PurpleCare Community Standards & Acceptable Use Policy

1. About PurpleCare Community

PurpleCare Community provides a digital space through which patients can access and, where enabled, participate in health, wellbeing and community content associated with their PurpleCare service.

Depending on the services made available by your healthcare organisation, Community may allow you to:

• Browse community topics
• Read published posts and discussions
• Reply to conversations
• Participate anonymously where a topic permits this
• Discover relevant events
• Register your interest in or respond to events
• Report content that you believe requires attention

PurpleCare Community is intended to be a supportive, respectful and useful environment.

These Community Standards explain the behaviour expected from everyone who participates and how PurpleCare may respond when content or conduct falls outside those standards.

They form part of the PurpleCare Patient App & Digital Services Terms of Use.

2. A community built around respect

Healthcare and wellbeing can be personal.

People using PurpleCare Community may have different experiences, circumstances, cultures, beliefs and perspectives. We ask everyone to participate with consideration for those differences.

When participating in Community:

• Treat other people with respect
• Contribute constructively
• Respect another person’s privacy
• Consider how your words may affect someone experiencing illness or difficult circumstances
• Disagree with ideas without attacking the person expressing them
• Share personal experiences responsibly
• Avoid presenting personal experience as universally applicable medical advice
• Report concerning content rather than escalating an unsafe interaction

Community should help people feel more informed, supported and connected, not less safe.

3. Community is not a substitute for medical advice

Community discussions may include personal experiences relating to health, healthcare and wellbeing.

Unless content is clearly identified as information provided by an appropriately authorised healthcare professional in a relevant professional context, you should not treat Community content as medical advice.

A treatment, medicine, investigation or healthcare approach that was appropriate for another person may not be appropriate for you.

Do not use Community as your sole basis for:

• Diagnosing a medical condition
• Starting or stopping medication
• Changing prescribed treatment
• Interpreting a diagnostic result
• Delaying medical attention
• Making another significant healthcare decision

If you have questions about your health, treatment, medication or healthcare information, speak with an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.

4. Community is not an emergency service

Do not use Community to request emergency medical assistance.

Other Community users may not see your post immediately, and Community moderation is not an emergency-response service.

If you believe that you or another person may require urgent or emergency medical assistance, contact the appropriate emergency service or seek urgent medical care through the channels available in your location.

5. Protect your privacy

Think carefully before sharing personal information in Community.

Even where a Community space is limited to PurpleCare users, information you choose to post may be visible to other participants in that Community experience.

Avoid publishing information such as:

• Your home address
• Personal telephone numbers
• Personal email addresses
• Passwords or authentication information
• Financial-account information
• Payment-card information
• Identification documents
• Verification codes
• Information that could unnecessarily expose your identity or security

You should also consider carefully how much of your own health information you wish to share publicly with other Community participants.

PurpleCare provides more appropriate private routes for accessing your own healthcare information and communicating with your healthcare organisation.

6. Respect other people’s privacy

Do not share another person’s private, confidential or healthcare information without appropriate authority.

This includes:

• Healthcare reports
• Test results
• Medical records
• Diagnoses
• Photographs containing private information
• Private communications
• Contact information
• Information about another person’s treatment or health condition

Having access to another patient’s PurpleCare profile through Family or Delegated Access does not give you permission to publish that person’s information in Community.

Delegated access exists to support the person’s healthcare journey, not to make their information public.

7. Anonymous participation

Some PurpleCare Community topics may allow you to participate without displaying your identity to other Community participants.

Where anonymous participation is available, PurpleCare may hide your name or other identifying information from the public Community experience.

Anonymous participation does not necessarily mean that your activity is anonymous to PurpleCare or your healthcare organisation.

PurpleCare may retain information linking activity to the relevant account where this is reasonably necessary for:

• Community moderation
• User safety
• Safeguarding
• Security
• Abuse prevention
• Investigation of reported content
• Legal or regulatory requirements
• Maintaining appropriate accountability

Do not use anonymous participation as a way to evade these Community Standards.

8. Content that is not permitted

You must not use PurpleCare Community to publish, promote or distribute content that:

• Is unlawful
• Threatens, encourages or celebrates violence
• Harasses, intimidates or abuses another person
• Contains hateful or discriminatory content
• Targets someone because of a protected or personal characteristic
• Exploits, sexualises or endangers a child
• Exploits or deliberately targets a vulnerable person
• Encourages suicide, self-harm or dangerous behaviour
• Promotes deliberately harmful healthcare practices
• Contains another person’s confidential information without appropriate authority
• Violates another person’s privacy
• Impersonates another person or organisation
• Is fraudulent or deliberately deceptive
• Is spam
• Is an unauthorised advertisement or commercial promotion
• Attempts to obtain passwords, verification codes or other sensitive information
• Contains malicious software, harmful links or other malicious content
• Infringes copyright, trademark or other intellectual-property rights
• Is otherwise likely to create a material risk to patients, users or the PurpleCare service

9. Health misinformation and unsafe medical content

Healthcare discussions require particular care.

