Terms of Use

Last updated: 7 April 2026

These Terms of Use govern access to and use of Ecko.

By creating an account, accessing Ecko, or using any part of the service, you agree to these Terms.

If you are using Ecko on behalf of a school, academy trust, federation, charity, company or other organisation, you confirm that you have authority to agree to these Terms on that organisation’s behalf. In that case, “you” and “your” mean that organisation as well as the individual users acting for it.

1. About Ecko

Ecko is a web-based newsletter publishing platform designed to help schools and similar organisations create, manage and publish digital newsletters and related content.

Ecko is operated by Andrew Viney, trading as Ecko, in the United Kingdom. Contact: [email protected].

2. Who may use Ecko

Ecko is intended for use by adults acting on behalf of a school or other organisation. It is not intended for use by children as account holders.

You must ensure that anyone you invite to use your Ecko account is authorised to do so and complies with these Terms.

3. Organisation account and permitted use

Unless we agree otherwise in writing, each Ecko subscription is licensed for use by one school only.

That means a single plan must not be shared across:

  • multiple schools
  • multiple academy trust schools
  • separate nursery, infant, junior, secondary or sixth form settings operating as distinct schools
  • multiple organisations under common ownership or management

If you need Ecko for more than one school or setting, you must purchase a separate plan for each one, or enter into a separate written agreement with us covering that multi-school use.

Where an academy trust, federation or similar group enters into an agreement with us for one or more of its schools, that agreement is with the academy trust or federation itself. The trust or federation is responsible for compliance with these Terms by its schools and users, and any liability under the agreement sits with that contracting organisation rather than with the individual schools.

We may suspend or restrict access where we reasonably believe one plan is being used for multiple schools or organisations in breach of this section.

4. Subscription term, billing, renewal and price changes

Ecko is billed annually.

By signing up for Ecko, or by renewing your subscription, you agree to a commitment for a 12-month subscription term.

Subscriptions renew automatically for further 12-month terms unless cancelled before the renewal date in accordance with the cancellation process that applies to your plan.

Fees must be paid when due. If payment is overdue, we may:

  • issue reminders
  • suspend access to some or all of the service
  • withhold publication or access to content
  • terminate the account if payment remains outstanding

Except where required by law, fees are non-refundable once a subscription term has started. Nothing in these Terms affects any cancellation or refund rights that apply to you under mandatory law.

We may change our subscription fees from time to time. Any price change will apply only from the start of the next renewal term and will not affect the price of your current active subscription term.

If we change the subscription price, we will give you at least 60 days’ notice before the renewal date at which the new price will take effect.

If you do not agree to the new price, you may cancel your subscription before the renewal date, in which case the price change will not apply. If you do not cancel before renewal, the subscription will renew at the new price.

5. Your account responsibilities

You are responsible for:

  • keeping login details secure
  • ensuring your account information is accurate
  • managing who has access to your account
  • promptly removing access for users who are no longer authorised
  • all activity carried out through your account

You must tell us promptly at [email protected] if you become aware of any unauthorised access or security issue affecting your account.

6. Acceptable use

You must use Ecko lawfully, responsibly and in a way that does not harm Ecko, its users or third parties.

You must not use Ecko to create, upload, store, publish, share or distribute content that:

  • is unlawful, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harassing, hateful or misleading
  • infringes copyright, trade mark, privacy, confidentiality or other rights
  • contains viruses, malware or other harmful code
  • is obscene, sexually explicit or otherwise unsuitable for a school-focused platform
  • promotes illegal activity
  • could reasonably be considered unsafe, exploitative or harmful to children
  • impersonates another person or organisation
  • is deceptive, fraudulent or intended to mislead readers

You must not:

  • use Ecko to send spam
  • attempt to gain unauthorised access to Ecko, its servers or other users’ accounts
  • interfere with the normal operation or security of the platform
  • reverse engineer, scrape, copy or exploit Ecko in a way that competes with or undermines the service
  • use Ecko primarily as a generic file storage or asset hosting service unrelated to your newsletter use

We may remove content, restrict access, suspend accounts or take any other action we reasonably consider necessary where we believe this section has been breached.

7. Your content and your responsibility for it

You retain ownership of the content you create, upload or publish through Ecko.

