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Copyright

All editorial content, graphics, video and soundbites on this site are protected by Malaysian copyright law and international treaties and may not be copied or re-used without the express permission of Star Media Group Berhad (Company No: 10894D) (hereinafter referred to as "The Company"), which reserve all rights. Re-use of any of such content online for any purpose is strictly prohibited. Permission to use The Company's proprietary content may be granted on a case-by-case basis. Please direct your enquiries to feedback@thestar.com.my. The materials from this website are available for informational and non-commercial offline use only, provided that: the content and/or graphics are not modified, amended or altered in any way whatsoever; all copyright and other notices on any copy are retained; and permission in writing has been granted by The Company. You may not reproduce, upload, display or distribute the content or material from this website whether for commercial or personal purposes without the express written permission of The Company.

You may not copy or adapt the HTML code that The Company creates to display pages. It also is covered by The Company's copyright. The "look" and "feel" of The Star Online and its subsites are also trademarks of The Company. This includes The Star Online's colour scheme, button shapes, layout, and all other graphical elements.

Third party news agency material contained in The Star Online is protected by copyright and shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Neither this material nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use.

The news agency/agencies will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing.

The Company and its subsidiaries

The Company and its group of companies operates in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Publications produced include one newspaper title: The Star newspaper, and a magazine, Kuntum.

The Company, through its subsidiaries, also provides content and advertising services on digital portals (The Star Online, mStar, Star2.com, SMEBiz, Propwall, StarProperty.my, iBilik, myStarjob.com, CarSifu, Kuali, R.AGE, TheStarTV.com); human capital development (Leaderonomics); events services (Perfect Livin); and Out-of-Home advertising (School Buzz).

In addition, The Company either through itself or through its subsidiary owns and/or operates the following radio channels, namely (988FM (98.8) and SuriaFM (105.3)). The Company also owns stakes in shared business ventures, namely SMG Business Solutions Sdn. Bhd., and a high speed Internet mobile service (IntJoors).

You can get a quick overview of the group structure.

Trademarks

Among the trademarks and service marks owned by The Company and/or its subsidiaries which shall include but not limited to : The Star Online, mStar, Star2.com, SMEBiz, Propwall, StarProperty.my, iBilik, myStarjob.com, CarSifu, Kuali, R.AGE, TheStarTV.com, iSnap, Mighty Minds, SOBA, Perfect Livin and the respective logos of all the sites. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.

House Rules

The Company has a thriving user community and actively encourages commenting on articles, stories and blog posts. We are dedicated to this community and strive to maintain a respectful, engaging and informative conversation. Towards that end, we have general guidelines for commenting. They are enforced 24/7 by a moderating system that features a team of staff and moderation tools.

If in our absolute opinion, your comments consistently or intentionally make this community a less civil and enjoyable place to be, you and your comments will be excluded from it.

The Company promotes a receptive, transparent and civil atmosphere for comments and users. Critical, in-depth and intelligent discussions and debates are encouraged.

A. The Dont's. Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to voice their opinion regardless of identity, politics, ideology, religion or agreement with other community members, the author of the post or staff members as long as those opinions are respectful and constructively add to the conversation. However, this community does not tolerate direct or indirect attacks, name-calling or insults, nor does it tolerate intentional attempts to derail, hijack, troll or bait others into an emotional response. We reserved absolute discretion to remove these types of comments from the community where warranted. Individuals who consistently or intentionally post these types of comments may be warned online and, if necessary, excluded from the community and/or be reported to the relevant authorities. We've established the following House Rules so that everyone can get the most out of The Star Online. Please note that these rules also apply to rich media submissions such as images, video and audio clips, as well as content associated with you such as avatar images. Examples of comments that are not permitted under our House Rules include, but shall not be limited to:

• Vulgar/offensive/obscene in nature;
• Fraudulent, deceptive or misleading;
• Off topic;
• Spam (such as the same comment posted repeatedly) or include certain links to other sites;
• Impliedly or expressly attacks and/or defames any third party;
• Offensive towards any gender, ethnic, religion, race or culture;
• Advocating any illegal activity;
• Describe or encourage activities which could endanger the safety or well-being of others;
• Promoting particular services, products, or political organizations;
• Appear to impersonate someone else;
• Contains disclosure of personal information including name, contact number, address, email and others;
• Infringing the proprietary rights, copyrights or trademarks of any party;
• Illegal and/or breaches any regulations or laws currently in force;
• Are written in anything other than English, Bahasa Malaysia unless expressly stated;
• Any other comments that the Team deems inappropriate;
• Advertising or promoting products or websites is not allowed anywhere on the StarOnline. This may include links to:
• Personal websites or forums;
• Surveys and questionnaires;
• Commercial websites or auction sites that mainly exist to sell products.
• Details of charity or fundraising events
  

