Legal Disclaimer/Privacy Policy

SUFFOLK COUNTY LEGISLATURE WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA DISCLAIMER AND PRIVACY POLICY

THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS GOVERN THE USE OF THIS WEBSITE OR SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE VIEWING THIS WEBSITE OR SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE

1. Definitions

In these Terms and Conditions "you" and "your" refer to the user of this website or social media page and includes any individual, organization or business.

2. Consent to Terms and Conditions of Use

These Terms and Conditions, which may be amended from time to time, and all applicable laws govern your use of this website or social media page. By using this website or social media page, you are consenting to these Terms and Conditions. If you do not wish to be bound by these Terms and Conditions, do not use this website or social media page.

If you access this website or social media page from any non-U.S. territory, please note you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with any local laws. Individuals, organizations and businesses are free to use this website or social media page for any lawful, worthy and ethical purpose, except as limited by these Terms and Conditions or applicable law. Users agree not to access or try to access this website or social media page via any automated means.

3. Prohibited Uses of Website or Social Media Page

You may not use this website or social media page to engage in any of the following conduct:

a. Lobbying for any purpose the Suffolk County Legislature (“The Legislature”), the Presiding Officer of the Legislature, or any individual responsible for the creation and maintenance of this website or social media page;

b. Soliciting the support or endorsement of the Legislature by any person currently holding or seeking elected or appointive office on any level of government or for any political party;

c. Making political contributions or to discuss past or prospective contributions;

d. Engaging in any political solicitation; and

e. Communicating with the Legislature or the Presiding Officer about any actual or potential private business transactions or dealings that you are engaged in or may become engaged in with the Legislature or Suffolk County.

4. Information Disclaimer

This website or social media page is designed to provide individuals, organizations and businesses with access to and information concerning the Legislature. The information, data, downloadable documents, links and other material contained on this website or social media page are provided by the Legislature for general reference purposes only and have been compiled from a variety of sources. The Legislature has tried to provide accurate and complete information, downloadable documents, links and other material on this website or social media page. Any person or entity relying on any information, data, downloadable documents, links or other material obtained from this website or social media page does so at his, her or its own risk. Neither the Legislature, the County of Suffolk, nor any agency, officer, or employee of the County of Suffolk warrants the accuracy, reliability, timeliness or completeness of any of the information, data, downloadable documents, links or other material provided herein. Any errors or omissions should be reported.

The Legislature, its officers and the County of Suffolk reserve the right to make changes and updates to the information, downloadable documents, links and other materials provided herein at any time. However, the Legislature and the County of Suffolk are under no obligation to provide updates.

5. No Warranties or Representations

The Legislature provides the information, data, downloadable documents, links and other material contained on this website or social media “as is,” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to, warranties of title, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose with respect to the quality, content, accuracy, completeness, currency, freedom from interruption, freedom from computer virus, freedom from errors or omissions, and non-infringement of content placed on this website (whether by the Legislature or a third party) including any of the design, information, text, graphics, images, pages, interfaces, links, software, or other materials displayed on this website or social media page.

6. No Liability for County, its Officers, Employees and Agents

The Legislature, the County of Suffolk and the officers, employees, representatives, and agents of the County of Suffolk shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the information, data, downloadable documents, links or other materials provided regardless of how caused, or any decision made or action taken or not taken by any user in reliance upon any information, data, downloadable documents or links furnished hereunder. This limitation shall include, but is not limited to, liability for incidental, consequential, special or indirect damages of any sort (regardless of whether they were foreseeable), whether arising in tort, contract or otherwise, even if the Legislature or the County of Suffolk has received prior notice of errors, omissions or inaccuracies. Furthermore, if you are a user located in a state that does not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, you may not use the information, data, downloadable documents or links provided herein.

7. Indemnification

a. You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless, the Legislature, the County of Suffolk and the agents, servants, officials and employees of the County of Suffolk from and against all claims and expenses, including attorneys' fees, arising out of your use of this website or social media page or materials and information contained on this website or social media page.

b. You hereby represent and warrant that your use of this website or social media page or any materials or information contained on this website or social media page will not infringe upon any copyright. You agree that you shall protect, indemnify and hold harmless the Legislature, the County of Suffolk and the agents, servants, officials and employees of the County of Suffolk from and against all liabilities, fines, penalties, actions, damages, claims, demands, judgments, losses, suits or actions, costs and expenses arising out of any claim asserted for infringement of copyright, including reimbursement of the cost of reasonable attorneys' fees incurred by the Legislature, the County of Suffolk and the agents, servants, officials and employees of the County of Suffolk in any action or proceeding arising out of or in connection with any claim asserted for infringement of copyright related to your use of this website or social media page or any materials or information contained on this website or social media page.

c. You shall defend the Legislature, the County of Suffolk and the agents, servants, officials and employees of the County of Suffolk in any proceeding or action, including appeals, arising out of, or in connection with your submission use of this website or social media page or any materials or information contained on this website or social media page. Alternatively, at the County’s option, the County may defend any such proceeding or action and require you to pay reasonable attorneys’ fees or salary costs of County employees of the Suffolk County Department of Law for the defense of any such suit.

8. Termination of Access

The Legislature and the County of Suffolk reserve the right, in their sole discretion, to terminate or refuse your access to this website, or any portion thereof, without notice, if the Legislature or the County of Suffolk believe that your conduct violates these Terms and Conditions or applicable law or is harmful to the interests of the Legislature, County of Suffolk and the agencies, officers, employees, representatives and agents of the County of Suffolk, or other users of this website or social media page.

9. Legislature and County Not Liable for Linked Websites

Links exist on and may from time to time be added to this website or social media page which will permit you to leave this website or social media page and visit linked websites. These links are provided only as a convenience. The linked websites are not under the control of the Legislature or the County of Suffolk, and the Legislature and the County of Suffolk assume no responsibility or liability for their content including but not limited to any inaccurate, defamatory, offensive, or illegal materials found on such linked websites. If you choose to visit linked websites, the risk of injury from viewing, hearing, downloading or storing such materials is entirely that of the user.

Links appearing on this website or social media page do not imply any approval or endorsement by the Legislature or the County of Suffolk of the linked site, its sponsor or its contents, including any opinions expressed therein. All linked websites operate under the auspices and at the direction of their respective owners who should be contacted directly with questions regarding the content of those sites.

When visiting this website or social media page, your web browser may produce pop-up advertisements. These advertisements were most likely produced by other websites you visited or by third-party software installed on your computer. The Legislature and the County of Suffolk do not endorse or recommend products or services which may be viewed on a pop-up advertisement on your computer while visiting this site.

10. No Endorsement

Reference in this site to any specific commercial product, process or service by its trade name, trademark, manufacturer or otherwise, does not constitute or imply an endorsement, recommendation or favoring by the Legislature or the County of Suffolk. The views and opinions of authors of documents, including any text, graphics/photos and web pages do not in essence affirm or reflect the opinion of the Legislature or the County of Suffolk, and shall not be used for advertising or endorsement.

11. Use Limitations

Users may not reproduce or distribute the information, downloadable documents, links or other material provided herein to other persons or entities without prior express written permission from the Legislature. When the information, downloadable documents, links or other documents provided herein are used in the development of digital or printed material, the Legislature and the County of Suffolk must be acknowledged in the relevant, printed and published media.

12. The Information on this Website or Social Media Page Does Not Constitute Legal Advice

The information, downloadable documents, links or other materials provided herein do not constitute legal advice by the Legislature, the County of Suffolk or any of the agencies, officers, employees, agents, attorneys or representatives of the County of Suffolk and are not a substitute for and do not replace the advice or representation of a licensed attorney. If you have any legal questions regarding any information, downloadable document, links or other material provided herein you should consult an attorney.

13.  Passive Information Collected

Suffolk County retains the right to automatically collect and store the following information about any visit to this website:

- The Internet Protocol (IP) address and domain name used, but not the email address attached there to.  An IP address is a numerical identifier assigned to an internet service provider or device; 

- The type of browser and operating system used and connection speed;

- The date and time of each visit to this site;

- The web pages or services accessed during a visit to this site; and

- The website you visited prior to coming to this site.

None of the passive information collected can be used to identify anyone personally and the County of Suffolk makes no attempt to link them with individuals who browse the Legislature website.

14. Voluntary Information

When you visit this website or social media page, if you contribute to a survey, send an email, or perform some other transaction online, the following supplementary information will be collected: the email address and contents of the email (for those who communicate via email), information volunteered in response to a survey, and information volunteered through an online form for any other purpose. Your email will be responded to appropriately. This may be to respond to you directly, to address issues you may identify, to further improve our website or social media page, or to forward the email to another internal department for appropriate action. Information from other online forms will be used exclusively for the intent stated or identified within the form details.

