COVID HELP TERMS OF SERVICE/PRIVACY
These Terms of Service (“Terms”) apply to your access to and use of the websites, chatbots, applications and other online products and services (collectively, our “Services”) provided by COVID HELP (Housing and Economic Loss Prevention), which is a joint project managed by CARPLS Legal Aid ( Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services), in Chicago, Illinois (“CARPLS” or “we”). By accessing or using our services, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, including the mandatory arbitration provision and class action waiver in Section 14, do not access or use our Services.
If you have any questions about these Terms or our Services, please contact us at info@carpls.org.
1 Eligibility
You must be at least 18 years of age to access or use our Services. If you are under 18 years of age, you may only access or use our Services under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to be bound by these Terms. If you are accessing or using our Services on behalf of another person or entity, you represent that you are authorized to accept these Terms on that person’s behalf and that the person agrees to be responsible to us if you or the other person or entity violates these Terms.
2 Privacy
Please refer to our Privacy Policy for information about how we collect, use and disclose information about you.
3 User Content
Our Services may allow you to create, store and share information, including messages, text and other materials (collectively, “User Content“). Except for the license you grant below, you retain all rights in and to your User Content, as between you and CARPLS.
You grant CARPLS a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, and sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, create derivative works from and distribute your User Content and any name or likeness provided in connection with your User Content for the purpose of providing the Services to you or improving the Services, or to enable CARPLS or its partner organizations to develop similar services, without compensation to you.
You may not create, post, store or share any User Content that violates these Terms or for which you do not have all the rights necessary to grant us the license described above. Although we have no obligation to screen, edit or monitor User Content, we may delete or remove User Content at any time and for any reason.
4 Prohibited Conduct and Content
You will not violate any applicable law, contract, intellectual property or other third-party right or commit a tort, and you are solely responsible for your conduct while accessing or using our Services. You will not:
▪ Engage in any harassing, threatening, intimidating, predatory or stalking conduct;
▪ Use or attempt to use another user’s account without authorization from that user and CARPLS;
▪ Use our Services in any manner that could interfere with, disrupt, negatively affect or inhibit other users from fully enjoying our Services or that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the functioning of our Services in any manner;
▪ Reverse engineer any aspect of our Services or do anything that might discover source code or bypass or circumvent measures employed to prevent or limit access to any part of our Services;
▪ Attempt to circumvent any content-filtering techniques we employ or attempt to access any feature or area of our Services that you are not authorized to access;
▪ Develop or use any third-party applications that interact with our Services without our prior written consent, including any scripts designed to scrape or extract data from our Services;
▪ Use our Services for any illegal or unauthorized purpose, or engage in, encourage or promote any activity that violates these Terms.
You may also only upload User Content that you have all necessary rights to disclose. You may not create, or share any User Content that:
▪ Is unlawful, libelous, defamatory, obscene, indecent, lewd, suggestive, harassing, threatening, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, inflammatory or fraudulent;
▪ Would constitute, encourage or provide instructions for a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party or otherwise create liability or violate any local, state, national or international law;
▪ May infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other intellectual or proprietary right of any party;
▪ Contains any statements, remarks or claims that do not reflect your honest views and experiences;
▪ Impersonates, or misrepresents your affiliation with, any person or entity;
▪ Contains any viruses, corrupted data or other harmful, disruptive or destructive files or content; or
▪ Is, in our sole judgment, objectionable or that restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying our Services, or that may expose CARPLS or others to any harm or liability of any type.
In addition, although we have no obligation to screen, edit or monitor User Content, we may delete or remove User Content at any time and for any reason.
5 Limited License; Copyright and Trademark
Our Services and the legal information, text, graphics, images, photographs, videos, illustrations, trademarks, trade names, service marks, logos, slogans and other content contained therein (collectively, the “CARPLS Content”) are owned by or licensed to CARPLS and are protected under both United States and foreign laws. Except as explicitly stated in these Terms, CARPLS and our licensors reserve all rights in and to our Services and the CARPLS Content. You are hereby granted a limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access and use our Services and CARPLS Content for your own personal use; however, such license is subject to these Terms and does not include any right to (a) sell, resell or commercially use our Services or CARPLS Content; (b) copy, reproduce, distribute, publicly perform or publicly display CARPLS Content, except as expressly permitted by us or our licensors (which includes using the legal information provided through the services for the purpose of informing your approach to landlord/tenant disputes); (c) modify the CARPLS Content or remove any proprietary rights notices or markings from CARPLS Content; (c) use any data mining, robots or similar data gathering or extraction methods; and (d) use our Services or CARPLS Content other than for their intended purposes. Any use of our Services or CARPLS Content other than as specifically authorized herein, without our prior written permission, is strictly prohibited and will terminate the license granted herein.
