Terms of Service

These Terms of Service constitute a binding legal agreement between you and Philoware Limited trading as Constituency and govern your right to access and use the Platform.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") constitute a binding legal agreement between you and Philoware Limited trading as Constituency ("Constituency," "Company", "we," "us," or "our") and govern your right to access and use the websites, applications, and other offerings made available by Constituency (collectively, the "Platform"). Philoware Limited is a company incorporated in Ireland with its registered office at PhilHQ, Foxford, Co. Mayo, Ireland F26PP40. When used in these Terms: ● "User," "you," or "your" refers to any person accessing or using the Platform; ● "Citizen" means a natural person acting in a personal capacity who submits and/or support, and tracks a Case through the Platform; ● "Representative" means Public Representative or Political Participant Representative collectively. ● "Public Representative" means an elected public office holder, or an individual authorised by such office holder, who uses the Platform in a professional or official capacity. ● "Political Participant Representative" means an individual who is not currently an elected public office holder but uses the Platform in connection with political participation, including individuals who intend to run for public office in a future election, or candidates who previously ran for office but were not elected. ● "Case" means a request, enquiry, complaint, or other matter submitted by a Citizen for review, action, or response by a Representative through the Platform. ● "Public Cases" are cases accessible to other Users and may be indexed by external search engines. Constituency may anonymize or redact personally identifiable information prior to publication. It is visible to other Users and publicly accessible on the Platform's website. Public Cases may also be indexed by search engines and therefore may be searchable through external search services. ● "Private Cases" are cases accessible only to the designated Representatives and the submitting Citizen, except where disclosure is required by applicable law, court order, or an official request from a competent authority. It is visible only to the selected Representative and office and the submitting Citizen. ● "Content" means any text, images, files or data uploaded to the Service. ● "Platform" means the Constituency web application and related APIs. ● "Petitions" means a mechanism on the Platform that allows Citizens to indicate support for a Public Case or issue by endorsing or signing it, for the purpose of demonstrating public interest or collective concern to Representatives. ● "Walk-In Submission" means the process by which a Case is recorded and entered into the Platform by a Representative or authorised staff member on behalf of a Citizen, whether the Citizen is physically present or otherwise unable to directly use the Platform interface. By creating an account, clicking to accept these Terms, or otherwise accessing or using the Platform, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be legally bound by these Terms and all policies incorporated by reference.

1. Platform Description and Scope

The Platform is a hosted digital service that facilitates civic engagement by enabling Users ("Citizens") to submit civic issues ("Cases"), and authorised users ("Representatives") to represent with such Cases. Constituency provides the infrastructure, Web-Based Platform, software, interfaces, communications tools, and related technology necessary for the submission, viewing, interaction, and management of Private or Public Cases or Petitions. Constituency does not act as an agent, representative, or official decision-maker on behalf of any government or public authority, does not provide professional, legal, medical, or financial advice, and makes no representations regarding the outcome, effectiveness, or impact of any Case. All content generated by Users remains their responsibility unless otherwise explicitly stated.

2. Account Registration and Verification

To access certain features of the Platform, including but not limited to submitting Cases and engaging with Case communications and Petitions, you must register for an account. Registration requires you to provide accurate, complete, and current information. You agree to update such information promptly when it changes. You must provide accurate information at all times, keep your login credentials confidential. Once your email address has been verified, you will be required to enable two-factor authentication (2FA). After activation, you will be prompted to complete 2FA each time you log in to your account. Constituency shall require secondary verification (including identity verification) to confirm your eligibility and mitigate fraud, impersonation, or abusive conduct, the details of which are provided under the Citizen-Specific Policies. Constituency reserves the right to suspend, refuse, or close any account where verification information is false, misleading, or where continued access poses a security or legal risk.

3. Eligibility and Feature Access

Access to and use of certain features of the Platform may be restricted or tiered based on the User's verified citizenship, residency status, or demonstrable connection to a constituency, as determined through the Platform's verification process. Users with verified electoral entitlement within a relevant constituency shall be granted full access to constituency engagement features, while other Users shall be granted limited access to the Platform, including access to public content and such other functionalities as may be made available from time to time. Users with limited access may create and maintain an account, view Public Cases and Petitions, submit Cases subject to additional review, routing, or limitation, and engage with general civic content, but may be restricted from accessing priority or direct constituency engagement channels and from being treated as part of a Representative's core electorate queue.

4. Age Requirement

The Platform is intended solely for individuals who are at least eighteen (18) years of age. By creating an account or using the Platform, you represent and warrant that you are eighteen (18) years of age or older and have full legal capacity to enter into binding agreements. Individuals under the age of eighteen (18) are not permitted to create or maintain an account. Any Case, Petition, or communication relating to a minor must be submitted by a parent or legal guardian with the legal authority to act on their behalf. By doing so, the parent or guardian represents that all necessary consents under applicable law, including data protection laws, have been obtained and accepts responsibility for such submission. Constituency reserves the right to request reasonable verification of such authority and to remove or restrict any content where such authority cannot be demonstrated.

