User Agreement

Welcome to AskDrDarcy.com. Please read these Terms and Conditions before using or submitting content in any form or medium for publication on AskDrDarcy.com. These Terms and Conditions of Use apply to you when you view, access or otherwise use the blog located at www.askdrdarcy.com (the “blog”). The blog is owned by Alternatives Counseling, LCSW PC (“Alternatives”). Alternatives grants you a nonexclusive, nontransferable, limited right to access, use and display the blog and the materials provided hereon, provided that you comply fully with these Terms and Conditions of Use. By continuing to use or by submitting content for publication on AskDrDarcy.com, you agree to abide by these Terms and Conditions. We reserve the right to change these Terms and Conditions at any time, and you agree (including by virtue of your continued use of our site) to be bound by any such changes. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any new features or functionality (including, without limitation, video and related projects) that augment or enhance our site shall be subject to these Terms and Conditions.

1. No Therapist / Client Relationship. We provide this blog for general informational purposes only. Dr. Darcy Smith is a provider of mental health services and consequently, much of the information contained on this blog relates to mental health topics. Not withstanding the aforementioned, please be advised that your participation in this blog does not create a doctor-client, therapist-client or any other professional relationship between you and either Dr. Darcy Sterling or any of her affiliates. By using the blog, you agree that the information on this blog does not constitute a professional relationship. Do not consider the blog to be a substitute for obtaining mental health services from a qualified therapist licensed in your state. The information contained herein may be changed without notice and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up-to-date. While we try to revise the blog on a regular basis, it may not reflect the most current professional developments. The opinions expressed at or through the blog may not reflect the opinions of Alternatives or of any specific author.

2. Discontinuation / Suspension / Termination of Use: We reserve the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, our site (or any part thereof) with or without notice. You agree that AskDrDarcy.com shall not be liable to you or any third party for any such modification, suspension or discontinuance of our site. In addition, we reserve the right to terminate your access to our site for any reason, and to take any other actions that AskDrDarcy.com, in its sole discretion, believes to be in the interest of our company and of our users as a whole.

3. We Have All Rights In Our Site and Content; You Grant Us Certain Rights When You Submit Content to Us: (a) Our site (including all text, photographs, graphics, video and audio content contained on our site) is protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under the copyright laws of the United States and other countries, and we (subject to the rights of our licensors and licensees under applicable agreements, understandings and arrangements) have all rights therein. All individual articles, blogs, videos, content and other elements comprising our site are also copyrighted works, and we (subject to the rights of our licensors and licensees under applicable agreements, understandings and arrangements) have all rights therein. You must abide by all additional copyright notices or restrictions contained on our site.
(b) By posting or submitting content on or to our site (regardless of the form or medium with respect to such content, whether text, videos, photographs, audio or otherwise), you are giving us, and our affiliates, agents and third party contractors the right to display or publish such content on our site and its affiliated publications (either in the form submitted or in the form of a derivative or adapted work), to store such content, and to distribute such content and use such content for promotional and marketing purposes.
(c) You shall be solely responsible for your own submissions and the consequences of posting or publishing them. In connection with each of your submissions, you affirm, represent, and/or warrant that: (I) you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to use and authorize us to use all patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights in and to any and all such submissions to enable inclusion and use of such submissions in the manner contemplated by us and these Terms and Conditions; and (II) you have the written consent, release, and/or permission of each and every identifiable individual person in such submissions to use the name or likeness of each and every such identifiable individual person to enable inclusion and use of such submissions in the manner contemplated by us and these Terms and Conditions. In furtherance of the foregoing, you agree that you will not: (I) submit material that is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material and to grant us all of the rights granted herein; (II) publish falsehoods or misrepresentations that could damage us or any third party; (III) submit material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, violate any law, or is otherwise inappropriate; or (IV) post advertisements or solicitations of business. We reserve the right to remove or not publish submissions without prior notice. You understand that when you submit content in any form to AskDrDarcy.com we may authorize such content to be distributed or syndicated to or published on other Darcy Sterling-branded environments.

4. Your Use of Our Content is Restricted: (a) Unless expressly permitted, you may not copy, reproduce, distribute, publish, enter into a database, display, perform, modify, create derivative works from, transmit or in any way exploit any part of our site or any content thereon, except as permitted under the last sentence of this Section 4(a) and except that you may make one print copy that is limited to occasional articles of personal interest only. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing (but subject to the last sentence of this Section 4(a)), you may not distribute any part of this site or any content thereon over any network, including, without limitation, a local area network, or sell or offer it for sale. In addition, these files may not be used to construct any kind of database. Just as we from time to time excerpt materials from other sources in order to support the various commentaries and writings contained herein, we respect the right of others to make “fair use” of the materials contained on our site; accordingly, you may from time to time excerpt and use materials set forth on this site consistent with the principles of “fair use”.
(b) We are concerned about the integrity of our site when it is viewed in a setting created by a third party that includes advertising or other materials that we have not authorized to be displayed with the content of our site. Neither you nor any third party shall make use of the contents of our site in any manner that constitutes an infringement of our rights, including copyright or that has not been authorized by us.

