Terms of Service

Last Updated: January 5, 2025

Introduction

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) describe our commitments to you, and your rights and responsibilities when using our services. Please read them carefully and reach out to us if you have any questions.

** If you don’t agree to these Terms, don’t use our services.**

If you are a user in countries located in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom (“European User”), some special terms apply to you as mentioned below.**
**

Terms of Service

These Terms govern your access to and use of the products and services we provide through  NeighborhoodCivics.com (“Services”), which is hosted by WordPress.com and uses its services (“WordPress Services”). WordPress.com publishes its own Terms of Service which can be accessed at WordPress.com.

Please read these Terms carefully before accessing or using our Services. By accessing or using any part of our Services, you agree to be bound by all of the Terms and all other operating rules, policies, and procedures that we may publish via the Services from time to time (collectively, the “Agreement”). You also agree that we may automatically change, update, or add on to our Services as stated in the Terms, and the Agreement will apply to any changes.

1. Who’s Who

“You” means any individual or entity using our Services. If you use our Services on behalf of another person or entity, you represent and warrant that you’re authorized to accept the Agreement on that person’s or entity’s behalf, that by using our Services you’re accepting the Agreement on behalf of that person or entity, and that if you, or that person or entity, violates the Agreement, you and that person or entity agree to be responsible to us.

2. Your Account

When using our Services requires an account, you agree to provide us with complete and accurate information and to keep the information current so that we can communicate with you about your account. We may need to send you emails about notable updates (like changes to our Terms of Service or Privacy Policy), or to let you know about legal inquiries or complaints we receive about the ways you use our Services so you can make informed choices in response.

We may limit your access to our Services until we’re able to verify your account information, like your email address.

Currently, NeighborhoodCivics.com does not require you to create an account to access its services, but it does allow you to subscribe to the blog so that you automatically receive notifications of new blog posts. If you subscribe to the blog, Neighborhoodcivics.com considers that to be an inquiry about its products and services, which means that we may also contact you to share more details about what we have to offer (i.e., marketing). Don’t worry — if you aren’t interested, you can opt out of the marketing communications, whether it’s an email, phone call, or text message.

You’re solely responsible and liable for all activity on NeighborhoodCivics.com, including for all comments, likes, or other material posted on NeighborhoodCivics.com. NeighborborhoodCivics.com is not liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of your acts or omissions.

If you’d like to learn about how we handle the data you provide us, please see our Privacy Policy.

3. Minimum Age Requirements

Our Services are not directed to children. You’re not allowed to access or use our Services if you’re under the age of 13 (or 16 in Europe). If you register as a user or otherwise use our Services, you represent that you’re at least 13 (or 16 in Europe). You may use our Services only if you can legally form a binding contract with us. In other words, if you’re under 18 years of age (or the legal age of majority where you live), you can only use our Services under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to the Agreement.

4. Responsibility of Visitors and Users

We haven’t reviewed, and can’t review, all of the content (like text, photo, video, audio, code, computer software, items for sale, and other materials) posted to or made available through our Services by users or anyone else (”Content”) or on websites that link to, or are linked from, our Services. We’re not responsible for any use or effects of Content or third-party websites. So, for example:

• We don’t have any control over third-party websites.
• A link to or from one of our Services does not represent or imply that we endorse any third-party website.
• We don’t endorse any Content or represent that Content is accurate, useful, or not harmful. Content could be offensive, indecent, or objectionable; include technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, or other errors; or violate or infringe the privacy, publicity rights, intellectual property rights, or other proprietary rights of third parties.
• You’re fully responsible for the Content you post on this website, and any harm resulting from that Content. It’s your responsibility to ensure that your Content abides by applicable laws and by the Agreement.
• We aren’t responsible for any harm resulting from anyone’s access, use, purchase, or downloading of Content, or for any harm resulting from third-party websites. You’re responsible for taking the necessary precautions to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content.
• Any Content that’s for sale through any of our Services is the seller’s sole responsibility, so you must look solely to the seller for any damages that result from your purchase or use of Content.
• We are not a party to, and will have no responsibility or liability for, any communications, transactions, interactions, or disputes between you and the provider of any Content.

Please note that additional third-party terms and conditions may apply to Content you download, copy, purchase, or use.

