Terms of Use

Effective: April 8, 2021.

Revised: April 23, 2021

Welcome to THE NEST LAB! The Nest Lab.co.za is owned and operated by The Nest Lab (Pty) Ltd, a company registered in South Africa (Reg No 2018/017840/07).

DEFINITIONS AND INTERPRETATION

A word or phrase in Bold type in this document shall have the meaning assigned to it in the definitions whether stated in singular or plural form. Words or phrases not in bold type shall be interpreted in the context of their usage.

TNL

TheNestLab.co.za, owned and operated by The Nest Lab (Pty) Ltd, a company registered in South Africa (Reg No 2018/017840/07), and all of its employees, partners, products, services offered publicly or privately, on any platform, electronic or physical. This includes 3rd party service providers to TNL and any affiliates or partners of TNL

Physical Address: 46-15th Street, Menlo Park, Pretoria, South Africa.

Phone: +27 12 807 2400

E-mail: info@thenestlab.co.za

TERMS

This document (Terms of Use), the Privacy Policy, and the Code of Conduct.

USER

Any user, client, or visitor of TNL with or without a user license, including (but not limited to) public, private, non-registered, registered, individual, organizational users. All users are subject to the Terms

YOU

See user definition.

WE or US:

See TNL definition.

USE

View, use, utilize, upload, download, post, create, edit, delete, administer or access in any way.

STUDENTS

Registered users (with a user license) of TNL accessing and using content and courses. Students are enrolled by us on behalf of the instructors at a fee.

INSTRUCTORS

Registered users (with a user license) of TNL allowed to create/administer courses and engage with students. Instructors are also students.

USER LICENCE

A limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable license, subjected to the terms, granted by TNL.

HOST LICENCE

Fully transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, sublicensable, exclusive, worldwide license to copy, distribute, modify, and create derivatives of user content and assignments for public and private use for any lawful reason or purpose.

ASSIGNMENT LICENCE

Fully transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, sublicensable, non-exclusive, worldwide license to copy, distribute, modify, create derivative works based on, publicly perform, publicly display, and otherwise use assignments. This license includes granting TNL the right to authorize instructors to use assignments with their students, independent of TNL. Nothing in these Terms shall restrict other legal rights TNL may have to user content, for example under other licenses.

MINOR

Any natural person below the age of 18 or below the age of internet use consent of your country.

PRO SECTION

The respective isolated parts of TNL reserved for organizations only, excluding public use.

PUBLIC SECTION

The general accessible parts the TNL including sections for registered or non-registered users.

ASSIGNMENTS

Homework, projects, quizzes, exams, evaluations, or assignments done by students and submitted to the platform.

COURSES

Content offering provided by instructors.

LACKING

Objectionable, offensive, inappropriate, immoral, incomplete, sub-standard, or free of malware or other contaminants.

RESPONSIBLE

Responsible, liable, at risk of.

PERSONAL DATA

"Personal Identifiable Information" (i.e., information that can be used to identify you)

LMS

Application used to organize and distribute e-learning materials, assignments, and assessments; track and calculate grades; and facilitate communication among students and teachers.

 

WELCOME

TNL aims to create high value and high-quality online course content for all its users. We strive to become the leading LMS. We seek to create a profitable platform for instructors.

By using TNL, you agree to bind yourself legally to these Terms. You agree that we may update any aspect of TNL and the Terms at any time, without consultation, notification, or warning. Please read the Terms carefully.

You may use TNL only if you are allowed to form a binding contract with TNL, and only in compliance with these Terms and all applicable laws of our and your country. You must always provide us with accurate and complete information, and you agree to update your information to keep it accurate and complete.

Minors are prohibited from registering on TNL’s platform and may only gain access to course content under supervision of an adult and via said adult’s registration. It is your sole responsibility to monitor this.

OUR LICENSE TO YOU

We grant you a user licence to use TNL. You could be registered for one of two accounts.

  • Student
  • Instructor

The user licence will be valid for the lifetime of your account. A license may be revoked for legal, policy or no reason without any liability to us.

STUDENTS

By enrolling into a course, you are granted a licence to use the course for the lifetime of such a course. Each course has its own terms as set by the instructor. You are allowed a single account only and may not share your access credentials nor any content with any third party without express written permission from TNL. Using TNL does not give you ownership of any intellectual property rights in our services or the content you access. We offer you content from instructors. We reserve the right to cancel, interrupt, reschedule, or modify any content/courses, point values of any assignment, quiz, or other assessments. All content is subject to the terms. Unless otherwise explicitly stated by the instructor, courses do not confirm any academic credit nor qualification.