  For example, if it's relevant to the debate, it is fine to link to a website that sells an album or book if it helps another user or recommends something they would like. However, posting up links to your own band's album or trying to drive buyers to your e-bay auction or fundraising site may result in your post being removed.

• Risk breaching copyright law
  

  Copyright law exists to stop someone from plagiarising another's work. It applies to the internet in the same way as it does to TV, books and the press. Breaking copyright law can result in being taken to court.

  Please do not post large chunks of text copied from other sources, as this may be an infringement of copyright. Short quotes to illustrate a point may be permissible, although this is at our discretion.

  If you wish to refer to external sources of information, it's better to include a link to an appropriate external website.

  In addition to this, postings with heavy text speak or unintelligible language such as codes, are also not allowed as this may disrupt the natural flow of conversation.

  Contributing material to Star Online community with the intention to commit a crime, break the law, or condone or encourage unlawful activity is strictly prohibited.

  In addition, we may remove posts which we consider could endanger other users - which shall include but not limited to, offering medical and health advice, or encouraging drug or alcohol abuse or self-harm.

• Contain potentially defamatory statements
  

  Defamation laws exist to protect individuals and/or organisations from unwarranted, mistaken, or untruthful attacks on their reputation.

  Posting a defamatory statement on a blog is the same as publishing it in a newspaper or magazine and can result in legal proceedings being commenced.

  To avoid legal proceedings being commenced, please ensure that you verify the information in your posting as true and accurate, especially when presenting negative statements as facts. Also, avoid jumping to conclusions, exaggerating or making subtle implications. Remember that adding the word 'allegedly' to a statement does not stop it being defamatory.

  Both you and the Star Online can be held liable if you make a defamatory statement on the Star Online website. So we will remove comments where we have insufficient evidence to defend publication of your statement. This means the Star Online moderators may err on the side of caution when considering some comments.

• Are abusive or disruptive
  

  Abusive or disruptive behaviour is not allowed on Star Online Websites. This includes:

  • Using swear words (including abbreviations or alternative spellings) or other language likely to offend.
  • Harassing, threatening, or causing distress or inconvenience to any person or people.
  • Flaming: This means posting something that's angry and mean-spirited.
  • Trolling: This means saying deliberately provocative things just to stir up trouble.
  • Infringing the rights of, restrict or inhibit anyone else's use and enjoyment of Star Online.
  • Attempting to impersonate somebody.
  • Using multiple accounts to disrupt boards, annoy users, or to avoid pre-moderation.
  • Bumping or creating duplicate threads, posting in such a way as to cause technical errors, or any other attempts to disrupt the normal flow of conversation. Users who seriously or repeatedly demonstrate such behaviour may have their accounts pre-moderated or permanently restricted and will not be allowed to return.
• Are offensive
  

  Comments that contain offensive content are not allowed on Star Online sites. Racist, sexist, homophobic, disabling, sexually explicit, abusive, or otherwise objectionable material will be removed and if extreme will result in immediate and permanent restriction of your account.

• Are off-topic
  

  Comments that are unrelated to the subject of the article entry to which you are contributing are considered 'off-topic'.

  Please do not contribute off-topic material in subject-specific article, except where an article has designated open post. If your comment has been removed for being off-topic, you may be able to resubmit your comment in a more relevant topic area.

• Contain personal details
  

  Including contact or identification details in comments such as phone numbers, postal or email addresses is not allowed on most services. Please do not reveal any personal information about yourself or others as it might inadvertently put you or someone else at risk.

• Risk contempt of court
  

  Once a suspect is arrested for an offence, or offences, legal restrictions apply. Please use caution when discussing reports of an arrest or court proceedings. Even linking to archived news stories, blog entries, and comments may be unlawful as Malaysian contempt law, would usually prohibit any reference to the previous conviction(s) of someone facing new court proceedings.