6 Feedback
Any questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, original or creative materials or other information you submit about CARPLS or our products or Services (collectively, “Feedback”), is non-confidential and will become the sole property of CARPLS. We will own exclusive rights, including, without limitation, all intellectual property rights, in and to Feedback and will be entitled to the unrestricted use and dissemination of Feedback for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you.
7 Information Not Legal Advice
The Services and CARPLS Content provided through the Services are not legal advice. Legal information is not the same as legal advice, which is the application of law to an individual’s specific circumstances. The CARPLS Services are not a substitute for and do not replace the advice or representation of your own licensed attorney. Although CARPLS goes to great lengths to make sure the CARPLS Content is accurate and up to date, we make no claim as to the accuracy of the CARPLS Content and are not responsible for any consequences that may result from the use of the Services. We recommend that you consult with a licensed attorney if you want assurance that the information on the Services and your interpretation of it are appropriate for your particular situation. You should not and are not authorized to rely on the Services or CARPLS Content as a source of legal advice. The use of the Services does not create an attorney-client relationship between you or any user and CARPLS or any of its providers, partners or affiliated organizations.
8 Indemnification
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you will indemnify, defend, and hold harmless CARPLS, CARPLS and its partners and affiliated organizations and each of our and their respective officers, directors, agents, partners and employees (individually and collectively, the “CARPLS Parties”) from and against any loss, liability, claim, demand, damages, expenses or costs (“Claims“) arising out of or related to (a) your access to or use of our Services; (b) your User Content or Feedback; (c) your violation of these Terms; (d) your violation, misappropriation or infringement of any rights of another (including intellectual property rights or privacy rights); or (e) your conduct in connection with our Services. You agree to promptly notify CARPLS of any third party Claims, cooperate with the CARPLS Parties in defending such Claims and pay all fees, costs and expenses associated with defending such Claims (including, but not limited to, attorneys’ fees). You also agree that the CARPLS Parties will have control of the defense or settlement of any third party Claims. This indemnity is in addition to, and not in lieu of, any other indemnities set forth in a written agreement between you and CARPLS or the other CARPLS Parties.
9 Disclaimers
We do not control, endorse or take responsibility for any User Content or third-party content available on or linked to by our Services.
Your use of our Services is at your sole risk. Our Services are provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. In addition, CARPLS does not represent or warrant that our Services are accurate, complete, reliable, current or error-free. While CARPLS attempts to make your access to and use of our Services safe, we cannot and do not represent or warrant that our Services or servers are free of viruses or other harmful components. You assume the entire risk as to the quality and performance of the Services.
10 Limitation of Liability
CARPLS and the other CARPLS Parties will not be liable to you under any theory of liability—whether based in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, warranty, or otherwise—for any indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental, punitive or special damages or lost profits, even if CARPLS or the other CARPLS Parties have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
The total liability of CARPLS and the other CARPLS Parties, for any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or our Services, regardless of the form of the action, is limited to the amount paid, if any, by you to access or use our Services.
The limitations set forth in this section will not limit or exclude liability for the gross negligence, fraud or intentional misconduct of CARPLS or the other CARPLS Parties or for any other matters in which liability cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law. Additionally, some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations or exclusions may not apply to you.
11 Release
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you release CARPLS and the other CARPLS Parties from responsibility, liability, claims, demands, and/or damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown (including, but not limited to, claims of negligence), arising out of or related to disputes between users and the acts or omissions of third parties. You expressly waive any rights you may have under any statute or common law principles that would otherwise limit the coverage of this release to include only those claims which you may know or suspect to exist in your favor at the time of agreeing to this release.
12 Transfer and Processing Data
By accessing or using our Services, you consent to the processing, transfer and storage of information about you in and to the United States and other countries, where you may not have the same rights and protections as you do under local law.
13 Electronic Communications
By using the Services, you also consent to receive electronic communications from CARPLS (e.g., via email, text or by posting notices on our Services). These communications may include notices about your account or reminders related to your use of the Services and are part of your relationship with us. You agree that any notices, agreements, disclosures or other communications that we send to you electronically will satisfy any legal communication requirements, including, but not limited to, that such communications be in writing.
