By using this feature to import any email addresses (the “Email Import”), you represent and agree that:

• You have collected all email addresses that you will import through the Email Import in accordance with all applicable local, state, provincial, national, international, and other applicable laws, rules, and regulations (“Applicable Law”), and your use and disclosure to us of such email addresses complies with Applicable Law.
• You have provided all required notices and obtained all required consents to engage Medium to send emails on your behalf for commercial or marketing purposes, including sending stories or newsletters.
• You have collected the email addresses that you will import directly from the email recipients and have not bought, rented, or otherwise acquired these addresses in any way from any third-party.
• You will not direct Medium to send any emails to any recipient who has unsubscribed from your mailing list either in the Medium settings or “unsubscribe” link in the Medium email itself, or through contacting you off-platform in any other way. For more information, please see our Help Center article.
• If sending emails using the Medium platform results in significant bounce rates (rate of which email addresses in your list that didn’t receive your email because it was returned by a mail server), recipient complaint rates, or unsubscribe requests in excess of industry standards, or a determination that you have engaged in spam, as defined under our Rules, then Medium may suspend or terminate your use of this Email Import in Medium’s sole discretion.
• When Medium processes the email addresses you import through the Email Import for the purpose of sending emails on your behalf, Medium is a processor or service provider, as those terms are defined under Applicable Law, and Medium processes those emails in accordance with your instructions and on your behalf.
• Medium will not retain, use, or disclose the email addresses for any purpose, including any commercial purpose, other than for the specific purpose of sending emails on your behalf, or as otherwise permitted by Applicable Law, such as honoring recipient unsubscribe requests.

Please note that your use of the Email Import is part of Medium services, and you must comply with our legal terms, including the Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Rules at all times. Medium reserves the right to suspend or terminate your access to Medium and its services with or without notice in Medium’s sole discretion

If you have any questions about this Email Import, please review our Help Center article.

Email Import Terms of Use was originally published in Medium Policy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A Medium Corporation (“Medium”) allows you to access certain premium features or content in exchange for a one-time or recurring fee, as applicable (the “Member Services”). Your transactions and any other use of the Member Services are subject to these Medium Membership Terms of Service (“Membership Terms of Service”). By using a Member Service, you agree to (1) these Membership Terms of Service; and (2) Medium’s Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Rules, and all other terms and conditions that generally apply to the Medium website (all of these together are the “Terms”). Please read the Terms carefully. If you don’t understand them, or don’t accept any part of them, then you’re not allowed to use the Member Services.

Fees. Subscription fees for the Member Services are recurring payments (except where identified as otherwise). The term may be monthly or annual, as described in the course the of transaction. Your subscription begins upon payment of a first installment of subscription fees. The subscription renews monthly or annually as applicable upon the payment of automatically recurring subscription fees. Monthly or annual fees are charged on the same day of the month that the subscription began. (For example, if a monthly subscription began on the 29th, 30th, or 31st day of a month, then membership will renew on the last day of any month that doesn’t have that many days.)

Payment. Medium accepts payment via the current payment method indicated at time of purchase, which may include credit card, Apple Pay, and any other form of payment that we make available to you from time to time. You agree to abide by any relevant Terms of Service or other legal agreement whether with Medium, Apple, Stripe, Google, PayPal or another third party, that governs your use of a given payment processing method. Prices for Member Services may change at any time, and Medium does not provide price protection or refunds in the event of a price reduction or promotional offering. You agree to pay for any Member Services that you order (except during a free trial period). Medium will charge your credit card or other form of payment for the price listed on the relevant Member Services offer, along with any additional amounts relating to applicable taxes, bank fees and currency fluctuations. If you purchase any automatically renewing subscriptions, you agree that Medium will charge the payment method on file on the first day of each billing period for the relevant subscription, and if the payment method on file becomes invalid due to an expired credit card or other similar reason and we are unable to charge you on the next billing period, Medium reserves the right to immediately revoke your access to any Member Services you have ordered until you update your payment method. If you fail to update your payment method within a reasonable amount of time, Medium may cancel your subscription.

Taxes. If Medium is required to collect or pay any taxes in connection with your purchase of Member Services, such taxes will be charged to you at the time of each purchase transaction or other appropriate time as applicable. Additionally, if required by law, you are responsible for reporting and paying certain taxes in connection with your purchase and use of Member Services. Such taxes may include duties, customs fees, or other taxes (other than income tax), along with any related penalties or interest, as applicable to your purchase or country of purchase.

Cancellations and Refunds. You can cancel your Member Services at any time. If you purchase a subscription to Member Services that automatically renews, you may cancel the subscription any time before the end of the current billing period and the cancellation will take effect on the next billing period, except as otherwise communicated to you by Medium. You will retain access to the Member Services from the time you cancel until the start of the next billing period, and will not receive a refund or credit for any remaining days in your current billing period. Subscription fees paid are final and nonrefundable, unless otherwise determined by Medium. If Medium reasonably determines that a user has violated these Membership Terms of Services, Medium may immediately terminate the subscription and the user’s access to Member Services without notice and without refund. Please fill out this form for any refund requests.

Free Trials. Medium may offer free trials to new Member Service subscribers. If you initiate a subscription to Member Services through a free trial offer, you will receive free access to such Member Services for the duration of the free trial period. At the end of the applicable free trial period, you will be charged the price of the subscription and will continue to be charged until you cancel your subscription. To avoid any charges, you must cancel before the end of the free trial period.

License. Your use of the Member Services must be only for personal, non-commercial use. You agree not to use any Member Service, in whole or in part in connection with any public presentation even if no fee is charged (except where such use would not constitute a copyright infringement). You are receiving a non-exclusive license to access the Member Services and all rights, title and interest in the Member Services (including any content offered through the Member Services) not expressly granted to you in these Terms are reserved by Medium and its licensors. If Medium reasonably determines that you violated any part of the Membership Terms of Service, your rights under this Section will immediately terminate and Medium may terminate your access to the Member Services and/or your Medium account without notice and without refund to you.

Restrictions. When you use the Member Services, you may not (or attempt to):

• use any part of the Member Services in an illegal manner or for an illegal purpose;
• share your Medium account password with someone else to allow them to access any part of the Member Services that such person did not order;
• copy, sell, rent, or sublicense the Member Services to any third party;
• circumvent, reverse-engineer, modify, disable, or otherwise tamper with any security technology that Medium or any third-party uses to protect the Member Services or encourage or help anyone else to do so;
• access the Member Service other than by means authorized by Medium; or
  remove any legal notices or labels on Member Services;
• present any false, inaccurate or misleading information in an effort to misrepresent your location or place of residence, and you will not attempt to circumvent any restrictions on access to or availability of the Member Services or content available within the Member Services.

Changes or Discontinuation of Member Services. Medium reserves the right to change the availability of Member Services. In addition, we reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any Member Service with or without notice to you and we will not be liable to you or any third party for any such modifications, suspension, or termination.

Removal or Unavailability of Content. In certain cases, content available within a Member Service may become unavailable due to restrictions from our licensors or other legal or policy reasons. Medium will have no liability to you for any such unavailability.

Changes to the Membership Terms of Service. We may change these Membership Terms of Service from time to time so we encourage you to periodically review the most up-to-date version at https://medium.com/policy/paid-terms-of-service-cc7f8e165178. If you refuse to accept the updated Membership Terms of Service then Medium reserves its right to discontinue your use of the Member Services.

Communications. By using the Member Services, you consent to receiving communications from us including marketing communications such as newsletters about Medium features and content, special offers, promotional announcements, and customer surveys, to your registered email address or via other methods. If you no longer want to receive such communications, simply go to the “Settings” tab in your account page (https://medium.com/me/settings) to manage your Medium communications. Please review our Privacy Policy for further details.

Gift Memberships.

“Gift Memberships” are pre-paid memberships to Medium Member Services, active upon redemption, and subject to these Membership Terms of Service. Each Recipient must agree to these Membership Terms of Service upon redemption of their Gift Membership.

The entire purchase price for the Gift Membership is due at the time of purchase. Payment of the purchase price may be made by any method of payment accepted by Medium at time of purchase. By purchasing a Gift Membership, the Purchaser authorizes Medium to charge the purchase price to the payment method provided. The purchase of a Gift Membership will result in the generation of a unique code (“Access Code”) that will allow Recipient to receive Medium Member Services.

Medium is not responsible and assumes no liability for non-delivery of a Gift Membership email due to an invalid email address, spam filters, or any other reason. The Purchaser is solely responsible for ensuring the Access Code is received by the Recipient. The Purchaser is not entitled to a refund or credit for Gift Memberships that are not registered. The Purchaser may not transfer a single Gift Membership to more than one Recipient. Medium is not responsible if the Access Code is lost, stolen, or used without permission.