5. You Will Be Responsible for Any Harm We Suffer as a Result of Your Violation of These Terms and Conditions or Any Breach by You of Your Representations and Warranties: You agree to indemnify
and hold harmless AskDrDarcy.com and its affiliates, and their respective members, directors, officers, managers, employees, shareholders, agents, and licensors, from and against all losses, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, resulting from any violation by you of these Terms and Conditions or any breach by you of your representations and warranties hereunder. We reserve the right to take over the exclusive defense of any claim for which we are entitled to indemnification under this Section 6. In such event, you shall provide us with such cooperation as is reasonably requested by us.

6. Your Use of Our Site is Subject to Certain Disclaimers: OUR SITE IS AVAILABLE “AS IS.” WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT OUR SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE. THERE MAY BE DELAYS, OMISSIONS, INTERRUPTIONS AND INACCURACIES, REGARDING INFORMATION OR OTHER MATERIALS AVAILABLE THROUGH OUR SITE. WE DO NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THOSE OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO OUR SITE OR ANY INFORMATION OR GOODS THAT ARE AVAILABLE OR ADVERTISED OR SOLD THROUGH OUR SITE. WE DO NOT MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS, NOR DO WE ENDORSE THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS OR RELIABILITY OF ANY ADVICE, OPINION, STATEMENT OR OTHER MATERIAL OR DATABASE DISPLAYED, UPLOADED OR DISTRIBUTED ON THIS SITE OR AVAILABLE THROUGH LINKS ON OUR SITE. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CORRECT ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS ON OUR SITE. ALTHOUGH WE INTEND TO TAKE REASONABLE STEPS TO PREVENT THE INTRODUCTION OF VIRUSES, WORMS, “TROJAN HORSES” OR OTHER DESTRUCTIVE MATERIALS TO OUR SITE, WE DO NOT GUARANTEE OR WARRANT THAT OUR SITE OR MATERIALS THAT MAY BE DOWNLOADED FROM OUR SITE DO NOT CONTAIN SUCH DESTRUCTIVE FEATURES. WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OR HARM ATTRIBUTABLE TO SUCH FEATURES. IF YOU RELY ON OUR SITE AND ANY MATERIALS AVAILABLE THROUGH OUR SITE, YOU DO SO SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

OUR SITE MAY CONTAIN VARIOUS COMBINATIONS OF TEXT, IMAGES, AUDIOVISUAL PRODUCTIONS, OPINIONS, STATEMENTS, FACTS, ARTICLES, MARKET DATA, STOCK QUOTES OR OTHER INFORMATION CREATED BY US OR BY THIRD-PARTIES. DUE TO THE NUMBER OF SOURCES FROM WHICH CONTENT ON OUR SITE IS OBTAINED, AND THE INHERENT HAZARDS OF ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION, THERE MAY BE DELAYS, OMISSIONS OR INACCURACIES IN SUCH CONTENT. ACCORDINGLY, SUCH CONTENT, INCLUDING MARKET DATA, IS FOR YOUR REFERENCE ONLY AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON BY YOU FOR ANY PURPOSE. SUCH CONTENT IS NOT INTENDED FOR THE PURPOSE OF ADVICE AND IT DOES NOT ADVOCATE THE PURCHASE OR SALE. INFORMATION CREATED BY THIRD PARTIES THAT YOU MAY ACCESS ON OUR SITE OR THROUGH LINKS IS NOT ADOPTED OR ENDORSED BY US AND REMAINS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF SUCH THIRD PARTIES

7. We are Not Responsible for Linked Sites: We are not responsible for the availability or content of other services that may be linked to our site. Because we have no control over such services, you acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible for the availability of such external services, and that we do not endorse and are not responsible or liable for any content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products or other materials on or available from such services. You further acknowledge and agree that we shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services available on or through such services.

8. We May be Legally Compelled to Disclose Certain Information: You agree that in the event we receive a subpoena issued by a court or from a law enforcement or government agency, we shall comply with such subpoenas without your consent or prior notice to you and may disclose your IP address, username, name, IP location or other information in response thereto.

9. Our Liability to You is Limited: AskDrDarcy.com and its affiliates, and their respective members, directors, officers, managers, employees, shareholders, agents and licensors are not liable for incidental, indirect, consequential, special, punitive, or exemplary damages of any kind, including, without limitation, lost revenues or profits, loss of business or loss of data, in any way related to this site or for any claim, loss or injury based on errors, omissions, interruptions or other inaccuracies in our site (including, without limitation, as a result of breach of any warranty or other term of these Terms and Conditions). Any claim against us shall be limited to the amount you paid, if any, for use of our site.
AskDrDarcy.com expressly disclaims all liability for any viruses or other contamination of your computer system or other device used to access this blog as a result of your use of this blog, and expressly disclaims all liability for actions taken or not taken based on any or all of the contents of this blog. THE BLOG IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, SECURITY, ACCURACY AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, ALTERNATIVES MAKES NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, THAT ACCESS TO OR OPERATION OF THE BLOG WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE.

