Contact Sharing and Off-platform Communications

1. Public contact details

Personal phone numbers and personal email addresses should not be published in public project listings, public discussions or public profile text. Where Symposed provides a specific professional contact field in the future, the Service will explain its visibility before publication.

2. Private sharing of your own details

You may voluntarily share your own email address, phone number or other contact details with another user in a private message or by using a dedicated contact-sharing feature. Where a contact-sharing button is used, you should be able to choose which contact detail to disclose.

Only share information you are comfortable giving to the recipient. A platform warning is a reminder, not a guarantee about the recipient or how the information will be used.

3. Other people's contact details

Do not share another person's private phone number, private email address, home address or other personal information unless you have their permission or another lawful authority to do so. In particular, do not circulate a supervisor's personal number merely because they are associated with a project.

4. How recipients may use shared details

Contact details obtained through Symposed should be used only for the genuine collaboration, professional contact or purpose for which they were shared, unless another lawful basis and any required consent applies. Do not add users to marketing lists, sell details, scrape contacts or distribute them to unrelated people.

5. Moving conversations off Symposed

Users are free to continue a genuine collaboration by email, WhatsApp, Teams or another appropriate service. Moving off-platform can reduce the amount of conversation content stored by Symposed, but it does not make unlawful or confidential sharing acceptable. Patient information and research data must still be handled using systems and processes approved by the responsible institution.

Symposed cannot control, retrieve or delete copies of information that a recipient has already copied to an external service or device. If another user misuses contact details you shared through Symposed, report the user and take any appropriate steps with the external service, your institution or relevant authority.

6. No pressure or harassment

You do not have to share a phone number or personal email address to use Symposed. Do not pressure another user to move off-platform or provide contact details. Repeated unwanted contact, including contact after rejection or blocking, may result in account action.