Terms of Service

Please read these terms carefully before using OneReference. By accessing our platform, you agree to be bound by these terms.

Last Updated: September 20, 2026

1. Who may use OneReference

  • •You must be at least 16. If the law where you live requires a higher age or parent/guardian permission, you may use the service only after meeting that rule.
  • •The service is intended for users in the UK, EU/EEA and other supported countries. Availability, features and eligibility may vary by country, and you must comply with the laws that apply where you live or operate.
  • •You must give accurate registration information, keep credentials secure and promptly tell us of unauthorised access.
  • •If you act for an organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind it. Business users must maintain lawful instructions, notices and permissions for data they control.

2. What the platform does

OneReference supports professional references, the candidate Reference Vault, secure sharing with verified organisations, jobs and candidate management, messaging, agency posts and the Orthread community. Referees may complete a request without opening an account. OneReference does not employ candidates, guarantee a role, verify every statement, or make hiring decisions for organisations.

Candidate-requested references may be stored in the candidate’s Vault. Organisation-requested references are delivered to the verified requesting organisation. Vault sharing must remain candidate-controlled, time-limited and revocable; an organisation may retain a separate lawful evidence copy under its own controller responsibilities.

3. References and verification

  • •Requesters must have a genuine professional purpose and provide accurate referee contact details. Referees must give honest information based on their knowledge and authority.
  • •Do not submit criminal convictions, allegations or other criminal-offence data through reference forms, messages or uploads.
  • •Reference content is confidential by default. A candidate does not automatically see the full referee response; access requests are assessed under applicable data-protection law and exemptions.
  • •We may verify identity, organisation, domain, referee or submission signals, request supporting evidence, restrict sharing, or reject suspected fraud. Verification is risk reduction, not a guarantee of truth.
  • •For successful identity checks, raw live-face images, manually supplied identity documents, biometric templates, facial measurements and similarity scores are deleted after the verification decision is recorded and no later than 24 hours after completion. Failed, abandoned or human-review cases follow the Privacy Policy.

4. Jobs, recruitment and communications

  • •Job posters must be authorised, use accurate and non-discriminatory content, identify material conditions, and remove filled or withdrawn roles.
  • •Recruitment decisions remain solely with the relevant organisation. OneReference does not make automated hiring or eligibility decisions.
  • •Replies, applications, existing relationships and active community/recruitment interactions may use ordinary platform messaging. Proactive recruitment outreach to an unrelated candidate requires the applicable Recruitment subscription and allowance. Unsolicited candidate initiation to an unrelated business or recruiter requires the applicable Candidate subscription.
  • •Recipients can accept or ignore a request and may block or report. No bulk spam, scraped lists, evasion of limits, harassment, deceptive identities or off-platform data harvesting.

5. Community standards and AI moderation

Orthread and community chat are for lawful professional discussion. Automated systems may flag content that may be unlawful or breach these Terms. Serious actions should receive human review where appropriate. AI flags support moderation only; they are not used to decide hiring, access to jobs, reference outcomes or other website decisions.

  • •No unlawful, threatening, hateful, exploitative, defamatory, fraudulent or privacy-invasive content; no sexual content involving minors; no instructions facilitating serious wrongdoing.
  • •No posting another person’s confidential reference, identity document, contact details or special-category data without a lawful basis and necessity.
  • •We may label, limit, remove or preserve content; warn, suspend or close accounts; and report matters where legally required. Users may appeal through support. We consider context, severity, repetition and safety.

6. Your content and intellectual property

You retain ownership of content you submit. You grant OneReference a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, copy, secure, format, transmit and display that content only as needed to operate, protect and improve the contracted service, comply with law and enforce these Terms. You confirm you have the necessary rights and lawful basis. OneReference branding, software, designs and platform content remain ours or our licensors’.

7. Subscriptions, renewal and cancellation

  • •Prices, billing interval, included allowances and taxes are shown before purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew for the same billing period unless cancelled before renewal.
  • •You may cancel at any time; paid access continues until the end of the current paid period unless law requires otherwise. Cancellation stops future renewal.
  • •Fees already paid are non-refundable except where required by law or expressly stated at purchase. Where mandatory law requires a refund or pro-rating, we will provide it. Nothing limits statutory cooling-off, digital-content or consumer rights.
  • •We may change future prices or plan features with reasonable advance notice. Material detrimental changes take effect at renewal where reasonably possible.

8. Suspension, termination and data

You may close your account. We may restrict or end access for breach, risk, non-payment, legal obligation or service security, using proportionate notice where feasible. Account closure revokes public visibility and active share links. Data then follows the Privacy Policy and retention schedule; closing a candidate account does not erase a lawful organisation evidence copy.

9. Availability, disclaimers and liability

We use reasonable care and skill but do not promise uninterrupted availability, employment outcomes, complete accuracy of user content or that every fraud attempt will be detected. Nothing excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, or any liability that cannot be excluded. For consumers, we are responsible for foreseeable loss caused by our breach, subject to mandatory law. For business users, neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss, and our aggregate liability for ordinary claims is limited to fees paid or payable for the affected service in the 12 months before the event, except where law prohibits that limit.

10. Changes, law and complaints

We may update these Terms for legal, security or material service changes. We will give reasonable notice of material changes. England and Wales law governs these Terms and its courts have jurisdiction, but consumers keep mandatory protections and may bring claims in courts available under applicable consumer law.