TERMS OF USE

Form: 07.26.21  revised 03.18.22 to add CHAT ADDENDUM (see bottom)

[Note: Privacy Policy follows Terms of Use below]

 

TERMS OF USE

 

Welcome to reasonandbalance.com. These Terms of Use (sometimes referred to as “Terms”, “these Terms”, “this document”, “this Agreement” and the like) govern your access and use of the website and Services provided in connection therewith by David Dixon Lentz, sole owner of reasonandbalance.com who shall hereinafter be referred to individually, jointly and severally as “we,” “us,” or “our” with respect to this Agreement, this Site and to “Site Related Activities” (as defined herein). Please read these Terms carefully.

BY JOINING OR EACH TIME YOU ACCESS AND USE THIS SITE, YOU SIGNIFY THAT YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTAND, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY, THESE TERMS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS, YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO PURCHASE ANY GOODS OFFERED ON THIS SITE OR USE ANY SERVICES OFFERED BY THIS WEBSITE OR PERUSE, USE OR VIEW ANY PAGE OF this Website (other than to initially peruse the Home Page and to search for and read these Terms of Use). These Terms have the same force and effect as an agreement in writing.

Definition of “You”. “You” includes you the user of this Site as well as any person for whom you act as an agent or employee. It includes “You” during the course of any Site Related Activities.

The term “site” shall mean a website or any page or content of a website.

“Site Related Activities” includes the use of, the browsing or clicking through any pages and content on this this website site, to-wit, reasonandbalance.com (herein the “Site”) or any site linked to this site, including: (i) links to vendors of goods and services not produced or sold by Us (but with whom you may or may not make any purchases) when navigator those sites for purposes of shopping for or considering entering into a “3PS transaction” (as hereinafter defined); and (ii) links to content on other websites and webpages to which we have provided “links” on this Site (such as new stories, blogs and articles written or edited by third parties).

References to “Site” or this site shall refer to any and all pages and content on reasonandbalance.com.

For purposes of these Terms of Use the term “Services” shall be deemed to any activities that constitutes your visitation to and/or your use of the Site and/or your engagement in Site Related Activities.

  1. To the extent, applicable law, does not mandatorily require otherwise, YOU ASSUME ALL RISK in searching and/or reviewing this website, and/or any of its pages, blog posts, links (including those to other pages, blogs and sites including those owned or operated by third parties) and any and all other content hereon and thereon.  We are not responsible for any malware, virus, spyware or other malicious codes that third parties have somehow attached to or placed on our site.
  2. You are responsible for obtaining and maintaining at your own cost all equipment and services needed for access to and use of the Services.
  3.  We take your privacy very seriously. Please see our Privacy Policy. You agree, however, that we may use any information that we obtain about you in a manner that is not inconsistent with our Privacy Policy. While products and services offered by third parties (see “3PS transactions”) will be offered on this site, we do not intend to offer our own goods or services on this site other than our own content. If, however, we, in our sole discretion, do offer our own goods and services on this Site, and IF YOU PURCHASE ANY OF OUR GOODS OR SERVICES THROUGH THE USE OF OUR SITE YOU AGREE to: (a) provide true, accurate, current, and complete information as prompted by the registration form; and (b) maintain and update such information to keep it true, accurate, current, and complete at all times.
  4. In addition, you agree not to engage in Site Related Activities in order to: (a) violate OR CAUSE US TO VIOLATE any local, state, national, or international law or regulation; (b) transmit to us or anyone else any material that is abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, pornographic, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable; (c) transmit to us or anyone else any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of solicitation; (d) transmit to us or anyone else any material that contains adware, malware, spyware, viruses, or any other computer code, files, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment; (e) stalk, harass, or harm anyone, including revealing the real name of any fellow user that has chosen to use an alias on the Services; (f) impersonate any person or entity, or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity; (g) use any “robot,” ‘spider,” “rover,” ‘scraper” or any other data-mining technology or automatic or manual process to monitor, cache, frame, mask, extract data from, copy or distribute any data from the Services, our network or databases (an exception to this being made for services like Google, Bing, Yahoo and other RECOGNIZED search engines that customarily list search results for use by the general public engaged in doing internet research); or (h) interfere with or disrupt this Site or Site Related Activities or its servers or our networks, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies, or regulations of networks connected to this Site or Site Related Activities.
  5. By visiting or using our Site, you acknowledge and agree that you have anti-virus, anti-spyware and malware protection (herein the “Protection”) that is “Adequate” for protecting both the hardware and software on the computer, cellphone or any other device that you may be using to “surf” the Internet and for clicking on or using this Site and/or for engaging in Site Related Activities. “Adequate Protection” means that you have Protection provided by a commercially recognized provider of such Protection (a firm with respected name brand recognition) that has been updated within the earlier of: (i) the last 30 days; or (ii) with the most recent update provided by such commercially recognized provider. You agree that your failure to have Adequate Protection shall be an absolute bar to any recovery for any damages, costs or expenses related to any virus, spyware or other malware or bug that infects your computer or email as the result of your visitation of our Site or any other website or page thereof which are linked to or referred to on this Site.
  6. User Submissions.

We do not claim ownership of any information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages, tags or other materials you submit for display or distribution to others through your Site Related Activities (collectively, “User Submissions”). As between you and us, you own all rights to your User Submissions. However, you grant to us and our affiliates, representatives, sublicensees and assigns an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully-paid, license (sublicensable through multiple tiers) throughout the universe to use, distribute, syndicate, license, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform, create derivate works and publicly display your User Submissions (in whole or in part) in any format or medium now known or later developed; provided, however, that our exercise of our rights under the foregoing license shall at all times be subject to the limitations upon disclosure of your User Submissions imposed on us under our Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to display advertisements in connection with User Submissions and to use User Submissions for advertising and promotional purposes without any compensation to you. These advertisements may be targeted to the content or information stored on the Services. In consideration for us granting you access and use of the Services, you agree that we may place such advertisements throughout our Services. We do not pre-screen User Submissions, and you agree that you are solely responsible for all of your User Submissions. We are not required to host, display, or distribute any User Submissions, and may remove at any time or refuse any User Submissions. With respect to non personal and/or non confidential information, we are not responsible for any loss, theft, misappropriation, misuse or damage of any kind caused by third parties (see other provisions hereof for provisions related to personal confidential information) to any User Submissions. You represent and warrant that your User Submissions and our authorized use of such submissions do not and will not infringe the rights of any third party (including, without limitation, intellectual property rights, rights of privacy or publicity, or any other legal or moral rights) and to the extent that you violate or are alleged by a third party to have violated this sentence (through the institution of a lawsuit or proceeding for arbitration) you agree to indemnify us for and defend us from any such claim, judgment, decree, recovery or cost or expense (including liability for any attorney’s fees and all litigation costs and expenses). You, and not we, are responsible for any consequences of sharing personal information about yourself on public areas of the Site, such as your home and email addresses, phone numbers, date of birth, social security numbers, employer identification numbers, driver’s license numbers and and/or similar other personal confidential information of yourself and of others that you provide.

We own all rights, title, and interests in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by us using or incorporating your content (but not your original content). When you use a feature on the Services that allows users to share, transform, readapt, modify, or combine user content with other content, you grant us and our users an irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty free, perpetual, right and license in the universe to use, reproduce, modify, display, remix, perform, distribute, redistribute, adapt, promote, create derivative works, and syndicate your content in any medium and through any form of technology or distribution and to permit any derivative works to be licensed under these same license terms. The rights granted under this Section 2 will survive the termination of these Terms.

2A. Our Content; RNB Content

For purposes of this Agreement the term “RNB Content” shall refer to content which we (including our employees or duly authorized agents) originated and authored and/or had a substantial role in editing the substantive content. The term RNB Content excludes news articles, essays, comments, blog comments, editorials and opinion authored by a third party and expressly also excludes advertisements of any type authored by a “Vendor” of any 3PS (as defined in this Agreement).

All RNB Content and materials provided on the Site are intended for general information, general discussion, education, and/or entertainment purposes only.

PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT WE ARE NOT ATTORNEYS, CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS, TAX EXPERTS, SECURITES BROKERS OR INVESTMENT ADVISORS. AS SUCH NOTHING IN ANY RNB CONTENT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED TO BE LEGAL, TAX OR INVESTMENT ADVICE AND READERS ARE ADVISED TO CONSULT WITH THE APPROPRIATE EXPERT BEFORE TAKING ANY LEGAL, INVESTMENT OR OTHER ACTION THAT MAY REQUIRE THE ADVICE OF AN EXPERT.

Regarding all information we provide on this Site, (including any recommendations or suggestions that we post on the site for our readers), please be advised that THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS,” AND YOUR USE OR RELIANCE ON SUCH MATERIALS ARE SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK AND WITHOUT LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY ON OUR PART.

2B Third Party Goods and Services and Advertisements (3PS)

NOTICE: For purposes hereof the following are deemed to be “legally incapacitated” and may not purchase any items on this Site or otherwise engage in 3PS transactions as defined herein: (i) All children and persons under the age of majority; (ii) all persons who are incarcerated in a jail or penitentiary or under the immediate custodial supervision of a sheriff or other constable; and (iii)) all persons who are under the care of a guardian or conservator or trustee who attends to handling their basic legal, financial or health needs.

 

You acknowledge and agree that the products and services (hereinafter the “3PS”) of various retailers, wholesalers, vendors, lessors and other third parties (hereinafter the “Vendors”) may be offered for sale on this Site. While we endeavor to list or reference the ads of only reputable Vendors please be advised that we have not tested the products and/or services of such Vendors and are unaware of the characteristics (good or bad) of their products and services and/or whether their products and services work or do what they are supposed to do and/or whether or not they have any inherent or dangerous defects. While most of said Vendors do offer various warranties and guarantees regarding their products and services, you acknowledge and agree that you will check with and look solely to said Vendors regarding the nature and extent of any warranties, guarantees and other customer satisfaction provisions offered by any Vendors seeking to engage in such 3PS transactions (as herein defined) and further that you will seek any and all remedies that you may have for any defect in the transfer, delivery, or use of any 3PS product or service sold, transferred or provided to you from and only from the Vendor and not us. In connection with any and all sales, purchases, leases, consignments and other transactions regarding 3PS that you enter with such Vendors (hereinafter referred to as the “3PS transactions”) you acknowledge and agree that (i) WE, at reasonandbalance.com, through Site Related Activites or otherwise DO NOT PROVIDE ANY WARRANTIES OR GUARANTEES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR OF MERCHANTABILITY WITH RESPECT TO such 3PS or 3PS transactions ; (ii) any and all 3PS transactions that you enter with said Vendors is to be deemed solely between you and the Vendor and that we are not a party thereto; (iii) we have absolutely no responsibility to handle or assume any of the duties of the Vendors or any other party to a 3PS transaction. (For example you agree that we are not responsible to handle deliveries, returns, the collection of moneys or the return of any moneys in connection with said 3PS transactions); and (iv) You agree not to sue us for any claims of any nature that you have arising out of your 3PS transactions.

2A1. All Other Content

With respect to content that is: (i) not RNB Content and (ii) not Vendor content (for example third party blog comments), by using our Site you agree that such content and/or materials shall not be deemed to be endorsed or verified by us and we shall not be deemed liable therefor for any monetary damages, costs, expenses or attorney’s fees, except that if such content is determined by a court of competent jurisdiction to be libelous, slanderous, or a wrongful invasion of privacy or otherwise unlawful we shall only be liable and responsible for promptly removing such content after a court of competent jurisdiction has ordered us to do so; provided however, that we may also, in our own discretion remove any and all content that we in our sole unfettered discretion determine to be libelous, slanderous, pornographic or otherwise posted for some purpose which we, in our sole discretion determine to be in bad taste, or posted for an improper, dangerous, spiteful, inciteful or harassing purpose.

 

  1. Copyright Infringement and Trademark Rights.

We respect the intellectual property rights of others. Accordingly, you agree that we may, without prior notice to you, (i) remove any User Submissions that violate copyright law and (ii) suspend access to the Site (or any portion thereof) of any user who uses the Site in violation of copyright law, and/or (iii) terminate in appropriate circumstances the account of any user who uses the Services in violation of copyright law.

 

3A.   Notices of Copyright and/or Trademark Infringement

(a) Pursuant to Title 17 of the United States Code, Section 512, we have implemented procedures for receiving written notification of claimed copyright infringement and for processing such claims in accordance with such law. If you believe a user of our Site or a user of Site Related Activities is infringing your copyright, you must provide written notice to our NOTICE AGENT listed below at least 30 days prior to taking any legal action against us or such user in connection therewith.

(b) If you believe that your trademark is being used somewhere on this Site or in the Site Related Activities in a way that constitutes trademark infringement, the owner or an agent of the owner must our Notice Agent at least 30 days prior to taking any legal action against us or against the user in connection therewith at (see Notice Agent information) and comply therewith the NOTICE REQUIRMENTS.

(c ) If you believe that you have any other claim or complaint of any nature against us about our Site or arising out of your Site Related Activities, (including a claim that we violated this document or our Privacy Policy) you must first provide us with 30 days prior written notice to our Notice Agent and otherwise comply with our Notice Requirements as set forth herein before filing any legal proceedings against us or against said user.

(d) Below is the name and address of our Notice Agent and said Agent’s contact information:

David D. Lentz 360 Huddersfield Drive, N. Chesterfield, VA 23236 email: daviddlentz@outlook.com.

(e ) The following are the “Notice Requirements” under this Agreement. NOTICE REQUIREMENTS: Your written notice must: (a) contain your physical or electronic signature; (b) identify the copyrighted work alleged to have been infringed; (c) identify the allegedly infringing material in a sufficiently precise manner to allow us to locate that material; (d) contain adequate information by which we can contact you (including postal address, telephone number, and e-mail address); (e) contain a statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted material is not authorized by the copyright owner, the copyright owner’s agent, or the law; (f) contain a statement that the information in the written notice is accurate; and (g) contain a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner. (Include in your statement the nature of any relationship you have with said copyright owner and/or if you are an officer, director, partner or member of the copyright owner you must include that information in your notice.)

We may terminate your membership or suspend your access to all or part of this Site, without notice, if you violate the terms of this document or you engage in any conduct that we, in our sole and absolute discretion, believe is in violation of any applicable law or regulation or is otherwise harmful to the interests of us, any other user of this Site, or any third party. YOU AGREE THAT WE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR REMOVING YOUR USER SUBMISSIONS OR SUSPENDING OR TERMINATING YOUR ACCESS TO THE SERVICES (OR ANY PORTION THEREOF). You may discontinue your participation in and access to the Site at any time. We reserve the right to investigate your use of the Site in the event we, in our sole and absolute discretion, believe you have violated this document. Upon termination, we have no obligation to retain, store, or provide you with any data, information or other content that you uploaded, stored, or transferred on or through this Site or during any Site Related Activities.

  1. Modifications To Terms.

We may, in our sole and absolute discretion, without prior notice, change the terms of this document from time to time. We will post notice of such changes on the Site. If you object to any such changes, your sole recourse shall be to stop using the Services. Your continued use of the Site following notice of any such changes shall indicate your acknowledgement of such changes and agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions of such changes.

  1. Modifications to the Services.

We reserve the right, without cost or liability to you, to modify or discontinue all or any aspect of Site and/or Site Related Activities with or without notice to you; provided that such action does not adversely affect your rights in or to transactions that are already in progress.

We do not presently charge any fees for merely visiting this Site and reading its content. (However, if you engage 3PS transactions the Vendors thereof will charge for 3PS transactions.)   However, we reserve the right at any time to charge fees for access to the Services or to any specific new feature or new content that we may introduce from time to time. In no event will you be charged for access to any Services unless we obtain your prior agreement to pay such fees. If you do not consent to the payment of such fees, however, you may not have access to paid content or services. Details regarding the content or services you will receive in exchange for fees, as well as the payment terms and conditions that apply, will be disclosed to you prior to your agreement to pay such fees. You agree to pay such fees if you sign up for any fee-based service. Any such terms and conditions shall be deemed to be a part of (and are hereby incorporated by reference into) these Terms.

  1. Password, Hacking and Security.

(a ) The history of the Internet generally (and specifically several major instances of website hacking) has demonstrated that owners and operators of websites, even those taking reasonable safety precautions, cannot completely guarantee that it can completely maintain the privacy and/or confidentiality of all information provided by users of websites. Therefore, you agree that we are not responsible for any liability for the theft of any personal information (as hereinafter defined) provided by you to us that we have in our possession that is taken, transferred, misappropriated or stolen as a result of “hacking” or other criminal or illegal activities of third parties (including our employees) provided that we are not negligent, grossly negligent or reckless in maintaining the security of your personal information and otherwise complied with any applicable law requiring the handling, storage and safekeeping of your personal confidential information.

 

(b ) For purposes of the foregoing the term “personal confidential information” shall mean your name, the names of members of your family, dates of birth, social security numbers, mailing addresses, physical addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and such other information as applicable law requires to be kept private (unless you publicly disclose any of such information on our site)

(c ) Without obligating ourselves to do so, to the extent we provide a service allowing you to establish an account on our site, in such a case you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password to access the Services, and you are solely responsible for all activities that occur under your password. You agree to immediately notify us of any unauthorized use of your password or any other breach of security related to the Services. We reserve the right to require you to alter your password if we believe that your password is no longer secure. YOU AGREE THAT WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE ARISING FROM YOUR FAILURE TO ADEQUATELY SAFEGUARD YOUR PASSWORD.

We may provide links to other Web sites or Internet resources. YOU AGREE THAT WE SHALL HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR ANY INFORMATION, SOFTWARE (including any viruses, spyware, or other harm-causing software or “bugs”), OR MATERIALS FOUND AT ANY OTHER WEB SITE OR INTERNET RESOURCE or the damages, costs or expenses caused to you (or anyone with whom you share such content) by your visitation of such other Web Sites or Internet resources.

From time to time, we may, in our discretion, offer software applications to help you gain access to our Site and to engage in Site Related Activities. In such circumstances, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited license to install such software applications solely on the devices you will use to access the Site and/or to engage in Site Related Activities. You agree that we may provide you from time to time with automatic upgrades of these applications, which you will accept for installation. Please note that certain retail application stores that offer our applications may have separate sales terms that will be binding on you if you elect to download our applications from such merchants. Our software is a “commercial item,” as that term is defined in 48 C.F.R. 2.101, consisting of “commercial computer software” and “commercial computer software documentation,” as such terms are used in 48 C.F.R. 12.212. Consistent with 48 C.F.R. 12.212 and 48 C.F.R. 227.7202-1 through 227.7202-4, all U.S. Government end users acquire the software with only those rights set forth herein. You agree that you are responsible to make sure that your use of the software will comply with all applicable import and export control laws and regulations of the United States and other countries.

  1. Commercial Use.

You may not copy, make derivate works, resell, distribute, or make any commercial use of (other than to keep and share information for your own non-commercial purposes) any content, materials, or databases from this Site or our network or systems. You may not sell, sublicense or redistribute our software applications or incorporate them (or any portion of them) into another product. You may not reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the software or otherwise attempt to derive the source code (except where expressly permitted by law) or the communications protocol for accessing the Services or out networks. You may not modify, adapt or create derivative works from the software or remove proprietary notices in the software.

  1. Disclaimer of Warranties.

[Intentionally left blank See other provisions.]

  1. Limitation of Liability.

[Intentionally left blank. See other provisions.]

  1. Exclusions and Limitations.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages. Accordingly, some of the limitations and disclaimers set forth in this document may not apply to you. To the extent that we may not, as a matter of applicable law, disclaim any implied warranty or limit its liabilities, the scope and duration of such warranty and the extent of our liability shall be the minimum permitted under such applicable law.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless us, our parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, employees, consultants and agents from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, expenses, fees (including reasonable attorneys” fees) that such parties may incur as a result of or arising from your (or anyone using your accounts) violation of these Terms. We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, and in such case, you agree to cooperate with our defense of such claim.

  1. Trademarks & Patents.

The design of any and all pages on reasonandbalance.com, our site names and logos, as well as certain other of the names, logos, and materials displayed on the site constitute trademarks, trade names, service marks or logos (“Marks”) of us or other entities. You are not authorized to use any such Marks. Ownership of all such Marks and the goodwill associated therewith remains with us or those other entities.

  1. Copyrights; Restrictions on Use.

The content on this Site (the “Content”), including without limitation, video, text, photos, and graphics, is protected under United States and international copyright laws, is subject to other intellectual property and proprietary rights and laws, and is owned by us or our licensors. Other than with respect to your own User Submissions: (a) the Content may not be copied, modified, reproduced, republished, posted, transmitted, sold, offered for sale, or redistributed in any way without our prior written permission and that of our applicable licensors; and (b) you must abide by all copyright notices, information, or restrictions contained in or attached to any Content. We give you a personal, revocable, non-assignable, non-sublicensable and non-exclusive right to access and use the Services in the manner permitted by these Terms.

  1. Electronic Notices.

You agree to transact with us electronically. Your affirmative act of registering, using or logging into the Services constitutes your acceptance signature to these Terms. WE MAY PROVIDE NOTICES TO YOU ELECTRONICALLY (1) VIA E-MAIL IF YOU HAVE PROVIDED US WITH A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS OR (2) BY POSTING THE NOTICE ON A WEBSITE DESIGNATED BY US FOR THIS PURPOSE. The delivery of any Notice is effective when sent or posted by us, regardless of whether you read the Notice or actually receive delivery. You can withdraw your consent to receive Notices electronically by discontinuing your use of the Service.

  1. Compliance with Local Laws.

The Site and all Site Related Activities are based in the United States. They are not designed or customized for any other country. You may use them only if they comply with the laws of the country from which you are accessing the Site or engaging in Site Related Activities.

  1. The Final Entire Agreement

These Terms of Use shall constitute the entire and exclusive and final statement of the agreement between you and us with respect to the subject matter hereof, and govern your use of the Site, superseding any prior agreements or negotiations between you and us with respect to the subject matter hereof. In the event of any conflict between these Terms of Use and the terms of any site offering 3PS, these Terms shall govern as between you and us.

  1. Limitations of Actions

You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of the Services or these Terms must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose or be forever barred. You must also, before filing any lawsuit against us, comply with any prior Notice Requirements contained in these Terms of Use.

 

  1. APPLICABLE LAW

UNLESS OTHERWISE REQUIRED BY THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OR ANY TREATY ENTERED INTO BY THE UNITED STATES, THE LAWS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA (EXCLUSIVE OF ITS CONFLICTS OF LAWS RULES) shall apply with respect to the all matters pertaining to the applicability, interpretation and enforcement of this Agreement including the validity of its execution.

FOR MATTERS NOT COVERED BY VIRGINIA LAW, THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES SHALL APPLY (EXCLUSIVE OF ITS CONFLICTS RULES) UNLESS OTHERWISE REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE TREATY; provided however, that the strong presumption shall be that Virginia law applies.

 

  1. VENUE AND JURISDICTION.

Without waiving the other provisions of this Agreement (or our right to REQUIRE arbitration or mediation if it so provided above), in the event of any lawsuit between You and Us, You agree that jurisdiction and venue in such case shall rest solely and exclusively in the state or federal courts located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States of America.   If federal jurisdiction is otherwise proper, then  you agree that the case shall be tried in Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division.   If federal jurisdiction is not otherwise proper then jurisdiction and venue shall lie exclusively in the state courts (that is, the Courts of the Commonwealth of Virginia) of the County of Chesterfield, Virginia.  Any suit brought in an improper jurisdiction shall be deemed presumed to be intentionally wrongful and the court to the extent otherwise permitted by law may, after considering all of the equities, may enter an order awarding  the party improperly bringing the suit to pay to the other party the aggrieved party’s costs, expenses and attorney’s fees in defending the suit.

  1. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

To the extent not prohibited by applicable law You agree the following rule applies:

Without limiting any other provision of these Terms of Use, regarding matters not otherwise covered in these Terms of Use (or in our Privacy Policy) You agree that in no event, shall our total aggregate liability to You for any claim (whether sounding in tort, contract, violation of any statute, regulation, rule, treaty, executive agreement or based on any other legal grounds) exceed ONE THOUSAND, $1,000.00 (US DOLLARS) (herein “Our Maximum Liability”).  Our Maximum Liability as set forth herein is a one-time, aggregate and total figure and, to the extent any other person or entity makes a claim against us (and this section otherwise applies) based on Your use of the Site or Your engagement in Site Related Activities, then the maximum recovery that all of persons and entities claiming through You can recover shall, when all added together, not exceed one times Our Maximum Liability.

  1. Mergers, Acquisitions, Successors in Interest/ Transfer of Information.

In the event we go through a business transition (such as a merger, acquisition by another company, bankruptcy, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, including, without limitation, during the course of any due diligence process), your Personal Information (including your “Personal Confidential Information”) will likely be among the assets transferred. By providing such information, you agree that we may transfer such information in those circumstances without your further consent.

  1. Disclosure of Information in Lawsuits and other Extraordinary Circumstances.

Other Disclosure Scenarios. We reserve the right, and you hereby expressly authorize us, to share User Information and your Personal Confidential Information): (1) in response to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, or to establish, protect, or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims; (2) if we believe it is necessary in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, fraud, or situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person or property; (3) if we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding significant abuse of the Services infrastructure or the Internet in general (such as voluminous spamming, denial of service attacks, or attempts to compromise the security of information); (4) to protect and defend our legal rights or property, our services or their users, or any other party, and to protect the health and safety of our users or the general public; and (5) to our parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control with us (in which case we will require such entities to honor this Privacy Policy).

 

END OF TERMS OF USE …Our “Privacy Policy”  is as follows:

 

Privacy Policy

We have prepared this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to explain to you how we collect, use, and share information we obtain through your use of the Site (as “Site” is defined in our Terms of Use) and your engagement in “Site Related Activities” (as that phrase is defined in our Terms of Use) This Privacy Policy only covers information collected through your use of the Site and/or your engagement in Site Related Activities and does not cover any information collected at any other website, application or offline by us (unless specifically stated), including when you call us, write to us, or communicate with us in any manner other than through the “Services”. By using the Services, you explicitly consent to such use of your information and agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

For purposes of this Privacy Policy the term “Services” shall be deemed to any activities that constitutes your visitation to and/or your use of the Site and/or your engagement in Site Related Activities.

  1. Information We Automatically Collect

We and our third-party service providers (including any third-party content, advertising, and analytics providers) may automatically collect certain information from your device or web browser when you interact with the Services to help us understand how our users use the Services and to target advertising to you (which we will refer to in this Privacy Policy collectively as “Usage Data”). For example, each time you visit the Services we and our third-party service providers may automatically collect your IP address, mobile device identifier or other unique identifier, browser and computer type, access time, the Web page you came from, the URL you go to next, the Web page(s) that you access during your visit and your interaction with content or advertising on the Services.

We and our third-party service providers may use such Usage Data for a variety of purposes including to diagnose problems with our servers and software, to administer the Services, to gather demographic information and to target advertising to you on the Services and elsewhere online. Accordingly, our third-party advertising networks and ad servers will also provide us with information, including reports that will tell us how many ads were presented and clicked on the Services in a manner that does not identify personally any specific individual. The Usage Data we collect is generally non-identifying, but if we associate it with you as a specific and identifiable person, we will treat it as Personal Information.

  1. Cookies/Tracking Technologies

We, and our vendors, analytics providers, and advertising service providers may use tracking technologies, such as cookies, local storage, and pixel tags.

Cookies and Local Storage

Cookies and local storage may be set and accessed on your computer. Upon your first visit to the Services, a cookie or local storage may be sent to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. “Cookies” and local storage are small files containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer’s browser and stored on your device when you visit a website. Many major Web services use cookies to provide useful features for their users. Each Web site can send its own cookie to your browser. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent; however if you reject cookies, you will not be able to sign in to the Services or take full advantage of our Services. Additionally, if you clear all cookies on your browser at any point after setting your browser to refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent, you will have to again reset your browser to refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent.

Cookies are used for a variety of purposes including the following: (a) to track your preferences, such as the address or local zip code you enter; (b) to access your information when you sign in so we can provide you with your personalized content; (c) to display the most appropriate advertisements, based on your interests and activity on our Services; and (d) to help us improve the Services by analyzing and estimating our traffic and use of features on the Services. You can find more information about cookies and how they work at http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

A Flash cookie is a data file placed on a device via the Adobe Flash plug-in that may be built into or downloaded by you onto your device. Flash cookies may be used for various purposes, including, without limitation, enabling a Flash feature and remembering your preferences. For more information about Flash and the privacy choices Adobe offers, visit http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html. If you choose to adjust your Flash privacy settings on your device some features of the Services may not function properly.

Pixel Tags

We may also use “pixel tags,” which are small graphic files that allow us and third parties to monitor the use of the Services and collect Usage Data. A pixel tag can collect information such as the IP address of the computer that downloaded the page on which the tag appears; the URL of the page on which the pixel tag appears; the time (and length of time) the page containing the pixel tag was viewed; the type of browser that retrieved the pixel tag; and the identification number of any cookie previously placed by that server on your computer.

We may use pixel tags, either provided by us or by our third party advertisers, service providers and ad networks, to collect information about your visit, including the pages you view, the links you click and other actions taken in connection with our sites and Services and use them in combination with our cookies to provide offers and information of interest to you. Pixel tags may also enable ad networks to serve targeted advertisements to you when you visit the Services or other websites.

In addition, we may use a variety of other technologies that collect similar information for security and fraud detection purposes.

  1. Information You Choose To Submit

You can visit the Services without telling us who you are or revealing any information by which someone could identify you as a specific, identifiable individual (which we will refer to in this Privacy Policy collectively as “Personal Information”). If, however, you wish to register to become a member of the Services, you are required to provide certain Personal Information (e.g., your name and e-mail address), and you must also provide a user name and password. We use your Personal Information to fulfill your requests for products and services, to improve our Services, to contact you from time to time about us and our products and services, and as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy. You may also choose to submit or we may collect additional information about yourself, such as demographic information (for example your gender, birth date, or zip code) and information about your preferences and interests. We refer collectively to all information we collect that is not Personal Information, including Usage Data, demographic data and de-identified Personal Information, as “Non-Personal Information”. If we combine Non-Personal Information with Personal Information we will treat the combined information as Personal Information under this Privacy Policy. You also may choose to submit your alias, bio, email, photos or any other information that you would like to share with other users of the Services (which we will refer to in this Privacy Policy collectively as “User Submissions”). Personal Information, Non-Personal Information, and User Submissions are referred to in this Privacy Policy collectively as “User Information”.

  1. Information We Receive From Other Sources

We may supplement the information we collect with outside records in order to learn more about our users, to better tailor the content and offers we show you, and for other purposes. We may receive this information about you from third parties, including without limitation consumer data resellers and advertisers. We may combine the information we receive from those other sources with information we collect through the Services. In those cases, we will apply this Privacy Policy to the combined information.

  1. Information Use

We may use the information we collect, including Personal Information and Usage Data: – to enable you to use our Services, to create an account or profile, to process information you provide via our Services (including verifying that your email address is active and valid) and to process your transactions; – to provide related customer service and care, including responding to your questions, complaints, or comments and sending surveys and processing survey responses; – to provide you with information, products, or services that you have requested or that we otherwise believe will interest you, including special opportunities from us and our third-party partners; – to tailor content, recommendations, and advertisements we and third parties display to you, both on the Services and elsewhere online; – for internal business purposes, such as to improve our Services; – to administer and process contests, sweepstakes, and promotions; – to contact you with administrative communications and, in our discretion, changes to our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, or any of our other policies; – to comply with regulatory and legal obligations; and – for purposes as disclosed at the time you provide your information, with your consent, and as further described in this Privacy Policy.

  1. Social Network and Platform Integration

The Sites may contain integration with social networks and other platforms in which information is shared between us and such platforms. For example, if you create or log into your account through a third party social media site, we will have access to certain information from that site, such as your name, email address, account information, photo and friends lists, and other information in accordance with the authorization procedures determined by such social media site. If you visit our Services on a device through which you also interact with social networks or if you interact with us through a social media function such as a plug-in (for example, a Facebook “like” button) then you may be permitting us to have on-going access to some information from your social network profile (such as your name, email address, your friend list, photo, age, gender, location, birthday, social networking ID, current city, and the people/sites you follow). If you don’t want a social network to collect the information about you as described above, or you don’t want a social network to share it with us, please review the privacy policy, privacy settings and instructions of the applicable social network before you visit and use our Services.

  1. Our Information Sharing Practices

(a) Generally. We may share Non-Personal Information, including Usage Data, de-identified Personal Information and aggregated user statistics, with third parties in our discretion. We may share User Information, including Personal Information, as otherwise described in this Policy, and under the following circumstances:

(i) Service Providers. From time to time, we may enter into relationships with third parties who provide services to us (e.g., analytics companies, advertisers and ad agencies, data management and storage services or credit card processing services, sweepstakes or contest prize fulfillment). In those circumstances, we disclose User Information so that such service providers may perform those services.

(ii) Third Party Marketing. You will have a choice (opt-in or opt-out) before we share your information with third parties for marketing purposes. Provided that you have chosen to receive marketing messages from third parties, we may share your information (including Personal Confidential Information) with third parties for those third parties’ own direct marketing purposes. Please note, messages delivered from a third party will subject you to the third party’s privacy policy. We may also match your email address with third parties with whom you have also consented to share your email address and use such match to deliver custom offers or emails to you on the Services and off the Services.

  1. Public Information

If you identify any User Information as public, you are authorizing us to share such information publicly. For example, you may elect to make certain of your User Submissions (such as your alias, bio, email or photos) publicly available. Also, there may be areas of the Services (e.g., message boards, discussion rooms, and other online forums) in which you are able to post information that automatically will be available to all other users of the Services. By choosing to use these areas, you understand and agree that anyone may access, use, and disclose any information that you post to those areas.

  1. Users Residing Outside of the United States and Consent to Transfer

The Services are operated in the United States. If you are located in another jurisdiction, please be aware that information you provide to us will be transferred to and processed in the United States. By using the Sites or providing us with any information, you consent to this transfer, processing, and storage of your information in the United States, a jurisdiction in which the privacy laws may not be as comprehensive as those in the country where you reside or are a citizen.

  1. Important Information for California Residents-Your California Privacy Rights

As stated elsewhere in this privacy policy, Vox Media does not share personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes, as defined by California Civil Code Section 1798.83, unless we give you choice (opt-in or opt-out) before sharing with those third parties.

If you are a California resident and you have questions about our practices with respect to sharing information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes and your ability to exercise choice, please contact us at Vox Media, Inc., c/o General Counsel, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 11th FL., Washington D.C. 20036. You must put the statement “Your California Privacy Rights” in the body of your request, as well as your name, street address, city, state, and zip code. In the body of your request, please provide enough information for us to determine if this applies to you. Please note that we will not accept inquiries via the telephone, email, or by facsimile, and we are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, or that do not have complete information.

  1. How We Respond to “Do Not Track” Signals

Some Internet browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. California Business & Professions Code Section 22575(b) (as amended effective January 1, 2014) provides that California residents are entitled to know how Vox Media responds to “Do Not Track” browser settings.

There currently is no consensus among industry participants as to what “Do Not Track” means in this context. Therefore, like many websites and online services, the Services do not alter their practices when they receive a “Do Not Track” signal from a visitor’s browser. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.

  1. Advertising

(a) Generally. We may use other companies under agreements with us to serve third-party advertisements when you visit and use the Services. These companies may collect and use click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over during your visits to the Services and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use tracking technologies to collect this information. Other companies’ use of their tracking technologies is subject to their own privacy policies, not this one.

(a1) Without limiting the foregoing if in the use of our Services you click on or visit pages with ads or links to the “Vendors” (as defined in the Terms of Use) who wish to sell and/or provide goods and services defined in the Terms of Use as “3PS” may also collect and use click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over during your visits to the Services and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These Vendors typically use tracking technologies to collect this information. Such Vendors use of their tracking technologies is subject to their own privacy policies, not this one.

(b) Targeted Advertising. In order to serve offers and advertisements that may be of interest to our users, we may display targeted advertisements on the Services, or other digital properties or applications in conjunction with our content, based on information provided to us by our users and information provided to us by third parties that they have independently collected. We do not provide Personal Information to our advertisers when you interact with an advertisement.

(c) Your Ad Choices. Some of the third party services providers and/or Advertisers may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) or the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. You may want to visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp, which provides information regarding targeted advertising and the “opt-out” procedures of NAI members. You can opt-out of our use of your Web site viewing behavior data to serve you interest-based advertising on third-party sites and email newsletters here http://www.aboutads.info/choices/.