Recipients may begin to use their valid Gift Memberships at any time by using the Access Code. Once entered, the Access Code will be void and cannot be used again. In order to use the Gift Membership, Recipients must have a Medium account or create one (which includes supplying an email address to Medium).

Gift Memberships begin available on the date of activation and shall expire one year later. For a Recipient who has an existing Medium membership, they must first cancel their existing Medium Membership by submitting a cancellation request at help.medium.com, and then use the Access Code to activate a new Medium Membership. Refunds for any unused portion of an existing Membership may be issued at Medium’s sole discretion.

Recipient may cancel their Gift Membership at any time following registration. There is no refund or credit for partially used periods. Gift Memberships may not be redeemed or refunded for cash, or combined with any other promotional offers or incentives.

Other Terms.

You acknowledge and agree that certain content available in the Member Services may be considered offensive to some people and that such content may not be labeled as such. Additionally, certain descriptions of Member Services or content available in the Member Services are not guaranteed to be accurate. You agree to use the Member Services at your own risk and, subject to applicable laws, Medium will have no liability to you for any content that you find offensive.

The Member Services are being provided by A Medium Corporation. You can reach us by mail at:

A Medium Corporation

3500 South DuPont Highway

Suite IQ-101

Dover, DE 19901

Or at help.medium.com.

If you have questions or feedback about Member Services, please submit a request at the above Help Desk website.

You agree that you are solely responsible for (and that Medium has no responsibility to you for) your use of any Member Service, any breach of your obligations under the Membership Terms of Service, and for the consequences (including loss or damage of any kind which Medium may suffer) of any such breach.

You acknowledge and agree that you are responsible for paying all fees in a timely manner and for providing us with a valid credit card or other form of payment acceptable to Medium.

You acknowledge that your online acceptance of these or any other terms constitute a binding agreement between you and Medium and signify your intent to be bound to such online acceptances. Subject to applicable laws, in no event will Medium’s liability for any and all causes of action brought by you or any agent of yours arising from or related to the services exceed the payments actually received and retained by Medium from you for the Member Services.

Unless not permitted by applicable law, you acknowledge and agree that that these Membership Terms of Service, your transaction for the Member Services, and your relationship with Medium under these Membership Terms of Service shall be governed by the laws of the State of California, without respect to its conflict of laws principles, and any claim or dispute that arises in whole or in part from your use of the Medium Services, including the Member Services, will be decided exclusively by a court of competent jurisdiction located in San Francisco County, California, U.S.A.

Membership Terms of Service was originally published in Medium Policy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

These terms (the “Partner Program Terms”) govern A Medium Corporation’s (“Medium”) partner program (“Partner Program”). If you apply, meet the eligibility criteria, and are accepted into Medium’s Partner Program, you can (i) put a story from your user account behind Medium’s paywall (“locking” a story) and receive revenue based on its performance among Medium members, and (ii) subject to your further evaluation and acceptance by Medium, to participate in the Nominator Program, as more specifically defined and described below. Medium reserves the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Partner Program, or any portion thereof, at any time and without advance notice to you. Medium will not be liable to you or any third party for any such modification, suspension, or termination.

By participating in the Partner Program, you agree to these Partner Program Terms, as well as Medium’s Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Rules, and all other terms and conditions that apply to the Medium website, mobile applications, and any other Medium service or product (collectively, the “Terms”). Please read the Partner Program Terms carefully. If you don’t understand them, or don’t accept any part of them, then you can’t participate in the Partner Program. Your acceptance of Medium’s Partner Program Terms forms a binding agreement between you and Medium and shows your intent to be bound by them.

Eligibility & Application

To participate in the Partner Program, you must meet the Eligibility Requirements, apply, and be accepted into the Partner Program. Medium reserves the right to admit writers to the Partner Program at Medium’s sole discretion. Eligibility requirements are subject to change.

Existing Partner Program Participants: If you are a participant in the Partner Program as of August 1, 2024, you will remain in the program. However, to continue to participate in the Partner Program, you’ll need to meet the Eligibility Requirements by December 31, 2024. Medium will use reasonable efforts to contact you before removing you from the Partner Program if you no longer meet the Eligibility Requirements. If you are removed from the Partner Program, your locked stories will be removed from behind the paywall.

Ongoing Eligibility for all Partner Program participants: To remain in the Partner Program, you must continue to meet the Eligibility Requirements. In the event that we disable your ability to receive any revenue under the Partner Program and we subsequently determine that you meet the requirements to remain in the Partner Program, we may re-enable your ability to receive revenue under the Partner Program without requiring a reapplication from you for the Partner Program.

Earning on Locked Stories

User Stories
For each locked story associated with your account, you have the opportunity to receive revenue based on various performance factors, including reader engagement. Based on the performance and assessed quality of a story, Medium will pay you a portion of revenues received by Medium from membership fees, as determined by Medium. Medium will send you payment for any revenues above $10 USD accrued as described in the Payment section below. Medium reserves the right to adjust at any time the factors by which story performance and revenue are determined.

User Stories & Medium Publications
A locked story may be included in a Medium publication. The writer chooses whether to lock a story and will receive the same amount of funds through the Partner Program regardless of whether the story is included in a publication. As with any story, either the writer or the publication owner or editors may choose to remove a locked story from a publication at any time.

The above arrangement may be modified on a case-by-case basis, such as for publications operating on Medium that commission or own their content. For any such publication planning to receive proceeds from a story’s performance, this arrangement must be made clear to any writer potentially affected and agreed upon in advance with a given story’s writer.

Earning on Nominator Activities.

As a participant in the Partner Program, you will be eligible to apply to participate in Medium’s Boost Nomination Program (the “Nominator Program”). Medium reserves the right to admit or reject any applicant to the Nominator Program at Medium’s sole discretion. If Medium accepts your application to participate in the Nominator Program, you will be permitted to nominate stories published on the Medium Site that you consider to be of high quality and that you believe should be considered by Medium’s team for boosting (each, a “Suggested Story”). You will be assigned a weekly and monthly nomination quota and may nominate up to that quota. You may be assigned a new quota at any time. All Suggested Stories must be posted to the Medium Site at the time you submit your nomination. For each Suggested Story that you nominate and that is also selected by Medium’s team for boosting, Medium will pay you a set amount (the “Nomination Fee”). Nomination Fees will be paid on up to your assigned quota of Suggested Stories in any calendar month, and in no event will total Nomination Fees payable to you with respect to any calendar month exceed $900 USD. Although Medium will consider those criteria outlined in the Checklist for Selecting High-Quality Stories (the “Checklist”) when reviewing Suggested Stories, Medium and its team shall determine, in its sole discretion, whether to select any Suggested Stories for boosting, and Medium shall not owe any Nomination Fee with respect to any Suggested Story that is not selected by Medium for boosting. Medium may modify or update the Checklist at any time in its sole discretion and without notice to you.

Necessary Rights

You may only lock a story (i.e. place it behind Medium’s paywall) if you have sufficient rights to make commercial use of the content in it, including text, video, and audio elements. Medium may require you to provide documentation proving you own sufficient rights to lock a story.

The consequences of locking stories when you lack the rights to do so or failing to provide adequate documentation upon request include unlocking stories, withholding revenue, suspension, or termination from the Partner Program, and suspension or termination of your Medium account.

You are not entitled to earn or receive any revenue in connection with your content if one or more third parties claim rights to any element(s) of your content.

These Partner Terms are not legal advice. If you plan to lock and earn revenue on a story containing any content you did not create, you may want to talk to a lawyer first to ensure you own all rights required to do so.

Termination

Medium reserves the right to unlock a story at any time, which will end that story’s ability to generate revenue. Medium reserves the right in its sole discretion to disable your ability to receive any revenue under the Partner Program, suspend your participation in the Partner Program, or terminate your participation in the Partner Program at any time for any reason, including but not limited to the failure to meet the Eligibility Requirements, sustained inactivity in the Partner Program, or violation of any terms contained herein.

If your participation in the Partner Program is terminated for any reason, your locked stories will be unlocked and can no longer generate revenue, and you will no longer be eligible to earn from Medium’s deprecated Referral Earnings program.

Payment

To accrue or receive payment of any revenues under the Partner Program, you must be a Partner Program participant in good standing (meaning for example, your monetization is not currently disabled, you are not currently suspended, you are not violating Terms or have not violated the Terms, or have not been terminated), have at all times an active Medium account, and have at all times an active payout method associated with your Medium account. Medium does not owe you any revenue that may be associated with your content during any period when you are not in good standing in the Partner Program, do not have a valid Medium account, or do not have an active payout method. You will not receive any revenue if you do not have a payout account in a geographic region where the Partner Program is available. The list of available geographic regions is available here.

