Terms of use, in plain language

• Use your real name and keep your details accurate. Certificates are issued in the name on your account.
• One account per person. Keep your password safe, and tell us straight away if you think someone else has used your account.
• We may pause or close an account that breaks these terms or puts other people at risk. We’ll tell you why, unless the law or someone’s safety stops us.
• You can download your data or ask us to erase your account at any time from Privacy & data.

You keep the rights to what you submit and give SocioStory permission to edit, publish and share it, including in our weekly mailer and on social media. You confirm that you have the right to share the text and photos, and that people who can be identified have agreed to appear.

Our editors read every story before it goes live, and may edit, decline or remove any story, especially one that could harm the people in it. We never publish paid stories. Anything written by a CSR team or a company is labelled “Partner update”. Read our editorial policy.

• Drives are run by the organisations that post them. They’re responsible for the drive, its safety plan and the people who run it on the day.
• SocioStory reviews each organisation’s first three drives before they’re published, and samples later ones. We don’t verify organisations’ compliance, finances or work.
• Volunteering is for adults only. Only sign up if you mean to go, and cancel in good time if you can’t, so someone else can take your place.
• Follow the code of conduct and the coordinator’s instructions on the day. If anything feels unsafe, leave and tell us: see safeguarding.

SocioStory issues two kinds of certificate, and each one says exactly what it records:

• Course certificates record that you passed an Academy course, with your score.
• Volunteer certificates record your hours at a drive: you checked in and out with the drive’s QR code (or the coordinator marked you present), the organiser signed off the roster, and SocioStory confirmed it. Hours are credited in half-hour steps, at most 8 a day.

Every certificate carries our digital signature, so anyone can check it’s genuine on its verify page. A certificate doesn’t say anything about the quality of the organisation’s work.

We may revoke a certificate issued in error or through misuse, such as checking in for someone who wasn’t there; its verify page will then say it was revoked, and why. If you think your hours or certificate are wrong, tell us, and a different reviewer will look again. If you erase your account, your certificates stay valid, in the name “Former volunteer” or “Former learner”.

• If you set up an organisation on SocioStory, you confirm you’re allowed to act for it. The organisation is responsible for what its team publishes, the drives and jobs it posts, and the messages it sends.
• Organisations see only what volunteers and candidates choose to share with them, and must use it only for the drive or the job.
• Prices and what each plan includes are shown before you pay. Payments are handled by Razorpay.

Employers are responsible for their job listings and hiring decisions. SocioStory never asks candidates for money, and no genuine employer on SocioStory should. If anyone does, please tell us at once.

• Pretending to be someone else, or giving false information, including false attendance or hours.
• Harassing, threatening or exploiting anyone, on SocioStory or at a drive.
• Publishing anything that identifies a child victim or a child in care, or photos of people who haven’t agreed.
• Collecting other people’s details from SocioStory, including by scraping, or sending spam.
• Anything illegal, or anything that gets in the way of how SocioStory works.

We work hard to keep SocioStory accurate, safe and available, but we can’t promise it will always be. We aren’t responsible for what organisations and other users say or do, including at drives, though we’ll act on what you report to us. Nothing in these terms limits what the law doesn’t allow us to limit.

This is version 2026-09 of these terms. If we change them in a way that matters, we’ll tell you before the change takes effect. Indian law applies to these terms. Questions? Write to sociostoryfoundation@gmail.com, or raise a grievance.

These terms work together with:

• Privacy notice: what we hold about you, why, for how long, and your rights.
• Grievances: how to complain, and who answers.
• Safeguarding: how we keep volunteers, communities and children safe.
• Code of conduct: what we expect of volunteers and organisers at drives.
• Editorial policy: no paid stories, labelled partner updates, consent and corrections.