The County of Suffolk strives to protect personal identifying information from disclosure.  Information collected through interaction with this site becomes part of the public record and may be subject to local, State and federal disclosure laws.  Unless confidentiality is specifically authorized by statute, no privilege or protection from disclosure is warranted or otherwise implied.  In the event of a conflict between this Privacy Policy and Legal Disclaimer and any applicable law governing disclosure, the governing law is controlling.

15. Communications/Verifications

Communications to the Legislature via this website or social media page shall in no way be deemed to constitute legal or official notice to the Legislature, the County of Suffolk or the agencies, officers, employees, representatives or agents of the County of Suffolk with respect to any existing, pending or future claim or cause of action against the Legislature, the County of Suffolk or any of the agencies, officers, employees, representatives or agents of the County of Suffolk where notice is required by federal, State or local law. Nor shall communications to the Legislature via this website or social media page be deemed to constitute legal or official notice for any other purpose to the Legislature or the County of Suffolk.

All users of this website or social media page must use appropriate names and language in the name spaces, address spaces and other spaces (if any) provided on the website or social media page. Users are prohibited from using false email addresses.

16. Voluntary Registration

Certain parts of this website or social media page may give the user the option of providing their name, e-mail address and other information, which is recorded in databases on this website or social media page’s servers. The data may be used to send e-mail announcements to individuals, businesses and organizations that have shown an interest in particular topics or updates. If you provide contact information to the Legislature through this website or social media page and do not wish to receive unsolicited e-mail announcements, please e-mail the Legislature, requesting that you not be included in any direct mailings.

17. Cookies

This website or social media page may use session cookies.

18. Security

The Legislature and the County of Suffolk are proactive in protecting the safety and integrity of its telecommunications and computing infrastructure.  The Legislature and the County do not, however, guarantee the security of all information it maintains.

19. No Guarantee of Availability

The Legislature and the County of Suffolk do not guarantee that the information, downloadable documents, links and other material provided herein will be available to users without interruption or error. Furthermore, the Legislature or the County of Suffolk may modify or remove information, downloadable documents, links or other material provided herein and access methods at any time, without prior notice.

20. Intellectual Property

Service marks and trademarks contained in or displayed on this website or social media page and the contents of linked sites operated by third parties, are the property of their respective owners (which may be the Legislature or County of Suffolk). All other design, information, text, graphics, images, pages, interfaces, links, software and other items and materials contained in or displayed on this website or social media page, and the selection and arrangements thereof, are the property of the County of Suffolk. All rights are reserved.

21. Copyright and Trademark Limitations

The Legislature and the County of Suffolk make no warranty that materials contained herein are free of copyright or trademark claims or other restrictions or limitations on free use or display. Making a copy of such material may be subject to copyright or trademark laws.

22. Seal of Suffolk County

Use and display of the Seal of the County and the seals and logos of any County agency are restricted by law and may be used only as authorized by the laws of the County of Suffolk.

23. Unauthorized Modifications

Any attempts to upload information or modifications or attempts to modify any information stored on this website or social media page, are prohibited and may result in criminal prosecution. Moreover, the information, data, downloadable documents, links and other material contained on this website or social media page may not be copied onto another server.

24. Applicable Law

These Terms and Conditions shall be construed and enforced according to the laws of the State of New York, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles.

25. Jurisdiction

You agree to consent to the jurisdiction of any New York or federal court located within Suffolk County, New York in any suit, action or proceeding seeking to enforce any provision of, or based on any matter arising out of or in connection with these Terms and Conditions or your use of this website or social media page, so long as such court shall have subject matter jurisdiction over such suit, action or proceeding. You further agree that any cause of action arising out of these Terms and Conditions, or your use of this website or social media page, shall be deemed to have arisen from a transaction of business in the State of New York.

26. Download of Materials

Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of this website or social media page is done at your own risk. You will be solely responsible for any adverse consequences resulting from the download of any such materials.

27. Miscellaneous

These Terms and Conditions constitute the full agreement between the user and the County of Suffolk related to the use of this website or social media page. If any provision of these Terms and Conditions is held invalid or unenforceable, all other provisions will remain in full force and effect. The Legislature or the County of Suffolk may choose not to exercise or to delay enforcement of any of our rights under these Terms and Conditions without forfeiting them.