Medium reserves the right to require that your revenue meet a $10 minimum payout threshold before Medium disburses payment. In the event that you quit or are removed from the Partner Program and have not met the minimum payout threshold OR have not completed your payout settings, Medium reserves the right to forfeit the payment.

Changes or Discontinuation of Partner Program

Medium reserves the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the Partner Program. Medium will not be liable to you or any third party for any such modification, suspension, or termination. Medium may change these Partner Program Terms from time to time so we encourage you to periodically review this page for the most up-to-date version.

Taxes

If required by law, you are responsible for reporting and paying any applicable taxes in connection with your participation in the Partner Program. Such taxes may include duties, customs fees, or other taxes (other than income tax), along with any related penalties or interest.

Governing Law & Forum

The governing law, mandatory forum, and dispute resolution provisions of Medium’s Terms of Service also apply to these Partner Program Terms and any dispute arising under them.

Miscellaneous

You participate in the Partner Program at your own risk. You agree that you are solely responsible for your actions in connection with the Partner Program, any breach of your obligations under the Partner Program Terms, and for the consequences of any such breach.

Any capitalized terms used but not defined in these Partner Program Terms have the meanings given to them in Medium’s Terms of Service. Except as modified by these Partner Program Terms, Medium’s Terms of Service remain in effect. Medium’s right to modify or revise the Terms of Service also applies to these Partner Program Terms.

Contact Us

If you have questions or feedback about the Partner Program, you can submit a request at help.medium.com.

Medium Partner Program Terms was originally published in Medium Policy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Medium usernames and publication slugs are claimed on a first-come, first-served basis. A username or publication slug can only be attached to one account or publication at a time.
A publication slug is defined as the text after the Medium.com domain. For example, for medium.com/medium-blog, “medium-blog” is the slug.

Inactivity
We encourage you to remain active with your Medium account and publication. Account usernames or publication slugs may be reclaimed after 6 months of inactivity. We don’t accept requests for inactive accounts, unless you own a registered trademark for it.

Trademarks
Username, publication name, and publication slug trademark violations may involve using a trademarked logo, business or product name in a way likely to confuse people. For more information, read our Trademark Policy.

Deceptive conduct
We do not allow deceptive conduct on Medium. This includes creating an account, username, or publication that posts content or impersonates a person or organization in a way likely to deceive people. When we find instances of this, we reserve the right to suspend your account pending investigation and verification.

Parody Accounts
Medium allows parody and fan accounts. Those accounts must be clearly marked as such, and need to adhere to the following guidelines:

• The bio must directly state that the account is not affiliated with the targeted subject by using words such as “parody,” “fake,” “not,” “false,” or “fan.” There’s no specific formula you must use for the disclaimer, but it must be quickly and clearly evident this is the intention of the account to any audience.
• The Medium name and username must not be the exact same as the targeted subject, and should contain a disclaiming word such as “parody,” “fake,” “not,” “false,” or “fan.” For example, if you are parodying John Smith, your username can’t be @johnsmith.

Failure to adhere to these guidelines may result in suspension or removal of the Medium account.

Medium Username Policy was originally published in Medium Policy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

You can see our previous Terms here.

Thanks for using Medium. Our mission is to deepen people’s understanding of the world and spread ideas that matter.

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) apply to your access to and use of the websites, mobile applications and other online products and services (collectively, the “Services”) provided by A Medium Corporation (“Medium” or “we”). By clicking your consent (e.g. “Continue,” “Sign-in,” or “Sign-up,”) or by using our Services, you agree to these Terms, including the mandatory arbitration provision and class action waiver in the Resolving Disputes; Binding Arbitration Section.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect and use your information while our Rules outline your responsibilities when using our Services. By using our Services, you’re agreeing to be bound by these Terms and our Rules. Please see our Privacy Policy for information about how we collect, use, share and otherwise process information about you.

If you have any questions about these Terms or our Services, please contact us at legal@medium.com.

Your Account and Responsibilities

You’re responsible for your use of the Services and any content you provide, including compliance with applicable laws. Content on the Services may be protected by others’ intellectual property rights. Please don’t copy, upload, download, or share content unless you have the right to do so.

Your use of the Services must comply with our Rules.

You may need to register for an account to access some or all of our Services. Help us keep your account protected. Safeguard your password to the account, and keep your account information current. We recommend that you do not share your password with others.

If you’re accepting these Terms and using the Services on behalf of someone else (such as another person or entity), you represent that you’re authorized to do so, and in that case the words “you” or “your” in these Terms include that other person or entity.

To use our Services, you must be at least 13 years old.

If you use the Services to access, collect, or use personal information about other Medium users (“Personal Information”), you agree to do so in compliance with applicable laws. You further agree not to sell any Personal Information, where the term “sell” has the meaning given to it under applicable laws.

For Personal Information you provide to us (e.g. as a Newsletter Editor), you represent and warrant that you have lawfully collected the Personal Information and that you or a third party has provided all required notices and collected all required consents before collecting the Personal Information. You further represent and warrant that Medium’s use of such Personal Information in accordance with the purposes for which you provided us the Personal Information will not violate, misappropriate or infringe any rights of another (including intellectual property rights or privacy rights) and will not cause us to violate any applicable laws.

User Content on the Services

Medium may review your conduct and content for compliance with these Terms and our Rules, and reserves the right to remove any violating content.

Medium reserves the right to delete or disable content alleged to be infringing the intellectual property rights of others, and to terminate accounts of repeat infringers. We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement if they comply with the law; please report such notices using our Copyright Policy.

Rights and Ownership

You retain your rights to any content you submit, post or display on or through the Services.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, by submitting, posting, or displaying content on or through the Services, you grant Medium a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid, and sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your content in all media formats and distribution methods now known or later developed on the Services.

Medium needs this license because you own your content and Medium therefore can’t display it across its various surfaces (i.e., mobile, web) without your permission.

This type of license also is needed to distribute your content across our Services. For example, you post a story on Medium. It is reproduced as versions on both our website and app, and distributed to multiple places within Medium, such as the homepage or reading lists. A modification might be that we show a snippet of your work (and not the full post) in a preview, with attribution to you. A derivative work might be a list of top authors or quotes on Medium that uses portions of your content, again with full attribution. This license applies to our Services only, and does not grant us any permissions outside of our Services.

So long as you comply with these Terms, Medium gives you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, and non-assignable license to access and use our Services.

The Services are protected by copyright, trademark, and other US and foreign laws. These Terms don’t grant you any right, title or interest in the Services, other users’ content on the Services, or Medium trademarks, logos or other brand features.

Separate and apart from the content you submit, post or display on our Services, we welcome feedback, including any comments, ideas and suggestions you have about our Services. We may use this feedback for any purpose, in our sole discretion, without any obligation to you. We may treat feedback as nonconfidential.

We may stop providing the Services or any of its features within our sole discretion. We also retain the right to create limits on use and storage and may remove or limit content distribution on the Services.

Termination

You’re free to stop using our Services at any time. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to the Services with or without notice.

Transfer and Processing Data

In order for us to provide our Services, you agree that we may process, transfer and store information about you in the US and other countries, where you may not have the same rights and protections as you do under local law.

Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you will indemnify, defend and hold harmless Medium, and our officers, directors, agents, partners and employees (individually and collectively, the “Medium Parties”) from and against any losses, liabilities, claims, demands, damages, expenses or costs (“Claims”) arising out of or related to your violation, misappropriation or infringement of any rights of another (including intellectual property rights or privacy rights) or your violation of the law. You agree to promptly notify Medium Parties of any third-party Claims, cooperate with Medium Parties in defending such Claims and pay all fees, costs and expenses associated with defending such Claims (including attorneys’ fees). You also agree that the Medium Parties will have control of the defense or settlement, at Medium’s sole option, of any third-party Claims.

Disclaimers — Service is “As Is”

Medium aims to give you great Services but there are some things we can’t guarantee. Your use of our Services is at your sole risk. You understand that our Services and any content posted or shared by users on the Services are provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. In addition, Medium doesn’t represent or warrant that our Services are accurate, complete, reliable, current or error-free. No advice or information obtained from Medium or through the Services will create any warranty or representation not expressly made in this paragraph. Medium may provide information about third-party products, services, activities or events, or we may allow third parties to make their content and information available on or through our Services (collectively, “Third-Party Content”). We do not control or endorse, and we make no representations or warranties regarding, any Third-Party Content. You access and use Third-Party Content at your own risk. Some locations don’t allow the disclaimers in this paragraph and so they might not apply to you.

Limitation of Liability

We don’t exclude or limit our liability to you where it would be illegal to do so; this includes any liability for the gross negligence, fraud or intentional misconduct of Medium or the other Medium Parties in providing the Services. In countries where the following types of exclusions aren’t allowed, we’re responsible to you only for losses and damages that are a reasonably foreseeable result of our failure to use reasonable care and skill or our breach of our contract with you. This paragraph doesn’t affect consumer rights that can’t be waived or limited by any contract or agreement.

In countries where exclusions or limitations of liability are allowed, Medium and Medium Parties won’t be liable for:

(a) Any indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental, punitive, or special damages, or any loss of use, data or profits, under any legal theory, even if Medium or the other Medium Parties have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

(b) Other than for the types of liability we can’t limit by law (as described in this section), we limit the total liability of Medium and the other Medium Parties for any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or our Services, regardless of the form of the action, to the greater of $50.00 USD or the amount paid by you to use our Services.

Resolving Disputes; Binding Arbitration

We want to address your concerns without needing a formal legal case. Before filing a claim against Medium, you agree to contact us and attempt to resolve the claim informally by sending a written notice of your claim by email at legal@medium.com or by certified mail addressed to A Medium Corporation, 3500 South DuPont Highway Suite IQ-101 Dover, DE 19901. The notice must (a) include your name, residence address, email address, and telephone number; (b) describe the nature and basis of the claim; and (c) set forth the specific relief sought. Our notice to you will be sent to the email address associated with your online account and will contain the information described above. If we can’t resolve matters within thirty (30) days after any notice is sent, either party may initiate a formal proceeding.

Please read the following section carefully because it requires you to arbitrate certain disputes and claims with Medium and limits the manner in which you can seek relief from us, unless you opt out of arbitration by following the instructions set forth below. No class or representative actions or arbitrations are allowed under this arbitration provision. In addition, arbitration precludes you from suing in court or having a jury trial.

(a) No Representative Actions. You and Medium agree that any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or our Services is personal to you and Medium and that any dispute will be resolved solely through individual action, and will not be brought as a class arbitration, class action or any other type of representative proceeding.

(b) Arbitration of Disputes. Except for small claims disputes in which you or Medium seeks to bring an individual action in small claims court located in the county where you reside or disputes in which you or Medium seeks injunctive or other equitable relief for the alleged infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property, you and Medium waive your rights to a jury trial and to have any other dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or our Services, including claims related to privacy and data security, (collectively, “Disputes”) resolved in court. All Disputes submitted to JAMS will be resolved through confidential, binding arbitration before one arbitrator. Arbitration proceedings will be held in San Francisco, California unless you’re a consumer, in which case you may elect to hold the arbitration in your county of residence. For purposes of this section a “consumer” means a person using the Services for personal, family or household purposes. You and Medium agree that Disputes will be held in accordance with the JAMS Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures (“JAMS Rules”). The most recent version of the JAMS Rules are available on the JAMS website and are incorporated into these Terms by reference. You either acknowledge and agree that you have read and understand the JAMS Rules or waive your opportunity to read the JAMS Rules and waive any claim that the JAMS Rules are unfair or should not apply for any reason.

(c) You and Medium agree that these Terms affect interstate commerce and that the enforceability of this section will be substantively and procedurally governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1, et seq. (the “FAA”), to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. As limited by the FAA, these Terms and the JAMS Rules, the arbitrator will have exclusive authority to make all procedural and substantive decisions regarding any Dispute and to grant any remedy that would otherwise be available in court, including the power to determine the question of arbitrability. The arbitrator may conduct only an individual arbitration and may not consolidate more than one individual’s claims, preside over any type of class or representative proceeding or preside over any proceeding involving more than one individual.

(d) The arbitration will allow for the discovery or exchange of non-privileged information relevant to the Dispute. The arbitrator, Medium, and you will maintain the confidentiality of any arbitration proceedings, judgments and awards, including information gathered, prepared and presented for purposes of the arbitration or related to the Dispute(s) therein. The arbitrator will have the authority to make appropriate rulings to safeguard confidentiality, unless the law provides to the contrary. The duty of confidentiality doesn’t apply to the extent that disclosure is necessary to prepare for or conduct the arbitration hearing on the merits, in connection with a court application for a preliminary remedy, or in connection with a judicial challenge to an arbitration award or its enforcement, or to the extent that disclosure is otherwise required by law or judicial decision.

(e) You and Medium agree that for any arbitration you initiate, you will pay the filing fee (up to a maximum of $250 if you are a consumer), and Medium will pay the remaining JAMS fees and costs. For any arbitration initiated by Medium, Medium will pay all JAMS fees and costs. You and Medium agree that the state or federal courts of the State of California and the United States sitting in San Francisco, California have exclusive jurisdiction over any appeals and the enforcement of an arbitration award.

(f) Any Dispute must be filed within one year after the relevant claim arose; otherwise, the Dispute is permanently barred, which means that you and Medium will not have the right to assert the claim.

(g) You have the right to opt out of binding arbitration within 30 days of the date you first accepted the terms of this section by sending an email of your request to trust@medium.com. In order to be effective, the opt-out notice must include your full name and address and clearly indicate your intent to opt out of binding arbitration. By opting out of binding arbitration, you are agreeing to resolve Disputes in accordance with the next section regarding “Governing Law and Venue.”

(h) If any portion of this section is found to be unenforceable or unlawful for any reason, (1) the unenforceable or unlawful provision shall be severed from these Terms; (2) severance of the unenforceable or unlawful provision shall have no impact whatsoever on the remainder of this section or the parties’ ability to compel arbitration of any remaining claims on an individual basis pursuant to this section; and (3) to the extent that any claims must therefore proceed on a class, collective, consolidated, or representative basis, such claims must be litigated in a civil court of competent jurisdiction and not in arbitration, and the parties agree that litigation of those claims shall be stayed pending the outcome of any individual claims in arbitration. Further, if any part of this section is found to prohibit an individual claim seeking public injunctive relief, that provision will have no effect to the extent such relief is allowed to be sought out of arbitration, and the remainder of this section will be enforceable.

Governing Law and Venue

These Terms and any dispute that arises between you and Medium will be governed by California law except for its conflict of law principles. Any dispute between the parties that’s not subject to arbitration or can’t be heard in small claims court will be resolved in the state or federal courts of California and the United States, respectively, sitting in San Francisco, California.

Some countries have laws that require agreements to be governed by the local laws of the consumer’s country. This paragraph doesn’t override those laws.

Amendments

We may make changes to these Terms from time to time. If we make changes, we’ll provide you with notice of them by sending an email to the email address associated with your account, offering an in-product notification, or updating the date at the top of these Terms. Unless we say otherwise in our notice, the amended Terms will be effective immediately, and your continued use of our Services after we provide such notice will confirm your acceptance of the changes. If you don’t agree to the amended Terms, you must stop using our Services.

Severability

If any provision or part of a provision of these Terms is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision or part of the provision is deemed severable from these Terms and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Miscellaneous

Medium’s failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. These Terms, and the terms and policies listed in the Other Terms and Policies that May Apply to You Section, reflect the entire agreement between the parties relating to the subject matter hereof and supersede all prior agreements, statements and understandings of the parties. The section titles in these Terms are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. Use of the word “including” will be interpreted to mean “including without limitation.” Except as otherwise provided herein, these Terms are intended solely for the benefit of the parties and are not intended to confer third-party beneficiary rights upon any other person or entity. You agree that communications and transactions between us may be conducted electronically.

Other Terms and Policies that May Apply to You

- Medium Rules
- Partner Program Terms
- Membership Terms of Service
- Username Policy
- Amendment to Medium Terms of Service Applicable to U.S. Government Users

Medium Terms of Service was originally published in Medium Policy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We welcome thoughtful and civil discussion from a broad spectrum of viewpoints. To maintain a safe, respectful, and welcoming environment for a wide range of people to engage in meaningful conversations, we prohibit certain conduct.

In deciding whether there has been a violation of the rules, we will take into consideration things like newsworthiness, the context and nature of the posted information, the likelihood and severity of actual or potential harms, account history, and applicable laws.

Violations of our rules may result in consequences such as account restrictions or suspension of your content. Medium has the sole authority and final decision as to whether content or behavior violates our rules.

To report a violation:

If you find a post or account on Medium that you believe violates these rules, please report it. You can find the report button in the 3-dot menu on every post, response, and account page.

You can use this form to provide more detail or to report other conduct you believe violates our rules. Additionally, you can send an email to trust@medium.com.

Block and mute:

If you find yourself in conflict with another user, we encourage the following:

• Block them and move on. You can learn more about blocking here.
• Mute them, and they won’t show up in your feeds. You can learn more about muting here.
• Remove their responses from your stories. You can learn more about managing and turning off your responses here.

Rules

Capitalized terms here have the same meaning as defined in the Medium Terms of Service.

Threats of violence and incitement
We do not allow content or actions that threaten, encourage, or incite violence against anyone, directly or indirectly.

Hateful content
We do not allow content that constitutes or promotes violence, harassment, or hatred against people based on characteristics like race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, caste, disability, disease, age, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity.

We do not allow posts or accounts that glorify, celebrate, downplay, or trivialize violence, suffering, abuse, or deaths of individuals or groups. This includes the use of scientific or pseudoscientific claims or misleading statistics to pathologize, dehumanize, or disempower others. We do not allow calls for intolerance, exclusion, or segregation based on protected characteristics, nor do we allow the glorification of groups which do any of the above.

We do not allow posts or accounts that target others with slurs, tropes, or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. For example, this may include targeted or intentional misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals, or harmfully ableist language.

We do not allow hateful text, images, symbols, or other content, including in your username, profile, or bio.

Harassment
Medium exists to share and discuss ideas. We don’t tolerate harassment, which includes:

• Bullying, threatening, mocking, or shaming someone, or posting things likely to encourage others to do so
• Engaging in a repetitive or targeted campaign of harassment against someone or a group of people
• Using derogatory language, racial slurs, or obscenities to disparage or attack someone or a group of people
• Using Medium features like responses, private notes, mentions, follows, lists, highlights, or requests in a way that attempts to or does annoy or harass someone, or to draw inorganic attention to your content on Medium

Privacy and Reputation
We do not allow the following:

• Posting images of, transcripts of, copies of, or links to private communications between private individuals without the explicit consent of all parties to the communication. Redacting names or other information does not supplant the need to secure permissions
• Doxing, which includes not only private or obscure personal information but also the aggregation of publicly available information to target, shame, blackmail, harass, intimidate, threaten, or endanger a person or group of people
• Posting intimate or explicit images taken or posted without the subject’s express consent
• Content that violates others’ privacy or personal safety, including sensitive or confidential information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, non-public phone numbers, physical addresses, email addresses, non-public data, or other similar information

Restricted categories
We do not allow posts or accounts that engage in the following restricted categories of activity:

• Promotion of controversial, suspect, or extreme content. You can read more about these policies in our Help Center.
• Facilitation of gambling or betting
• Facilitation of buying or selling social media interactions, including off-platform
• Facilitation of sexual services
• Facilitation of copyright or other intellectual property violation
• Facilitation or evidence of violating the terms of service of Medium or third party(s)
• Providing reviews of businesses or products in a gratuitously harmful or abusive manner
• Facilitation of illegal hacking (e.g., stealing credentials, compromising personal data)
• Promotion of pseudoscience, disinformation, or other content that is contrary to public health or safety

Related conduct
We do not allow content or accounts that engage in on-platform, off-platform, or cross-platform campaigns of targeting, harassment, hate speech, violence, or disinformation. We may consider off-platform actions in assessing a Medium account, and restrict access or availability to that account.

Graphic content
We do not allow posting, linking to, or otherwise promoting pornographic images or videos. We do allow erotic writing and non-graphic erotic images.

Medium is a large network, and posts can travel in front of all different types of readers. We ask that you be mindful of unintentional viewers when selecting your images.

We do not allow gratuitously graphic or disturbing media, regardless of subject matter.

Exploitation of minors
We do not allow content promoting the sexual, violent, or other exploitation of minors, including the sexualization of fictional minors.

Promotion and glorification of self-harm
We do not allow content or activities that encourage, promote or glorify acts of self-harm, such as cutting, eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia, and suicide. If you encounter users contemplating or threatening self-harm, please report it.

Duplicate Content
We do not allow posting duplicate copies of the same content to Medium, whether from a single account or across multiple accounts, either publicly or as an unlisted story. (You are allowed to cross-post content from your blog to Medium, provided you own the rights for the content.)

Spam or Site Misuse
We do not allow spam or misuse of Medium. All spam or misuse will be immediately removed from Medium without notification. Examples of spam or misuse include:

• Posting content primarily to drive traffic to, or increase the search rankings of, an external site, product, or service
• Scraping and reposting content from other sources for the primary purpose of generating revenue or other personal gains
• Posting duplicate content, whether from a single account or across multiple accounts
• Stories where the content is clipped with the purpose of linking to the rest of the article on a different website
• Performing a disproportionately large number of interactions, particularly by automated means. This includes bulk or indiscriminate interactions, such as following of other accounts (follow spam), clapping, highlighting, leaving notes, or flagging content
• Repeatedly using responses, mentions, or other interactions as a method of promotion or marketing
• Participating in bounty campaigns or brigades to artificially inflate rankings for posts, accounts, businesses, or products
• Use or re-use content templates with slight modifications across multiple posts and accounts

For each of these behaviors, when we talk about “content,” we mean not only posts but also any other feature that allows you to add your own text or media. When we talk about “interactions,” we mean any feature that allows one user to interact with another person or post.

Copyright and trademark infringement
Respect the copyrights and trademarks of others. Per our Terms of Service, we require users to have permission to post the content they publish on Medium. Additionally, we have specific policies around plagiarism, to which all Medium accounts are held. Users found in violation of our copyright rules are not eligible for warning, appeal, or restoration. Deletion of copyright violations is not grounds for reinstatement.

We respond to notices of alleged infringement as described in our Terms of Service, Copyright and DMCA Policy, and Trademark Policy.

Deceptive conduct
We do not allow deceptive conduct on Medium. This includes:

• Posting content or impersonating a person or organization in a way likely to deceive people. Parody and satire are fine, but make clear that is what you’re doing. Our Username Policy has specific requirements for parody accounts
• Using Medium for phishing or fraud. Don’t use tags, links, titles, or other metadata in a misleading way. Don’t link to or embed malicious or harmful code or software in your posts
• Using deception to generate revenue or traffic
• If you have received free goods or services, or anything of value in connection with the topic of a post, you must make this clear.

Ads, Promotions, and Marketing

• First party promotion is allowed, and you may promote and link to your own business, website, mailing list, or fundraiser.
• Third-party advertising and sponsorships are not allowed. You may not advertise or promote third-party products, services, or brands through Medium posts, publications, or newsletters. This includes images that indicate brand sponsorship in a post or newsletter, or as part of a publication name or logo.
• Affiliate links, such as links out to Amazon with an affiliate code, or any other link out where you will receive a commission or other value, are allowed in posts. However, per Federal Trade Commission law, you must disclose the inclusion of these links in your post. This can be a simple sentence in the footer. (for further guidance, see FTC Rules and Guides).

Embedded Content and Collection of Personal Information
To ensure the data privacy and security of our users, embedded content must comply with the following requirements. An “embed” includes a link, form, or a request for information or other content.

Embeds directly collecting data through Medium form fields, comments or other onsite means are not allowed. This includes embeds that facilitate the submission of email addresses, credit card information or other personal information. If you want to collect information from your readers, you will need to follow these requirements:

• If you link out from your post on Medium to a form hosted elsewhere, that form must make it clear to a user that they are no longer in the Medium network and the information they disclose is subject to the third-party’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy,
• If the link directs users to your own platform to subscribe to your newsletter, blog or other content you create, then in your Medium content immediately next to the link you must disclose that the link will take the user offsite outside of Medium
• If your content includes a form that sends user information to you or a third-party, immediately next to or within the form you must disclose that the form will send the user’s information to an offsite third-party outside of Medium that is subject to that offsite third-party’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, or offsite outside of Medium, to you directly.

Paid, automatic, bulk, or non-genuine interactions
Medium depends on various user behaviors — like follows and claps — to determine what content to feature and make the site work well for everyone. We don’t allow artificial behaviors that skew this system and as a result degrade or distort other users’ experiences.

This includes:

• Buying, selling, or trading in accounts or account interactions — including views, reads, follows, claps, highlights, responses, or other traffic
• Using services, apps, or arrangements that offer you more views, reads, follows, claps, or other interactions on your Medium account or content
• Registering accounts, posting content, or interacting with users or content automatically, systematically, or programmatically

Cryptocurrency Accounts, Posts, and Publications
Posts and accounts that are focused on launching, announcing, or providing information on cryptocurrencies must meet the requirements listed in our Cryptocurrency Policy. Medium does not endorse or verify any coin, token, financial advice, or similar announcement.

Prohibitions on Use of the Services

You agree not to do, try to do, or cause a third party to do any of the following, except without the express written consent of Medium:

(1) access or tamper with non-public areas of the Services, our computer systems, or the systems of our technical providers;

(2) access or search the Services by any means other than the currently available, published interfaces (e.g., APIs) that we provide;

(3) forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or posting, or in any way use the Services to send altered, deceptive, or false source-identifying information;

(4) use the Services in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the Services, or interfere with any other use of the Services;

(5) use any software, script, robot, spider or other automatic device, process or means (including crawlers, browser plugins and add-ons or any other technology) to access the Services for any purpose, including without limitation to scrape or otherwise copy any of the data or content on the Services;

(6) use any manual process to monitor or copy any of the data or content on the Services, or to engage in any other unauthorized purpose;

(7) otherwise use any device, software or routine that interferes with the proper working of the Services; or

(8) otherwise attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Services.

Use of custom domain features

Medium provides the ability to point a domain name that you control to a publication on Medium. If you use this custom domain feature, you understand that your publication will still be hosted on Medium and will still be subject to Medium’s Terms of Service. If you use this custom domain feature, you may not do, try to do, or cause a third party to do the following:

(1) Alter the look and feel or transform the content of the webpage, including by injecting ads, inserting tracking code, or altering the Medium look or feel;

(2) Use proxy servers or any other means to short-circuit our rules or circumvent user protections; or

(3) Mislead users about what site they are on or what their actions will do.

Your use of the custom domain feature must comply with our Privacy Policy. Please note that our rules around storing, transferring, and using user data are more user-protective than some other sites’. We do not sell user data or allow tracking of our users across the web. We expect you to uphold these same rules and policies in connection with operating your custom domain.

How to report a violation

If you find a post or account on Medium that violates these rules, please report it in product. You can use this form to provide more detail or to report other conduct you believe violates our rules. Additionally, you can send us an email to trust@medium.com.

If you break the rules

We strive to be fair, but we reserve the right to suspend accounts or remove content, without notice, for any reason, particularly to protect our services, infrastructure, users, or community. If you attempt to evade suspension by creating new accounts or posts, we will suspend your new accounts and posts.

Notice

Upon investigating or disabling content associated with your account, we will notify you, unless we believe your account is automated or operating in bad faith, or that notifying you is likely to cause, maintain or exacerbate harm to someone.

Appeals

If you believe your content or account has been restricted or disabled in error, or believe there is relevant context we were not aware of in reaching our determination, you can write to us at trust@medium.com. We will consider all good faith efforts to appeal.

Government Takedown Requests

If Medium receives a request from a government actor to restrict access to content associated with your account, we will notify you unless we are prohibited by law or believe doing so may endanger others. Where applicable, we will work to limit legally-ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where we have a good faith belief that we are legally required to restrict the content. Medium submits to the Lumen database government requests to restrict access to content (redacted where appropriate to protect privacy or prevent harm to a person).

We may enforce, or not enforce, these policies at our sole discretion. These policies don’t create a duty or contractual obligation for us to act.

We also may change these rules at any time. We track changes to our rules on Github so you can see how they evolve.

Medium is committed to providing a transparent, open platform for expression and therefore supports the goals and spirit of The Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation as a starting point for further discussion.

Updated June 2023

Medium Rules was originally published in Medium Policy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

These guidelines are intended to help inform law enforcement and the public about our practices, and are not legal advice.

What is Medium?

Medium is an online publishing platform that lets users read, write, and share ideas and information. People and organizations publish content through our website, mobile site, and client applications (e.g., Medium for iOS).

You can read more about Medium in Ev’s Welcome to Medium post. For the latest on Medium’s features and functionality, visit our Help Center.

What Account or User Information Does Medium Have?

Most Medium information is public. A Medium account profile contains a profile photo, header photo, lists of posts a user has published or recommended, and collections the user has created. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information on the data we collect from or about users.

Medium provides hosting for account profile photos and header photos, as well as some image and video uploads. However, users may also post images that are not hosted by Medium (for example, by embedding a photo or video from another site).

Users may also save drafts of posts or create semi-private posts, which are not public but can be shared with collaborators.

Data Retention Practices

Medium retains different types of non-public information for different time periods. Specific information on Medium’s retention policies can be found in our Privacy Policy.

Account holders are able to deactivate and delete their accounts. Content deleted by account holders is generally not retained or available.

Preservation Requests

If we receive a valid request from U.S. law enforcement to preserve records which constitute potentially relevant evidence in legal proceedings, we will preserve, but not disclose, a temporary snapshot of the relevant account records for 90 days pending service of valid legal process.

Preservation requests, in accordance with applicable law, should:

1. Be signed by the requesting official;

2. Include the @username and URL of the subject Medium profile (e.g., @Medium and https://medium.com/@Medium);

3. Have a valid return official email address; and

4. Be sent on law enforcement letterhead.

Preservation requests may be sent via the methods described below.

Requests for Medium Account Information

Medium responds to valid legal process seeking user account information issued in compliance with U.S. law.

Non-Public, Non-Content Information Requires a Subpoena or Court Order

Non-public, non-content information about Medium users will be released to law enforcement only in response to appropriate legal process such as a subpoena, court order, or other valid legal process — or in response to a valid emergency request, as described below.

Contents of Communications Requires a Search Warrant

Contents of communications (e.g., post drafts and photos) will be released only in response to a valid search warrant from an agency with proper jurisdiction over Medium.

Medium Will Notify Users of Requests for Account Information Unless Prohibited from Doing So

Medium’s policy is to notify users of requests for their account information and provide a copy of the request prior to disclosure unless we are prohibited from doing so (e.g., we receive an order under 18 U.S.C. § 2705(b)).

Exceptions to prior notice may include exigent or counterproductive circumstances (e.g., emergencies or account compromises).

In cases in which we are not permitted to give a user prior notice, we will provide post-disclosure notice to the user unless legally prohibited from doing so.

What Details Must Be Included in Account Information Requests?

When requesting user account information, please include:

· The @username and URL of the subject Medium account in question (e.g., @Medium and https://medium.com/@Medium);

· Details about the specific information requested (e.g., basic subscriber information) and its relationship to your investigation;

A valid official email address (e.g., name@agency.gov) so we may get back in touch with you upon receipt of your legal process.

Please ensure that the information you seek is not publicly available on our site.

We are unable to process overly broad or vague requests.

Production of Records

Unless otherwise agreed prior to disclosure, we currently provide responsive records in electronic format.

Records Authentication

The records that we produce are self-authenticating. Additionally, the records are electronically signed to ensure their integrity at the time of production. If you require a declaration, please explicitly note that in your request.

Emergency Disclosure Requests and Exigent Circumstances

In line with our Privacy Policy, we may disclose account information to law enforcement in response to a valid emergency disclosure request. Under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2702(b)(7) and 2702(c)(4), Medium is permitted — but under no obligation — to voluntarily disclose information, including contents of communications and customer records, to a federal, state, or local governmental entity if Medium believes in good faith that an emergency involving imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires such disclosure without delay.

Medium evaluates emergency disclosure requests on a case-by-case basis in compliance with relevant U.S. law (e.g., 18 U.S.C. § 2702(b)(8)). If we receive information that gives us a good faith belief that there is an exigent emergency involving the danger of death or serious physical injury to a person, we may provide information necessary to prevent that harm, if we have it.

How To Make an Emergency Disclosure Request

If there is an exigent emergency that involves the danger of death or serious physical injury to a person that Medium may have information necessary to prevent, law enforcement officers can submit an emergency disclosure request by mail or by email to legal@medium.com with subject “Emergency Disclosure Request” (the quickest and most efficient method).

Please include all of the following information in an emergency disclosure request:

· Clear indication on your cover sheet, which must be on law enforcement letterhead, that you’re submitting an Emergency Disclosure Request;

· Identity of the person who is in danger of death or serious physical injury;

· The nature of the emergency (e.g., report of suicide, bomb threat);

· Medium @username and URL (e.g., @Medium and https://medium.com/@Medium) of the subject account(s) whose information is necessary to prevent the emergency;

· Any specific posts you would like us to review;

· The specific information requested and why that information is necessary to prevent the emergency;

· The signature of the submitting law enforcement officer; and

· All other available details or context regarding the particular circumstances.

International law enforcement authorities may also submit requests for emergency disclosure.

Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties

A Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) defines how the U.S. and another country will help each other in legal matters such as criminal investigations. Through an MLAT, a foreign government can ask the U.S. government for help in obtaining evidence from entities in the U.S., including companies like Medium. If the U.S. government approves the request, Medium would respond to it.

Medium’s policy is to promptly respond to requests that are issued via U.S. court either by way of a MLAT or letters rogatory upon proper service of process.

Assisting a Medium User

If you are assisting a Medium user with an investigation and want to obtain a copy of the user’s non-public account information, please ask the user to contact us directly (see below) to request his or her own information.

Medium Archive

Medium account holders can obtain a download of content posted to their Medium account by emailing yourfriends@medium.com with the subject line “Requesting Medium Archive.”

Contact Information

Most issues can be resolved by having Medium account holders email us at yourfriends@medium.com.

Other general inquiries from law enforcement or government officials can be submitted to legal@medium.com.

Our mailing address address is:

A Medium Corporation
3500 South DuPont Highway
Suite IQ-101
Dover, DE 19901

Receipt of correspondence by any of these means is for convenience only and does not waive any objections, including the lack of jurisdiction or proper service.

