General Terms and Conditions of Use

Last updated: December 29, 2009

This is a free translation into English of the General Terms and Conditions of Use published in the French language and is provided solely for the convenience of English-speaking readers. All possible care has been taken to ensure that the translation is an accurate representation of the original. However, in all matters of opinion or interpretation of information, the original language version of the document in French takes precedence over the translation.

Persons concerned

All registered contactfrancophones.com users, defined as individuals whose registration has been validated by the website administrators, are subsequently herein referred to as “Members”.

In registering for membership, Members have unconditionally accepted the following terms and conditions, which are subject to laws applicable in France. These terms and conditions are binding for all Members, whatever the local laws of their country of residence.

In the event of a legal dispute, the French language version only of these terms and conditions shall be subject to interpretation before the courts.

Article 1- Purpose of this website and anti-spam policy

The purpose of the frenchspeakingpeople.com website is to provide a medium for exchange between French speakers and French language learners worldwide over the Internet. The site enables Members to contact other Members, but does not guarantee any particular outcome of this exchange. In order to limit spamming, every member is allowed to contact 15 new members a week, and not more than 15.

Article 2- Member obligations

Each person can create only ONE account on www.frenchspeakingpeople.com or on www.contactsfrancophones.com.

In accepting the terms and conditions of frenchspeakingpeople.com, Members agree that they:

• Are at least 18 years of age.
• Will communicate only truthful information about themselves and will update this information in the event that it changes.
• Will not disclose their password to any third party. 
• Will not disclose any information obtained via this website regarding any other member to any third party. 

• Will respect the applicable laws and regulations in force and, in particular, but not exclusively, refrain from making any violent, racist, xenophobic, insulting, libelous or pornographic statements on this website. Members will also strictly refrain from engaging in solicitation of prostitution or pandering and, generally, any form of illegal activity, when sending messages through frenchspeakingpeople.com or posting information about themselves on the website at the time of registration or at any other time.

• Will not include in these messages or information any hypertext links to other websites that may be in violation of the law.

• Will post only authentic and decent photographs.

• Will not post content or take any action that infringes or violates someone else's rights or otherwise violates the law. We can remove any content or information you post on if we believe that it violates this principle.

   

• Will not post links to other Internet sites, blogs or email addresses on their personal page. Such links may only be communicated in messages exchanged between Members.

• Will write his personal statement -or at least a part of it- in French. The statement must be related to the purpose of this website.

• Will not use this website to compete directly or indirectly with frenchspeakingpeople.com or contactsfrancophones.com.

• Will not send "spams"

Each person can only create ONE account on this site.

Members acknowledge that frenchspeakingpeople.com is not liable in the event that its responsibility is sought in connection with the illegal and/or non-contractual behavior of one of its Members.

Article 3- Responsibility

Frenchspeakingpeople.com does not accept responsibility, legal or otherwise, for false statements made by any of its Members. Nor does it accept responsibility for identify theft committed by any of its Members.

Personal profile use, including fraudulent use, is the sole responsibility of the individual Member to which the personal profile is attached.

It is not within the means, purpose or obligation of frenchspeakingpeople.com to moderate or control the content (picture, personal statement, messages...). If a content contains unethical or illegal content – such as, but not limited to, racist, xenophobic, insulting, libelous, violent or pornographic statements – all members are invited to immediately contact frenchspeakingpeople.com by clicking on: “Report abuse”.

Frenchspeakingpeople.com does not accept any responsibility for the outcome of any face-to-face meetings arranged between Members or non-Members through frenchspeakingpeople.com. As a precaution, an initial face-to-face meeting or an initial series of such meetings should be organized in a public place, and a close friend or family member should be informed of the event beforehand.

By disclosing personal information about themselves on the sign-up page and, where applicable, by posting any personal photos on the website, Members agree to refrain from taking legal action against frenchspeakingpeople.com in the event that their image, reputation, credibility or privacy are compromised. The consequences of willingly disclosing personal information about themselves or other people on the website are the sole responsibility of the Members concerned. 

Article 4- The information we collect

In signing up for frenchspeakingpeople.com, Members agree that the personal information they have entered in the registration form, the searches they have conducted on the website, their use of its services and any other such data may be kept by frenchspeakingpeople.com for the entire duration of their membership.

Some of this information may be communicated with our partners, who may then send marketing messages to our Members. If Members do not want their personal information to be shared with our partners, they must inform us of this when they register by removing the checkmark from the appropriate box.

Members agrees their personal information they have entered -including their personal picture- may be seen by other people surfing on this website. But their email adress will always remain hidden.

To effectively meet the needs of our Members, we store information from their browser using “cookies”. A cookie is a piece of data stored on each Member’s computer that helps us monitor individual use of our website. It also enables Members to avoid logging in on every page. Members can disable cookies using the settings in their browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla, etc…).

Members may modify their personal information at any time by clicking on “Change my profile” on their home page. They may also unsubscribe at any time by clicking on “Unsubscribe”. Frenchspeakingpeople.com will then store the unsubscribed Member’s personal information for a period of three years. If Members wish us to delete all their personal information once they have unsubscribed, they must write to us through the “Contact us” page.

Each user’s IP address is stored automatically on initial registration and each time a Member sends a message. This information may be stored by us for up to three years.

In the event that frenchspeakingpeople.com decides to create websites that are identical to the original, but under different names, Members agree that their personal sign-up information, written profile and photo may be duplicated and posted on these new websites.

Article 5- Intellectual property

Members are prohibited from reproducing or using content concerning other members, including messages, written profiles and photos, for any purpose other than personal use in relation to our website.

Trademarks, written content, logos, graphics, multi-media and other content that appear on frenchspeakingpeople.com are the intellectual property of Village Point Com, the website publisher. The use or reproduction of this property is prohibited without the express permission of frenchspeakingpeople.com and is punishable by law.

Article 6- Quality of service

Given the many technical problems that can disrupt proper Internet functioning, Members agree that frenchspeakingpeople.com can on no occasion be held responsible for an unintentional technical malfunction of the website. They also agree that frenchspeakingpeople.com may be momentarily disabled by the website administrators in order to update its content or perform maintenance work.

Article 7- Changes in the General Terms and Conditions of Use

The General Terms and Conditions of Use may be changed at any time. Members may choose to unsubscribe if they do not agree with these changes. 

Article 8- Fees

In the start-up phase of this website, Members will be able to use our services free of charge. However, the website administrators reserve the right to impose a fee at a later time, in which case existing Members will be alerted by email one month in advance that our free service is coming to an end and that they may either terminate their membership or confirm their membership under the new conditions.

Article 9- Unsubscribing and Deletion

Members may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link provided. Once unsubscribed, the Member’s profile will be deleted from the website and will no longer be visible to other users.

If a Member does not fulfill one of the abovementioned Member Obligations, frenchspeakingpeople.com may delete that Member from the website immediately.

Article 10- Publisher

Frenchspeakingpeople.com is published by SARL Village Point Com, which has its registered office at 101 rue Saint Maur, 75011 Paris.
Siret number: 477 939 979 00027.