If you are accessing the Services through an application (i.e., mobile phone or tablet) you can download the AppChoices application from your device’s application store (i.e., Google Play, Apple App Store, and Amazon Store). This DAA application allows participating companies to offer an opt-out of customized advertisements that are based on predictions about your interests generated from your application usage. For more information, visit http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices.

Please note opting out through these mechanisms does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads while online or on your device.

(d) Mobile. We may from time to time offer certain location or pinpoint based services, such as location assisted navigation instruction. If you elect to use such location-based services, we must periodically receive your location in order to provide such location-based services to you. By using the location-based services, you authorize us to: (i) locate your hardware; (ii) record, compile and display your location; and (iii) publish your location to third parties designated by you by means of location publication controls available within the applications (e.g., settings, user preferences). As part of the location-based services, we may also collect and store certain information about the users who elect to use such location-based services, such as a device id. This information will be used to provide you the location-based services. We may use third-party providers to help provide location-based services through mobile systems and we may provide the information to such providers to enable them to provide their location-based services, provided that such providers may use the information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

  1. Choice/Opt-Out From Communications

We offer you the opportunity to manage your communications from us. Even after subscribing to one or more newsletters and/or opting in to one or more offers to receive marketing and/or promotional communications from us or our third party partners, users may elect to modify their preferences by going to the Communications Preferences page anytime or by following the “Communications Preferences” and/or “Unsubscribe” link provided in an email or communication received. You may also be able to change your preferences by updating your profile or account, depending on which of our Services you are using. Please be aware that if you wish to remove yourself from a newsletter and/or other marketing emails from third parties that you consented to through the Services, you must do so by contacting the relevant third-party. Even if you do opt-out of marketing emails, we reserve the right to send you transactional and administrative emails including those related to the Services, service announcements, notices of changes to this Privacy Policy or other Services policies, and to contact you regarding any goods or services you have ordered.

  1. Modifying and Deleting Your Personal Information

If you would like to modify or delete from our database any Personal Information you previously submitted to us, please let us know by accessing and updating your profile. Please note that any Personal Information that we have copied may remain in back-up storage for some period of time after your request, and that if you delete certain information you may not be able to order services in the future without re-submitting such information. Also, please note that we will maintain Personal Information in our database whenever we are required to do so by law.

  1. Security

[See our Terms of Use for information and provisions on Security.]

  1. Links

The Services may contain links to other websites that we do not control, and the Services may contain videos, advertising and other content hosted and served by third parties. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third-party.

  1. Children’s Privacy

The Services are intended for a general audience and are not intended for and may not be used by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 13 and we do not target the Services to children under the age of 13.

  1. Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time in our discretion and will notify you of any material changes to the way in which we treat Personal Information, by posting a notice on relevant areas of the Services. We may also provide notice to you in other ways in our discretion, such as through contact information you have provided. Any updated version of this Privacy Policy will be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Privacy Policy unless otherwise specified. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy (or such other act specified at that time) will constitute your consent to those changes. However, we will not, without your consent, use your Personal Information in a manner materially different than what was stated at the time your Personal Information was collected.

  1. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact our Notice Agent listed in our Terms of Use.

 

 

CHAT and COMMENTING ADDENDUM to TERMS OF USE               

 

RULES REGARDING LIVE CHAT and/or OTHER COMMENTING.  Unless otherwise required by law, the following rules apply to the use of our website:

 

.a. We the right, at any time and for any reason to remove any content posted or published on our website, including its chat.

 

.b. We shall have no duty to retain and/or keep the contents of any chat and/or the contents of any comments anyone makes on our website.

 

.c. With respect to use of our live chat and/or the commenting on post, page, video or other content on our website, users submitting posts, comments, chats or other content to be placed on our website shall not post any content or comment that:

.i. .Contains any virus, spyware or other malware of  any type.

.ii. is libelous or slanderoius;

.iii.  violates the copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property rights of  any person, firm, or other legal entity.

.iv. that discloses any “confidential information” about any person including the user or poster of the content or comment.

 

.d. For purposes of this section, “Confidential Information” includes but is not limited to:

Any person’s Mailing address

Any person’s Email address

Any person’s telephone (including cellphone) number

Any person’s Date of birth

Any person’s Social security number

Images depicting any person under the age of 18.

The names of persons under the age of 18.

Any Information that may be protected by HIPAA  Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act.

Any Images of nudity depicting genitalia and/or the female breast and explicitly sexual or pornography

 

.e. To the extent that the User or poster of content posts, publishes or states in a chat or comment or other post information that is sensitive, confidential or which might otherwise be protected by attorney client privilege, said user or poster does so at his sole cost, expense and risk and we shall have no liability or responsibility therefor.

.f. In the event, that a user or poster of content, in a comment or chat that violates the foregoing provisiosns of this Section or other provisioins of these Terms of Use then said user or poster shall indemnify, defend and hold us harmless from the claims of any third parties who may otherwise sue or make claims against us due to the user’s and/or poster’s violation of the terms hereof.  The duties imposed by the preceding sentence shall include the duty to reimburse us for all costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees that we may incur in defending such claims of third parties.

 

[ These Terms of Use and Privacy Policy were prepared by David D. Lentz, Attorney at Law. To contact him, please visit his website at http://www.davidlentzlaw.com ]