Terms & Conditions

4.1 Profile Accuracy: You are responsible for ensuring that all information on your profile is accurate, current, and not misleading. Misrepresentation of qualifications, skills, or university affiliation is a material breach of these Terms and may result in immediate account termination.

4.2 Profile Visibility: By creating a profile, you consent to it being visible to verified employer accounts on TechLocal. You can set your profile to "not available" at any time through account settings.

4.3 Contact Requests: You have the right to decline any contact request from an employer without consequence. You are under no obligation to respond.

4.4 No Fee to Students: TechLocal is and will always be free for student and graduate users. We will never charge you to create a profile, receive contact requests, or use any core platform feature.

4.5 Profile Data for Research: By agreeing to these Terms, you acknowledge the use of your data in aggregated, anonymised, or pseudonymised form for internal research, platform improvement, and educational purposes as described in our Privacy Policy. You may object to this processing at any time by emailing privacy@techlocal.uk.

5.1 Verification: Employer accounts are subject to manual verification before receiving full access to student profiles. We reserve the right to refuse or revoke employer access at our sole discretion.

5.2 Permitted Use: Employers may use TechLocal only for identifying candidates for genuine employment, internship, freelance, contract, or project-based opportunities.

5.3 Prohibited Employer Conduct: Employers must not:

• Use student contact details obtained through TechLocal for any purpose other than the stated hiring purpose
• Sell, transfer, or share student contact details with any third party
• Approach students for multi-level marketing, pyramid schemes, or non-genuine opportunities
• Use the platform for bulk data harvesting or scraping
• Misrepresent the nature of an opportunity, salary, or working conditions

5.4 Employer as Independent Data Controller: When an employer contacts a student through TechLocal, the employer becomes an independent Data Controller for any personal data the student shares in response. Employers are solely responsible for their own GDPR compliance.

6.1 Credits allow employers to send contact requests to students. Each contact request consumes one credit.

6.2 Credits are non-transferable between accounts, non-exchangeable for cash, and redeemable only for sending contact requests on TechLocal.

6.3 Credits are not electronic money and do not constitute a regulated financial instrument.

6.4 No Refunds or Returns: All credit purchases are final. Credits are consumed immediately upon sending a contact request. Credits are not returned regardless of whether the student accepts, declines, or ignores the request.

6.5 Consumer Rights: If you are a consumer purchasing credits for personal use, you may have a 14-day right to cancel under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. This may not apply if digital content has been fully delivered and you consented to immediate performance.

7.1 Platform IP: All intellectual property in TechLocal including software, design, branding, interface, and documentation is owned by or licensed to Digital Towns Ltd. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works without prior written consent.

7.2 Your Content: You retain ownership of all content you upload. By uploading content, you grant Digital Towns Ltd a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to store and display that content for platform operation, use it in anonymised form for internal research, and generate anonymised statistics for university partners. This licence does not permit us to sell your content or share it individually with third parties.

7.3 Content Standards: You must not upload content that infringes third-party intellectual property rights; is defamatory, offensive, or discriminatory; contains malware; misrepresents your identity; or violates any applicable law.

8.1 TechLocal uses and intends to develop AI-assisted features including profile suggestions and talent matching. All AI features comply with the EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) and UK AI governance frameworks.

8.2 Risk Classification: All current AI features are classified as Limited Risk or Minimal Risk under the EU AI Act. We do not deploy High-Risk AI systems.

8.3 No Automated Final Decisions: No AI system on TechLocal makes final decisions about employment, access to opportunities, or individual scoring without human oversight. You may request human review of any AI output by emailing privacy@techlocal.uk.

8.4 AI Transparency: AI-generated content and AI-assisted recommendations are clearly labelled in the interface in accordance with Article 50 of the EU AI Act. See our AI Transparency page for details.

8.5 Bias and Fairness: We conduct regular bias assessments of AI features and take corrective action where bias is identified.

You agree not to use TechLocal to:

• Harass, threaten, bully, or discriminate against any other user
• Post or transmit content that is unlawful, harmful, fraudulent, or deceptive
• Gain unauthorised access to any part of the platform or another user's account
• Use automated tools, bots, or scripts to scrape, harvest, or copy data
• Circumvent, disable, or interfere with any security features
• Impersonate any person or organisation or misrepresent your affiliation
• Upload, transmit, or distribute malware, viruses, or malicious code
• Use the platform in any way that violates applicable UK or EU law

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate any account that breaches this policy, with or without prior notice.

10.1 TechLocal must not be used to discriminate against any user on grounds protected under the Equality Act 2010, including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

10.2 Any employer found to be using TechLocal to screen or exclude candidates on discriminatory grounds will have their account immediately terminated and may be reported to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

10.3 Our AI matching features are designed and tested to minimise discriminatory outputs. We conduct regular bias assessments and take corrective action where bias is identified.

11.1 Availability: We aim to provide TechLocal 24/7 but do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free access. We may suspend the platform for maintenance, security updates, or technical issues without liability.

11.2 No Guarantee of Outcomes: We do not guarantee that use of TechLocal will result in employment, placement, or any specific outcome. All hiring decisions are made solely by employers.

11.3 Limitation of Liability — Business Users: To the maximum extent permitted by law, Digital Towns Ltd will not be liable to business users for any indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive loss including loss of profit, loss of data, or reputational damage.

11.4 Consumer Protection — Student Users: Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability to student users (consumers) for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any matter where limitation is prohibited by the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

12.1 By You: Close your account at any time through Settings > Delete Account. Your profile will be immediately removed from employer search. Personal data will be deleted in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

12.2 By Us: We may suspend or terminate your account if you breach these Terms, provide false information, use your account for prohibited purposes, or if required by law.

12.3 Effect of Termination: Upon termination your licence to use the platform ceases immediately. Unused credits will be forfeited unless termination is due to our breach.

13.1 These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Any dispute will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

13.2 For EU users, nothing in these Terms removes your rights under mandatory EU consumer protection law, including the right to bring proceedings before the courts of your country of habitual residence.

13.3 We encourage users to contact hello@techlocal.uk to resolve disputes informally before initiating legal proceedings.

13.4 Online Dispute Resolution: EU consumers may use the European Commission's ODR platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

14.1 Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force.

14.2 Entire Agreement: These Terms and our Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and Digital Towns Ltd relating to your use of TechLocal.

14.3 Waiver: Our failure to exercise any right under these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that right.

14.4 Assignment: You may not assign your rights under these Terms without our written consent. We may assign our rights in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

• General enquiries: hello@techlocal.uk
• Legal and compliance: legal@techlocal.uk
• Data protection: privacy@techlocal.uk
• Post: Digital Towns Ltd, Launchpad, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, TS1 3BX