5. User Obligations

All Users agree to comply with these Terms and all applicable laws and regulations, including but not limited to data protection, public order, anti-discrimination, criminal, civil, and intellectual property laws. Users must not engage in conduct that interferes with the normal operation of the Platform, including but not limited to spreading malware, conducting denial of service attacks, scraping content without consent, or any conduct that unlawfully infringes on the rights of others. Users must respect the privacy and personal data of other Users and must not abuse, harass, threaten, or discriminate against any person.

6. Citizen Case Submission Framework

Users submitting Cases retain ownership of their submitted text and data, subject to a licence granted to Constituency in these Terms. Cases may be designated as Public or Private. Public Cases are accessible to other Users and may be indexed by external search engines. Constituency may anonymise personally identifying information prior to publication. Private Cases are only accessible to designated Representatives and the submitting Citizen, except where disclosure is required by law or official request. Users must ensure that Cases contain only lawful content and do not violate rights of others, including privacy, reputation, or intellectual property rights, including copyright, subject to other provisions included under the Privacy Policy and the respective Terms of Service for both the Citizen and the Representative.

7. Walk-In Submission and Citizen Confirmation

The Platform may permit a Representative or authorised staff member to record and input Case details on behalf of a Citizen, whether the Citizen is physically present or unable to access or use the Platform directly, subject to the following rules: (a) Any Case created through assisted submission shall initially be treated as a draft submission and shall not be deemed formally submitted by the Citizen until confirmation is completed in accordance with this Section; (b) The Citizen shall be provided access to review and, if necessary, modify the Case details through their account, which shall be verified through email and identification credentials. No separate verification mechanism shall be required beyond such account access; (c) Upon confirmation, the Case shall be deemed submitted by the Citizen for all purposes under these Terms, and the Citizen shall assume responsibility for the accuracy, legality, and completeness of the content; (d) The Case shall be deemed confirmed and officially submitted at the point of submission by the Citizen through their account and may thereafter be processed as an official submission; (e) The Platform shall not be responsible for verifying the accuracy of information recorded during Assisted Submission and may delete or suspend unconfirmed Cases after a reasonable period.

8. Representative Content Interaction

Representatives authorised by Constituency may view, respond to, and communicate regarding Cases that have been submitted to them and are relevant to their constituency, jurisdiction, or assigned subject matter. Public Representatives shall use this access only in their official capacity and must comply with applicable public ethics, data protection, and anti-discrimination laws, and must not export Citizens' personal data. Representatives recognise that personal data contained in Cases is subject to GDPR and Irish data protection requirements; accordingly, Representatives acting as Controllers for Case data must comply with GDPR obligations in respect of such data.

9. Content Moderation and Enforcement

Constituency may moderate, restrict, suspend, or remove content and User accounts that violate these Terms, Applicable Law, or accepted community standards. Constituency will put in place procedures to respond to User reports of unlawful or harmful content ("Notice-and-Action"). Constituency may provide Users with a reasoned explanation of moderation decisions and may establish an internal complaint handling mechanism where required, the procedure of which is outlined under Data Protection policies. The Platform may likewise use proportionate automated and manual monitoring tools, including profanity and threat filtering, and may block, restrict, redact, or remove content reasonably suspected of violating these Terms or applicable law. The use of human faces in photos or car license plate numbers is likewise not permitted. Any review, moderation, restriction, redaction, or removal carried out by Constituency is undertaken for platform safety, legal compliance, security, abuse prevention, publication-control, intermediary-service compliance, and service integrity purposes only. Such activity does not mean that Constituency determines the Representative's purpose for handling Citizen Case Content or assumes responsibility for the Representative's decisions, responses, statutory duties, official functions, or case outcomes.

10. Intellectual Property Rights

All rights, title, and interest in the Platform, including software, interfaces, logos, text, graphics, and other materials (excluding User Content), are owned or licensed by Constituency. Users grant Constituency a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, reproduce, modify, and display User-submitted content as necessary to operate and improve the Platform. This licence survives account termination only to the extent necessary for legal compliance, dispute resolution, or legitimate operational purposes.

11. Privacy and Data Protection

For Citizen Case Content submitted to, assigned to, accessed by, or handled by a Representative through the Platform, the relevant Representative acts as Data Controller and determines the purposes and means of processing that Citizen Case Content. Philoware Limited trading as Constituency acts as Data Processor for such Citizen Case Content and processes it only to host, transmit, secure, maintain, support, and technically facilitate the Platform, and only on the Representative's documented instructions, except where processing is required by applicable law. For avoidance of doubt, Constituency acts as Data Controller for personal data it determines and processes for its own limited purposes, including representative account administration, citizen account administration, platform administration, website visitor data, cookie consent records, security logs, support requests, abuse prevention, fraud prevention, legal compliance, service improvement, analytics, and platform performance monitoring. Constituency will not use Citizen Case Content for behavioural advertising, unrelated marketing, political profiling, sale of personal data, training of unrelated artificial intelligence systems, or any purpose unrelated to providing, securing, maintaining, supporting, improving the reliability of, or complying with legal obligations relating to the Platform. Users may exercise their data protection rights, including rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection, as described in the Privacy Policy. The designated Data Protection Officer may be contacted at dpo@constituency.ie.

12. Security Measures and ISO Alignment

Constituency implements appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk, including but not limited to encryption in transit, access controls, system logging, monitoring, role-based permissions, and incident response procedures. Security measures are periodically reviewed and updated in line with industry best practices and, where applicable, ISO/IEC 27001 standards. Constituency undertakes to mitigate reasonably foreseeable risks to confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data.

13. Third-Party Services and External Links

The Platform may integrate or contain links to third-party services, including hosting infrastructure, analytics providers, payment processors, and communication tools. Constituency does not control and is not responsible for the availability, content, or privacy practices of such third parties. Users acknowledge that use of third-party services is subject to the respective third party's terms and policies.

14. Fees and Billing

Subscription tiers may apply separately to Public Office Representatives and Political Participant Representatives. Tier classification relates only to differences in service scope, such as the number of staff seats, volume of active cases, or access to technical features, and does not imply endorsement, certification, electoral advantage, or official recognition. Constituency may modify subscription fees upon thirty (30) days' prior written notice, and continued use of the Platform constitutes acceptance of such changes. Representatives remain solely responsible for complying with any applicable public procurement, ethics, financial disclosure, or electoral finance laws in relation to their subscription payments.

15. Disclaimers

The Platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Constituency disclaims all warranties, whether express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, uninterrupted availability, or non-infringement. Nothing in these Terms limits statutory rights that cannot be excluded under Irish or EU consumer law.

16. Limitation of Liability

16.1. Excluded Losses

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Constituency shall not be liable for (a) loss, corruption or inaccessibility of data, files or Cases, except to the extent caused by Constituency's breach of its applicable security obligations; (b) unauthorised access resulting from compromised credentials or failure to use available security features such as two-factor authentication (2FA); or (c) any loss of profits, revenue, goodwill, anticipated savings, or any indirect, incidental or consequential loss.

16.2. Liability Cap

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Constituency's total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Platform shall not exceed the greater of: (i) €100; or (ii) the total amount paid by the User (if any) in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

16.3. Non-Excludable Liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for: (a) death or personal injury caused by negligence; (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or (c) any liability which cannot lawfully be excluded or limited under applicable law.

16.4. Export and External Processing

Where a Representative exports, downloads, transmits, stores, prints, forwards, discloses, or otherwise uses Citizen Case Content outside the Platform, that activity constitutes independent processing by the Representative as Data Controller. The Representative is solely responsible for ensuring that such processing has a lawful basis, is limited to a lawful and compatible purpose, is kept secure, is retained only for as long as necessary, and is disclosed only to recipients who may lawfully receive it.

17. Indemnification

Users agree to indemnify and hold harmless Constituency, its directors, officers, and employees from claims, losses, damages, liabilities, and expenses arising from unlawful User Content, breach of these Terms, or violation of applicable law.

18. Suspension and Termination

Constituency may suspend or terminate User accounts where Users violate these Terms, engage in unlawful conduct, pose security risks, or where required by law. Repeated violations may result in permanent removal. Users may terminate their accounts at any time, subject to data retention obligations. The Company may preserve, disclose, or provide access to personal data where required by law, including pursuant to lawful requests or statutory powers exercised under the Data Protection Act 2018 or other applicable Irish or European Union legislation.

19. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of Ireland. Any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Irish courts, without prejudice to mandatory EU consumer protection laws applicable in the User's country of residence.

20. Changes to the Terms

Constituency reserves the right to amend, update, or modify these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in law, regulatory requirements, business operations, technical developments, or platform functionality.

21. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, that provision shall be severed and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions. The remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect to the maximum extent permitted by law. Where possible, an invalid provision shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with applicable law to reflect, as closely as possible, the original intent of the parties.

22. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and any additional policies expressly incorporated by reference, constitute the entire agreement between you and Constituency regarding your access to and use of the Platform. These Terms supersede any prior agreements, communications, representations, or understandings (whether oral or written) relating to the subject matter herein. No waiver or modification of these Terms shall be effective unless in writing and expressly agreed by Constituency.

23. Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding these Terms, the Platform, or your legal rights and obligations, you may contact: Philoware Limited trading as Constituency PhilHQ, Foxford, Co. Mayo, Ireland F26PP40 Email: info@constituency.ie Data Protection Officer: dpo@constituency.ie In accordance with applicable law, Constituency makes this contact information publicly accessible to ensure transparency and regulatory compliance.