Your assignments will be kept confidential by us, and you retain all intellectual property otherwise stated by the course terms. You are solely and completely responsible for your account, conduct and content you share. You grant us an assignment licence. We reserve the right to remove or modify user content for any reason without warning a repercussion.

Through TNL, you will have the ability to access and/or use content provided by instructors, other users, and/or other third parties and links to websites and services maintained by third parties. We cannot guarantee that such third-party content will not be lacking and cannot be held responsible.

INSTRUCTORS

We may grant you a user licence with instructor privileges and in return you grant us a host licence. Instructors create/administer courses and engage with students through various means on TNL. To register as an instructor, apply here to TNL. We provide hosting, support, and administration for the fees shown here.

 

Courses are not sold. The instructor retains ownership of his content as per the terms. For an enrolment fee, we grant students use of your course and its related content. You, the instructor, may negotiate with your students and price your courses as you wish. Instructors may not grant licenses to their courses to any student directly, such a license is deemed null and void.

We reserve the right to cancel access or remove any course for legal, policy or no reason without any liability whatsoever. Should an instructor change, remove, update, or amend content in any way, we will be free of liability and all risk remains with the instructor. 

COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK POLICY

We respect the intellectual property rights of our users, content providers, and other third parties and expect our users to do the same when using TNL.

SECURITY

We work to protect the security of your account and related information but cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security measures. Please notify us immediately of any compromise or unauthorized use of your account by emailing info@thenestlab.co.za

FEES, PAYMENTS, REFUNDS & PROMOTIONS

Fees

TNL may amend its pricing structure/fees at any time without consultation with any user.

Pricing Guidelines

You may price your courses as you wish, and you assume complete liability towards the users of your courses.

Payments

You agree to pay for the services/enrolments via eft or our payment gateways (subject to their terms and conditions). We use third party payment processing partners to keep your payment information secure.

If a payment fails or is reversed by you or your service provider, the relevant access will be suspended and/or cancelled.

Refunds

You can request a refund for enrolments within 24 hours. We may elect to refund you with a credit to your account in leu of a monetary refund. TNL reserve the right to deny any refund, cancel your account or deny any future access to our services or platform if we, at our sole discretion, suspect or believe that you are abusing our refunds policy.

Promotions

TNL will not contact your students with any promotions. We reserve the right to publish excerpts or selected samples of all hosted content for the promotion of TNL. Instructors may promote their content in any legal way, but may not taint/harm the public image of TNL in any way.

CANCELATIONS

Users may, at any time, cancel their membership with no recourse. TNL will not be responsible for any repercussions. TNL do not guarantee that the information will be deleted/removed from the platform and retain the rights thereto as given under the host licence.

MODIFICATIONS, TERMINATIONS ETC. OF TNL.

We are constantly changing and improving our services. We may add or remove functions, features, or requirements, and we may suspend or stop part of our services altogether. We may terminate your use of any service for any reason. If your use of a paid service is terminated, a refund may be available under our Refund Policy. We may not be able to deliver the Services to certain regions or countries for various reasons, including due to applicable export control regulations or internet access limitations and restrictions from governments. TNL shall have no liability to you for any such action.

DISCLAIMERS

TNL and all included content are provided on an "as is" basis without warranty of any kind, whether express or implied. TNL specifically disclaim any and all warranties and conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, and any warranties arising out of course of dealing or usage of trade. TNL further disclaim any and all liability related to your access or use of the services or any related content. You acknowledge and agree that any access to or use of the services or such content is at your own risk.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

To the maximum extent permitted by law, TNL shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, resulting from (a) your use of TNL.; (b) any conduct or content of any party, including without limitation, any defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct; or (c) unauthorized access, use, or alteration of your content or information. In no event shall TNL aggregate liability for all claims related to the services exceed one hundred rand (R 100) or the 50% amount of fees received by TNL from you for the use of paid services during the past 90 days, whichever is greater.

You acknowledge and agree that the disclaimers and the limitations of liability set forth in these terms of use reflect a reasonable and fair allocation of risk between you and TNL, and that these limitations are an essential basis to our ability to make the services available to you on an economically feasible basis.

You agree that any cause of action related to the services must commence within 21 days after the cause of action accrues. Otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.

INDEMNITY

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless TNL from any and all claims, liabilities, expenses, and damages, including reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, made by any third party related to: (a) your use or attempted use of the Services in violation of these Terms; (b) your violation of any law or rights of any third party; or (c) User Content, including without limitation any claim of infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property or other proprietary rights.

GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION

TNL is based in Pretoria, South Africa. You agree that any dispute related to these Terms will be governed by the laws of South Africa at the time of purchase. You also consent to the personal jurisdiction of and exclusive venue in Pretoria, South Africa, as the legal forum for any such dispute.

Either you or TNL may elect at any point during the dispute to resolve the claim through binding, non-appearance-based arbitration. The dispute will then be resolved using an established alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") provider, mutually agreed upon between you and TNL. The parties and the selected provider shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses, unless otherwise mutually agreed upon by the parties; rather, the arbitration shall be conducted, at the option of the party seeking relief, via emailed submissions alone. Any judgment rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction within South Africa.

REVISIONS TO THE TERMS

We reserve the right to revise the terms at our sole discretion at any time. Any revisions to the terms will be effective immediately upon posting by us. For any material changes to the terms, we will take reasonable steps to notify you of such changes, via a banner on the website, email notification, another method, or combination of methods. In all cases, your continued use of the Services after publication of such changes, with or without notification, constitutes binding acceptance of the revised Terms.

WAIVER

If it transpires that a particular provision of these Terms is not enforceable, this will not affect any other terms contained herein. If you do not comply with these Terms, and we do not take immediate action, this does not indicate that we relinquish any rights that we may have in the future.

CONDUCT CODE

We believe strongly in preserving free speech and expression for our users as well as academic freedom for our instructors and students. All users should feel safe and comfortable while using TNL. This policy ensures that users understand and follow the rules when participating in our online community and otherwise using TNL.

We may remove or edit inappropriate content or activity identified by or reported to us or suspend, disable, or terminate a user's access to all or part of the Services.

You are prohibited from using our Services to share content which:

  • contains illegal content or promotes illegal activities with the intent to commit such activities.
  • contains credible threats or organizes acts of real-world violence; (We do not allow content that creates a genuine risk of physical injury or property damage, credibly threatens people or public safety, or organizes or encourages harm.)
  • harasses others; (We encourage commentary about people and matters of public interest, but abusive or otherwise inappropriate content directed at private individuals is not allowed.)
  • violates intellectual property, privacy, or other rights; (Do not share content that you do not have the right to share, claim content that you did not create as your own, or otherwise infringe or misappropriate someone else’s intellectual property or other rights. Always attribute materials used or quoted by you to the original copyright owner.)
  • spams others; (Do not share irrelevant or inappropriate advertising, promotional, or solicitation content.) or
  • otherwise violates our terms. (Please note that specific Content Offerings may have additional rules and requirements.)

You may not:

  • do anything that violates local, state, national, or international law or breaches any of your contractual obligations or fiduciary duties.
  • share your password, let anyone access your account, or do anything that might put your account at risk.
  • attempt to access any other user's account.
  • reproduce, transfer, sell, resell, or otherwise misuse any content from TNL.
  • access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of our systems.
  • break or circumvent our authentication or security measures or otherwise test the vulnerability of our systems or networks.
  • try to reverse engineer any portion of TNL.
  • try to interfere with any user, host, or network, for example by sending a virus, overloading, spamming, or mail-bombing.
  • use TNL to distribute malware.
  • use TNL or any functionality for anything other than for creating or completing online courses.
  • impersonate or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity associated with TNL; nor
  • encourage or assist anyone doing any of the things on this list.

COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK POLICY

We respect the intellectual property rights of our users, and other third parties and expect our users to do the same when using TNL. We reserve the right to suspend, disable, or terminate the accounts of users who infringe or are charged with infringing the copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights of others.

If you believe in good faith that materials contained on the TNL site infringe your copyright, you may send us a notice requesting that the material be removed or access to it be blocked.

The notice must include the following:

  • R 1000 (ZAR) refundable fee. Should the claim be successful the fee will be reimbursed to the complainant and a penalty of the same amount will be paid to TNL by the offender.
  • the physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that has allegedly infringed.
  • identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (or, if multiple copyrighted works located on the Services are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works).
  • identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or the subject of infringing activity, and information reasonably sufficient to allow TNL to locate the material on the Services.
  • the name, address, telephone number, and email address of the complaining party.
  • a statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
  • a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Notices must be sent via email to: breach@thenestlab.co.za

We respect the trademark rights of others. Accounts with any other content that misleads others or violates another's trademark may be updated, suspended, disabled, or terminated by TNL in its sole discretion. If you are concerned that someone may be using your trademark in an infringing way on our services, please email us at breach@thenestlab.co.za, and We will review your complaint. If we deem appropriate, we may remove the offending content, warn the individual who posted the content, and/or temporarily or permanently suspend or disable the individual’s account.

STUDENT CODE

All students agree to abide by the following code:

  • I will register for only one account, unless expressly permitted to register for additional accounts by TNL.
  • My assignments will be my own work (except for assignments that explicitly permit collaboration).
  • I will not make solutions to assignments available to anyone else (except to the extent an assignment explicitly permits sharing solutions). This includes both solutions written by me, as well as any solutions provided by the instructors.
  • I will not engage in any other activities that will dishonestly improve my results or dishonestly improve or harm the results of others.

PRIVACY NOTICE

TNL is the data controller of your personal information. We collect the personal information set out in the "What Information We Collect" section of this Privacy Notice below, including account registration details such as your name, email address, and details of Content Offerings you undertake, survey information (where you provide it), identity verification data, and information about your use of TNL and Services.

We use your personal information for the purposes set out in the "How We Use the Information" section of this Privacy Notice below, including TNL providing Services to you, ensuring the security and performance of TNL, sharing information with our Instructors, and performing statistical analysis of the use of TNL and Services.

You have several rights that you can exercise in relation to our use of your personal information, as set out in the "Updating or Deleting Your Personally Identifiable Information" section of this Privacy Notice below. You can find information about us and how We collect, use, and store your personal data in each section of this Privacy Notice:

Information covered

This Privacy Notice covers information We collect from you through the TNL online platform. Some of TNL’s functionality can be used without revealing any Personally Identifiable Information, though for features or Services related to the Content Offerings, Personally Identifiable Information is required.

You Agreement to TNL

We consider the legal basis for using your personal information, as set out in this Privacy Notice, is:

  • necessary to perform our obligations to comply with the Terms.
  • to comply with legal obligations; or
  • for legitimate interests including, but are not limited to:
    • run, grow and develop TNL.
    • operate TNL and provide Services.
    • select appropriately skilled and qualified Instructors.
    • statistical analysis.
    • for internal administrative and auditing purposes; or
    • to send you communications or where you submit certain information to us.

Should TNL make use of your data for any purpose not included in this section, we will undertake a balancing test to ensure that our (or the other person's) legitimate interests are not outweighed by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms which require protection of the personal information. Instructors may process your personal information in certain cases for marketing purposes.

What Information We Collect

Personal data may include information such as your name, email address, web address, billing/shipping address, avatar, banking details (if applicable) and biographical information provided by you upon registration. You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the personal data you provide. Inaccurate information may affect your ability to use TNL, the responses you receive, and our ability to contact you.

The Biographical Information is purely voluntary information and is not a requirement for access. However, certain courses/features offered may be adversely affected should you opt to provide inaccurate or no information at all under this section.

We gather two types of information about users through TNL:

  1. Information relating to your use of TNL.  This includes which services and/or courses you access. We make use of cookies when you visit TNL. (For more information on our use of cookies, please refer to our Cookie Policy.)
  2. Personal data as provided directly by you previously noted being: Name, email address, web address and optional biographical information. You may update or change information for your account, participate in forums, send us email messages, and/or participate in Content Offerings or other Services on TNL. We use the Personally Identifiable Information provided by you to respond to your questions, provide you the specific Content Offering and/or Services you select, send you updates about Content Offerings or other TNL events, and send you email messages about Site maintenance or updates.

Account Registration.

The personal data detailed above as collected upon registration may be used to:

  • offer you the ability to receive updates either via email or by posting on portions of TNL only accessible to registered users.
  • Identify you in forums where you share comments and thoughts. (Please keep in mind that information you post or make available in Forums may be publicly available.) You are advised not include any personal data nor information of a personal or sensitive nature, whether relating to you or another person, in a Forum post.
  • assist in user’s participation in courses on or through TNL including student-generated content such as assignments submitted.
  • collect course data, such as student responses to in-video quizzes, standalone quizzes, and assignments.
  • to verify your identity for select Services.
  • receive/send email messages.
  • allow you access or login to a third-party site, e.g., Training Facilities, from within TNL.
  • provide you with information in response from an Instructor.
  • allow content providers to collect data regarding the users use of their Courses provided on the TNL The Premium or Pro partners may share this data with TNL for the purpose of improving TNL’s Services, the partner services, and the individual’s education experience. This data may include information such as the amount of time spent on the partner site.

How We Use the Information

We use information relating to your use of TNL to build higher quality, more useful Services by performing statistical analyses of the collective characteristics and behaviour of our users, and by measuring demographics and interests regarding specific areas of TNL. We may also use this information to ensure the security of our Services and TNL.

We may disclose and otherwise use your Personal data to:

  • Provide technical support to you, when or where required, and to ensure the security of our Services and TNL.
  • Email or update services for you in connection with TNL or Content Offerings.
  • add to our archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you, where We are legally entitled to do so.
  • Allow you to choose to post Personally Identifiable Information which may be collected during your use of the Forums. This information could be published via extensions of our Platform that use third-party services. We reserve the right to reuse Forum posts that contain Personal data in future versions of the Content Offerings, and to enhance future Content Offerings. We may archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you, and/or provide it to the Content Provider, business partner, or the instructor(s) associated with the courses you have taken. We may also use or publish posts submitted on the Forums without using Personally Identification Information.
  • To allow you to participate in a Content Offering through TNL for processing purposes, including but not limited to: tracking attendance; progress; and completion of an Online Course. We may also share your Personal data and your performance in any given Content Offering with the instructor or instructors who provided it to assist with the creation, modification, or operation of the Content Offering. We may also use the information generated when taking a Content Offering or using the Services for predictive analysis of your performance in the Content Offerings. We may archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you, where We are legally entitled to do so.
  • Conduct identity verification and for authenticating submissions made on TNL were made by you.
  • We may share your Personal data with Content Providers and other business partners of TNL so that Content Providers and other business partners may share information about their products and services that may be of interest to you where they are legally entitled to do so.
  • We may share general course data (including quiz or assignment submissions, grades, and forum discussions), information about your activity on TNL with our Content Providers and other business partners so that our Content Providers and other business partners may use the data for research related to online education.
  • Provide our Instructors with limited access to your Personal data while providing their products or services to you.
  • TNL may share your Personal data with various government authorities in response to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal processes; to establish or exercise our legal rights or to protect our property; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases, we reserve the right to raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us. We also may share your Personal data when We believe it is appropriate to investigate, prevent, or act regarding illegal or suspected illegal activities; to protect and defend the rights, property, or safety of TNL, our users, instructors, online partners, or others; and in connection with our Terms and other agreements.
  • TNL may disclose and/or transfer your Personal data to an acquirer, assignee, or other successor entity in connection with a sale, merger, or reorganization of all or substantially all of the equity, business, or assets of TNL to which your Personal data relates.

Retention of Personally Identifiable Information

We keep your Personal data for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which the Personal data is collected and processed. The length of time We retain Personal data for depends on the purposes for which We collect and use it and/or as required to comply with applicable laws and to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights.

Confidentiality & Security of Personally Identifiable Information

We will use industry standard physical, technical, and administrative security measures to keep your Personal data confidential and secure, and will not share it with third parties, except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Notice, or unless such disclosure is necessary in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others, as permitted by applicable law. Because the Internet is not a 100% secure environment, we cannot guarantee the security of Personally Identifiable Information, and there is some risk that an unauthorized third party may find a way to circumvent our security systems or that transmission of your information over the Internet will be intercepted. It is your responsibility to protect the security of your login information. Please note that e-mails communications are typically not encrypted and should not be considered secure.

Updating or Deleting Your Personally Identifiable Information

You have certain rights in relation to your Personally Identifiable Information. You can access your Personal data and confirm that it remains correct and up to date, choose whether you wish to receive material from us or some of our partners by logging into TNL and visiting your user account page.

Questions, Suggestions, and Complaints

If you have any privacy-related questions, suggestions, unresolved problems, or complaints, you may contact us via labs@thenestlab.co.za.