Terms Of Use and Privacy Statement

BACKGROUND

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission’s (“SPC,” “we,” “us,” “our”) Commuteinfo.org® program (“CommuteInfo program”) provides a variety of services for residents, employees and employers in the Southwestern PA region (including but not limited to ridematching, vanpooling, Emergency Ride Home and incentive programs).  SPC, in part, has commissioned the creation of a regional rideshare program to assist people that commute within the Southwestern PA region.  SPC is not the only entity involved in commissioning and/or promoting the rideshare program, and as such, the program may be subject to terms and conditions outside of those required by SPC.  Particularly, the ridematching software used by SPC (RidePro) is not directly under the control of SPC and, therefore, may be governed by separate terms and conditions.

A rideshare program, by its very nature, may entail some risk.  The purpose of the rideshare program is to ease travel to and from an individual’s workplace or school by promoting transit, biking, and walking as well as facilitating the establishment of carpools, vanpools, and bike groups.  As such, there may be times when you are a passenger or a driver for other passengers.  SPC, in providing this service of matching riders and drivers based on location and work or school schedule, hereby disclaims any responsibility or liability for any accidents or harm to any rideshare program participants.  SPC provides this service solely as a venue for communication between commuters that meet certain criteria.  We do not evaluate or insure the character or skill of any drivers or passengers.  Furthermore, our records are based on information that users enter into the database.  Some of this information may be inaccurate or incomplete.  SPC and the CommuteInfo program do not evaluate the correctness or truthfulness of the information submitted and cannot be responsible for any false information submitted.

This agreement (the “Terms of Use”) explains the contractual relationship between you (“you,” “your”) the person using this web site (the “Web Site”), and SPC, regarding your use of the Web Site and your participation in the CommuteInfo program.  Your continued use of the Web Site is your automatic agreement to the provisions in the Terms of Use.  If you do not accept these Terms of Use, you are not authorized to use the Web Site.

We recommend that you review these Terms of Use.  You should also print a copy for your records.

UPDATES TO TERMS OF USE

We may amend these Terms of Use at any time by posting the amended Terms of Use on the Web Site. Please review our Web Site and these Terms of Use periodically for updates or changes. Your continued use of the Web Site after the posting of the amended Terms of Use constitutes your automatic acceptance of the amended Terms of Use. You may only amend these Terms of Use with a written agreement signed by both you and SPC.

USE OF WEB SITES

You agree to use our Web Site only for lawful purposes. You agree not to use the service for illegal purposes or for the transmission of material that is unlawful, harassing, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionable, or that infringes or may infringe the intellectual property or other rights of another or that violates any federal, state or local law. You agree to supply truthful information.

PRIVACY POLICY

Our Privacy Policy is a part of the Terms of Use. We may amend the Privacy Policy from time to time.

Who May Use This Web Site
This Web Site is not intended or designed to attract users who are minors. We do not collect personally identifiable data from any person we know to be under the age of 18 and instruct users under 18 not to send us any information for collection on the Web Site.

Information Collected From You
If you choose to take advantage of our rideshare program you will be asked to provide personal information. You then become a Registered User.  We will collect personal information that you choose to share with us which can identify you, such as your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, and other similar information. We will use this information to create a database to be used to match riders and drivers and to respond to your requests.  We may also use this information to contact you and/or provide you with general information about ridesharing. We may share this information with others in order to accomplish our goal of enhancing transportation services in Southwestern Pennsylvania but we will not disclose your information for commercial marketing purposes.

By submitting this information about yourself on our application you agree that the information you submit will be entered into the regional rideshare database. Matches between riders and drivers are made via computer and based on proximity of home and worksite or school addresses and work or school schedules.  If you have agreed to be matched with potential rideshare partners, they will receive a letter, fax or email from us with your contact information.

Although your information will not be provided to a marketing company it may be aggregated for statistical purposes and that information may be used for marketing.

How your information is used
We utilize “cookies.”  These are small files that we send to and store on your computer so that we may recognize it as a unique machine.  We do not store personal information from one visit to the next by a user.

The information you provide when you become a Registered User is used among other uses to help us customize your online experience.  Your User ID serves as a unique identifier in our record system, and it is used to prevent unauthorized access to any information you choose to store on our site.