PurpleCare may restrict or remove content that presents a material risk to health or safety, including content that:

• Encourages someone to ignore urgent medical symptoms
• Encourages a person to stop prescribed medication without appropriate professional advice
• Promotes a dangerous treatment as safe
• Deliberately misrepresents medical information in a way likely to cause harm
• Encourages harmful dosing or misuse of medication
• Provides instructions for dangerous health practices
• Falsely impersonates a healthcare professional
• Makes deliberately deceptive claims about healthcare services

This does not mean that people cannot discuss their own experiences or respectfully question healthcare issues.

The distinction is between sharing an experience or perspective and presenting unsafe or materially misleading information in a way that could reasonably cause harm.

10. Self-harm and vulnerable users

PurpleCare takes content relating to suicide, self-harm and vulnerable people seriously.

Content that encourages, instructs or celebrates self-harm is not permitted.

Where a contribution indicates that a person may be at immediate risk, PurpleCare or the participating healthcare organisation may take reasonable action consistent with the information available, applicable law and relevant safeguarding processes.

Community should never be relied upon as an emergency monitoring service.

If you or another person is in immediate danger, contact the appropriate emergency service or seek urgent professional assistance.

11. Children and young people

Additional care is required where Community services are accessible to children or young people.

Users must not:

• Attempt to exploit or groom a child
• Request inappropriate personal information from a child
• Sexualise a child
• Encourage a child to engage in dangerous activity
• Attempt to move an inappropriate interaction with a child to another communication channel
• Share content that creates a safeguarding risk

Content or behaviour that creates a credible safeguarding concern may be removed, restricted or escalated in accordance with applicable safeguarding, legal and organisational requirements.

12. Harassment and bullying

PurpleCare Community should allow people to participate without being subjected to abuse.

You must not:

• Repeatedly target another user
• Threaten another person
• Encourage others to harass someone
• Publish humiliating personal information
• Use discriminatory insults
• Deliberately intimidate a vulnerable user
• Continue unwanted interaction after a clear request to stop

Disagreement is permitted.

Abuse is not.

13. Fraud, impersonation and deceptive behaviour

Do not use Community to misrepresent who you are or why you are participating.

You must not:

• Pretend to be a healthcare professional when you are not
• Impersonate another patient
• Impersonate Purple Crayola or a healthcare organisation
• Falsely claim professional qualifications
• Conduct fraudulent fundraising
• Promote fraudulent healthcare products or services
• Attempt to obtain money or sensitive information through deception

Where professional or official accounts are identified within PurpleCare, users should not attempt to reproduce those identifiers or otherwise create confusion about their status.

14. Commercial content and promotion

PurpleCare Community is not intended to operate as an unrestricted advertising marketplace.

Unless specifically permitted by the relevant Community experience, you must not use it for:

• Unsolicited advertising
• Repetitive commercial promotion
• Recruitment into unrelated commercial schemes
• Affiliate marketing
• Spam
• Sale of regulated healthcare products
• Promotion of fraudulent or unsafe health products
• Unauthorised solicitation of patients

Healthcare organisations may publish relevant information about their own services, programmes or events where appropriate.

15. Events and community activities

Where PurpleCare displays Community events, the event information available to you may include details provided by your healthcare organisation or another authorised source.

Registering an interest or responding to an event through PurpleCare does not necessarily guarantee attendance or availability unless this is explicitly confirmed.

Additional conditions may apply to a particular event.

If an event is delivered by a third party, that provider may also have its own terms, privacy information or participation requirements.

16. Reporting content

If you see Community content that you believe breaches these Standards, use the available reporting function where provided.

When reporting content:

• Select the most relevant reason
• Provide additional information where this would help the review
• Do not submit deliberately false or abusive reports
• Do not repeatedly report content simply because you disagree with it

Reporting content does not automatically mean it will be removed.

A report allows the relevant moderation process to review the content against these Standards and other applicable requirements.

17. Blocking and interaction controls

Where PurpleCare provides controls that allow you to block, restrict or otherwise manage interaction with another user, you can use those controls where an interaction is unwanted or uncomfortable.

Blocking a user does not necessarily remove content already submitted or prevent PurpleCare from retaining relevant information for security, moderation, safeguarding or legal purposes.

Where the current PurpleCare service does not provide a particular interaction control, you can report concerning content or contact the support channel provided through your PurpleCare service.

18. How moderation works

Community moderation may involve Purple Crayola, the participating healthcare organisation or appropriately authorised moderators, depending on how the PurpleCare service is configured.

