run surveys/promotions, process transactions, and send service-related or opt-in marketing emails (you can unsubscribe).

Security: reasonable technical/organizational measures; no method is 100% secure.

Cookies: used for preferences, analytics, and ads. Google may use the DART cookie; you can opt out in Google’s ad settings.

Sharing: we do not sell or trade personally identifiable information. We may share with trusted providers under confidentiality, or as required by law, to enforce policies, or protect rights/safety. We may share aggregated, non-personal data.

Third-party links: governed by their own policies.

Your rights: Under CalOPPA, you may log in to edit profile information. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13 (COPPA).

10) Android App (Prominent Disclosure)

If you use our Android app, it may optionally request location (for analytics and improvement) and storage (for caching). You can grant/deny these and change them anytime in App permissions. We do not access your contacts. If any data collection is unrelated to clearly described functionality, we will prominently disclose and seek affirmative consent before collection, per Google Play policy.

11) Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms and the Privacy summary with or without notice. Continued use means you accept the updated terms. The effective date above will be updated upon modification.

12) Contact

For DMCA, privacy, or general inquiries, please use the Contact Us page on WindowsForum.com.

To report an inaccuracy or violation of the Terms of Service, please use the Report option when logged into the forum.