Medium’s Guidelines for Law Enforcement was originally published in Medium Policy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you are reporting a copyright violation, please see this page.

People write about all kinds of things on Medium. Sometimes they reference companies or products. Sometimes they subtly (or not) promote brands. All fine by us. What Medium doesn’t allow is using someone else’s trademark in a way likely to confuse people.

What’s a trademark?

A trademark can be lots of things, but usually it’s a word, phrase or design (like a company name, a product name, a slogan or a logo). It shows you that this good or service comes from one company as opposed to some other company.

Trademarks exist to prevent consumer confusion over the source of a particular good or service. They also stop one company from free-riding on another company’s investment in branding. By contrast, they do not exist to help a company stop someone from discussing it (or its products) or to end secondary markets.

Someone’s using my trademark on Medium. What do I do?

If you think someone’s using your trademark in a way that’s likely to confuse readers, let us know and we will take appropriate action. This might include temporarily or permanently removing the content.

If you find infringement of your trademark on Medium, please fill out this form.

If someone’s using my trademark, in what scenarios would you not take it down?

• If they’re using it in a way not likely to confuse anyone about the source of a good/service.
• If they are making fair use of it, such as nominative fair use. This is when someone uses a trademark to refer to a company or brand, not to indicate it is the source of a good or service. For example, if someone writes a story about Company X and in that story uses the phrase “Company X” to refer to “Company X,” that’s probably fair use. Even if “Company X” is your trademark. People are allowed to use your company or product name to write things, even negative things, about your company/product/brand. As long as they’re not confusing anyone about whether you authorized or endorse the post.

Medium’s Trademark Policy was originally published in Medium Policy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Report copyright violation using this form.

If you are reporting a Trademark violations, please see this page.

This policy explains how Medium responds to allegations of the unauthorized use of copyrighted images, text, or links to allegedly infringing materials under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).

The DMCA

Section 512 of the DMCA outlines the statutory requirements for formally reporting copyright infringement. It also explains how to challenge a notification of claimed infringement by submitting a counter-notice.

Do You Have Rights in a Copyrighted Work?

If you aren’t sure whether you own the copyright in a particular work, please consult an attorney before sending a copyright notice to us. (Unfortunately, Medium can’t give you legal advice.)

How To File a DMCA Notice

To submit a notice of claimed copyright infringement, you will need to provide us with the following information:

1. A physical or electronic signature (typing your full name will suffice) of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf;

2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (e.g., a copy of or link to your original work or clear description of the materials allegedly being infringed upon);

3. Identification of the infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to permit Medium to locate the material on our website or services (e.g., a link to the infringing post);

4. Your contact information, including your address, telephone number, and an email address;

5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use of the material in the manner asserted is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and

6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

You can report alleged copyright infringement by emailing the above information to copyright@medium.com.

You can also mail a copyright notice to:

Designated Copyright Agent
A Medium Corporation
3500 South DuPont Highway
Suite IQ-101
Dover, DE 19901

Under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f), you may be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees incurred by us or our users, if you knowingly materially misrepresent that material or activity is infringing. If you aren’t sure whether the material you are reporting is in fact infringing your rights, you should consult an attorney before sending us a copyright notification.

How Medium Processes the Claim

We process copyright notices in the order they are received. Please note that submitting duplicate DMCA notifications may cause delayed processing.

Medium’s response to notices of alleged copyright infringement may include the removal or restriction of access to allegedly infringing material.

If we remove or restrict access to user content in response to a notice of alleged infringement, Medium will make a good-faith effort to contact the affected account holder and provide information concerning the removal or restriction of access, including a copy of the takedown notice, along with instructions for filing a counter-notification.

We will also forward a copy of the complaint to the Lumen database.

Where appropriate, Medium may suspend and warn repeat violators, and in more serious cases, permanently terminate user accounts.

When You Receive a DMCA Notification

If you receive a DMCA notification, it means that the content described in the notice has been removed from Medium or access to the content on Medium has been restricted. Please carefully read our notice to you, which includes information about the notification we received as well as instructions on how to file a counter-notice.

Filing a Counter-Notice

If you received a DMCA notification about your material and believe that material was misidentified or removed in error, you should file a counter-notice by following the instructions below.

Re-posting material removed in response to a DMCA notification may result in permanent account suspension. If you believe the content was removed in error, please file a counter-notice instead of re-posting the material.

To submit a counter-notice, please provide us with the following information:

1. A physical or electronic signature (typing your full name will suffice);

2. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled (the description from the DMCA notice will suffice);

3. A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled; and

4. Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located, or if your address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which Medium may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the copyright notification or an agent of such person.

To submit a counter-notice, please respond to our original email notification of the removal and include the above information in the body of your reply.

After You Submit a Counter-Notice

When we receive a valid counter-notice, we will promptly forward a copy to the person who filed the original notification. If we don’t receive notice within 10 business days that the original reporter is seeking a court order to prevent further infringement of the material, we may replace or cease disabling access to the material that was removed.

Think Long and Hard Before Filing a DMCA Notification or Counter-Notice

Please think carefully before submitting a claim or counter-notice, especially if you aren’t sure whether you are the actual rights holder or authorized to act on a rights holder’s behalf. There are legal and financial penalties for fraudulent and/or bad-faith claims. Please make sure you are the actual rights holder, or you have a good-faith belief that the material was removed in error, and that you understand the repercussions of submitting a false claim.

Learn More

To learn more about the DMCA and 512, check out the following resources.

United States Copyright Office

Lumen

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Medium’s Copyright and DMCA Policy was originally published in Medium Policy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

You can see our previous Privacy Policy here.

This Privacy Policy explains how A Medium Corporation (“Medium,” “we,” or “us”) collects, uses, and discloses information about you. This Privacy Policy applies when you use our websites, mobile applications, and other online products and services that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, our “Services”), contact our customer service team, engage with us on social media, or otherwise interact with us.

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of this policy and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our website or providing you with a notification). We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy regularly to stay informed about our information practices and the choices available to you.

CONTENTS

• Collection of Information
• Use of Information
• Sharing of Information
• Third-Party Embeds
• Transfer of Information to the United States and Other Countries
• Your Choices
• Your California Privacy Rights
• Additional Disclosures for Individuals in Europe
• Contact Us

COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

Information You Provide to Us

We collect information you provide directly to us. For example, you share information directly with us when you create an account, fill out a form, submit or post content through our Services, purchase a membership, communicate with us via third-party platforms, request customer support, or otherwise communicate with us. The types of personal information we may collect include your name, display name, username, bio, email address, business information, your content, including your avatar image, photos, posts, responses, and series published by you, and any other information you choose to provide.

In some cases, we may also collect information you provide about others, such as when you purchase a Medium membership as a gift for someone. We will use this information to fulfill your request and will not send communications to your contacts unrelated to your request, unless they separately consent to receive communications from us or otherwise engage with us.

We do not collect payment information through our Services. We rely on third parties to process payments in connection with our Services. Any information you provide to facilitate such a payment is subject to the third-party payment processor’s privacy policy, and we encourage you to review this policy before you provide any information to the payment processor.

Information We Collect Automatically When You Interact with Us

In some instances, we automatically collect certain information, including:

• Activity Information: We collect information about your activity on our Services, such as your reading history and when you share links, follow users, highlight posts, and clap for posts.
• Transactional Information: When you purchase a membership, we collect information about the transaction, such as subscription details, purchase price, and the date of the transaction.
• Device and Usage Information: We collect information about how you access our Services, including data about the device and network you use, such as your hardware model, operating system version, mobile network, IP address, unique device identifiers, browser type, and app version. We also collect information about your activity on our Services, such as access times, pages viewed, links clicked, and the page you visited before navigating to our Services.
• Information Collected by Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies: We use tracking technologies, such as cookies and web beacons, to collect information about you. Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us improve our Services and your experience, see which areas and features of our Services are popular, and count visits. Web beacons (also known as “pixel tags” or “clear GIFs”) are electronic images that we use on our Services and in our emails to help deliver cookies, count visits, and understand usage. We also work with third party analytics providers who use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers, and other technologies to collect information about your use of our Services and other websites and applications, including your IP address, web browser, mobile network information, pages viewed, time spent on pages or in mobile apps, and links clicked. This information may be used by Medium and others to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, deliver content targeted to your interests on our Services, and better understand your online activity. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, see Your Choices below.

Information We Collect from Other Sources

We obtain information from third-party sources. For example, we may collect information about you from social networks, accounting services providers and data analytics providers. Additionally, if you create or log into your Medium account through a third-party platform (such as Apple, Facebook, Google, or Twitter), we will have access to certain information from that platform, such as your name, lists of friends or followers, birthday, and profile picture, in accordance with the authorization procedures determined by such platform.

Information We Derive

We may derive information or draw inferences about you based on the information we collect. For example, we may make inferences about your location based on your IP address or infer reading preferences based on your reading history.

USE OF INFORMATION

We use the information we collect to provide, maintain, and improve our Services, which includes publishing and distributing user-generated content, personalizing the posts you see and operating our metered paywall. We also use the information we collect to:

• Create and maintain your Medium account;
• Process transactions and send related information, such as confirmations, receipts, and user experience surveys;
• Send you technical notices, security alerts, and support and administrative messages;
• Respond to your comments and questions and provide customer service;
• Communicate with you about new content, products, services, and features offered by Medium and provide other news and information we think will interest you (see Your Choices below for information about how to opt out of these communications at any time);
• Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our Services;
• Detect, investigate, and prevent security incidents and other malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity and protect the rights and property of Medium and others;
• Debug to identify and repair errors in our Services;
• Comply with our legal and financial obligations; and
• Carry out any other purpose described to you at the time the information was collected.

SHARING OF INFORMATION

We share personal information in the following circumstances or as otherwise described in this policy:

• We share personal information with other users of the Services. For example, if you use our Services to publish content, post comments or send private notes, certain information about you will be visible to others, such as your name, photo, bio, other account information you may provide, and information about your activities on our Services (e.g., your followers and who you follow, recent posts, claps, highlights, and responses).
• We share personal information with vendors, service providers, and consultants that need access to personal information in order to perform services for us, such as companies that assist us with web hosting, storage, and other infrastructure, analytics, payment processing, fraud prevention and security, customer service, communications, and marketing.
• We may disclose personal information if we believe that disclosure is in accordance with, or required by, any applicable law or legal process, including lawful requests by public authorities to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. If we are going to disclose your personal information in response to legal process, we will give you notice so you can challenge it (for example by seeking court intervention), unless we are prohibited by law or believe doing so may endanger others or cause illegal conduct. We will object to legal requests for information about users of our Services that we believe are improper.
• We may share personal information if we believe that your actions are inconsistent with our user agreements or policies, if we believe that you have violated the law, or if we believe it is necessary to protect the rights, property, and safety of Medium, our users, the public, or others.
• We share personal information with our lawyers and other professional advisors where necessary to obtain advice or otherwise protect and manage our business interests.
• We may share personal information in connection with, or during negotiations concerning, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company.
• Personal information is shared between and among Medium and our current and future parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries and other companies under common control and ownership.
• We share personal information with your consent or at your direction.
• We also share aggregated or de-identified information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you.

HELPING YOU CONNECT WITH PEOPLE YOU KNOW

When you use our address book feature, we process contact information from your device to help you discover people you know who are on Medium.

Why we do this: We rely on legitimate interests to offer this feature — specifically, our interest in helping you connect with people you know, and our mission to deepen collective understanding through writing, which supports your fundamental right to freedom of expression and information.

How it works: When you opt in, we convert contact names and email addresses into encrypted, non-reversible identifiers and match them against our member database. We don’t store names or emails in plain text. For contacts who aren’t Medium members, we delete their encrypted identifiers immediately after checking. We delete all encrypted identifiers within 30 days.

THIRD-PARTY EMBEDS

Medium does not host some of the content displayed on our Services. Users have the ability to post content that is actually hosted by a third party, but is embedded in our pages (an “Embed”). When you interact with an Embed, it can send information about your interaction to the hosting third party just as if you were visiting the third party’s site directly. For example, when you load a Medium post page with a YouTube video Embed and watch the video, YouTube receives information about your activity, such as your IP address and how much of the video you watch. Medium does not control what information third parties collect through Embeds or what they do with the information. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected through Embeds. The privacy policy belonging to the third party hosting the Embed applies to any information the Embed collects, and we recommend you review that policy before interacting with the Embed.

TRANSFER OF INFORMATION TO THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES

Medium is headquartered in the United States, and we have operations and service providers in the United States and other countries. Therefore, we and our service providers may transfer your personal information to, or store or access it in, jurisdictions that may not provide levels of data protection that are equivalent to those of your home jurisdiction. For example, we transfer personal data to Amazon Web Services, one of our service providers that processes personal information for us in various data center locations across the globe, including those listed here. We will take steps to ensure that your personal information receives an adequate level of protection in the jurisdictions in which we process it.

YOUR CHOICES

Account Information

You may access, correct, delete and export your account information at any time by logging into the Services and navigating to the Settings page. Please note that if you choose to delete your account, we may continue to retain certain information about you as required by law or for our legitimate business purposes.

Cookies

Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually adjust your browser settings to remove or reject browser cookies. Please note that removing or rejecting cookies could affect the availability and functionality of our Services.

Communications Preferences

You may opt out of receiving certain communications from us, such as digests, newsletters, and activity notifications, by following the instructions in those communications or through your account’s Settings page. If you opt out, we may still send you administrative emails, such as those about your account or our ongoing business relations.

Mobile Push Notifications

With your consent, we may send push notifications to your mobile device. You can deactivate these messages at any time by changing the notification settings on your mobile device.

YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

The California Consumer Privacy Act or “CCPA” (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.100 et seq.) affords consumers residing in California certain rights with respect to their personal information. If you are a California resident, this section applies to you.

In the preceding 12 months, we have collected the following categories of personal information: identifiers, commercial information, internet or other electronic network activity information, and inferences. For details about the precise data points we collect and the categories of sources of such collection, please see the Collection of Information section above. We collect personal information for the business and commercial purposes described in the Use of Information section above. In the preceding 12 months, we have disclosed the following categories of personal information for business purposes to the following categories of recipients:

Link to a text version of this table

Medium does not sell your personal information.

Subject to certain limitations, you have the right to (1) request to know more about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, use, and disclose about you, (2) request deletion of your personal information, (3) opt out of any sales of your personal information, if we engage in that activity in the future, and (4) not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. You may make these requests by emailing us at privacy@medium.com or by completing this webform. We will verify a webform request by asking you to provide identifying information. We will not discriminate against you if you exercise your rights under the CCPA.

If we receive your request from an authorized agent, we may ask for evidence that you have provided such agent with a power of attorney or that the agent otherwise has valid written authority to submit requests to exercise rights on your behalf. This may include requiring you to verify your identity. If you are an authorized agent seeking to make a request, please contact us.

ADDITIONAL DISCLOSURES FOR INDIVIDUALS IN EUROPE

If you are located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have certain rights and protections under applicable law regarding the processing of your personal data, and this section applies to you.

Legal Basis for Processing

When we process your personal data, we will do so in reliance on the following lawful bases:

• To perform our responsibilities under our contract with you (e.g., providing the products and services you requested).
• When we have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data to operate our business or protect our interests (e.g., to provide, maintain, and improve our products and services, conduct data analytics, and communicate with you).
• To comply with our legal obligations (e.g., to maintain a record of your consents and track those who have opted out of non-administrative communications).
• When we have your consent to do so (e.g., when you opt in to receive non-administrative communications from us). When consent is the legal basis for our processing your personal data, you may withdraw such consent at any time.

Data Retention

We store personal data associated with your account for as long as your account remains active. If you close your account, we will delete your account data within 14 days. We store other personal data for as long as necessary to carry out the purposes for which we originally collected it and for other legitimate business purposes, including to meet our legal, regulatory, or other compliance obligations.

Data Subject Requests

Subject to certain limitations, you have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you and to receive your data in a portable format, the right to ask that your personal data be corrected or erased, and the right to object to, or request that we restrict, certain processing. To exercise your rights:

• If you sign up for a Medium account, you may at any time request an export of your personal information from the Settings page, or by going to Settings and then selecting Account within our app.
• You may correct information associated with your account from the Settings page, or by going to Settings and then selecting Account within our app, and the Customize Your Interests page to update your interests.
• You may withdraw consent by deleting your account at any time through the Settings page, or by going to Settings and then selecting Account within our app (except to the extent Medium is prevented by law from deleting your information).
• You may object at any time to the use of your personal data by contacting privacy@medium.com.

Questions or Complaints

If you have a concern about our processing of personal data that we are not able to resolve, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Authority where you reside. Contact details for your Data Protection Authority can be found using the links below:

• For individuals in the EEA:
  https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en
• For individuals in the UK:
  https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
• For individuals in Switzerland: https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/en/home/the-fdpic/contact.html

CONTACT US

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@medium.com.

If you are from the EEA or the United Kingdom and have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@medium.com or our privacy representatives as follows:

Privacy representative for EEA

Unit 3D North Point House
North Point Business Park
New Mallow Road
Cork T23AT2P
Ireland

Or here.

Privacy representative for the United Kingdom

37 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7TL
United Kingdom

Or here.

Medium Privacy Policy was originally published in Medium Policy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.