Moderation may include:

• Reviewing reported content
• Reviewing content identified through other appropriate moderation processes
• Restricting visibility
• Removing content
• Closing or limiting discussions
• Restricting particular Community functionality
• Issuing warnings
• Suspending Community participation
• Restricting or suspending an account where appropriate
• Escalating safeguarding or security concerns
• Preserving information where reasonably necessary for investigation or legal purposes

Member posts and replies, including anonymous submissions, require moderator approval before becoming visible to other Community members. Authorised staff may publish content directly. Moderation does not constitute clinical review, verification of medical accuracy or endorsement.

The fact that content appears in Community does not mean that Purple Crayola or the healthcare organisation has:

• Endorsed it
• Verified it
• Clinically reviewed it
• Confirmed that it is accurate

19. Moderation decisions

Moderation decisions are made in the context of:

• These Community Standards
• The PurpleCare Terms of Use
• User safety
• Healthcare and safeguarding considerations
• The nature and context of the content
• Relevant healthcare-organisation policies
• Applicable law

A proportionate response may depend on the seriousness, frequency and context of the behaviour.

For example, a minor first-time issue may be handled differently from deliberate fraud, credible threats, exploitation or repeated abuse.

20. Repeated or serious breaches

Repeated or serious breaches may result in:

• Removal of content
• Restrictions on Community participation
• Temporary suspension
• Permanent removal from Community functionality
• Restriction of relevant account functionality
• Referral to the participating healthcare organisation
• Other appropriate action

Where required or permitted by law, serious matters may also be referred to relevant authorities.

Restriction from Community does not necessarily affect your ability to receive healthcare.

Where reasonably possible, access to healthcare-related functionality should remain distinct from enforcement relating only to Community participation.

21. Safeguarding and serious risk

Where content creates a credible concern relating to:

• Immediate danger
• Child safeguarding
• Abuse
• Exploitation
• Serious threats
• Suicide or serious self-harm
• Other significant safety risks

Purple Crayola or the participating healthcare organisation may take appropriate action consistent with the circumstances, applicable law and available information.

This may include preserving relevant records or escalating the matter through appropriate safeguarding, healthcare, security or legal channels.

PurpleCare Community is not continuously monitored as an emergency service, and users should never depend on moderation as a substitute for emergency assistance.

22. Reviews and appeals

Where a moderation action materially restricts your Community participation and an appropriate review process is available, you may be able to ask for the decision to be reviewed.

A review may consider:

• The original content
• The context in which it was published
• The reason for the moderation action
• Relevant previous activity
• Additional information you provide
• These Community Standards
• Applicable organisational or legal requirements

A review does not guarantee that the original decision will be changed.

Instructions for requesting a review may be provided with the moderation decision or through the support channel for your PurpleCare service.

23. Your content

You remain responsible for content you contribute to Community.

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

By contributing content, you give Purple Crayola and the relevant healthcare organisation permission to process, store and display that content to the extent necessary to:

• Operate Community
• Make the content available to the intended audience
• Moderate the service
• Investigate reports
• Maintain security
• Meet applicable legal or regulatory requirements

This does not transfer ownership of your content to Purple Crayola.

24. Privacy

Your use of Community is subject to the PurpleCare Privacy Policy and any additional privacy information provided by your healthcare organisation.

The Privacy Policy explains how information associated with Community participation may be processed.

If you use PurpleCare through an authorised family or delegated relationship, remember that access to another patient’s private healthcare information does not give you permission to publish that information in Community.

25. Changes to Community

PurpleCare Community may evolve over time.

Purple Crayola or the participating healthcare organisation may:

• Introduce new Community features
• Change how participation works
• Introduce additional safety controls
• Change moderation processes
• Retire particular Community functionality
• Restrict Community functionality for a particular PurpleCare service

The availability of Community may differ between healthcare organisations.

26. Changes to these Standards

These Community Standards may be updated to reflect changes in:

• PurpleCare functionality
• Community features
• Safety practices
• Moderation requirements
• Healthcare requirements
• Applicable law or regulation
• Application-store requirements

Where changes are material, appropriate notice will be provided where required.

The effective date at the beginning of this policy identifies the current version.

27. Contact and support

If you need help with PurpleCare Community, use the support information provided through your healthcare organisation’s PurpleCare service.

For concerns about a specific Community post or interaction, use the available Report function where possible.

For questions relating to the PurpleCare platform or these Community Standards:

Purple Crayola
PurpleCare

Email: hello@purplecrayola.com
Website: purplecrayola.com

For privacy-related enquiries:

Email: privacy@purplecrayola.com

28. Related PurpleCare policies

These Community Standards should be read alongside:

• PurpleCare Patient App & Digital Services Terms of Use
• PurpleCare Privacy Policy
• Account & Data Deletion Information applicable to your PurpleCare instance
• Any additional terms, privacy information or patient policies provided by your healthcare organisation

PurpleCare
Digital Healthcare Experience & Operations Platform

A Purple Crayola product

Digital systems. Designed to work.