Yelp

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Yelp's entire service is based on aggregating people's views so the extensive sharing agreements and limits on liability from content hosted on the site certainly make sense. We don't want some pioneering attorney getting fed up with 420BurritoRoller and taking out their legal frustrations on Yelp. Still, it is worth wondering if the broad provisions in the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy would eliminate liability from situations where we would like to hold Yelp responsible.

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Representations & Warranties

 

"PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY SINCE IT LIMITS THE LIABILITY OF THE YELP ENTITIES TO YOU. EACH OF THE SUBSECTIONS BELOW ONLY APPLIES UP TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW. NOTHING HEREIN IS INTENDED TO LIMIT ANY RIGHTS YOU MAY HAVE WHICH MAY NOT BE LAWFULLY LIMITED. IF YOU ARE UNSURE ABOUT THIS OR ANY OTHER SECTION OF THESE TERMS, PLEASE CONSULT WITH A LEGAL PROFESSIONAL PRIOR TO ACCESSING OR USING THE SITE. BY ACCESSING OR USING THE SITE, YOU REPRESENT THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREE TO THESE TERMS, INCLUDING THIS SECTION. YOU ARE GIVING UP SUBSTANTIAL LEGAL RIGHTS BY AGREEING TO THESE TERMS.

1. THE SITE IS MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU ON AN "AS IS", "WITH ALL FAULTS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, WITH THE EXPRESS UNDERSTANDING THAT THE YELP ENTITIES MAY NOT MONITOR, CONTROL, OR VET USER CONTENT. AS SUCH, YOUR USE OF THE SITE IS AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK. THE YELP ENTITIES MAKE NO CLAIMS OR PROMISES ABOUT THE QUALITY, ACCURACY, OR RELIABILITY OF THE SITE, ITS SAFETY OR SECURITY, OR THE SITE CONTENT. ACCORDINGLY, THE YELP ENTITIES ARE NOT LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE THAT MIGHT ARISE, FOR EXAMPLE, FROM THE SITE'S INOPERABILITY, UNAVAILABILITY OR SECURITY VULNERABILITIES OR FROM YOUR RELIANCE ON THE QUALITY, ACCURACY, OR RELIABILITY OF THE BUSINESS LISTINGS, RATINGS, REVIEWS (INCLUDING THEIR CONTENT, ORDER, AND DISPLAY), OR METRICS FOUND ON, USED ON, OR MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SITE.

2. THE YELP ENTITIES MAKE NO CLAIMS OR PROMISES WITH RESPECT TO ANY THIRD PARTY, SUCH AS THE BUSINESSES OR ADVERTISERS LISTED ON THE SITE OR THE SITE'S USERS. ACCORDINGLY, THE YELP ENTITIES ARE NOT LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE THAT MIGHT ARISE FROM THEIR ACTIONS OR OMISSIONS, INCLUDING, FOR EXAMPLE, IF ANOTHER USER OR BUSINESS MISUSES YOUR CONTENT, IDENTITY OR PERSONAL INFORMATION, OR IF YOU HAVE A NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE WITH ONE OF THE BUSINESSES OR ADVERTISERS LISTED OR FEATURED ON THE SITE. YOUR PURCHASE AND USE OF PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OFFERED BY THIRD PARTIES THROUGH THE SITE IS AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK.

3. THE YELP ENTITIES EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES AS TO THE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OFFERED BY BUSINESSES LISTED ON THE SITE, AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE PROVIDED TO YOU BY A REPRESENTATIVE OF ONE OF THE YELP ENTITIES SHALL CREATE A REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY.

4. YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE RIGHT AND REMEDY IN CASE OF DISSATISFACTION WITH THE SITE, RELATED SERVICES, OR ANY OTHER GRIEVANCE SHALL BE YOUR TERMINATION AND DISCONTINUATION OF ACCESS TO, OR USE OF THE SITE.

5. THE YELP ENTITIES' MAXIMUM AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR LOSSES OR DAMAGES THAT YOU SUFFER IN CONNECTION WITH THE SITE OR THESE TERMS IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (i) THE AMOUNT PAID, IF ANY, BY YOU TO THE YELP ENTITIES IN CONNECTION WITH THE SITE IN THE 12 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACTION GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY, OR (ii) $100.

6. THE YELP ENTITIES DISCLAIM LIABILITY FOR ANY (i) INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY, RELIANCE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, (ii) LOSS OF PROFITS, (iii) BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, (iv) REPUTATIONAL HARM, OR (v) LOSS OF INFORMATION OR DATA."

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Indemnification

 

"You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold Yelp, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, any related companies, suppliers, licensors and partners, and the officers, directors, employees, agents and representatives of each of them (collectively, the "Yelp Entities") harmless, including costs, liabilities and legal fees, from any claim or demand made by any third party arising out of or relating to (i) your access to or use of the Site, (ii) your violation of the Terms, (iii) any products or services purchased or obtained by you in connection with the Site, or (iv) the infringement by you, or any third party using your account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity. Yelp reserves the right, at your expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter for which you are required to indemnify us and you agree to cooperate with our defense of these claims. You agree not to settle any such matter without the prior written consent of Yelp. Yelp will use reasonable efforts to notify you of any such claim, action or proceeding upon becoming aware of it."

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Key Definitions

• Parties- "You" and "your" refer to you, as a user of the Site. A "user" is someone who accesses, browses, crawls, scrapes, or in any way uses the Site. "We," "us," and "our" refer to Yelp.

• Content- "Content" means text, images, photos, audio, video, location data, and all other forms of data or communication. "Your Content" means Content that you submit or transmit to, through, or in connection with the Site, such as ratings, reviews, compliments, invitations, check-ins, messages, and information that you publicly display or displayed in your account profile. "User Content" means Content that users submit or transmit to, through, or in connection with the Site. "Yelp Content" means Content that we create and make available in connection with the Site. "Third Party Content" means Content that originates from parties other than Yelp or its users, which is made available in connection with the Site. "Site Content" means all of the Content that is made available in connection with the Site, including Your Content, User Content, Third Party Content, and Yelp Content.

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Sharing Agreements

 

Third parties may receive information about you as follows:

• Advertisers: We may allow third parties to use Cookies through the Service to collect the same type of information for the same purposes as Yelp does for itself. In doing so, Yelp adheres to the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising. Third parties may be able to associate the information they collect with other information they have about you from other sources. We do not necessarily have access to or control over the Cookies they use, but you may be able to opt out of some of their practices by visiting the following links: Network Advertising Initiative, Omniture, Digital Advertising Alliance and PrivacyChoice. Please note that opting out does not prevent the display of all advertisements to you. Additionally, we may share non-personally identifiable information from or about you with third parties, such as location data, advertising identifiers, or a cryptographic hash of a common account identifier (such as an email address), to facilitate the display of targeted advertising. You may be able to limit our sharing of some of this information through your mobile device settings, as described in Section 2 above.

• Service Providers: We may rely on third party providers to support or provide some of the services that are available through the Service, such as reservations and food delivery. We may also rely on third party providers to perform certain services for us in connection with your use of the Service, such as communications and hosting services, network security, technical and customer support, tracking and reporting functions, quality assurance testing, payment processing, our own marketing of the Service, and other functions. We may share information from or about you with these third party providers so that they can perform their services or complete your requests. These third party providers may share information with us that they obtain from or about you in connection with providing their services or completing your requests. Third party providers may also share this information with their subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control. Some of our web pages utilize framing techniques to serve content to you from our third party providers, while preserving the look and feel of the Service. In such cases, please note that the information you provide is being provided to the third party.

• Aggregate Information: We may share user information in the aggregate with third parties, such as advertisers and content distributors. For example, we may disclose the number of users that have been exposed to, or clicked on, advertisements.

• Business Transfers: We may share information from or about you with our parent companies, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control, in which case we will require them to honor this Privacy Policy. If another company acquires Yelp or all or substantially all of our assets, that company will possess the same information, and will assume the rights and obligations with respect to that information as described in this Privacy Policy.

• Businesses on Yelp: We may share information from or about you (such as your age and gender), your devices, and your use of the Service (such as which businesses you bookmark or call) with businesses listed on Yelp. You may adjust your settings to increase or decrease the amount of information we share. You can view these settings and find more details about what information may be shared here. Keep in mind that businesses may see your Public Content (as defined in Section 1(b) above) and receive information about your transactions with them, regardless of your settings. Additionally, if you make a phone call to a business through or in connection with your use of the Service, we may share information about your call with the business that the business would have received had you called them directly, such as the date and time of your call and your phone number. You may be able to limit our ability to collect and share your phone number through your phone’s settings or phone service provider.

• Investigations: We may investigate and disclose information from or about you if we have a good faith belief that such investigation or disclosure (a) is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process and law enforcement instructions and orders, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, judicial proceeding, or other legal process served on us; (b) is helpful to prevent, investigate, or identify possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service; or (c) protects our rights, reputation, property, or that of our users, affiliates, or the public, such as disclosures in connection with our Consumer Alerts program. If you flag or otherwise complain to Yelp about content through the Service, we may share the substance of your complaint with the contributor of that content in order to provide an opportunity for the contributor to respond.

• Links: The Service may contain links to unaffiliated third party services. Except as set forth herein, we do not share your personal information with them, and are not responsible for their privacy practices. We suggest you read the privacy policies on or applicable to all such third party services.

• Third Party Accounts: If you sign up for Yelp using a third party service like Facebook, or link your Yelp account to your account with a third party service like Facebook or Twitter, we may receive information about you from such third party service.

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