Terms of Service

Elder Connect is a free, UK-wide service that introduces senior adults to one another for friendly telephone conversations. There is no charge to join, to be matched, or to make calls through our private numbers.

It is a friendship service only. It is not a dating or romantic introduction service, not care or personal support, not medical advice, and not counselling, therapy or a crisis helpline. Our volunteers and staff are not clinicians. Please see our Safety Disclaimer for urgent situations.

Members must be adults resident in the United Kingdom. The service is designed for senior adults; where a self-registered member appears to be considerably younger, we may hold the profile for manual review before matching.

A family member, friend, carer or organisation may set up and manage a profile on behalf of a senior adult only where they have that person's agreement and a genuine relationship with them. Organisations must give their real organisation name.

The person themselves must confirm by telephone that they are happy to take part before any matching begins. Anyone managing a profile is responsible for keeping it accurate and for respecting the wishes of the person it describes. A member may ask us to remove a manager's access at any time.

You must give truthful information about your first name, age, area and circumstances, and keep it up to date. Deliberately misleading information — about age, identity, or who you are registering — is grounds for removal.

A photograph is optional. If you upload one it must be a recent picture of the member, must not include other identifiable people without their agreement, and must not be indecent or offensive. You confirm you have the right to use any photograph you upload.

You keep ownership of anything you write or upload. By uploading it you give Elder Connect permission to store and display it within the service in line with your visibility settings, and — only where you have separately opted in — on this website. You can withdraw that permission at any time.

There is no messaging or chat inside Elder Connect. Contact between members happens only by telephone, through a private platform number allocated to a connection after both people have accepted an introduction. Neither person sees the other's real number, surname, email address or full postcode.

No member can contact another before a mutual acceptance. You are never obliged to accept an introduction, to give a reason for declining, or to share personal contact details with another member.

To keep everyone safe, all members agree to the following:

• Never ask another member for money, gifts, loans, bank details or financial information.
• Never harass, threaten, bully or abuse another member, and never use discriminatory language.
• Do not use the service for romantic or sexual approaches, selling, marketing or religious recruitment.
• Be honest about who you are. Do not impersonate anyone or set up profiles for people who do not exist.
• Respect privacy. Do not record calls yourself, and do not pass another member's details to anyone else.
• Do not share your own full address or bank details, and do not press anyone else for theirs.
• Do not attempt to work around blocks, suspensions, or the private-number system.
• Be kind about ending things. Anyone may end a connection at any time, without giving a reason.

The following will normally lead to immediate suspension: fraud or attempted fraud of any kind, requests for money, impersonation, threats or intimidation, sexual or indecent content or approaches, and any behaviour that puts a vulnerable person at risk.

Any member can block another member or report a concern from within the app, without giving a reason and without the other person being told. Blocking ends the connection immediately and switches off the private number.

Reports go to our safety team. Reports involving money, threats or other higher-risk behaviour are escalated immediately and may suspend an account before the review is finished. Calls may be recorded for safety and safeguarding — both people hear a spoken notice at the start of every call — and recordings may be reviewed as part of an investigation. Recordings are deleted automatically after 90 days unless attached to an open safety case. Please also report anything that felt wrong.

We may suspend or permanently close an account where we reasonably believe these terms have been broken, where a member's behaviour puts others at risk, where identity or telephone details cannot be verified, or where we are required to do so by law. Where it is safe and appropriate, we will explain why.

You can close your account at any time from your Settings page. We will end active connections and delete your personal information as described in the Privacy Policy.

We introduce people and provide the telephone connection. We cannot guarantee that you will be matched, how quickly, or that a match will lead to a lasting friendship — this depends on who has joined and who shares your interests. We do not listen to conversations live, and we cannot guarantee the conduct, honesty, health or reliability of any member, even where identity checks have been passed.

The service depends on third-party telephone and email providers and may occasionally be unavailable. We may change, pause or withdraw features, and will give reasonable notice of significant changes.

The Elder Connect name, website, design and software belong to us or our licensors. You may use the service for its intended personal purpose. Please do not copy, scrape, resell or reverse-engineer any part of it.

Contributions are voluntary and help keep the service free. Elder Connect is not a registered charity, so donations do not qualify for Gift Aid and are not tax deductible. Payments are handled by Stripe; we never see or store your card details. One-off gifts are non-refundable except where required by law, and monthly gifts can be cancelled at any time by emailing us.

The service is provided free of charge and on an "as is" basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any indirect or consequential loss, for loss arising from another member's conduct, or for interruptions to the telephone service. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited. Nothing here affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

We may update these terms. Where changes are significant we will tell members by email and record the new version against your account. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.

Questions can be sent to hello@elderconnect.org.uk. A published telephone number will be added here when one is available.

Please note: these terms describe how the service actually works today and are written in plain English. They are not legal advice. Before publication they should be reviewed by a qualified UK solicitor, and the operating entity's registered name, address and company/charity status inserted in sections 1, 13 and 15.