TomatoScout Terms of Use

1. What TomatoScout does

TomatoScout provides information about tomato varieties and tools to help growers explore, compare and find varieties that may suit their preferences and growing conditions.

This includes researched variety information, search and recommendation tools, community reviews, photographs and growing experiences contributed by users.

TomatoScout is intended as a useful gardening resource. It cannot guarantee that a particular variety will perform in a particular garden or growing season.

2. Accounts

You can use parts of TomatoScout without an account. Some features require you to create one.

You are responsible for keeping access to your account secure and for activity carried out through it.

Information you provide when using TomatoScout should be reasonably accurate and should not impersonate another person.

You may choose whether your TomatoScout profile is public or private. Some contributions that you deliberately publish, such as reviews, remain public even when your profile is private.

You may delete your account through the account and privacy controls. What happens to your information and published contributions when you delete your account is explained in our Privacy Policy.

3. Tomato variety information

We try to make TomatoScout’s variety information useful and accurate, but tomato-variety information is not always definitive.

Different sources may disagree, growing conditions can affect observed characteristics, varieties may be known under different names, and information can change as better evidence becomes available.

TomatoScout may therefore correct, update, expand or remove variety information over time.

You should not treat information on TomatoScout as a guarantee of a variety’s characteristics, performance, disease resistance, yield, suitability or availability.

4. Recommendations and Match results

TomatoScout may provide personalised search results, Match percentages, confidence indicators, reasons and cautions based on the preferences, growing conditions and other criteria you provide.

These are decision-support tools rather than guarantees.

A high Match or Confidence result does not guarantee that a tomato will grow successfully or that you will like it. Weather, growing technique, seed quality, disease, local conditions and individual preferences can all affect results.

Commercial relationships do not determine TomatoScout’s community ratings or personalised Match results.

5. Reviews and other community contributions

You may be able to contribute reviews, ratings, growing observations, corrections, photographs and other information.

You remain responsible for what you submit.

You must not knowingly submit content that:

• is false or deliberately misleading;
• impersonates another person;
• is abusive, threatening, discriminatory or unlawful;
• infringes another person's copyright, privacy or other rights;
• contains malicious code, spam or inappropriate commercial promotion; or
• contains personal information about somebody else that you do not have the right to publish.

TomatoScout may moderate, reject, edit the presentation of, restrict or remove contributions where reasonably necessary to operate the service, enforce these Terms, protect users or maintain the quality and integrity of the database.

We may distinguish between objective or structured observations and free-text contributions when deciding what is suitable for public display.

6. Your reviews, text and other contributions

You keep ownership of content that you create.

When you deliberately submit content for publication on TomatoScout, you give Gareth Browning, trading as TomatoScout, a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, format and make that content available as part of TomatoScout and to operate, maintain, promote and improve the service.

This licence allows TomatoScout, for example, to display your review on a variety page, include its structured ratings in community summaries, resize material for different devices and preserve an anonymised published contribution after account deletion where appropriate.

It does not transfer ownership of your content to TomatoScout.

The licence lasts for as long as the content remains reasonably required for those purposes. Where content is removed or an account is deleted, some previously published community information may remain in anonymised form as explained in the Privacy Policy.

You should only submit material that you have the right to submit.

7. Photographs

You retain copyright in photographs you create and upload.

You must not upload a photograph unless you own it or otherwise have sufficient permission to submit it and grant TomatoScout the rights required for its intended use.

TomatoScout records provenance, licence and permission information for photographs where applicable and may reject or remove photographs if their rights or provenance are unclear.

Different photo-submission features may offer different permissions. Where TomatoScout presents specific photo-licensing or permission wording when you submit a photograph, that specific recorded permission applies to that photograph in addition to these Terms.

Where you give permission for a photograph to be used publicly on TomatoScout, you grant TomatoScout a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, reproduce, display and technically process the photograph for the purposes you agreed to, including permitted resizing or cropping where applicable.

TomatoScout does not acquire ownership of your copyright merely because you upload a photograph.

If you believe a photograph on TomatoScout infringes your rights, contact hello@tomatoscout.com or use the available reporting feature.

8. Suggestions and corrections

You may suggest corrections or additions to TomatoScout’s variety information.

Submitting a suggestion does not mean that it will automatically be accepted. TomatoScout may assess submissions against other sources and evidence and may accept, reject, amend or defer them.

Accepted corrections may become part of TomatoScout’s maintained variety database and change history.

9. Saved and private information

Features such as saved tomatoes, saved searches, private growing records and growing setups are intended for your own account unless TomatoScout clearly indicates otherwise.

Published reviews are different: when you choose to publish a review, the information identified as public review information becomes community content.

Please review information before publishing it.

Our Privacy Policy explains in more detail how public and private information is handled.

10. Affiliate links and commercial relationships

TomatoScout may contain links to seed sellers, gardening suppliers or other third parties.

Some links may be affiliate links. This means TomatoScout may receive a payment or commission if you follow a link and subsequently make a purchase, normally without increasing the price you pay.

We will identify affiliate or other commercial relationships appropriately.

Affiliate relationships do not allow retailers to alter TomatoScout’s community ratings, user reviews or personalised Match calculations.

A link to a retailer does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement of that retailer, its stock, prices, delivery, products or services.

Any purchase you make is between you and the relevant retailer and is subject to that retailer’s terms.

11. Advertising

TomatoScout may display advertising or sponsorship.

Advertising will be distinguished from TomatoScout’s independent variety information and community evidence where necessary to avoid confusion.

The presence of an advertiser does not give that advertiser control over community ratings or personalised Match calculations.

If advertising technology involves cookies, tracking or processing of personal information, it will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy and applicable consent requirements.

12. Intellectual property belonging to TomatoScout

Except for user contributions and third-party material, the content, design, software, branding, organisation and original editorial material that make up TomatoScout are owned by or licensed to Gareth Browning trading as TomatoScout.

You may use TomatoScout for normal personal use.

You must not, without permission:

• reproduce substantial parts of TomatoScout for another website, database, app or commercial service;
• systematically scrape, harvest or download TomatoScout content or data;
• use automated means to place unreasonable loads on the service;
• bypass access controls or security measures;
• misrepresent TomatoScout content as your own; or
• use TomatoScout branding in a way that suggests an affiliation or endorsement that does not exist.

Nothing in these Terms prevents uses permitted by law.

13. Third-party websites and services

TomatoScout may link to third-party websites or use third-party services.

We do not control those services and are not responsible for their content, availability, security, prices, products or privacy practices.

You should review the relevant third party’s terms and privacy information where appropriate.

14. Availability and changes to TomatoScout

TomatoScout is an evolving service.

We may add, change, suspend or remove features, data or content and may carry out maintenance or make changes needed for security, legal compliance or operation of the service.

We do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free availability.

Where reasonably possible, we will avoid making changes that unfairly affect existing users without appropriate notice.

15. Suspension and termination

We may restrict or terminate access to TomatoScout where reasonably necessary, including where a user seriously or repeatedly breaches these Terms, abuses the service, threatens its security or other users, or uses it unlawfully.

Where appropriate and reasonably practicable, we may provide warning or an opportunity to correct the problem first.

You may stop using TomatoScout at any time and may delete your account using the account controls.

16. Liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including liability that cannot legally be excluded under applicable consumer law.

TomatoScout provides gardening information and recommendations for general informational purposes. Results in real growing conditions vary considerably.

To the extent permitted by law, TomatoScout is not responsible for losses resulting solely from reliance on a prediction, Match result, variety characteristic or community observation where reasonable care has been taken in providing the service.

TomatoScout is not responsible for the acts, products or services of third-party retailers merely because TomatoScout links to them.

These Terms do not affect any statutory rights you have as a consumer.

17. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how TomatoScout collects and uses personal information, what may become public, retention, account deletion, marketing preferences and your data-protection rights.

Marketing consent is handled separately and is not a condition of using TomatoScout.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as TomatoScout develops.

If a change is significant and materially affects existing account holders, we will take reasonable steps to bring it to their attention.

The date at the top indicates when the Terms were most recently updated.

19. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

If you are a consumer living elsewhere in the United Kingdom or another jurisdiction, you may also have mandatory rights under the laws that apply where you live which these Terms do not override.

20. Contact

TomatoScout is operated by:

Gareth Browning, trading as TomatoScout
United Kingdom

General enquiries:
hello@tomatoscout.com

Privacy and data-rights enquiries:
privacy@tomatoscout.com