14 Dispute Resolution; Binding Arbitration
Please read the following section carefully because it requires you to arbitrate certain disputes and claims with CARPLS and limits the manner in which you can seek relief from us.
Except for small claims disputes in which you or CARPLS seek to bring an individual action in small claims court located in the county of your billing address or disputes in which you or CARPLS seeks injunctive or other equitable relief for the alleged unlawful use of intellectual property, you and CARPLS waive your rights to a jury trial and to have any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or our Services resolved in court. Instead, all disputes arising out of or relating to these Terms or our Services will be resolved through confidential binding arbitration held in Cook County, Illinois in accordance with the Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures (“Rules“) of the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (“JAMS“), which are available on the JAMS website and hereby incorporated by reference. You either acknowledge and agree that you have read and understand the rules of JAMS or waive your opportunity to read the rules of JAMS and any claim that the rules of JAMS are unfair or should not apply for any reason.
You and CARPLS agree that any dispute arising out of or related to these Terms or our Services is personal to you and CARPLS and that any dispute will be resolved solely through individual arbitration and will not be brought as a class arbitration, class action or any other type of representative proceeding.
You and CARPLS agree that these Terms affect interstate commerce and that the enforceability of this Section 14 will be substantively and procedurally governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1, et seq. (the “FAA”), to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. As limited by the FAA, these Terms and the JAMS Rules, the arbitrator will have exclusive authority to make all procedural and substantive decisions regarding any dispute and to grant any remedy that would otherwise be available in court; provided, however, that the arbitrator does not have the authority to conduct a class arbitration or a representative action, which is prohibited by these Terms. The arbitrator may only conduct an individual arbitration and may not consolidate more than one individual’s claims, preside over any type of class or representative proceeding or preside over any proceeding involving more than one individual. You and Company agree that for any arbitration you initiate, you will pay the filing fee and Company will pay the remaining JAMS fees and costs. For any arbitration initiated by Company, Company will pay all JAMS fees and costs. You and CARPLS agree that the state or federal courts of the State of Illinois and the United States sitting in Cook County, Illinois have exclusive jurisdiction over any appeals and the enforcement of an arbitration award.
ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR OUR SERVICES MUST BE FILED WITHIN ONE YEAR AFTER SUCH CLAIM AROSE; OTHERWISE, THE CLAIM IS PERMANENTLY BARRED, WHICH MEANS THAT YOU AND CARPLS WILL NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO ASSERT THE CLAIM.
You have the right to opt out of binding arbitration within thirty (30) days of the date you first accepted the terms of this Section 14 by sending an email to info@CARPLS.org. In order to be effective, the opt out notice must include your full name and clearly indicate your intent to opt out of binding arbitration. By opting out of binding arbitration, you are agreeing to resolve Disputes in accordance with this Section 14.
15 Governing Law and Venue
These Terms and your access to and use of our Services will be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of Illinois, without regard to conflict of law rules or principles (whether of Illinois or any other jurisdiction) that would cause the application of the laws of any other jurisdiction. Any dispute between the parties that is not subject to arbitration or cannot be heard in small claims court will be resolved in the state or federal courts of Illinois and the United States, respectively, sitting in Cook County, Illinois.
16 Changes to these Terms
We may make changes to these Terms from time to time. If we make changes, we will post the amended Terms to our Services and update the “Last Updated” date above. Unless we say otherwise in our notice, the amended Terms will be effective immediately and your continued access to and use of our Services after we provide notice will confirm your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree to the amended Terms, you must stop accessing and using our Services.
17 Additional Terms for Specific Services
In addition to these Terms, we may ask you to accept additional terms that apply to specific features, products or services. To the extent any additional terms conflict with these Terms, the additional terms govern with respect to your access to or use of the applicable feature, product or service.
18 Termination
We reserve the right, without notice and in our sole discretion, to terminate your right to access or use our Services. We are not responsible for any loss or harm related to your inability to access or use our Services.
19 Severability
If any provision or part of a provision of these Terms is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision or part of the provision is deemed severable from these Terms and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
20 Miscellaneous
These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and CARPLS relating to your access to and use of our Services. The failure of CARPLS to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not operate as a waiver of such right or provision. The section titles in these Terms are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. Except as otherwise provided herein, these Terms are intended solely for the benefit of the parties and are not intended to confer third party beneficiary rights upon any other person or entity.