However, you are solely responsible for your content and for the consequences of publishing it.

You confirm that you have all necessary rights, permissions and lawful basis to use and publish any content you upload or create in Ecko, including:

  • text
  • images
  • logos
  • PDFs and other documents
  • videos or embedded media
  • personal data
  • any content featuring children or other individuals

This means, for example, that you must only upload material that:

  • you created yourself, or
  • you have permission or another legal right to use and publish

You must also ensure that your use of Ecko and your published content complies with all laws, regulations, safeguarding requirements, policies and consents that apply to your organisation.

Responsibility for customer content lies with you, not with Ecko. If we receive a complaint, allegation or takedown request relating to your content, we may act on it as we consider appropriate, but that does not transfer legal responsibility for the content from you to us.

8. Licence you give us to run the service

You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, process, reproduce, adapt, modify, display and distribute your content only to the extent reasonably necessary to:

  • provide and operate Ecko
  • display and publish your newsletters and related media
  • back up and maintain the service
  • secure, troubleshoot, improve and develop the platform
  • optimise, compress, resize, reformat or otherwise technically process content for performance, compatibility, accessibility, storage efficiency or service functionality
  • make technical or administrative changes to content where reasonably necessary to maintain compatibility with platform updates, feature changes, infrastructure changes or improvements to Ecko
  • comply with legal obligations and respond to complaints, claims or takedown requests

This licence does not give us ownership of your content and does not allow us to use it for unrelated commercial purposes.

This licence ends when your content is deleted from Ecko, except to the extent it must continue to be retained in backups, logs, archives or as otherwise required for technical or legal reasons.

9. Public nature of content

Ecko is a publishing platform, not a private storage or private intranet service.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, content uploaded to and published through Ecko should be treated as public. Newsletters, images and other materials may be accessible by link and may be shared onwards by readers.

Although Ecko may take steps such as discouraging search engine indexing in some cases, we do not guarantee that published content will remain private, confidential, unindexed or inaccessible to third parties.

You should only upload or publish material that you are comfortable treating as public and that you are entitled to make publicly available.

10. Fair usage and “unlimited” features

Where Ecko plans refer to features such as unlimited editions or unlimited image uploads, these are provided subject to fair usage.

Fair usage means use that is reasonable and consistent with the normal intended purpose of Ecko as a newsletter platform for a single school.

For example, you must not:

  • use Ecko as a substitute for general cloud storage, backup storage or a digital asset archive
  • upload large volumes of images or files that are not genuinely connected to newsletters or related school communications published through Ecko
  • use excessive storage or bandwidth in a way that is abnormal compared with typical use by similar customers
  • upload duplicate, excessive, automated or bulk content without a legitimate editorial purpose
  • use Ecko in a way that creates an unreasonable burden on the service or other users

We may monitor usage levels to protect the stability and sustainability of Ecko. Where we believe usage is excessive or outside fair usage, we may:

  • contact you to discuss the issue
  • ask you to reduce usage
  • remove or restrict offending content
  • apply reasonable storage or usage limits
  • require you to move to a different plan or custom arrangement
  • suspend or terminate access in serious or repeated cases

We will act reasonably and aim to give notice where practical, but we may act immediately where necessary to protect the service or respond to legal or operational risk.

11. Moderation, removal and takedown

We reserve the right, but not the obligation, to review, refuse, disable access to, remove, edit or reformat any content hosted or published through Ecko where we reasonably believe that doing so is necessary to:

  • enforce these Terms
  • comply with law, regulation, court orders or valid complaints
  • respond to alleged copyright infringement, trade mark complaints, defamation complaints, privacy complaints or similar claims
  • protect children, users, third parties or the integrity of the service
  • prevent harm, liability, security issues or reputational damage

We may take this action without prior notice where we reasonably believe immediate action is necessary.

Where appropriate, we may also suspend accounts, disable publication, or restrict access while a complaint or issue is investigated.

Any action we take in response to a complaint, notice or request does not mean that Ecko accepts legal responsibility for the underlying content. Responsibility for ensuring the legality and suitability of content remains with the customer who uploaded or published it.

12. Availability and changes to Ecko

We aim to keep Ecko available and functioning well, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free availability.

