Terms of Service

Part A: General Terms

These terms apply to all users of the Backbench platform.

1. Using Backbench

You agree that you will:

• Use the Services only for lawful purposes.
• Comply with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations that apply to you.
• Not use the Services to transmit, store, or distribute unlawful, harmful, or abusive material.
• Not attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Services or any related systems or networks.
• Not submit false or fraudulent information, including fabricated membership numbers or false claims of organisational affiliation.

2. Accounts & Security

To use certain features, you must create an account. You agree to keep your account information accurate and up to date and to maintain the confidentiality of your login credentials.

You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account. You must notify us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised.

3. Intellectual Property

Backbench and its licensors own all rights, title, and interest in and to the Services, including all software, content, and branding, except for content that you or your organisation provides.

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable licence to access and use the Services for the purposes described herein.

You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or reverse engineer any part of the Services except as permitted by law.

By submitting content to Backbench — including petition text, supporting documents, and comments — you grant Backbench a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, process, display, and export that content solely for the purpose of operating the Services. You retain all ownership rights in your content. This licence ends when the content is deleted from the platform, subject to the retention obligations described in our Privacy Notice.

4. Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability

The Services are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, whether express, implied, or statutory, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Backbench is a platform for member petitioning and collective action. We do not guarantee any particular legal or organisational outcome arising from use of the Services. The decision to act on any petition — including convening an Extraordinary General Meeting — remains with your organisation and its governing body.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Backbench will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, reputation, or opportunity, arising out of or related to your use of or inability to use the Services.

5. Third-Party Services

The Services may integrate with or depend on third-party products or services, such as email providers, authentication services, and storage platforms ("Third-Party Services"). Backbench does not control and is not responsible for Third-Party Services, and your use of them is at your own risk. Your use of any Third-Party Service is subject to that provider's own terms and policies.

6. Term & Termination

These Terms apply from the time you first access the Services and continue until your account is closed or your access is otherwise terminated.

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Services if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, submitted fraudulent membership information, pose a risk to other users, or where we are required to do so by law.

7. Governing Law

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Services are governed by the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, unless another jurisdiction is required by mandatory local law.

Part B: Members

These terms apply to users who sign up as verified members of an organisation on Backbench.

8. Membership Verification

To participate in petitions and votes, you must verify your membership by submitting a valid membership number for your organisation. You represent and warrant that:

• The membership number you provide is your own and is valid.
• The membership tier you select accurately reflects your current membership status.
• You are an active member in good standing of the organisation you are joining on Backbench.

Submitting a false or fabricated membership number, or misrepresenting your membership tier, is a violation of these Terms and may result in immediate account suspension. Backbench reserves the right to report fraudulent submissions to the relevant organisation.

Backbench validates membership numbers using a checksum algorithm and does not access your organisation's internal membership database. Structural validation does not guarantee that a membership number corresponds to an active member. Organisations may enable manual approval for new sign-ups.

9. Petitions & Signatures

As a verified member, you may create and sign petitions on Backbench. By creating a petition, you agree that:

• The petition content is truthful, lawful, and does not contain defamatory, abusive, or unlawful material.
• You are responsible for the content of any petition you create, including supporting documents you upload.
• Petitions are published immediately upon creation and visible to all authenticated members of your organisation.

Once a petition has received one or more signatures, its core demands and subject matter may not be materially changed. Minor clarifications, corrections, and factual updates are permitted provided they do not alter the fundamental nature of the petition ask. Backbench reserves the right to remove a petition if it determines that edits have been made in a non-compliant manner.

By signing a petition, you confirm that you are a verified member of the relevant organisation and that you wish to add your name to the signatory record. Your signature records your full name, membership number, tier, and the weighted vote associated with your tier at the time of signing.

By signing, you also consent to your name, membership number, tier, and vote weight being included in any petition export generated by the petition creator or an Organisation Admin, and to that export potentially being submitted to your organisation's governing body as part of a formal requisition. If you do not wish your information to be included in such an export and submission, you should not sign the petition.

You may withdraw your signature at any time while a petition is active. Withdrawals are logged in the immutable audit trail and marked accordingly — signatures are not deleted.

Backbench does not submit petitions to governing bodies on your behalf. Submission of any exported petition document remains a human act carried out by the petition creator or their designee.

10. Member Conduct

You agree not to use the platform to harass, intimidate, or target other members. Comments on petitions must be relevant, respectful, and lawful. Backbench and Organisation Admins reserve the right to remove content that violates these standards.

You must not include sensitive personal information — such as information relating to racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, political opinions, health, or other protected characteristics — in petition content, comments, or supporting documents, unless it is strictly necessary and directly relevant to the petition's purpose.

Part C: Organisations

These terms apply to Organisation Admins who configure and manage a Backbench instance on behalf of an organisation.

11. Organisation Configuration

As an Organisation Admin, you are responsible for configuring your organisation's instance accurately, including:

• Membership tier definitions, voting weights, and EGM eligibility flags — these should reflect your current Articles of Association or governing rules.
• Threshold configurations for petition types (e.g. the percentage of votes required to requisition an Extraordinary General Meeting).
• Approving or rejecting Governing Body Member status requests.

You represent that you have authority to configure the platform on behalf of your organisation and that the configurations you set are accurate to the best of your knowledge. Backbench does not verify the accuracy of tier or threshold configurations against your organisation's governing documents.

12. Data & Audit Records

Signature records, audit logs, and petition exports generated through the Services constitute a record of member activity on the platform. Backbench maintains these records to support the integrity of the petitioning process.

Organisation Admins may access the full audit log for their organisation's instance. You are responsible for handling this data in compliance with applicable privacy and data protection laws, including the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486) in Hong Kong or equivalent legislation in your jurisdiction.

13. Fees & Subscriptions

Our pricing and subscription models are available on our website.

Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms, or if you need this information in an alternative accessible format, please contact us via one of the following methods:

• Contact Us form
• Email: terms@backbench.net