Introduction
Thank you for visiting BCBSNC Connect (Letstalkcost.com and Blue Asks You NC, hereinafter this “Site”). BCBSNC Connect is a Web site owned and operated by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (hereinafter “BCBSNC”, “we”, “us”). Please read carefully the following legal agreement (“Agreement”) before using this Site. Your use of this Site (and any feature, content, or application offered from time to time by the Site) is subject to this Agreement and all applicable laws, rules and regulations. The term “you” or “your” includes any of your subsidiaries, affiliates, and employees, if and as applicable. By using this Site, you signify your assent to this Agreement. If you do not agree and/or cannot warrant to these terms of use, please immediately disconnect from and do not use this Site. BCBSNC reserves the right to modify, alter or otherwise change this Agreement at any time by revising the terms and conditions herein, without prior notice. You are responsible for regularly reviewing these terms and conditions. Continued use of this Site following any such changes shall constitute your acceptance of such changes.
Disclaimer
BCBSNC does not represent or warrant the accuracy or quality of any opinions, comments or product claims made by users, nor endorses any of their opinions or feedback expressed within this Site. This is the case even if a designated BCBSNC representative comments on the opinion or feedback. By accessing the Site, you understand and agree that BCBSNC (and/or its parent, affiliated or related companies) is not in any way responsible for any user opinions, feedback or other comments, and that BCBSNC does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of or relating to such opinions, feedback or other comments. You further understand and agree that any opinions, feedback or responses to same on this Site made by BCBSNC or any user are only intended to provide general information, do not promise a specific outcome or result, are not customized to specific individuals and may not be applicable to you based upon your individual circumstances. BCBSNC has encouraged BCBSNC employees to participate on this Site. The views expressed by BCBSNC employees are their own and may not necessarily represent the views or opinions—and are not official statements on behalf—of BCBSNC.
Ages 18 and Up Only. This Site is not intended for, and BCBSNC has no intention of collecting personally identifiable information from, children younger than the age of 13.
By using this Site, you represent and agree that you are at least 18 years of age or older, and are fully able and competent to enter into the terms, conditions, representations, and warranties set forth in this Agreement.
Permitted Use
You have a nonexclusive, nontransferable, limited and revocable right to use this Site solely for your personal educational, informational and entertainment use, subject to the terms and restrictions herein contained. You agree to not use the Site for any other purpose, including any commercial purpose, without the BCBSNC’s express prior written consent.
You agree not to use this Site in any manner that is inappropriate, as determined by BCBSNC, or unlawful. You understand that BCBSNC may restrict your access to this Site at any time for violation of this Agreement, inappropriate behavior, or any other reason that BCBSNC deems fit, in BCBSNC’s sole discretion and without notice.
Your Submissions and Ideas
You understand that submitting any materials, opinions, comments, information and/or feedback through this Site (“Submissions”) is entirely voluntary, non-confidential, gratuitous, and non-committal. Submissions may include any ideas or expression of ideas. Do not submit any confidential and/or proprietary information; BCBSNC does not want such information. Submissions are to be made in a respectful manner. You are prohibited from submitting any material that is unlawful, threatening, harassing, libelous, defamatory, obscene, or pornographic. Your submission must comply with the Code of Conduct set forth below. You acknowledge that BCBSNC does not pre-screen or approve Submissions, but that BCBSNC shall have the right (but not the obligation) in its sole discretion to refuse, delete or move any Submission that is available via the Site, for violating the law, the spirit of this Agreement, or for any other reason.
You give BCBSNC a non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable license to use, reproduce, modify, incorporate, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display any Submission. In other words, no compensation will be paid to you and no liability will be incurred by BCBSNC from you for BCBSNC using your Submissions in any manner. Your Submissions may be posted or removed by BCBSNC in its sole discretion.
Conduct. You agree not to post, email or otherwise make available any content, including any Submission:
a) that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, invasive of another's privacy or is harmful to minors in any way;
b) that is pornographic or depicts a human being engaged in actual sexual conduct;
c) that harasses, degrades, intimidates or is hateful toward an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age or disability;
d) that impersonates any person or entity, including, but not limited to, any of our employees, or falsely states or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with a person or entity;
e) that includes personal or identifying information about another person without that person's explicit consent;
f) that is false, deceptive, misleading, deceitful, misinformative or constitutes "bait and switch";
g) that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party, or content that you do not have a right to make available under any law, or under contractual or fiduciary relationships;
h) that constitutes or contains "affiliate marketing," "link referral code," "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes" or unsolicited commercial advertisement;
i) that constitutes or contains any form of advertising or solicitation if: posted in areas of the Site which are not designated for such purposes; or emailed to users who have not indicated in writing that it is ok to contact them about other services, products or commercial interests.
j) that includes links to commercial services or websites;
k) that advertises any illegal service or the sale of any items of which is prohibited or restricted by any applicable law.
l) that contains software 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;
m) that disrupts the normal flow of dialogue with an excessive amount of content (e.g., flooding attack) to the Site, or that otherwise negatively affects other users' ability to use the Site; or
n) that employs misleading email addresses, or forged headers or otherwise manipulated identifiers in order to disguise the origin of content transmitted through the Site.
Additionally, you agree not to:
o) contact anyone who has asked not to be contacted, or make unsolicited contact with anyone for any commercial purpose;
p) "stalk" or otherwise harass anyone;
q) collect personal data about other users for commercial or unlawful purposes;
r) use automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools or the like to download data from the Site – unless expressly permitted by BCBSNC;
s) repeatedly post the same or similar content or otherwise impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
t) attempt to gain unauthorized access to our computer systems or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, interferes with the performance of or impairs the functionality of the Site; or
u) use any form of automated device or computer program that enables the submission of postings on the Site without each posting being manually entered by the author thereof (an "automated posting device"), including without limitation, the use of any such automated posting device to submit postings in bulk, or for automatic submission of postings at regular intervals.
List of Restrictions
Neither this Site nor any element thereof, including, without limitation, text, graphics, images or other materials, may be copied, repurposed, uploaded, posted, transmitted or redistributed. However, you may download one copy of such materials to your individual computer solely for your personal, non-commercial use only, provided that all copyright and other proprietary notices appearing on such materials are strictly preserved without any alteration, modification or obfuscation. You may not modify or prepare derivative works based upon this Site, or any element thereof, and you may not redistribute, sell, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise attempt to access the source code to any software downloaded from this Site. Any such unauthorized use of this Site or the elements thereof may violate our (or a third party’s) intellectual property rights and immediately and automatically terminates your right to use this Site and may subject you to liability. It is a condition of your use of this Site that you do not restrict or inhibit any other user from using this Site.
Registration and Security
Whenever you provide BCBSNC information on this Site, you agree to provide and maintain information such that it is true, accurate, current, and complete. If you register on this Site, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the password and account, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password or account. You agree to notify BCBSNC of any unauthorized use of your password or account. You are not allowed to use anyone else’s account at any time without permission from the account holder. You agree to cooperate with BCBSNC in causing any unauthorized use to immediately cease.
Additionally, by registering, you agree to give BCBSNC permission to send you other promotional materials, communications, and/or solicitations associated with Blue Asks You NC, BCBSNC, BCBSNC’s products, and/or BCBSNC’s services.
BCBSNC takes reasonable steps to maintain and moderate this Site and its content. However, you understand and agree that such steps do not guarantee that the Site and its content are secure, accurate, and/or appropriate.
Reservation of Rights
You do not acquire any right, title or interest in any content on the Site by virtue of accessing the Site or making use of the permitted uses allowed under this Agreement. All rights, titles and interests in and to this Site are owned by BCBSNC and/or the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. All copyrights, trademarks, service marks and trade names are also proprietary to BCBSNC and/or the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. BCBSNC is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. None of the items mentioned herein may be used without the express written consent of BCBSNC. All rights are reserved by BCBSNC. Check the Registered Marks page for more registered and service mark information.
Warranty Disclaimer
YOUR USE OF THIS SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. ANY MATERIAL OR SOFTWARE DOWNLOADED BY YOU FROM THIS SITE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK, AND BCBSNC WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE IN ANY WAY FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL. THIS SITE AND ALL ELEMENTS THEREOF ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. BCBSNC MAKES NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS AS TO THE QUALITY, TIMELINESS, COMPLETENESS, ACCURACY OR SUITABILITY OF THE CONTENT CONTAINED ON THE SITE. BCBSNC DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. BCBSNC DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SITE WILL OPERATE OR PERFORM IN A MANNER THAT IS UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT THE SITE OR HOST SERVER WILL BE MAINTAINED FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL CODE. BCBSNC MAKES NO WARRANTIES THAT THE INFORMATION PRESENTED ON THE SITE IS CURRENT, UP-TO-DATE OR ACCURATE. SOME STATES AND JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THE FOREGOING SHALL BE ENFORCEABLE TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
Liability Limitation
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES AND REGARDLESS OF LEGAL THEORY, WHETHER IN TORT, CONTRACT OR OTHERWISE, WILL BCBSNC OR ANY OF ITS RELATED OR AFFILIATED COMPANIES BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, RELIANCE, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, HOWEVER CAUSED, AND REGARDLESS OF CHARACTER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY DAMAGES RELATING TO LOST DATA, COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTIONING, OR OTHERWISE. YOU SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT BCBSNC IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE, OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT BY YOU. THE FOREGOING SHALL BE ENFORCEABLE TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. YOU AGREE TO THIS ALLOCATION OF RISK IN RELATION TO YOUR USE OF THIS SITE. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANY OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS SITE USAGE AGREEMENT, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING THIS SITE.
Links to Third Parties' Web Sites
BCBSNC may have provided links and pointers to Internet sites maintained by third parties ("third party sites") and may from time to time provide third party materials on this Site. Neither BCBSNC nor its related, affiliated companies operate or control in any respect any information, products or services on these third party sites. The third party materials in this Site and the third party sites are provided "as is" and without warranties of any kind either expressed or implied. You acknowledge and agree that you access such third-party sites at your own risk and are wholly responsible for making your own independent judgment regarding your use or interaction with the same. BCBSNC recommends that you read the privacy and terms of use policies of each third-party site that you access. To the fullest extent permissible pursuant to applicable law, BCBSNC disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. BCBSNC does not warrant or make any representations regarding the use or the results of the use of the third party materials in the third party sites in terms of their correctness, accuracy, timeliness, reliability or otherwise.
Your interactions with organizations and/or individuals found on or through the Site, including payment and delivery of goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such organizations and/or individuals. You should make whatever investigation you feel necessary or appropriate before proceeding with any online or offline transaction with any of these third parties. You agree that BCBSNC shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings. If there is a dispute between participants on the Site, or between users and any third party, you understand and agree that BCBSNC is under no obligation to become involved. In the event that you have a dispute with one or more other users, you hereby release BCBSNC, its officers, employees, agents and successors in rights from claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind or nature, known or unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way related to such disputes and/or the Site. If you are a California resident, you waive California Civil Code Section 1542, which says: "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which, if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."
Copyright Complaints
If you believe that your work has been subject to copyright infringement on this Site, please let BCBSNC know by submitting written notification to BCBSNC’s designated agent pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).
The information must substantially contain:
1) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
2) Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
3) Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material;
4) Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted;
5) A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
6) A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
BCBSNC’s designated agent for such copyright complaints can be reached at: BCBSNC Copyright Complaint, Attn: BCBSNC, P.O. Box 2291, Durham, NC 27702, fax: 919-765-3943
Jurisdiction
If you choose to access this Site, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with any local, state, and federal laws. BCBSNC controls and operates this Site from its headquarters in Durham, North Carolina, United States of America. This Site is intended only for the use of North Carolina residents. The information on this Site does not constitute an advertisement of or an offer to sell, solicit, or negotiate any insurance product or service. Use of this Site will be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of North Carolina.
This Agreement shall be deemed to have been made in the State of North Carolina, U.S.A. and shall be interpreted, and the rights and liabilities of the parties hereto determined in accordance with the laws of the State of North Carolina, U.S.A., without regard to conflicts of law principles. The parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts for the County of Orange, North Carolina, U.S.A. for the determination of any claim or controversy between the parties and arising out of or relating to this Agreement. Both parties hereby consent to the jurisdiction of the North Carolina courts and waive any objections as to personal jurisdiction or as to the laying of venue in such courts due to inconvenient forum or any other basis.
General Terms and Conditions
This Agreement shall be deemed to include all other notices, policies, disclaimers and other terms contained in this Site; provided, however, that in the event of a conflict between such other terms and the terms of this Agreement, the terms of this Agreement shall control.
You acknowledge that no joint venture, partnership, employment or agency relationship exists between you and BCBSNC as a result of this Agreement or your use of this Site. You agree that this Agreement does not permit you to hold yourself out as a representative, agent or employee of BCBSNC. Additionally, BCBSNC shall not be liable for any representation, act or omission made by you.
BCBSNC's performance of this Agreement is subject to existing laws and legal process and nothing contained in this Agreement is in derogation of BCBSNC's right to comply with law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of this Site or information provided to or gathered by BCBSNC with respect to such use.
If any part of this Agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law, including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the Agreement shall continue in full force and effect.
This Agreement, together with any additional terms and conditions and/or policies referred to and incorporated herein (including additional terms applicable to various parts of the Site) constitutes the entire agreement between you and BCBSNC with respect to this Site and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous conflicting communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between you and BCBSNC with respect to this Site. A printed version of this Agreement and of any notice given in electronic form will be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this Agreement to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form.
Indemnification
As a condition of use of this Site, you agree to indemnify BCBSNC, its parent, subsidiaries and affiliates, and the shareholders, officers, directors, employees and agents of any of them against and from and against any and all claims, demands, judgments, costs, liabilities, expenses (including attorneys' fees) and damages arising out of legal claims resulting from: 1) your use of this Site, including your Submissions; 2) your violation of this Agreement; or 3) your violation of any third-party’s right.
Limitations on Site
You acknowledge that BCBSNC may establish limits concerning use of the Site, including the maximum number of days that Submissions will be retained by the Site, the maximum number and size of postings, email messages or other content that may be transmitted or stored by the Site, and the frequency with which you may access the Site. You agree that BCBSNC has no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any content maintained or transmitted by the Site. You acknowledge that BCBSNC reserves the right at any time to modify or discontinue the Site (or any part thereof) with or without notice, and that BCBSNC shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Site.
Termination of Service
You agree that BCBSNC, in its sole discretion, have the right (but not the obligation) to delete or deactivate your account, block your email or IP address, or otherwise terminate your access to or use of the Site (or any part thereof), immediately and without notice, and remove and discard any Submission or other content, for any reason, including, without limitation, if BCBSNC believes that you have acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit of this Agreement. Further, you agree that BCBSNC shall not be liable to you or any third party for any termination of your access to the Site. Further, you agree not to attempt to use the Site after said termination.
Other Policies, Rules, and Guidelines
Be sure to review BCBSNC Connect Privacy Policy, which explains how information provided to BCBSNC through our web sites is used and protected. BCBSNC may also provide other policies and guidelines to provide you further information on how to use BCBSNC Connect. BCBSNC encourages you to review such policies and guidelines, as it may be updated from time to time.
This Agreement is effective January 1, 2011.
These terms were last updated January 31, 2012.