(b) USE OF THE BLOG IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY AND RISK OF LOSS RESULTING FROM YOUR DOWNLOADING AND/OR USE OF FILES, INFORMATION, OTHER COMMUNICATIONS, CONTENT OR OTHER MATERIAL (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, SOFTWARE) ACCESSED THROUGH OR OBTAINED BY MEANS OF THE BLOG.

10. Any Dispute Between Us Will be Governed by New York Law: These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by the laws of the United States and the State of New York, applicable to agreements made and to be performed therein without regard to conflict of laws principles. BY CONTINUING TO USE OUR SITE, YOU AGREE TO ABIDE BY THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. The caption to each Section of these Terms and Conditions are for convenience of reference only and shall be ignored in the construction or interpretation hereof.

AskDrDarcy.com Privacy Policy
At AskDrDarcy.com we appreciate and value your personal privacy. We respect the personal nature of the information you provide us with and acknowledge the importance of protecting this information. In adopting this privacy policy, our intent is to balance our business interests in collecting and using your personal information with your reasonable expectations of privacy. This policy may be revised or updated at any time and we encourage you to check back often to ensure that you are familiar with the most recent version and the terms of our policy.

Under what circumstances does AskDrDarcy.com collect my personal information?
You may provide personal information to AskDrDarcy.com in one of three ways: (1) by sharing your e-mail address and subscribing to email newsletters or requesting site updates, (2) by sharing personal information when you post a question to our site, or (3) by sharing personal information when you post. We may also ask for information at other times as we continue to update our site and the services we offer to visitors.
In addition to personal information—such as name, mailing address and email address, we may also collect information that is in no way personally identifiable. This may include the operating system you are working on, the internet browser you are using, the domain name of your internet service provider, and the web sites you visit directly before and after your visit to AskDrDarcy.com.

How does AskDrDarcy.com use my personal information?
The more we know about you, the better we are able to customize our website to suit your personal preferences and interests. The email address that you provide us with may be used by AskDrDarcy.com for any reason, such as contacting you for editorial purposes or to advise you of any changes to our site. We may also periodically send you messages about our marketing partners’ products.

In order to provide you with a site that is free of charge, we display advertisements on our website. We also use the information you give us to help our advertisers target the audience they want to reach. The only exceptions to the foregoing are that we may disclose personally identifiable information (i) in response to legal process, for example, in response to a court order or subpoena, (ii) in response to a law enforcement agency’s request, or where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take actions regarding situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of another person, violations of our terms of use, or as otherwise required by law, or (iii) in the event we are acquired by or merged with another company.

When you sign up for our updates or receive email messages from AskDrDarcy.com, you will always be given the chance to opt-out of special offers and site updates. You may change your preferences at any time and will only be contacted in manners consistent with your stated preferences.

Non-personally identifiable information (as stated above) may be shared with our advertisers or marketing partners but your personally identifiable information will never be disclosed to them.

Who else has access to my personal information?
The ads appearing on AskDrDarcy.com are delivered to you by our Web advertising serving partners who vary from time to time. Information about your visit to this site, such as number of times you have viewed an ad, is used to serve ads to you on this site, however, your name, address, or other personal information is not provided to these advertising partners. In the course of placing advertisements on this site, third party advertisers may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser.

Email newsletters received by subscribers are delivered by our e-marketing solution providers. Under no circumstances will our e-marketing solution providers make any personal information about an individual user available to anyone.

Finally, we employ the services of a number of advertising network partners to monitor certain pages of our website and RSS feeds for the purpose of reporting website and RSS traffic, statistics, advertisement ‘click-throughs’, and/or other activities on our website. Where authorized by us, these advertising network partners may use cookies, web beacons, and/or other monitoring technologies to compile anonymous statistics about our website visitors. No personally identifiable information is collected by or transferred to these network partners.

Third parties and web sites that have links on our site may also collect or use information about you. The information practices of other companies or people that AskDrDarcy.com does not employ or manage are not covered by this privacy statement.

Is there anything else I should know about my privacy and AskDrDarcy.com?
Any information you disclose on this site becomes public information and we reserve the right to use it in the future. Furthermore, please be advised that we cannot control the actions of our site users and advise you to use your discretion in sharing information about yourself on the internet. All information sharing is optional and done so at your own risk. Privacy is a very personal matter and we encourage you to be careful and responsible when disclosing personal information online.