Terms of use

1. About these terms

Autotech Network is operated by Birkhill Technology Ltd. References to “Autotech Network”, “we”, “us” or “our” mean Birkhill Technology Ltd.

These terms apply when you visit the website, register for an account, use the forum or private messaging service, upload content, represent a sponsor, or otherwise use Autotech Network.

By registering for an account or continuing to use the service, you agree to these terms, our community guidelines and our privacy policy.

2. Eligibility and membership approval

Autotech Network is intended for genuine members of the automotive trade, including technicians, diagnostic specialists, workshop professionals, trainers and other approved industry participants.

You must:

• Be at least 16 years old.
• Provide accurate and complete registration information.
• Provide truthful information about your trade role and experience.
• Keep your profile and contact information reasonably up to date.
• Use the account personally and not transfer or share it with another person.

Registration does not guarantee approval. We may request further information, refuse an application, limit access or withdraw approval where we reasonably believe that the eligibility requirements have not been met.

3. Account security

You are responsible for keeping your password and account secure and for activity carried out through your account. Contact us promptly if you believe that your account has been accessed without permission.

You must not create accounts for another person, maintain deceptive duplicate accounts, impersonate another person or organisation, or attempt to bypass an account restriction or suspension.

4. A reciprocal professional community

Autotech Network is free to genuine trade users because members share knowledge, experience and confirmed outcomes. It is not intended to operate as a one-way technical-information service in which a member repeatedly takes assistance but makes no reasonable effort to support the community.

Good-faith participation can include:

• Providing complete vehicle, fault, test and diagnostic information when asking for help.
• Responding to reasonable questions from members trying to assist.
• Updating a discussion with the confirmed cause and repair.
• Sharing relevant experience, known-good information or constructive suggestions.
• Helping another member when you have useful knowledge.
• Reporting harmful, misleading, unlawful or inappropriate content.

There is no fixed posting quota, and reading more than you post is not by itself a breach of these terms. However, we may review, restrict, suspend or close an account where there is a sustained pattern of using the community primarily to obtain help while repeatedly abandoning discussions, withholding outcomes, ignoring reasonable follow-up questions, or otherwise making no reasonable effort to participate in good faith.

We will consider the overall pattern of activity, the age of the account, the member's experience and the circumstances before taking action under this section.

5. Community standards

You must follow the community guidelines and communicate professionally. Differences of technical opinion are welcome; personal attacks are not.

You must not use the service to:

• Harass, threaten, bully, abuse or deliberately humiliate another person.
• Publish discriminatory, hateful, sexually explicit or otherwise seriously offensive material.
• Encourage or facilitate unlawful activity.
• Post information that you know is materially false, deceptive or dangerously misleading.
• Send spam, unsolicited promotions, repetitive messages or deceptive commercial content.
• Disrupt discussions, deliberately provoke conflict or repeatedly post off-topic material.
• Upload malware or attempt to damage, overload, probe or compromise the website.
• Scrape, harvest, copy or extract substantial amounts of content or member information.
• Attempt to bypass access controls, rate limits, moderation or security measures.
• Collect or use another member's information for an unrelated purpose.

6. Technical information and professional responsibility

Posts, messages, calculators and other resources are provided for professional discussion and general information. They are not a substitute for your own diagnosis, testing, training, risk assessment, manufacturer information or legal responsibilities.

Automotive work can involve high voltage, fuel, pressure, heat, moving machinery, airbags, braking systems, lifting equipment, hazardous substances and other serious risks. You must use appropriate competence, tools, protective equipment and official procedures.

You remain responsible for deciding whether information is accurate and suitable for a particular vehicle or task. Do not rely on a post merely because it was written by an approved member, sponsor, moderator or administrator.

7. Customer, vehicle and personal information

Do not publish personal information about a customer, vehicle owner or other person unless you have a lawful reason and permission to do so.

Before uploading content, remove or obscure information such as:

• Names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses.
• Vehicle registration marks and full vehicle identification numbers.
• Customer correspondence, invoices, job cards and payment details.
• Location data or images that identify a private person or address.

We may remove or redact personal information where we consider this necessary to protect an individual or comply with the law.

8. Your content

You retain ownership of content that you create. By posting or uploading content, you give Birkhill Technology Ltd a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, format, display and make that content available as reasonably necessary to operate, secure, moderate, back up and promote Autotech Network.

This licence continues for as long as the content remains on the service. If your account closes, posts and replies may remain so that technical discussions and replies from other members continue to make sense. Where appropriate, they may be associated with a deactivated or anonymised account.