We may also use the information you provide at registration to contact you for administrative, or other reasons.  You may have these communications terminated.  This likely will take 4-6 weeks from the time you give us notice.

The information gathered automatically by our system–such as your computer’s IP address, the kind of browser you’re using, and a record of your navigation through the Website may be used so we can understand how to make our site convenient and useful to our audience and to improve our products and services.

Your Choices
You can apply to participate in the rideshare program online, over the telephone, or you can send us an application on paper.  In any event, we store data in our computer database.

Access To Your Information
In the event of a merger or business transaction, our assets may be sold or transferred or used as security and your information may be transferred to third parties as part of that transaction. Your information may be shared with affiliated businesses or partners. We do not intend to reveal individually identifiable information to third parties except in the manner stated in the Privacy Policy. We provide aggregated information received from you to third parties and take commercially reasonable precautions to prevent the aggregated information provided to third parties from including significant individually identifiable information. We cannot insure that your information will never be disclosed in ways not described in this Privacy Policy.

If we are requested by law enforcement or government officials or judicial or regulatory authorities to provide information on you, we may, without your consent, provide such information. In matters involving claims of personal or public safety or in litigation where the data is pertinent, we may use or disclose your personal information without your consent, knowledge or court process.

Will Your Information Be Secure?
We recognize you may be concerned about the security of your personal information, and we are committed to employing reasonable technology in order to protect the security of our Web Site. Even with such technology, no web site is 100% secure. We will take reasonable measures which we believe are appropriate to protect your information from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction, and, where possible, will ask that any third parties to whom we may transfer your information take comparable steps to protect that security.

We are the owner of data you supply to us.

NO WARRANTY

WE PROVIDE THE WEB SITE, THE COMMUTEINFO PROGRAM, AND ANY OTHER SERVICES “AS IS”, WHERE IS, AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY. WE SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE ALSO DO NOT GUARANTEE CONTINUOUS, UNINTERRUPTED OR SECURE ACCESS TO OUR SERVICES, AND OPERATION OF THE WEB SITE MAY BE INTERFERED WITH BY NUMEROUS FACTORS OUTSIDE OF OUR CONTROL. YOU USE THE WEB SITE AND THE COMMUTEINFO PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK.

YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT ANY MATERIAL AND/OR INFORMATION DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF OR FROM OUR WEB SITE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR USE OR NONUSE OF SUCH INFORMATION, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF SUCH MATERIAL AND/OR INFORMATION AND ANY BODILY INJURY. WE AND OUR AFFILIATES MAKE NO WARRANTY REGARDING ANY SERVICES OBTAINED THROUGH OR FROM OUR WEB SITE OR ANY TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO THROUGH OUR WEB SITE. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM US OR THROUGH OR FROM ANY SERVICE ON OUR WEB SITE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED HEREIN. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

You hereby release us (and our agents and employees) from any and all claims, demands, injuries, liabilities, costs (including attorneys’ fees) and damages (actual, consequential and punitive) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, any and all suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way connected with your use of the Web Site and/or the CommuteInfo program, including without limitation, in connection with any dispute you may have with one or more users of the Web Site and/or CommuteInfo program.  You waive the provisions of any law or regulation limiting or prohibiting a general release.

We will have no liability, whatsoever, for the unavailability of the Web Site or lack of performance of the maintenance work to keep the Web Site operable. We will also not have any liability for any loss of data or transactions resulting from delays, non-deliveries, mis-deliveries or service interruptions caused by us, any third party acts or any other web host provider or the Internet infrastructure and network external to the Web Site.

In no event shall SPC be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, incidental, special, punitive or exemplary damages, or for any loss of profits or revenue, regardless of whether we knew or should have known of the possibility of such damages.
The limitations of liability provided in these Terms of Use and Privacy Policy inure to the benefit of SPC, subsidiaries, and our affiliates, and to all of our respective officers, directors, employees, attorneys and agents. Some jurisdictions do not permit the disclaimers and limitations contained in these Terms of Use, in which case they may not be applicable to you.

INDEMNIFICATION

We reserve the right to report any wrongdoing, if and when we become aware of it, to any applicable government agencies. You agree to indemnify, defend and hold us harmless from and against any and all claims, demands, actions, costs, liabilities, losses and damages of any kind (including attorneys’ fees) resulting from your use of the Web Site, the CommuteInfo program, your breach of any provision of these Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and/or any intentional wrongdoing by you. Any such indemnification shall be conditioned on our: (a) notifying you in writing of any such claim, demand, action, cost, liability, loss or threat of any thereof; (b) reasonably cooperating with you in the defense or settlement thereof; and (c) allowing you to control such defense or settlement provided that you shall not undertake any defense or make any settlement which might give rise to liability for us without our prior written consent. We shall be entitled to participate in such defense at our own cost and expense.

THIRD PARTY LINKS, CONTENT AND TERMS OF USE

The Web Site may contain links to third-party web sites not under the control or operation of SPC. When we provide links, we do so only as a convenience and do not endorse and are not responsible for the contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site. Our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy do not apply to these other links.

The Web Site may contain information or other functionality provided by various third party providers.  Use of any third party news, information or functionality may be conditioned upon Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies as provided by such third party providers. Your use of links to those other Web Sites constitutes acceptance of these third parties’ Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies.  We recommend that you review these linked sites’ Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies.

OUR RELATIONSHIP

No agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchisor-franchisee relationship is intended or created by these Terms of Use between you and SPC or between any other rider or driver and SPC.  These Terms of Use are an agreement between you and us and are not intended to be for the benefit of any third party.

OWNERSHIP

The Web Site and all intellectual property rights included in or related to the Web Site (including but not limited to any information databases, copyrights, trademarks and service marks), are owned or licensed by us or our affiliates, and all right, title and interest in the Web Site and the intellectual property rights remain our property (or the property of the respective licensors).  You may not, and these Terms of Use do not give you permission to, reproduce, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, modify or create derivative works with respect to the Web Site. Certain content may be licensed from third parties and all such third party content and all intellectual property rights related to the content belong to the respective third parties. You may not remove any copyright, trademark or other intellectual property or proprietary notice or legend contained on the Web Site or its content.

LAWS AND REGULATIONS

You agree to comply with all applicable laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations regarding: (i) use of the Web Site and the CommuteInfo program; and (ii) release of information to and retrieval of information from the Web Site and any SPC database.  To the extent that any applicable taxes apply to your use of the Web Site, you are responsible for the payment of such taxes.

TERMINATION OF USE

If at any time you are not in compliance with these Terms of Use or Privacy Policy, or if you supply false information or otherwise violate the rights of other users, we have the right to terminate your use of, your access to and your participation in the Web Site and the CommuteInfo program. We also have the absolute right to terminate your use, access and participation at our discretion, for any reason, or for no reason.

GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION

The Web Site (excluding linked sites) is operated from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.  It can be accessed from all 50 states in the United States, as well as from other countries around the world. As each of these places has laws that may differ from those of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, by accessing the Web Site, you agree that these Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and your use of the Web Site shall be governed in all respects by the substantive laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States of America, without regard to conflict of laws provisions.  SPC makes no representation that materials on the Web Site are appropriate or available for use in other locations, and accessing them from territories where their contents are illegal is prohibited. Those who choose to access this site from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws.  Furthermore, any controversy or claim brought by you against SPC arising out of or relating to these Terms of Use or the Web Site or the CommuteInfo program shall be settled by binding arbitration in accordance with the commercial arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association.  Any such controversy or claim brought by you shall be arbitrated on an individual basis, and shall not be consolidated in any arbitration with any claim or controversy of any other party. The arbitration shall be conducted in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and judgment on the arbitration award may be entered into any court having jurisdiction thereof.

NOTICE

Except as explicitly stated otherwise or required by law, you shall provide any notices to Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission’s CommuteInfo program by e-mail at CommuteInfo@spcregion.org.

OTHER GENERAL PROVISIONS

If any provision of these Terms of Use is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision will be struck and the remaining provisions enforced.  Headings are for reference purposes only. Our failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. These Terms of Use, and all writings and web pages incorporated by reference into these Terms of Use, set forth the entire understanding and agreement between us with respect to the subject matter hereof.

Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission
42 21st Street, Suite 101
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
1-888-819-6110
Posted February 26, 2013