5. Fees, Payment, and Renewal

Currently, none of our Services are offered for a fee. We may change our fees at any time in accordance with these Terms and requirements under applicable law. This means that we may change our fees going forward, start charging fees for Services that were previously free, or remove or update features or functionality that were previously included in the fees. If you don’t agree with the changes, you must cancel your paid Service.

6. Feedback

We love hearing from you and are always looking to improve our Services. When you share comments, ideas, or feedback with us, you agree that we’re free to use them without any restriction or compensation to you.

7. General Representation and Warranty

NeighborhoodCivics.com seeks to create connections among neighborhood leaders. We encourage you to express yourself freely, subject to a few requirements. In particular, you represent and warrant that your use of our Services:

• Will be in strict accordance with the Agreement;
• Will comply with all applicable laws and regulations (including, without limitation, all applicable laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content, licensing, privacy, data protection, the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside, the use or provision of financial services, notification and consumer protection, unfair competition, and false advertising);
• Will not be for any unlawful purposes, to publish illegal content, or in furtherance of illegal activities;
• Will not infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property rights of NeighborhoodCivics.com or any third party;
• Will not disclose the personal information of others;
• Will not be used to send spam or bulk unsolicited messages;
• Will not interfere with, disrupt, or attack any service or network;
• Will not be used to create, distribute, or enable material that is, facilitates, or operates in conjunction with, malware, spyware, adware, or other malicious programs or code;
• Will not involve reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, deciphering, or otherwise attempting to derive the source code for the Services or any related technology that is not open source; and
• Will not involve renting, leasing, loaning, selling, or reselling the Services or related data without our consent.

8. Specific Service Terms

License. By uploading or sharing Content, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, and non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, adapt, publicly display, and publish the Content solely for the purpose of providing and improving our products and Services. This license also allows us to make any publicly-posted Content available to select third parties so that these third parties can analyze and distribute (but not publicly display) the Content through their services. You also give other NeighborhoodCivics.com users permission to share your Content on other WordPress.com websites and add their own Content to it (aka to “reblog” your Content), so long as they use only a portion of your post and they give you credit as the original author by linking back to your website.

Removing Content. NeighborhoodCivics.com does not control the visibility of Content that you may delete. If you delete Content, please refer to the WordPress.com Terms and Conditions to determine how your Content is managed.

Prohibited Uses. Your Content and conduct must not violate the WordPress.com User Guidelines, which is incorporated herein via reference. These guidelines provide information on a few categories of content and behavior that we don’t permit because we consider them harmful to the community.

9. Copyright Policy

As we ask others to respect our intellectual property rights, we respect the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe any Content violates your copyright, please see WordPress.com’s Copyright Policy, which is incorporated herein via reference, and send a notice to WordPress.com and NeighborhoodCivics.com.

10. Intellectual Property

The Agreement doesn’t transfer any NeighborhoodCivics.com or third-party intellectual property to you, and all right, title, and interest in and to such property remains (as between NeighborhoodCivics.com and you) solely with NeighborhoodCivics.com. NeighborhoodCivics.com and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics, and logos used in connection with our websites or Services are trademarks or registered trademarks of NeighborhoodCivics.com. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics, and logos used in connection with our Services may be the trademarks of other third parties. Using our Services doesn’t grant you any right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any NeighborhoodCivics.com or third-party trademarks.

11. Changes

We may modify the Terms from time to time, for example, to reflect changes to our Services (e.g., adding new features or benefits to our Services or retiring certain features of certain Services) or for legal, regulatory, or security reasons. If we do this, we’ll provide notice of the changes, such as by posting the amended Terms and updating the “Last Updated” date or, if the changes, in our sole discretion, are material, we may notify you through our Services or other communications. Any changes will apply on a going-forward basis, and, unless we say otherwise, the amended Terms will be effective immediately. By continuing to use our Services after we’ve notified you, you agree to be bound by the new Terms. You have the right to object to any changes at any time by ceasing your use of our Services and canceling any subscription you have.

12. Termination

We may terminate your access to all or any part of our Services at any time, with or without cause or notice, effective immediately, including if we believe, in our sole discretion, that you have violated this Agreement, any service guidelines, or other applicable terms. We have the right (though not the obligation) to: (i) refuse or remove any content that, in our reasonable opinion, violates any part of this Agreement or any NeighborhoodCivics.com policy, or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of any of our Services to any individual or entity for any reason. We will have no obligation to provide a refund of any fees previously paid.

You can stop using our Services at any time.

13. Disclaimers

Our Services are provided “as is.” NeighborhoodCivics.com and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, to the maximum extent allowed by applicable law, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Neither NeighborhoodCivics.com, nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that our Services will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or uninterrupted. If you’re reading this, you understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, our Services at your own discretion and risk.

NeighborhoodCivics.com presents the information on this website as a public service to Dallas residents and other Internet users for general information only. While some of the information on this site is about legal issues, it is not legal advice. Moreover, due to the rapidly changing nature of the law and our reliance on information provided by outside sources, we make no warranty or guarantee concerning the accuracy or reliability of the content at this site or at other sites to which we link. No person should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information contained in this website without seeking appropriate legal or other professional advice on that person’s particular circumstances.

Transmission of the information on NeighborhoodCivics.com does not create or constitute an attorney-client relationship between NeighborhoodCivics.com, Maureen Milligan, and any viewer or user of such information. This website is not intended to be advertising or solicitation, and NeighborhoodCivics.com or Maureen Milligan does not wish to represent anyone who desires representation based upon viewing this website.

14. Jurisdiction and Applicable Law.

Except to the extent any applicable law provides otherwise, the Agreement and any access to or use of our Services will be governed by the laws of the state of Texas, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions and the application of the United Nations Convention of Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to the Agreement and any access to or use of our Services will be the state and federal courts located in Dallas County, Texas, U.S.A. Nothing in this Agreement affects your rights as a consumer to rely on mandatory provisions in your country of residence.

15. Limitation of Liability

In no event will NeighborhoodCivics.com, or its suppliers, partners, or licensors, be liable (including for any third-party products or services purchased or used through our Services) with respect to any subject matter of the Agreement under any contract, negligence, strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for: (i) any special, incidental or consequential damages; (ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services; (iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iv) for any amounts that exceed $50 or the fees paid by you to NeighborhoodCivics.com under the Agreement during the twelve (12) month period prior to the cause of action, whichever is greater. NeighborhoodCivics.com shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters beyond its reasonable control. The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

European Users: If we cause damage to you and you are a consumer in Europe, we limit our liability to the maximum amount permissible in your country of residence. Liability will be limited to foreseeable damages arising due to a breach of material contractual obligations typical for this type of contract. NeighborhoodCivics.com isn’t liable for damages that result from a non-material breach of any other applicable duty of care. This limitation of liability will not apply to any statutory liability that cannot be limited, to liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, liability caused by our willful misconduct or gross negligence, or our responsibility for something we have specifically promised to you. You and we agree that we and our affiliates’ total liability is limited to the greater of $50 or the amount paid by you to use our Services during the 12 months preceding the claim; To the extent that our liability is limited or excluded, the limitations or exclusions will also apply to the personal liability of our employees, legal representatives, and vicarious agents.

16. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless NeighborhoodCivics.com, its contractors, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees, and agents from and against any and all losses, liabilities, demands, damages, costs, claims, and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of or related to your use of our Services, including but not limited to your violation of the Agreement or any agreement with a provider of third-party services used in connection with the Services or applicable law, Content that you post, and any ecommerce activities conducted through your or another user’s website.

17. US Economic Sanctions

You agree that our ability to provide our Services to you is subject to compliance with US sanctions that restrict or prohibit who or from where our Services can be accessed. By using the Services, you represent and warrant that you (i) are not located or residing in any country or territory subject to comprehensive US sanctions (currently Cuba, Crimea, Iran, North Korea, Donetsk People’s Republic, Luhansk People’s Republic, and Syria); (ii) are not listed on any United States list of prohibited or restricted parties, such as OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Persons List, or otherwise subject to US sanctions that would prohibit your access to or use of our Services; and (iii) shall not use or allow access by any of your customers or potential customers (if applicable) to the Services in any manner that may cause NeighborhoodCivics.com to violate US export controls and sanctions. We reserve the right to restrict or block your access, or access by any of your customers or potential customers (if applicable), to the Services and/or to terminate the Agreement at any time without notice if we determine, at our sole discretion, that such access may cause a violation or create unacceptable risk to us under export controls or sanctions.

18. Translation

These Terms were originally written in English (US). We may translate these terms into other languages, and in the event of a conflict between a translated version of these Terms and the English version, the English version will control.