• Contain spam
  

  Spamming or flooding is not allowed on Star Online Sites. Spamming means submitting the same or very similar contribution many times across blogs or entries. Flooding comprises a resubmission of your contribution to the same site multiple times.

  Please do not use a signature beneath your comment to promote websites, services, products, or campaigns. This will cause your posts to be removed as spam.

• Contain unsuitable URLs
  

  For example you should not link to

  • Unlawful, unsuitable or sexually explicit content.
  • Websites that require payment to access.
  • Foreign language content.
  • Websites that initiate a file download or require additional software in order to view them. This includes .pdf and .mp3 files.
• Websites that advertise or promote products
  

  In some cases the moderator will edit out the link/s leaving the rest of the comment visible on the board. If so the link will be replaced by [Unsuitable/ broken URL removed by moderator]

  The Company welcomes feedback, both positive and negative, about our programmes and services but please make sure your comments are in line with the above House Rules.

  Repeatedly posting personal or offensive comments about individual members of the public or people who work for The Company and its group of companies may be considered harassment. We reserve the right to remove such messages and take action against those responsible.

B. Moderation Process. To maintain a civil atmosphere, our moderation team may read comments before they are displayed to other users. If this is the case, you may see your comment pending approval. Approval times can vary depending on the site-wide comment load, so please be patient; we will get to all comments as quickly as possible.

C. The Do's. Be yourself, only yourself, and just one of yourself. Every person's opinion is valuable and unique. Pretending to be someone else removes that unique value from you or from others. Don't misrepresent yourself or others, spread misinformation, create multiple accounts or "astroturf" (Where a user pretends to be an objective commentator, but has a vested interest in the subject matter) If you do, you will make the community a less enjoyable and valuable place to be and will be removed when we see it.

This community is a safe space. We strongly believe that The Star should be a safe space for individuals, groups and their ideas. As such, violent and hostile language or calls for violence and hostility are not welcome here. If you directly or indirectly threaten the physical or mental wellbeing of a member of this community, or an individual or group who is the subject of an article, you will be removed immediately. If a credible threat is made against an individual or group, not only will it be removed but it is likely that it will be reported to law enforcement agencies and we will cooperate with them to any extent requested. Personal identifiable information should never be posted to The Star comments section. It never turns out well for anyone. If you see any threats, harassment or personal information trolling please report it quickly.

If you have comments, we are here and we have real people who read and reply.
If you have complaints, questions, concerns, or just feedback - positive or critical - please get in touch with us here

Disclaimers and Warnings

A. Disclaimer Option. The Company seeks to ensure that information contained in these pages is accurate. However, The Company makes no representations as to accuracy, correctness, completeness, suitability, validity of any information on these pages and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, delay in the information contained in this pages or any other information accessed via this site, including without limitation, any information reached via links on this site to external sites, or any losses, injuries or damages arising from its display or use. All users are strongly encouraged to seek professional advice before relying on any information provided herein.

B. Warning Option. To avoid disappointment, we encourage you to consult our Terms and Conditions and House Rules before commenting. Please be aware that your comment is subject to these rules as well as our Terms & Conditions and may be removed without prior notice should it violate either of the aforementioned.

PRIVACY of Personal Information

Please refer to the privacy policy to view the terms regarding the use of your information.

CONSENT

The Company seeks to use your personal information only for the purposes of legitimate interests and, with your consent.

For subscribers, it is a condition of acceptance to the collection, collation, use and/or disclosure of all the personal information by The Company for the purposes of subscribing to the package. By subscribing, you signify your agreement.

For other individuals/MyStar members, The Company may gather your information during member registrations and business activities. It will be used only for legitimate interests.

We only keep Personal Information for as long as is necessary to satisfy the specified Purposes, for which it was collected. We retain Personal Information in accordance with our own guidelines, procedures and principles and in line with applicable legislation.

We may disclose your Personal Information to other subsidiaries within The Company's group or to a Vendor (often referred to as the data processor). "Vendor" means in relation to Personal Information any person or entity (other than an employee of The Company) who processes the Personal Information on behalf of The Company. "Processing", in relation to Personal Information means for example obtaining, recording, holding or using the Personal Information in carrying out any operation or set of operations on the Personal Information including organisation, compilation, retrieval disclosure of the Personal Information for verification Purposes. The Vendor and The Company's subsidiaries will treat your Personal Information as confidential, in accordance with all applicable Data Protection legislation and will process such Personal Information only for the Purposes and within the terms set out herein.

