Group ownership

Who owns a GroupNews Group?

GroupNews groups are owned by individuals, not by organizations. When you sign up and create a GroupNews group, you are the owner of that group and all the data in it.

A group can only have one owner. You can grant admin rights to other people in the group, but as the owner, you’re the only one who can export data. You’re the only one who can cancel the group. No one can remove you from the group.

Our legal responsibility is to the group owner, so we won’t let other people take over your group without your permission. The group belongs to you until you choose to transfer it to someone else.

How do you transfer ownership from one person to another?

The group owner can transfer ownership at any time by logging in to the group options page and following the procedure to transfer the group.

Alternatively, the group owner can file a ticket with our support team or write to support@groupnews.com from the email address associated with their GroupNews group, and we’ll be happy to help transfer the group.

Transferring the group does not remove the credit card from the group. Please contact support if you’d like to remove the card from the group before you transfer it to someone else.

What happens when the group owner is unavailable?

It happens–people switch jobs, get laid off, go on extended leave–the group owner may be unavailable for any number of reasons. Still, since our obligation is to the current group owner, we’re unable to transfer the group to anyone else without their permission.

If the group has been frozen due to non-payment for less than a week, we’ll be glad to thaw the group for a week or so, so people can access their work in the meantime.

The quickest route is often to contact the current group owner and ask them to log in and transfer ownership of the group right away from the group page.

Otherwise, we can also gladly reach out to the current group owner at the email address we have on file and request permission to transfer the group. If it’s a company address and another employee has access to the inbox, the person who receives the email can grant permission to transfer the group. For security’s sake, we can’t transfer the group based on permission granted from any other email address other than the one we have on file.

When none of the above is an option, a court order is required to transfer the group to another user. We will of course readily comply with any court orders to turn data over to the appropriate party.

What if I have another question about ownership?

GroupNews may update this policy once in a blue moon — we’ll notify you about significant changes by emailing the group owner or by placing a prominent notice on our site. You can access, change or delete your personal information at any time by contacting support@groupnews.com.

Questions about this group ownership policy? Please get in touch at support@groupnews.com and we’ll be happy to answer them!