Fotowalk

Terms of use

Last updated 1 Jan 1980

Who we are

Fotowalk is run by Andy Blackshaw, a sole trader, at Flat 49 Hale Point, 45 Ilford Hill, Ilford IG1 2ZL, England. Email: hello@fotowalk.co.uk. ICO registration: applied for.

The short version

  • You keep the copyright in your photos and the credit for them.
  • We may only show them on Fotowalk. We do not sell them, license them to anyone or use them in adverts.
  • You can delete anything you post, whenever you like, and download a copy of your walks.
  • Walk authors cannot remove other people's contributions, but if they report one it is hidden until we have looked. We can remove anything that breaks these terms.
  • Report anything that worries you with the Report link.

Who can use Fotowalk

Anyone can read walks. To publish or contribute you need an account, and you must be 16 or over. Under-16s are welcome to read walks but cannot hold an account. Keep your sign-in details to yourself; you are responsible for what is posted from your account.

Your photos and the licence you give us

You keep the copyright in every photo you upload, and your name is shown as the credit.

By uploading a photo you give us a licence to store it, resize it and show it on Fotowalk, including in the preview image when someone shares a link to the walk. The licence:

  • is non-exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else;
  • is free of charge;
  • covers Fotowalk only. We will not sell or sublicense your photo, and we will not use it in advertising unless we ask you first and you say yes;
  • ends when the photo is deleted from Fotowalk, apart from the time it takes to clear it from backups (see the privacy notice).

When someone makes their own version of a walk, it copies the route line, never your photos.

Only upload photos you took, or that you have the right to share. If a recognisable person is the main subject of your photo, think about whether they would mind; we may remove photos of people on request.

Contributing to someone else's walk

After walking a route you can add photos and tips to its stops. Your contribution:

  • stays yours, under the same licence above, credited to you. The walk's author gets no rights in it;
  • takes the stop's location setting, so it never shows a more exact location than the author chose;
  • goes through the same checks as everything else. Your first contributed photo is checked by a person before it appears.

What walk authors can do

The author of a walk cannot remove other people's contributions. If the author reports a contribution, it is hidden from the walk until a person has reviewed it, then either put back or kept hidden. Hidden contributions are not deleted: they stay on your profile and in your export, and every hold and decision is logged.

If an author deletes their walk, your contributions to it leave public view. They stay in your export for 30 days and are then deleted.

What you must not post

Nothing illegal, and nothing that:

  • threatens, harasses, abuses or shows hatred towards anyone;
  • gives someone else's home address or tracks a person's movements;
  • is sexual, or shows anyone in a private setting without their consent;
  • encourages people onto private land without access, onto railways, or into danger;
  • reveals the exact location of nesting birds or protected wildlife;
  • is spam or advertising (a link to your own workshops or prints on your profile is fine);
  • copies someone else's photos or text.

How we check content

Text you publish (walk and stop names, tips, profile text) and reports are checked automatically by a screening tool (Jev, run by TypeSafe) when you publish. If it flags something, the item is held for a person to look at, not refused. If the tool is unavailable, your content goes live and is checked later. A person makes every final decision to remove anything.

What we can do

We can hide or remove any walk, photo, tip or profile, and suspend or close an account, if it breaks these terms or the law, or puts someone at risk. We will tell you why unless that would put someone at risk or break the law. You can appeal (see below).

We may change or stop parts of the service. We will give you notice of anything that affects your content and time to download it. We never promise that a walk or photo will stay up forever.

Your rights

  • Delete: you can delete any walk, photo, tip or your whole account at any time.
  • Export: you can download your own walks, with your photos, at any time.
  • Credit: your name stays on your photos wherever Fotowalk shows them.

Reporting and complaints

Use the Report link on any walk, profile, photo or tip, no account needed. Landowners get a decision within 14 days. How we handle reports, appeals and complaints, with timescales, is in our complaints procedure. You can block another member; neither of you will see the other's walks, photos or tips, and they are not told.

  • Fotowalk is free and offered as it is. Walk information is written by users and may be wrong or out of date: check access, opening times and conditions yourself, and take care.
  • Nothing in these terms affects your rights as a consumer.
  • These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.
  • If we change these terms we will say so on the site, and for any change that affects your photos we will ask you first.