We may disclose your Personal Information if we are required to do so by law or requirement of a competent authority.

In addition to the above, we may from time to time work on specific initiatives with carefully selected third party companies/organisations (outside of The Company) to share opportunities with you. If we do this, we will inform you at the time of such initiatives that, if you decide to submit any Personal Information, it will be shared with those selected companies/organisations and we will only do so with your prior consent.

You will always be given the opportunity to consent (opt in) to your information being shared pursuant to above, and the selected companies/organisations will be sufficiently identified to allow you to make an informed decision. If you do consent (opt in) and subsequently visit such companies'/organisations' websites, we cannot control how they use or otherwise process any Personal Information you provide directly to them. We always encourage you to check their sites' terms and conditions and privacy policy before you give out any Personal Information.

If you do consent (opt in) to receive these communications, you may unsubscribe at any point in the future by contacting us.

Opt In: We will not use your Personal Information for a purpose that has not previously been specified, unless we have previously obtained your consent or unless such purpose is required by law.

Consent to provide Personal Information is not a condition for our selling a product to you, unless the information requested is required to fulfill an explicitly specified and legitimate purpose.

In particular we will generally seek your explicit prior consent (opt in) before sending to you marketing communications.

Unsubscribe: At any time, you can withdraw your consent to our collection, use or disclosure (generally Processing) of your Personal Information by writing to us in the prescribed manner (whether by email, letter or fax), as specified in our communications to you, or in relevant forms that you might have signed (e.g. for our customer loyalty scheme). If you have any concerns whatsoever, with regard to the unsubscribe functionality that we make available to you, pursuant to this section, please contact us at the address or medium shown in section 10 of this Terms and Conditions.

If you have previously opted into receiving commercial communications from us, while also becoming a member of our loyalty scheme, should your membership to such scheme comes to an end for whatever reason, we will not take this to imply an automatic request to unsubscribe, and we will assume that we have your continued consent, unless you specifically unsubscribe.

Similar Products or Services (Soft-opt-in): In certain jurisdictions, it is permissible to send commercial communications by email even in the absence of explicit prior consent (opt-in) where the recipient's details have been collected in connection with the sale or negotiation for sale of products or services, irrespective of the conclusion of a contract, provided always that the sender's identity is clearly stated and an unsubscribe option is given. This is usually referred to as the "Similar Products or Services exception", or as the "Soft-opt-in rule". Where this rule applies we may rely on it in order to send to you marketing communications that we think may be of interest to you, but we will make sure that this is made clear and that you are given the opportunity up-front to opt out from receiving such communications from us, whilst you will also always be given the opportunity to subsequently unsubscribe.

Materials submitted: In the event you are to submit and/or upload any comments/messages/submissions/pictures/photographs/your name (collectively referred to as "Materials") onto our Website, by such conduct it will be deemed that you have given your express and explicit consent to The Company to reuse, re-purpose, re-publish such Materials in any way The Company deems fit. For the avoidance of doubt, The Company will not seek your permission and/or consent prior to the Company reusing/repurposing/republishing the Materials submitted and/or uploaded. You are to notify The Company upon submission and/or upload of your Materials if you do not wish for your Materials to be used by The Company, failure to do so would be deemed that consent has been granted by you to the Company to freely use the Materials submitted and/or uploaded. For the avoidance of doubt, all proprietary rights of the Materials submitted to The Company shall vest solely on The Company.

ACCURACY of information

The Company keeps Personal Information as accurate, complete and up-to-date as necessary, taking into account its use and the interests of our customers.

You are responsible for informing us about changes to your Personal Information and for ensuring that such information is accurate and current.

Compliance with the Law

The Company has procedures in place in order to receive and respond to enquiries about our policies and practices relating to its handling of Personal Information. Any complaint or enquiry should be made in writing and addressed as shown in section 10 below.

The Company investigates all complaints. Requests will be forwarded to the appropriate personnel. If the complaint is found to be justified, The Company will take appropriate measures to resolve the matter, including, if necessary, amending its policies and practices.

Contact Us

If there are any questions or concerns regarding this Terms and Conditions or the consent practices outlined herein, please contact us as follows: