Consumer Review Policy

1. Definitions
   1. Parties:“You" and "your" refer to you, as a user of this site who reads, posts or responds to reviews on the Site. "We," "us," and "our" refer to MinnesotaHelp.info^®, and the Minnesota Board on Aging.
   2. Content:Content can refer to any data or communication, including text, video, location data or images. Content can come from different sources, and includes;
      1. Your Content: Content that you submit or transmit to, through, or in connection with the Site, such as ratings, reviews, and any additional information that you publicly display or displayed in your account profile.
      2. User Content: Content that users submit or transmit to, through, or in connection with the Site.
      3. MinnesotaHelp.info^® Content: Content that the Minnesota Board on Aging creates, imports and/or makes available in connection with the Site.
      4. Third Party Content: All of the Content that is made available in connection with the Site, including Your Content, User Content, Third Party Content, and MinnesotaHelp.info^® content.
      5. Site Content: All of the Content that is made available in connection with the Site, including Your Content, User Content, Third Party Content, and MinnesotaHelp.info^® content.
   3. Material Changes: Changes which affect the actual Terms. This includes, for example, changing the eligibility requirements to leave a review. This would not include things such as correcting typos or punctuation.
   4. Review: Includes both user-entered reviews and provider-entered responses to the reviews. Any distinctions between the two is explicitly indicated in this policy.
2. Changes to the Terms
   1. These terms are subject to change solely at the discretion of the Minnesota Board on Aging, for any reason at any time. If we make material changes to the terms, we will give you notice either by sending an email to the email address linked to your My MinnesotaHelp.info^® or Provider Portal account, or posting a notice on the MinnesotaHelp.info^® homepage. You understand that your continued use of the Site and Consumer Review functions after the changes indicates your acceptance of the new terms.
3. Writing Reviews
   1. Eligibility: To read and write reviews, you must be 13 years of age or older and have the requisite authority to enter into these Terms. You must also have a valid My MinnesotaHelp.info^® account. Agencies, businesses, their contractors, employees and agents are not eligible to submit reviews about their own services. They may respond to reviews submitted about their service.
   2. Permission: The Minnesota Board on Aging grants you permission to use the review functionality on the Site to write and read reviews, subject to the restrictions in these Terms. Your use of the Site and the Consumer Review feature is at your own risk, including the risk that you might be exposed to review content that is offensive, indecent, inaccurate, objectionable, or otherwise inappropriate.
   3. Review availability and publication: A three-month pilot program for the consumer reviews runs from February 2016 to May 2016. During that time, users will be able to write reviews, see their reviews, and providers will be able to respond. However, these reviews will not be published to the Site. An evaluation of program will happen following its completion and it will be determined whether to publish the reviews to the Site. The Minnesota Board on Aging makes no guarantees as to the publication of any or all review data.
   4. Writing Reviews
      1. Consumer Reviews: In order to leave a consumer review, you must have a valid MyMinnesotaHelp.info^® account. You must be at least 13 years old and have a valid email address in order to create an account and leave a review. If you don't have one, you can create one here: Register
      2. Provider Responses: In order to leave a provider response, you must have an authenticated Provider Portal account and be linked to your agency within MinnesotaHelp.info^® as the verified contact.
         Note that someone from your agency may already be listed as the verified contact. If you need help to determine if there is someone from your agency already listed, you can use the chat function to talk with a data specialist. You can find out more information here: https://www.MinnesotaHelp.info/ProviderPortal/
4. Review Content Policy
   1. The Minnesota Board on Aging’s Right to Use Your Content:
      By using this site and agreeing to these terms, you irrevocably grant the Minnesota Board on Aging a perpetual, world-wide non-exclusive, royalty free license to use your content. This license may be assigned or sublicensed or transferred for any purpose. This license allows us to use your content in multiple ways, including but not limited to production and distribution of any of the following: Analysis, advertisement, promotion or outreach products, producing derivative works, for any purpose. “Use” in this case may refer to reproduce, display, edit, analyze, distribute, quote, paraphrase, translate or publish.
      This license specifically excludes publication of any information in a manner which would expose personal or private information about you or your account, including name, email address or IP address. With respect to your content, you also agree to irrevocably waive, and cause to be waived any claim against the Minnesota Board on Aging any assertion of rights or attribution.
   2. Responsibility for Your Content
      The Minnesota Board on Aging disclaims any liability, ownership or claim of accuracy for user content. This means that you and you alone are responsible for any content you create and/or submit to us. You may not assert or claim that your content is in any way supported or endorsed by the Minnesota Board on Aging. You assume any and all liability and risk for any information that you submit to the site.
      This Includes:
      
      1. Disclosure of any personal or private information about yourself or others, or information which could be used to identify or another person. This includes your My MinnesotaHelp^® account username, which will be seen by the provider.
      2. Any intellectual property which you implicitly or explicitly claim to own, or have permission to use.
      3. Any claim you assert as factual or accurate.
      4. Any reliance by others of those claims.
         You may expose yourself to civil or criminal liability if your review contains information which is; false, intentionally misleading or defamatory; is illegal or references illegal activity; violates another’s intellectual property rights or any other third-party right.
   3. General Review Content Policy
      Reviews should offer insights, help or information for others looking for services. In order to ensure that reviews positively contribute to the MinnesotaHelp.info^® community, they must meet the standards described below. Reviews which don’t meet the standards described below will be rejected.
      
      1. Relevance
         Your review should be about your experience with the provider, agency or business you're reviewing. Reviews are not the place for discussion of political ideologies, an agency's employment practices, or other matters that don't directly talk about an experience with the provider, agency or business.
      2. Accuracy
         Your review should accurately reflect the facts of your experience, for better or worse. They should not be statements which are defamatory, exaggerations, untrue accusations or insinuations.
      3. Honest Representation
         These reviews can be completed by consumers, their friends, family, caregivers, or professionals who interact with the business. The businesses and their employees should not leave reviews, nor pretend to be one of the groups.
      4. Promotional Content
         The site is a free service which is dedicated to providing impartial, accurate information about services. We don't list providers or make recommendations based on a financial arrangement. Promotional language or information which talks down about a competitor is not allowed
      5. Spamming, Updated Reviews
         There is no limit on how often a person may leave a review, but a new review should be posted because of a new (good or bad) experience. Reviews which are repeating issues raised in your previous reviews without any new information, or resubmitting the same review which was denied, will not be accepted.
      6. Private Information
         Do not include information private information yourself about others. This includes your username, names, addresses, information about treatment, health or anything which would be used to identify you or another. If you are writing a review regarding another person, avoid disclosing this type of information about yourself as well.
      7. Intellectual Property
         Reviews should be original work, not content reproduced from, or derivative of, works created by other people, groups, or other websites.
      8. Language Policy
         MinnesotaHelp.info^®'s purpose is to provide information to allow people to live independently in their communities. The consumer reviews are one tool for accomplishing that goal, and your speech should be appropriate for a general audience. Feel free to describe your experiences vividly, but the following is not allowed in reviews and will result in your review being rejected:
         
         1. Swearing
         2. Language which demeans any religion, race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or special need
         3. Hate speech
         4. Violent, non-threatening language
         5. Threatening Language
         6. Lewd or sexual language
         7. Intellectual Property which does not belong to the writer
         This includes any substitution of slang, alternate spellings, symbols or characters used to convey the meaning of a word or phrase which in not allowed.
5. Review Procedure
   1. For a review to be posted to MinnesotaHelp.info^®, it goes through the following series of steps:
      
      1. A user must confirm agreement to the review terms of service in order before submitting a review. A user will receive a confirmation that their review has been received and will be compared against the guidelines and policy.
      2. We will inform you if your review is rejected, and why.
      3. If a review is rejected because of inappropriate language, you may have an opportunity to revise your review and resubmit, solely at our discretion.
      4. If a review is accepted, providers will have 1 business day to raise a concern the review.
      5. Users will receive a notification when their review has been posted to MinnesotaHelp.info^®
      6. A provider may respond to a review at any time. A provider response is subject to the same policy and procedure as user reviews.
   2. We reserve the right to remove any posted review at any time if it determined the review does not meet any policy or guideline outlined here. We will notify you if your review is removed from the website. All decisions to reject or remove reviews (except as noted) are final.
6. Escalation
   
   1. When a Review will be Escalated
      A review will be escalated if there are concerns with a review which requires additional review. When a review is escalated, it is closely reviewed and analyzed. It may be necessary to share your account information and/or your review with local, state or federal agencies for further investigation if required by law. A review may be escalated if it contains any of the following:
      
      1. Threatening language
      2. Words indicated harm or abuse to a child or vulnerable adult
      3. Words indicating sexual abuse of an adult or child
      4. Words indicating the writer may harm him/herself or others
      5. Words indicating other ongoing illegal activity
      6. Language indicating that seniors or persons with disabilities who are receiving long term care services are being isolated from their communities - (this is a violation of the Home and Community Based Services Settings Rule, Section 1915(i) of the Social Security act)
      7. Concerns that the business, agency or organization is not meeting the requirements of their license
   2. Reporting a Review as Inappropriate
      Any user with a My MinnesotaHelp.info^® or Provider Portal Account may report a posted review as inappropriate by selecting the "Report it" flag next to the review, and explaining why this review it should be removed.
      
      1. If you report a review, we will notify you after we have reviewed your concern to let you know whether or not the review has been removed from the site.
      2. If you are the person whose review was reported, we will contact you if it was removed from the site, and why.
7. Privacy of Review information
   For general information about MinnesotaHelp.info^®'s Privacy Practices, please select the Terms of Use link located in the footer of the website. Your personal and private information accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, the Minnesota Data Practices Act, and the MinnesotaHelp.info^® Privacy Policy regarding maintaining the confidentiality of your identity and identifying information.
   
   1. Limits
      All policies contained in this section apply only to disclosures by MinnesotaHelp.info^® and the Minnesota Board on Aging. As indicated in "Disclaimer and Limitations of Liability", this section is not applicable to any of your personal or private information which is disclosed by you in your username or the text of your review.
   2. Privacy of Account information
      Your review content will be published to the Site and your username visible to providers, but your account information (including your name, email address, IP Address and zip code) will not be publicly displayed. This information will only be used to ensure the review meets policy, or disclosed to the appropriate party if such disclosure is required by law.
   3. Use of Reviews and Review Data
      Your review data or metadata (data about your review, such as date/time it was submitted, whether it was denied) may be used by us for the purpose of promotion, analysis, quality control or any other reason described in the "The Minnesota Board on Aging’s Right to Use your Content" section.
   4. Escalation of reviews
      As described in Section 7, there may be times when it is required by law for us to share your personal or private information and/or your review with local, state or federal agencies for further investigation. If such a situation should arise, you may not be given notice prior to disclosure if it involves one of the following circumstances:
      
      1. Notice to the individual or an individual's representative would put that individual at risk for harm
      2. The concern involves a mandated reporter duty, such as abuse, neglect or injury of a child or vulnerable adult
      3. Law enforcement requests that we delay notice to you because it would interfere with law enforcement activities
8. Retention of Review Content
   
   1. Generally
      
      1. Reviews and provider responses will remain publicly viewable for two years from the date of initial positing unless removed for violating policy or removed by you. They will be removed from the public webpage after that date, and be archived. Reviews will still be viewable from the My MinnesotaHelp.info^® account management screen. Provider responses will still be viewable from the Provider Portal review management screens.
      2. We may retain information about you and your review(s) for the purposes authorized under this policy or the MinnesotaHelp.info^® Privacy Policy unless prohibited by law. For example, we may retain information to prevent, investigate, or identify possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service or to comply with legal obligations.
   2. Upon Termination of Account
      We will remove your public posts from view and/or dissociate them from your account profile, but may retain the information in accordance with the other provisions of these Terms of Service.
9. Account Termination
   
   1. User-Terminated Accounts
      You are free to terminate your account at any time by using the Contact Us link in the Footer of the Site. We will respond to your request within two business days.
   2. Account Termination or suspension by the Minnesota Board on Aging
      The Minnesota Board on Aging reserves the right to terminate a user or provider account at any time for any reason without notice or liability. This may result in an inability to access or fully utilize certain functions on MinnesotaHelp.info^®, including (but not limited to); the Long-Term Care Choices Navigator; Youth Resource Navigator, and MyMinnesotaHelp.info^® "save resources" functions.