19. Miscellaneous

The Agreement (together with any other terms we provide that apply to any specific Service) constitutes the entire agreement between NeighborhoodCivics.com and you concerning our Services. If any part of the Agreement is unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that part is severable from the Agreement, and does not affect the validity or enforceability of the rest of the Agreement. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of the Agreement or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof.

NeighborhoodCivics.com may assign its rights under the Agreement without condition. You may only assign your rights under the Agreement with our prior written consent.

Privacy Policy

NeighborhoodCivics.com uses WordPress.com to host its website. WordPress.com is owned by Automattic. This Privacy Policy provides details on how Automattic collects, stores, and uses information about visitors to NeighborhoodCivics.com. When the terms “we” or “our” is used, it refers to Automattic.

Information We Collect About Visitors to Our Users’ Sites

We collect information about visitors to our Users’ Sites in a few different ways–we collect certain information that the visitors provide to the Site, we collect some information automatically, and we collect any information that our Users provide to us about their visitors.

Information a Visitor Provides to a Site

We’ll start with information that visitors provide directly to a Site, which primarily happens when visitors type into a text field on a Site, like a comment field or a sign-up form. Our Users may also implement other ways to allow Site visitors to provide information directly through their Sites. Here are the most common ways in which a visitor directly provides information to a Site:

• Follower and Subscriber Information: When a visitor signs up to follow or subscribe to a Site using Jetpack or WordPress.com, we collect the sign-up information requested by the Site, which typically includes an email address.
• Site Comments: When a visitor leaves a comment on a Site, we collect that comment, and other information that the visitor provides along with the comment, such as the visitor’s name and email address.
• Crowdsignal Survey Responses: When a visitor completes a poll, quiz, or other type of survey prepared by a User via Crowdsignal.com, we collect the visitor’s responses to those surveys, and other information that the survey owner requires for a poll/quiz/survey response, like an e-mail address.
• Order and Shipment Information: If a visitor orders something (hooray!) from a Site using our store and ecommerce features available through WordPress.com or Jetpack (including WooCommerce Shipping & Tax), we may collect information to process that order, such as credit card and billing information, and an address for shipping the package along to the recipient and calculating applicable taxes. We may also use this information for other purposes on behalf of our Users–for example, to send marketing and other communications from our Users to their customers, and to provide our User with analytics information about their ecommerce site (e.g., the number of orders from particular geographic areas).
• Other Information Entered on the Site: We may also collect other information that a visitor enters on the Site–such as a contact form submission, a search query, or Site registration.

Information We Automatically Collect from the Site

We also automatically collect some information about visitors to a Site. The information we automatically collect depends on which of our services the Site uses. We’ve listed examples below:

• Technical Data from a Visitor’s Computer and Etcetera: We collect the information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available about visitors to a Site, such as the IP address, browser type, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information.
• Visitor Interactions: We collect information about a visitor’s interactions with a Site, including the “likes” and “ratings” left by visitors to a Site using WordPress.com or Jetpack.
• Location Information: We may determine the approximate location of a visitor’s device from the IP address. We collect and use this information to, for example, tally for our Users how many people visit their Sites from certain geographic regions. If you’d like, you can read more about our Site Stats feature for WordPress.com sites and Jetpack sites.
• Akismet Commenter Information: We collect information about visitors who comment on Sites that use our Akismet anti-spam service. The information we collect depends on how the User sets up Akismet for the Site, but typically includes the commenter’s IP address, user agent, referrer, and Site URL (along with other information directly provided by the commenter such as their name, username, email address…oh, and the comment itself, of course).
• Crowdsignal Response Information: We collect information about visitors who respond to a Crowdsignal survey. The information that we collect typically includes IP address, browser type, operating system, user agent, and the web page last visited.
• Intense Debate Commenter Information: We collect information about visitors who comment on Sites that use our Intense Debate service. The information that we collect depends on how the User sets up Intense Debate for the Site, but typically includes the IP address and account information on the Site, along with the comment.
• Jetpack Site Activity: We collect visitor activities related to the management of the Site, such as login attempts/actions and comment submission and management actions. For more information, please see the Jetpack Privacy Center.
• Information from Cookies and Other Technologies: A cookie is a string of information that a Site stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the Site each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on Sites. Automattic uses cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help identify and track visitors and Site usage, and to deliver targeted ads when ads are enabled for free WordPress.com sites or when ads are enabled on a Site through WordAds or Jetpack Ads (see the “Other Tools” section below for more details). For more information about our use of cookies and other technologies for tracking, including how visitors can control the use of cookies, please see our Cookie Policy.