We may:

  • modify, improve or update Ecko
  • add, remove or change features
  • carry out maintenance
  • suspend access temporarily for technical, security or operational reasons

Where reasonably possible, we will try to avoid unnecessary disruption.

13. Support

Any support included with your plan is provided as described on the Ecko website or as otherwise agreed in writing.

We will use reasonable efforts to provide support, but we do not guarantee any specific response or resolution times unless separately agreed.

14. Cancellation and termination by you

You may choose not to renew your subscription at the end of its current term by cancelling before the renewal date.

If you cancel during an active subscription term, the cancellation will normally take effect at the end of that term, unless mandatory law gives you a right to cancel sooner.

Cancellation does not automatically entitle you to a refund for unused time unless required by law or expressly agreed.

15. Suspension or termination by us

We may suspend or terminate your access to Ecko immediately or on notice if:

  • you materially or repeatedly breach these Terms
  • you fail to pay fees when due
  • your use creates legal, operational, security or reputational risk for Ecko
  • we reasonably believe your use is unlawful or unsafe
  • you are using one plan for multiple schools in breach of these Terms
  • your use falls outside fair usage and the issue is not resolved after notice, where notice is practical

Where appropriate, we may choose to suspend access instead of terminating it, to allow the issue to be resolved.

16. Access to content after termination

After termination or cancellation, access to your content may be removed.

We may, at our discretion, allow a limited period for export or retrieval of content, but we are not obliged to provide indefinite access.

We may retain certain data for backup, legal, security, fraud prevention or compliance purposes for a reasonable period after termination.

17. Intellectual property in Ecko

All intellectual property rights in Ecko itself, including the platform, software, design, branding, structure and underlying materials, belong to us or our licensors.

These Terms do not transfer ownership of Ecko or any part of it to you.

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use Ecko during your subscription term and only for your internal organisational use in accordance with these Terms.

You must not copy, modify, distribute, sell, resell, lease, sublicense or create derivative works from Ecko except as permitted by law or with our written permission.

18. Third-party services and content

Ecko may integrate with, link to, embed or rely on third-party services or content.

We are not responsible for third-party services, websites or content, including their availability, security, legality or performance.

Your use of third-party services may also be governed by their own terms and policies.

19. Data protection and privacy

Our handling of personal data is described in the Ecko Privacy Policy.

Where you use Ecko to upload or publish personal data, you are responsible for ensuring that you have an appropriate lawful basis and that your organisation meets its own data protection obligations.

In most cases, your organisation will be the controller of the personal data you choose to use in Ecko, and Ecko will act as a service provider or processor in relation to the platform services we provide.

20. Warranties and disclaimers

We provide Ecko with reasonable care and skill.

However, except to the extent required by law, Ecko is provided on an “as available” basis and we do not promise that:

  • it will always be uninterrupted, secure or error-free
  • it will meet every requirement or workflow you may have
  • it will be compatible with every third-party system or browser
  • all content will always be preserved without loss

Nothing in these Terms excludes any rights that cannot legally be excluded.

21. Liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for:

  • death or personal injury caused by negligence
  • fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation
  • any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited

Subject to that, we will not be liable for:

  • indirect or consequential loss
  • loss of profit
  • loss of revenue
  • loss of business opportunity
  • loss of goodwill
  • loss of anticipated savings
  • loss of data or corruption of data, except where caused by our failure to use reasonable care and skill

Subject to the paragraph above, our total liability arising out of or in connection with Ecko and these Terms will not exceed the total fees paid by you for Ecko in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

22. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and keep us indemnified against losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses arising from:

  • your breach of these Terms
  • your unlawful use of Ecko
  • any claim that your content infringes rights of a third party
  • any claim arising from your publication of content, including data protection, confidentiality, defamation or intellectual property claims

This indemnity applies only to the extent the claim results from your acts, omissions or content, rather than our own breach of these Terms.

23. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time.

If we make material changes, we will take reasonable steps to notify users, such as by posting an update on the website or within the service.

By continuing to use Ecko after updated Terms take effect, you agree to the revised Terms.

24. Governing law and jurisdiction

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

The courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms, except where another court must apply under mandatory law.

25. Contact

Questions about these Terms should be sent to [email protected].