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Terms & Conditions

Last updated: 23 July 2026

Welcome to Rainflower. These Terms & Conditions govern your use of rainflower.world and the Rainflower programme. By creating an account or using the site, you agree to them. Please read them alongside our Privacy Policy.

Questions? Write to info@rainflower.world.

1. Who may take part

  • Rainflower is a youth-led research programme, open to school and university students, coordinators and advisors.
  • If you are under 18, a parent or legal guardian must complete and sign our consent form before you take part. Your account may be limited until that consent is recorded.
  • A coordinator must approve student accounts before they become active. We may decline or revoke an account at our discretion.
  • You must give accurate information when you register, and keep it up to date.

2. Your account

  • You are responsible for what happens under your account. Keep your password private and do not let anyone else use your login.
  • One person, one account. Do not create accounts for people who have not agreed to take part.
  • Tell us at info@rainflower.world immediately if you think someone else has access to your account.
  • Administrators and coordinators may access an account to provide support, investigate a problem or keep participants safe. This access is logged.

3. Research data and honest reporting

Rainflower is a scientific programme, and its value depends entirely on the honesty of what participants submit.

  • Submit measurements you actually took, using the method the experiment describes.
  • Do not invent, copy, guess or alter readings, and do not submit duplicates to earn extra rewards.
  • If you make a mistake, correct it or tell your coordinator. Honest corrections are always welcome.
  • Fabricating data is the most serious breach of these Terms. It may result in the removal of your contributions, forfeiture of RAINDROPS and closure of your account.

4. Your content and what we may do with it

  • You keep ownership of the measurements, reports, photographs, posts and other material you submit.
  • You grant Rainflower a worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, reproduce, publish, adapt and display that material for the purposes of the programme — including research outputs, reports, teaching materials, the website and programme publicity.
  • Where we publish material that identifies you, we credit you by username or display name. Photographs of a student are published only where the guardian consent form permits it.
  • Only submit material you created or have permission to use. Do not upload anyone else's copyrighted work.
  • We may remove content that breaches these Terms, is unlawful, or is unsafe.

5. Acceptable use

When using Rainflower, you must not:

  • Harass, bully, threaten or abuse anyone, or post hateful, discriminatory or sexually explicit material
  • Share other participants' personal information, including a student's contact details, without permission
  • Impersonate another person, coordinator or organisation
  • Attempt to gain unauthorised access to accounts, data or systems, probe for vulnerabilities, or interfere with the site's operation
  • Scrape, harvest or bulk-download data except through facilities we provide
  • Use the platform for advertising, spam or any commercial purpose unrelated to the programme
  • Break any applicable law, or put a child at risk

If you find a security vulnerability, please report it privately to info@rainflower.world rather than exploiting or publicising it.

6. Coordinators

Coordinators take on additional responsibility. If you are a coordinator, you agree to:

  • Verify that each student you approve is genuine, and that guardian consent is in place for anyone under 18
  • Treat student information — including contact details and consent records — as confidential, and use it only to run the programme
  • Support your students' work honestly, and not submit or approve data you know to be false
  • Conduct yourself appropriately at all times when working with young people

7. RAINDROPS and rewards

  • RAINDROPS are programme reward points awarded for approved contributions such as measurements, reports and tasks. They are not currency, not a security, and have no value outside the programme.
  • RAINDROPS are personal to you. They cannot be transferred, sold or gifted to another participant.
  • Where the shop or a cash-out facility is available, conversion rates, minimums and availability are set by Rainflower and may change. Awards, balances and conversions may be corrected if they resulted from an error, a duplicate submission or a breach of these Terms.
  • You are responsible for any tax arising from rewards you receive.
  • Badges reflect milestones you have reached and, once earned, are not removed if you later spend your RAINDROPS. Rainflower may adjust badge definitions or assign badges at its discretion.
  • If your account is closed for a breach of these Terms, unredeemed RAINDROPS may be forfeited.

8. Rainfall data, the simulator and other tools — no warranty

The live rainfall pages, historical rainfall pages and the rainwater simulator are provided for education and research interest only.

  • Weather and historical rainfall figures come from third-party sources and are estimates. They may be delayed, incomplete or wrong.
  • Simulator results are modelled approximations, not engineering guidance.
  • Do not rely on anything on this site for safety-critical decisions, including flood, storm or emergency planning, or for the design of drinking-water systems. Always follow your local authorities and qualified professionals.

9. Fieldwork safety

Collecting rainfall data means going outdoors, sometimes in bad weather. Your safety comes first: follow your coordinator's instructions and your school's rules, never take measurements during lightning, flooding or dangerous conditions, and never climb onto a roof or other unsafe place to reach equipment. Participants under 18 should have adult supervision as their guardian consent requires.

10. Availability and changes to the service

We work to keep Rainflower available, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted access. We may add, change, suspend or withdraw features, and we may carry out maintenance without notice. The site is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, to the fullest extent the law allows.

11. Suspension and closing your account

  • You may close your account at any time by writing to info@rainflower.world. A parent or guardian may make that request for a participant under 18.
  • We may suspend or close an account that breaches these Terms, falsifies data, endangers a participant, or is inactive for a long period.
  • Research measurements already contributed may remain part of the scientific record after an account closes, in anonymised or credited form, as described in our Privacy Policy.

12. Intellectual property

The Rainflower name, logo, brand, site design, written materials and software are owned by Rainflower or its licensors. You may not copy or reuse them for another organisation or product without our written permission. Published research findings may be shared and cited with attribution to Rainflower and the contributing participants.

13. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Rainflower and the people running it are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of data, or loss arising from your reliance on rainfall figures, simulator output or other information on the site. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the programme develops. We will change the "last updated" date above, and for significant changes we will notify participants by email. Continuing to use Rainflower after a change means you accept the revised Terms.

15. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws applicable where the Rainflower programme is operated, and any dispute will be dealt with by the courts of that jurisdiction. Nothing here removes any protection you have under the mandatory consumer or data-protection law of your own country.

16. Contact

For any question about these Terms, or to report a breach, write to info@rainflower.world.