Other Information Provided by Our Users

We also collect any other information that our Users provide to us about visitors to their Sites. For example, a User may upload a directory or other information about Site visitors and customers to the “backend” administrative platform for managing the Site.

How We Use Visitor Information

We use information about Site visitors in order to provide our Services to our Users and their Sites. Our users may use our Services to, for example, create and manage their Site, sell products and services on their Site, flag and fight comments from spammers, and collect information through polls, quizzes and other surveys. In addition to the above, we use some information about Site visitors who are also our Users as described in our Privacy Policy. We may also use and share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify any individual. For instance, we may publish aggregate statistics about the use of our services.

How We Share Visitor Information

We may share information collected about Site visitors in the limited circumstances spelled out below:

• Subsidiaries, Employees, and Independent Contractors: We may disclose Site visitor information to our subsidiaries, our employees, and individuals who are our independent contractors that need to know the information in order to help us provide our services to our Users and their Sites, or to process the information on our behalf. We require our subsidiaries, employees, and independent contractors to follow this Privacy Notice for information about visitors that we share with them.
• Third Party Vendors: We may share Site visitor information with third party vendors who need to know this information in order to provide their services to us. This group includes vendors that help us provide our services to our Users and their Sites. We require vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them.
• Legal Requests: We may disclose Site visitor information in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request. For more information on how we respond to requests for information, please see our Legal Guidelines.
• To Protect Rights, Property, and Others: We may disclose Site visitor information when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Automattic, our Users, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if we have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, we may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.
• Business Transfers: In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company, or in the unlikely event that Automattic goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, Site visitor information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Notice would continue to apply to Site visitor information and the party receiving this information may continue to use this information, but only consistent with this Privacy Notice.
• Information Shared Publicly: Information that visitors choose to make public is–you guessed it–disclosed publicly. That means, of course, that information like visitor comments and “likes” are all available to others, including information about the visitor that is displayed in connection with a comment or “like” (such as a visitor’s WordPress.com username and Gravatar). We provide a “firehose” stream of public data (including comments) from Sites to provide that data to firehose subscribers, who may view and analyze the content, but do not have rights to re-publish it publicly. Public information may also be indexed by search engines or used by third parties.

How Long We Keep Visitor Information

If we are not legally required to keep it, we generally discard information about Site visitors when no longer needed for the purposes for which we collect and use it on behalf of our users — those purposes which are described in the “How We Use Visitor Information” section above.

For example, we keep the web server logs that record information about a visitor to one of our user’s Sites — such as the visitor’s IP address, browser type, and operating system — for approximately 30 days. We retain the logs for this period of time in order to, among other things, investigate issues if something goes wrong on a user’s Site.

As another example, when a Site visitor views your Site we use their IP address in order to update your Site Stats with information about their visit, like what country they are in. We keep that IP address for approximately 30 days to give us time to calculate your monthly Site Stats and address any issues with those counts.

Other Tools

Our Users’ Sites may contain ads from third party ad networks and advertisers, and our Users may integrate other tools and services on their Sites (such as Google Analytics and third party plugins). Please note that this Privacy Notice only covers the collection of information by Automattic, and does not cover the collection by any third party. Ad networks and analytics providers may set tracking technologies (like cookies) to collect information about visitors’ use of a Site and across other websites and online services, such as a visitor’s IP address, web browser, mobile network information, pages viewed, time spent on pages, links clicked, and conversion information. This information may be used by those companies to, among other things, analyze and track usage, determine the popularity of certain content, and deliver advertisements that may be more targeted to visitor interests. For more information about how to manage and delete cookies, visit aboutcookies.org, and for more information on interest-based ads, including information about how visitors may be able to opt out of having their web browsing information used for behavioral advertising purposes, please visit aboutads.info/choices (US based) and youronlinechoices.eu (EU based).

Other Resources

You can read more about how our products and services operate on the links at the top of this notice. And we’d love it if you follow us on privacy.blog for more information about privacy and transparency at Automattic.

The Terms and Privacy Policy were adapted from content published by Automattic that is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.