COVID HELP PRIVACY POLICY
Last Updated: October 26, 2020
COVID HELP, a joint project managed by CARPLS Legal Aid (Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Service) (“CARPLS”, “we”, “us”) provides legal information services to persons in Illinois with legal issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. This Privacy Policy explains how CARPLS collects, uses, and discloses information about you through its websites and other online products and services (collectively, the “Services”) or when you otherwise interact with us.
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of the policy and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our homepage or sending you a notification). We encourage you to review the Privacy Policy whenever you access the Services or otherwise interact with us to stay informed about our information practices and the choices available to you.
Collection of Information
Information You Provide to Us
When you interact with the services, we ask you to provide information about your zip code and factual information about your legal issue. We also collect information when you participate in any interactive features of the Services, fill out a form, request customer support or otherwise communicate with us, or any other instance when you choose to provide information to us.
Information About Your Use of the Services
Usage Information
We collect information about your use of the Services, such as your interaction with our chatbot.
Automatically Collected Information
When you access or use our Services, we automatically collect information about you, including:
Log Information: We collect log information about your use of the Services, including the type of browser you use, access times, pages viewed, your IP address and the page you visited before navigating to our Services.
- Device Information: We collect information about the computer or mobile device you use to access our Services, including the hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information.
Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking
Technologies: Like most online services and mobile applications, we may use cookies and other technologies, such as web beacons and web storage to collect information about your activity, browser, and device. Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us improve our Services and your experience, see which types of legal information are most frequently accessed through our Services, and count visits. Web beacons are electronic images that may be used in our Services or emails and help deliver cookies, count visits and understand usage and campaign effectiveness. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, please see “Your Choices” below.
Information We Collect from Other Sources
We may obtain information from other sources and combine that with information we collect through our Services. For example, we may collect information about you from third parties, including but not limited to data from organizations, or groups with similar objectives or goals, public court records and other publicly available sources.
Use of Information We use the information we collect to provide, maintain, and improve our services, such as to track Service usage and improve the Services. We may also use the information we collect to:
- Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts and support and administrative messages and to respond to your comments, questions and customer service requests;
- Provide news and information we think will be of interest to you;
- Monitor and analyze trends, usage and activities in connection with our Services;
- Detect, investigate and prevent fraudulent and illegal activities and protect the rights and property of CARPLS and others;
- Personalize and improve the Services and provide content or features that match user needs;
- If you apply for legal aid, match you with one of our legal service partners; and
- Carry out any other purpose described to you at the time the information was collected.
Sharing of Information
We may share information about you as follows or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy:
- With vendors, consultants and other service providers who need access to such information to carry out work on our behalf;
- With one of our legal services partner organizations, if you apply for legal aid;
- In response to a request for information if we believe disclosure is in accordance with, or required by, any applicable law or legal process, including lawful requests by public authorities to meet national security or law enforcement requirements;
Analytics Services
Provided by Others
- If we believe your actions are inconsistent with our user agreements or policies, or to protect the rights, property and safety of CARPLS or others;
- Between and among CARPLS and our partner organizations in order to provide, evaluate or improve the Services; and
- With your consent or at your direction.
We may also share aggregated or de-identified information, which cannot reasonably be used to identify you.
We may allow others to provide analytics services across the internet and in applications. These entities may use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Services and other websites and applications, including your IP address, web browser, mobile network information, pages viewed, time spent on pages or in apps, links clicked and conversion information. This information may be used by CARPLS and others to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, deliver content targeted to your interests on our Services and other websites and better understand your online activity.
Data Retention
We store the information we collect about you for as long as is necessary for the purpose(s) for which we originally collected it. We may retain certain information for legitimate business purposes or as required by law.
Transfer of Information to the U.S. and Other Countries
CARPLS is based in the United States and we process and store information in the U.S.
Your Choices
Personal Information
You may update, correct or delete information about you at any time by interacting with the Services, emailing us at info@carpls.org or by mail to CARPLS, 17 N. State St., Suite 1850, Chicago, Illinois 60602. We may also retain cached or archived copies of information about you for a certain period of time
Cookies
Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies. Please note that if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect the availability and functionality of our Services.
Mobile Notifications/Alerts
With your consent, we may send alerts to your mobile device.
Contact Us If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at: CARPLS, 17 N. State St., Suite 1850, Chicago, Illinois 60602 or info@carpls.org.
COVID HELP is a joint project of CARPLS Legal Aid, Lawyers Committee for Better Housing, Illinois Legal Aid Online, the Chicago Bar Foundation, and other Illinois legal aid programs, funded by the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois.