By accessing or using the Center for Tech and Civic Life’s Sites (defined below), you agree to these Terms of Use (“Terms”) and our Privacy Policy. (As used in these Terms, “CTCL,” “We,” “Us,” and “Our” may include CTCL, its affiliated organizations, and/or its partners.)

You should read these Terms carefully, and you shouldn’t use our Sites or Content (defined below) if you don’t agree with them. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].

If you do not agree to these Terms, you are not permitted to access or use our Sites or Content.

What is covered by these Terms?

The Terms apply to any CTCL “Sites” (each, a “Site”), including https://www.techandciviclife.org/, https://www.electiontools.org/, https://www.electionexcellence.org/, https://www.modernizeourelections.org/, and any other websites we may own or control now, develop in the future, or that are affiliated with or may become affiliated with CTCL.

They also apply to any Content that appears on our Sites. The term “Content” means software; applications; recorded, self-paced, and/or live instructional courses and their related materials; free or low-cost generic election administration resources for election officials; and other learning management systems and resources offered by or linked to or from our Sites, newsletters, and emails. Content does not include Third-Party Materials and Information, which are defined and discussed below.

Can we modify these Terms?

Yes. We may update these Terms from time to time. Your continued use of our Sites and Content following such changes means that you accept these Terms as updated.

How do we protect your privacy?

You should review the Privacy Policy to see how we handle information about you, including any personally identifiable information you provide when accessing or using our Content.

How accurate is our Content?

We do our absolute best to ensure that our Content—including our courses, trainings, and generic election administration resources—is complete, accurate, and current, but we may miss something despite our best efforts.

You should always double-check our work, and make sure to consult your own state and local guidance.

Do we ever provide legal advice?

No. Our Content is for informational purposes only and doesn’t constitute legal advice or form an attorney-client relationship.

For any legal questions—including whether your state or local laws allow you to use any free or low-cost Content, such as our courses, trainings, and generic election administration resources—you should ask your attorney.

What are your obligations when registering for one of our self-paced trainings, signing up for a petition or newsletter, or accessing other election resources?

When accessing or using our Sites or Content, you may be required to register with CTCL by providing an email address and selecting a password. You should keep your password confidential. You’re solely responsible for your interactions with the Content when using your password and signing in with your email. If you suspect any unauthorized security breach (like use of your email address, password, or other account information), you should notify us immediately.

When providing your name, email address, phone number, or other requested information you can’t:

• try to impersonate another person by purposefully choosing their name, phone number, email address, or other information;
• use a name, phone number, or email address subject to any rights of another person without appropriate authorization; or
• misrepresent who you are or your licenses or qualifications.

We will handle any personally identifiable information you provide in accordance with our Privacy Policy. If you sign-up or register for our self-paced courses, newsletter, or other Content you agree to receive emails from us related to the Content. You also agree to provide and maintain accurate, current, and complete information, including your contact information, and payment information (if applicable). Failure to do so shall constitute a breach of these Terms, which may result in immediate termination of your account.

We reserve the right to refuse or cancel sign-ups or registration at our sole discretion for any reason.

What conduct do we prohibit?

By accessing and using our Sites and Content, you agree that you will not violate any applicable laws, contracts, intellectual property rights, other third-party rights, or commit any torts. You also commit to only posting or sharing materials or information that are non-confidential and that you have the right to disclose, including the lawful right to distribute and reproduce.

You may not:

• Post, transmit, or otherwise share or publish on our Sites or Content:
  • anything that is or could be construed as: threatening, harassing, discriminatory, degrading, hateful, intimidating, defamatory, fraudulent, or otherwise tortious; obscene, indecent, pornographic or otherwise objectionable; or related to alcohol, wagering, gambling, tobacco products, ammunition or firearms;
  • anything that may give rise to criminal or civil liability (including any material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity, or any other proprietary right for which you do not have the express prior consent of the owner of such right or in violation of any contractual, fiduciary, or other legal obligation), or that encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense;
  • any virus, worm, spyware, other computer code, file, or program that is potentially harmful or invasive, or that may damage or hijack the operation of, or monitor the use of, any hardware, software or equipment owned and controlled by CTCL; or
  • any material, non-public information about Users, Users’ employers, or any other third party, without the proper authorization to do so.

You may not use our Sites or Content:

• to defame, stalk, harvest data, abuse, harass, threaten, intimidate, collect personally identifiable information, or otherwise violate the legal rights of others, including rights of privacy or publicity;
• to impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity, or state or imply that we endorse any of your statements or materials (whether provided to CTCL as part of its instructional offerings or otherwise);
• for any other fraudulent, deceptive, or other unlawful purpose;
• to advertise or offer to sell or buy any goods or services;

You are also prohibited from:

• interfering with or disrupting the operation of our Sites or Content, our servers, or our networks;
• restricting or inhibiting any other person from using our Sites or Content (including by hacking or defacing the Sites or Content);
• licensing, sublicensing, transferring, assigning, reproducing, duplicating, copying, selling, reselling, distributing, or exploiting for any commercial purposes the Sites or Content or any access to or use of our Sites or Content;
• modifying, adapting, making derivative works of, translating, reverse engineering, decompiling or disassembling the Site or Content;
• removing any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary rights notice from our Sites or Content;
• systematically downloading and storing materials from the Sites or Content except for materials related to self-paced trainings that you are registered for and participating in, and/or our free or low-cost generic resources for election officials, including those located at our Site Electiontools.org, or the Resources posted at https://www.modernizeourelections.org/resources.

Additionally, CTCL grants the operators of public search engines permission to access and copy materials from our Sites, where necessary, for the sole purpose of creating publicly available searchable indices of the materials, but not caches or archives of such materials. CTCL reserves the right to revoke these exceptions, either generally or in specific cases.

You are solely responsible for obtaining and maintaining any equipment you need to access or use our Sites or Content.

What do trademark and intellectual property laws apply to?

We own our Sites and any Content. They are protected by copyright, trademark, patent and/or other proprietary rights and laws, unless we say otherwise. You agree not to reproduce, modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute, or create derivative works based on all or any part of the Sites or Content, unless we make it clear that you can do so in these Terms.

Our trade names, trademarks, and service marks included within the Sites and Content, including (as examples) Center for Tech and Civic Life, CTCL, the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, Election Infrastructure Initiative, and Electiontools.org are also owned or controlled by us. They may not be used in connection with any product or service that is not ours, or in any manner that is likely to cause confusion. This is true even if they are not registered. If you would like to use them, you must get our express written consent.

Is any content licensed for public use?

Yes. We’d love for our self-paced trainings, free or low-cost generic election administration resources, and our Outreach Toolkit and Sample Advocacy Letter to be shared and used far and wide, provided that you do not sell the materials or their derivatives. These are found at https://www.techandciviclife.org/ (self-paced trainings), Electiontools.org (elections administration resources), https://www.modernizeourelections.org/resources (Outreach Toolkit and Sample Advocacy Letter). They are available under a Creative Commons license. You should check with your state or county attorney to see if you’re able to use them.

Under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (the full version of this license, as may be updated from time to time, is found here), you should follow these guidelines when using these:

You may . . .

• make changes to the materials – including but not limited to size, color, text, and name
• use the materials for commercial purposes

You must . . .

• indicate if changes were made, but not in a way that suggests that we endorse you, your use, or your modifications
• make the materials available free of cost – whether you have changed them or not

CTCL does not endorse or otherwise recognize any substantive changes to its materials. You may not make changes that are contrary to CTCL’s mission and values.

What conditions apply to third-party materials, products, and websites provided on our Content?

Our Content may provide documents concerning, links to, and other materials and information about, organizations, events, products, services, or activities controlled by third parties (collectively, “Third-Party Materials and Information”).

We provide Third-Party Materials and Information as a service, but it isn’t under our control. We don’t endorse or warranty it. We aren’t responsible for your interactions with the third-parties who maintain it, and your use of any Third-Party Materials and Information is solely at your own risk.

Can we modify or terminate access to our Sites and Content?

Yes. We can modify or terminate your access to our Sites and Content at any time, for any reason, without notice, and in our sole discretion. You agree that we can do so, and understand that this may include deletion of your password and username, all related information and files associated with it, and may bar any further access to that information or those files. We are not required to make that information available to you. And we are not responsible for any loss or harm to you that results from termination.

You also have the right to stop using our Sites or Content at any time, subject to your compliance with all terms and conditions that apply, or applied, to your usage of our Sites or Content prior to termination, and subject to all our rights and remedies with respect thereto.

We also will not be liable for any consequences (foreseen or unforeseen) to you if our Sites’ normal operation is interrupted, or we are not, for example, able to provide access to our Content. We are also not liable if we fail to perform any express or implied obligations that arise or may arise from your use of our Content or our Sites, or we are unable to otherwise perform as normally contemplated by these Terms, by reason of any “Force Majeure Event.” Examples of force majeure events include events like labor disputes, natural disasters, or any other unusual occurrence beyond our reasonable control that causes CTCL to be unable or less able to perform our normal operations fully.

For our full Force Majeure Event policy, please email us at [email protected].

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless CTCL and its officers, directors, parent(s), employees, agents, licensees, assigns, subsidiaries, affiliates, co-branders or other partners from any claim, cause of action, suit, or demand, including reasonable attorney’s fees to the fullest extent of the law.

Disclaimers

Your use of our Sites and Content is at your sole risk.

Except as otherwise provided in a writing by us, our Sites and Content are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, 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, we cannot and do not represent or warrant that our Sites, Content, or servers are free of viruses or other harmful components.

You assume the entire risk as to the quality, effectiveness, accuracy, and performance of the Sites.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, CTCL and its officers, directors, parent(s), employees, agents, licensees, assigns, subsidiaries, affiliates, co-branders or other partners will not be liable to you under any theory of liability—whether based in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, warranty, or otherwise—for any direct, indirect, special, consequential, punitive, punitive or special damages, lost profits or the cost to procure substitute goods and services, or damages resulting from lost data or business interruption resulting from or arising under or in connection with the use of or access to our Sites and Content, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

You assume all responsibility and risk for your use of our Sites and Content.

What law governs these terms?

These Terms are governed by the laws of Illinois unless preempted by U.S. federal law, and without regard to conflict of law rules or principles that would cause the application of the laws of any other jurisdiction. Any dispute between the parties will be resolved in Illinois state court or a United States federal court sitting in the State of Illinois.

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.

Miscellaneous

CTCL’s failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not waive that right or provision. The titles and paragraph headings are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. Any of our remedies are cumulative and not exclusive.

These Terms contain the entire agreement between you and us, and supersede any and all previous oral and written communications.

How can you contact us?

You can contact us at [email protected], (872) 204-5714, or at the mailing address below:

Center for Tech and Civic Life
303 East Wacker Drive
Suite 2106
Chicago, IL 60601

Please note that you shouldn’t contact us with sensitive, proprietary or confidential information.