Community Standards and Terms
The rules that keep a shared space usable, and what taking part does and does not mean
Welcome to IndiaAbroad.org
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of IndiaAbroad.org (the "Services"). By using our Services, you agree to these Terms.
What India Abroad is
IndiaAbroad.org provides and maintains the shared platform. The community itself belongs to the people who participate in it. India Abroad is a program of Maxsys International Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States, EIN 92-2184705.
India Abroad does not provide emergency response, legal or immigration advice, housing, or financial assistance, and it is not a substitute for local authorities or a qualified professional. Anyone may take part. There is no application, no approval and no membership, and moderation governs what is posted rather than who is allowed to post it.
Acceptance of Terms
By using our Services, you agree to:
- • Be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy
- • Comply with the laws that apply where you live
- • Respect the dignity of everyone else here
- • Use our Services only for lawful purposes
- • Be truthful in anything you tell us or post
Important Notice
If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use our Services. Your continued use of our Services constitutes acceptance of any updates to these Terms.
Who can take part
Anyone living outside India who identifies with Indian heritage already belongs here. That includes people who arrived last year and people whose families settled abroad generations ago. We do not ask for proof of ancestry, nationality, citizenship, immigration status, religion, caste, language, region, profession, education or income, and nobody is vetted or approved before taking part.
The one limit
- • You must be 18 or older to use these Services
- • You need the legal capacity to agree to these Terms
- • We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18
Organisations are welcome too
- • Associations, cultural and religious organisations, volunteer groups and businesses may take part
- • If you act for an organisation, make sure you are allowed to
- • No organisation owns a locality, controls access to its people, or speaks for anyone there
Accounts, and what we ask you for
There is no account today
This site has no sign-up, no password and no profile. Nothing on it asks you to create an account, and nothing on it can. The only information you give us is what you type into a form: to post a notice, reply, ask the Helpline, offer to volunteer, contact us, or give. Each asks only for what that task needs.
Taking part needs a working email address and nothing else. There is no registration, no membership and no higher status.
Looking after the email address you use
What you can do
- • Use an address only you can read
- • Tell us if you think someone else is posting as you
- • Keep any link we email you to yourself, because it is the key to what you posted
What we do
- • Serve the whole site over an encrypted connection
- • Never show your email address on a notice. It reaches another participant only when you reply to them
- • Never sell or rent your personal information
- • Leave card details to our payment processor, so we never hold them
Community Guidelines
What these guidelines are for
They govern what is posted, never who is allowed to post it. Local volunteers and local organisations may help apply them in their own town. Moderating is a responsibility, and it gives nobody social authority over anyone else.
✓ Encouraged Behaviour
- • Share experiences and cultural insights
- • Offer support and encouragement
- • Ask questions and seek advice
- • Celebrate achievements and milestones
- • Connect with others near you
- • Share resources and opportunities
✓ Respectful Communication
- • Use inclusive and welcoming language
- • Respect diverse perspectives and backgrounds
- • Engage in constructive discussions
- • Practice empathy and understanding
- • Honour cultural differences
- • Support the people around you
✗ Prohibited Behaviour
- • Harassment, bullying, or intimidation
- • Discriminatory or hateful content
- • Spam, scams, or fraudulent activities
- • Sharing false or misleading information
- • Publishing someone else's personal information
- • Commercial solicitation without permission
✗ Serious Violations
- • Threats or incitement to violence
- • Illegal activities or content
- • Impersonating another person or organisation
- • Sharing explicit or inappropriate content
- • Attempting to hack or disrupt the platform
- • Reposting under another identity to get around a moderation decision
Content and Intellectual Property
Your Content Rights
• You keep ownership of anything you write or send us
• You give us permission to show it where you chose to put it, and nowhere else
• You are responsible for having the right to share what you share
• You can edit or delete your own notices using the link we email you
Organisations, events and businesses
When you share a note or an offer you choose its topic. Say it truly: an event needs its real date, and an organisation must be one that exists and serves the community. Local moderators may change what an offer is called, correct its details, or remove it.
Events, organisations and businesses are put on the board by our staff and stay until our staff remove them; an event is no longer shown once its date has passed. Being listed is not an endorsement, a recommendation or a guarantee of anything the business or organisation does.
Some places of worship and organisations in the United States are listed by India Abroad from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), and say so; elsewhere, some listings may be made from public information. They may be out of date: please check before you travel, and use "Suggest a correction" when something is wrong. An organisation that would like to look after its listing writes to us through the contact form ("This is us"). Indian embassies, high commissions and consulates are listed by India Abroad from official lists; for anything official, the mission's own website is the authority.
Our Content and Trademarks
Protected Materials
- • IndiaAbroad.org name and logo
- • Website design and layout
- • The community resource guides
- • Software and platform features
Permitted Use
- • Personal, non-commercial use
- • Sharing links to our content
- • Brief excerpts with attribution
- • Educational and research purposes
Copyright Infringement
We respect intellectual property rights and expect the same. If you believe your copyright has been infringed, write to us at [email protected] with:
- • Description of the copyrighted work
- • Location of the infringing material
- • Your contact information
- • Statement of good faith belief
- • Electronic signature
Contributions
Who receives your contribution
Contributions are received by Maxsys International Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States, EIN 92-2184705. They are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Giving is entirely optional, it creates no membership, and it places nobody above anyone else.
How a payment is handled:
- • Card details go to Stripe, our payment processor, and never to us
- • A receipt is emailed to the address you give
- • Nothing is charged until you confirm the payment
Monthly contributions:
- • A monthly contribution repeats on the same date each month
- • It continues until you stop it
- • Write to us to stop it, and we will
What contributions pay for
Public contributions go to the platform itself: keeping access open, protecting privacy, supporting volunteers, and extending local connection to more places. They are not collected on behalf of any other organisation, and they do not buy emergency, legal, immigration, housing or financial help, because India Abroad does not provide any of those.
If you gave by mistake, gave more than you meant to, or want a monthly contribution stopped, write to us at [email protected] and tell us what happened. See the transparency page for the public documentation of the operating nonprofit.
Service Availability and Modifications
Service Availability
- • We aim to keep the site available, and we do not guarantee uninterrupted service
- • Maintenance may take parts of it offline
- • Some features may be temporarily unavailable
- • The site is not a place to rely on in an emergency
Service Modifications
- • We may update, modify, or discontinue features
- • Material changes will be posted on this page
- • We may remove content or block access for a serious breach of these Terms
- • New features may be withdrawn without notice
Privacy and Data Protection
Your Privacy Matters
Our Privacy Policy explains what we collect, why, and who else sees it. By using our Services, you also agree to our Privacy Policy.
Key Privacy Commitments
- • We never sell your personal information
- • We ask for the least a task needs
- • Your email address is never shown on a notice, and reaches another participant only in a reply you send
- • You can ask us to delete what you sent us
Data Rights
- • Ask what we hold about you
- • Ask us to correct it
- • Ask us to delete it
- • Ask us to stop emailing you
Disclaimers and Limitations
Service Disclaimer
Our Services are provided "as is" and "as available." The community resource guides are starting points, not professional advice, and we make no warranties about the completeness, reliability or accuracy of them or of anything shared by another participant.
Limitation of Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, IndiaAbroad.org shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of our Services.
This includes but is not limited to damages for loss of profits, data, or other intangible losses, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
Third-Party Content and Links
What people post:
- • We do not endorse anyone's opinions
- • People are responsible for what they post
- • We moderate but cannot read everything
External Links:
- • We are not responsible for external websites
- • Third-party terms and policies apply
- • Naming an organisation is not an endorsement of it
Stopping, and being stopped
Leaving
- • There is nothing to cancel, because there is nothing to join
- • Ask us to delete what you sent us and we will
- • Ask us to stop a monthly contribution and we will
- • Some records are kept where the law requires it
Being blocked
- • We may remove content that breaks these guidelines
- • We may block access after a serious or repeated breach
- • We will say why, where we can
- • Write to us if you think we got it wrong
What we keep
Kept:
- • Records of contributions, because charity law requires it
- • Aggregated usage figures that identify nobody
Not kept:
- • Your email address, once you ask us to remove it and the law allows
- • Card details, which we never held in the first place
Governing Law and Disputes
Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California and of the United States, without regard to conflict of law principles. Maxsys International Inc. is a California nonprofit corporation.
Wherever you live, the law of your own country and locality applies to you as well, and nothing here displaces it.
If something goes wrong between us
1. Tell us first
Most things are settled by someone explaining what happened. Write to us at [email protected].
2. Mediation
If that does not settle it, we would rather use a mediator we both agree on than go to court.
3. Your legal rights are untouched
Nothing here asks you to give up a right you hold under the law where you live.
Changes to These Terms
How we update these Terms
We update these Terms when what the platform does changes, or when the law that applies to it does.
How you will know
- • The date at the top of this page changes
- • A material change is described here, not buried
- • We have no mailing list, so we cannot email you about it
Your Options
- • Read the change
- • Write to us with questions or concerns
- • Stop using the Services if you disagree
- • Continued use constitutes acceptance
Contact Us
Questions About These Terms?
Ask. Nothing on this page is meant to be read twice to be understood, and if a part of it is, we would rather know.
Reporting something you have seen
Use the same contact route and say what and where. Reports are read by a person.
Emergencies
Contact your local emergency services. We are not one.
Maxsys International Incorporated
501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 92-2184705
1968 S. Coast Hwy #5786
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
United States