You confirm that you have the rights and permissions required to upload the content and grant this licence.

9. Copyright and third-party material

You must not upload or reproduce material that you are not entitled to share, including:

• Complete paid workshop manuals or subscription database content.
• Copyrighted wiring diagrams, bulletins or training material beyond what is legally permitted.
• Software, calibration files, security data or access credentials without permission.
• Images, documents or videos copied from another source without the necessary rights.

Short extracts may still be protected by copyright. When appropriate, identify the source and link to the authorised material rather than copying it.

10. Private messages

Private messaging is provided for legitimate communication between members. The same conduct rules apply to private messages as to public discussions.

Private messages are not routinely monitored, but may be reviewed where a participant reports a message, where reasonably necessary to investigate abuse, fraud, security or unlawful activity, or where access is legally required.

11. Sponsors and commercial interests

Sponsors help support the service through clearly labelled advertising and sponsor profiles. Sponsorship does not give an organisation control over ordinary member discussions or moderation decisions.

Members must clearly disclose any employment, payment, sponsorship, free products, commission or other material connection that could affect a recommendation or opinion.

Sponsor advertisements and commercial content must be accurate, lawful, relevant to the automotive trade and approved through the site's advertising process.

12. Moderation

To protect the community and organise technical information, administrators and moderators may take actions including:

• Editing titles, tags, categories or formatting.
• Redacting personal, confidential or unlawful information.
• Moving, merging, splitting, locking or closing discussions.
• Hiding or removing posts, replies, messages, profiles or attachments.
• Removing advertising, links or undeclared commercial content.
• Issuing guidance, warnings or temporary restrictions.

Moderation decisions are based on context and may involve judgement. We are not obliged to publish or retain every contribution, even where it does not clearly break a specific rule.

13. Account restriction, suspension and deletion

We may refuse access, restrict features, suspend or permanently close an account where we reasonably believe that this is necessary, including where:

• These terms or the community guidelines have been breached.
• Registration or trade information is false, misleading or no longer accurate.
• The account is used for harassment, spam, fraud, unlawful conduct or a security threat.
• The member attempts to evade moderation or an earlier restriction.
• The account infringes another person's privacy or intellectual-property rights.
• The account shows a sustained pattern of one-way use described in section 4.
• The account remains unverified, abandoned or inactive for an extended period.
• Closure is required to protect the service, its users or Birkhill Technology Ltd.
• We are required to act by law, court order or a competent authority.

We may provide a warning or an opportunity to correct the issue where this is reasonable. We may act immediately and without advance notice where the matter is serious, repeated, unlawful, creates a safety or security risk, or could expose another person to harm.

Closing an account does not necessarily remove posts, replies or records that must be retained for community continuity, security, legal compliance or dispute handling. Personal profile information will be handled in accordance with our privacy policy.

You may ask us to close your account by contacting admin@autotech.network.

14. Reporting concerns

Use the website's reporting tools where available, or contact us if you believe content or conduct breaches these terms, creates a safety risk, infringes rights or is unlawful.

Reports must be made honestly. Repeatedly submitting knowingly false or malicious reports may itself result in account action.

15. Service availability and changes

We aim to keep Autotech Network available and useful, but do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free access. We may maintain, update, restrict, replace or discontinue features.

We may change eligibility rules, storage limits, moderation processes, sponsor features and other aspects of the service where reasonably necessary. Significant changes will be communicated where appropriate.

16. External websites and services

Posts, profiles and sponsor adverts may link to external websites. We do not control those services and are not responsible for their content, availability, security, products or privacy practices. A link does not necessarily mean that we endorse the external service.

17. Our responsibility

Autotech Network is provided free of charge and on an “as available” basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Birkhill Technology Ltd does not accept responsibility for loss resulting from reliance on user-generated technical information, unauthorised use of an account, external websites, temporary unavailability, or content posted by another user.

We do not accept responsibility for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of business, loss of opportunity or loss of data arising from use of the service, except where liability cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law. Nothing in these terms affects rights that the law does not allow you to waive.

18. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms to reflect changes to the service, community rules, law or our operating practices. The updated version will be published on this page with a revised date.

Where a change is significant, we may provide notice through the website or by email. Continuing to use the service after the updated terms take effect means that you accept them.

19. Governing law

These terms are governed by Scots law. The Scottish courts will have jurisdiction, subject to any mandatory rights that allow a user to bring proceedings in another part of the United Kingdom.

20. Contact

Questions about these terms, account actions or the service can be sent to admin@autotech.network.