Terms of Use

Effective on March 7th, 2025

Terms of Service for Future Factors,

A Proprietary Signals Platform of Institute for the Future (IFTF)

Institute for the Future’s mission is to help organizations, communities and leaders become future-ready. Our platforms are designed to further this mission by providing opportunities to foster the skills, mindsets, and methodologies of strategic foresight.

As a nonprofit organization, IFTF’s Future Factors platform was designed to provide a social space that accelerates the future-readiness of participants. By practicing and scanning for “Signals of Change” and learning about the ones that others are tracking, participants can, together, create the building blocks of foresight about particular topics on a continuous basis.

IFTF Future Factors is a proprietary emerging signals platform. It combines a rich trove of real-time signal-scanning and leverages the collective wisdom of its member community with help from IFTF moderators.

IFTF Future Factors is a foresight platform designed for discussion and learning. The content shared by participants represents individual perspectives and does not reflect the official views of IFTF or its partners. IFTF does not guarantee the accuracy, reliability, or future relevance of any Signal of Change.

Privacy

IFTF believes in transparent, respectful, lawful use of personal information. By registering for Future Factors, you accept the terms of use, as outlined here:

https://futurefactors.iftf.org/connect/privacy_policy/2 (updated June 21st, 2023)

The nature of the IFTF Future Factors platform is that it includes links from third-party websites in order to make the signal scanning for a strategic foresight practice easy. It is designed to make the flow of learning convenient. If you use these links, you will leave the IFTF Future Factors platform. IFTF does not control third-party websites, and we are not responsible for the products, services, or content available through any of them.

Policies Governing Behavior

IFTF authorizes use of Future Factors only for permitted purposes as outlined above. Any other use of the social platform beyond permitted purposes is prohibited (including but not limited to impersonating any person or otherwise misrepresenting your affiliation with a person or entity), as well as any behavior that violates IFTF Community Standards as outlined below:

In order to ensure that IFTF’s Future Factors remains a place that is welcoming and open to everyone, we ask that everyone follow these community norms:

No...

● Hate Speech

● Sexually Explicit or Graphic Content

● Violence or Threats

● Bullying or Harassment

While we encourage critical conversations about the important matters of our day, we do not permit discrimination against groups or individuals in regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy, political ideology, age, creed, religion, heritage, ancestry, national origin, veteran status, disability unrelated to job or course of study requirements, or any other characteristic protected by law.

We reserve the right to remove any content that violates these standards. We encourage participants to report inappropriate behavior by emailing ffcommunitystandards@iftf.org.

Please note that this will flag a Signal of Change or comment for review but does not guarantee that it will be removed from the site. Users may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the platform, interfere with its operation, or use automated systems (bots, scrapers) to extract data. Any attempt to bypass security measures or disrupt the platform’s integrity is strictly prohibited.

IFTF reserves the right to suspend or terminate user accounts that repeatedly violate these Terms of Service or Community Standards. This includes but is not limited to abusive behavior, spamming, or unauthorized use of the platform. 

We May Quote You

IFTF is tasked by FCC to provide an analysis memo, synthesizing key themes from across the range of Signals of Change that are contributed. Signals of Change that you contribute to Future Factors may be quoted in whole or in part by Institute for the Future during the course of this analysis. The purpose of this is to illustrate key themes using specific examples.

Limitation of Liability

Future Factors is provided as-is, without warranties of any kind. IFTF does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information shared on the platform. To the fullest extent permitted by law, IFTF, its affiliates, partners, and employees will not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or special damages arising from or related to your use of the platform, including but not limited to loss of data, reliance on posted content, or exposure to third-party links. Disputes over this or any other Terms of Use will be governed by the laws of the state of California, without regard to its conflict of law principles. Any disputes shall be resolved in California courts.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms of Service, please email futurefactors@iftf.org and include “Terms of Use” as the subject line of the email.