Terms of Use

Last updated: 08/19/2019

Welcome to the websites or mobile applications of Healthline Media Inc. and its owned and operated properties: Healthline Media UK Ltd. and HL Greatist (“Healthline,” “We,” “Us”). The following terms and conditions, together with any documents they incorporate by reference, including without limitation the Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Terms of Use”), govern your access to and use of Healthline’s suite of websites and mobile applications. 

Healthline’s websites include www.healthline.com and www.medicalnewstoday.com (collectively, the “Websites”). Healthline’s mobile applications include MS Buddy, Breast Cancer Healthline, and IBD Healthline (collectively, the “Apps”). Collectively, the Website and Apps are referred to as the “Services.” When using the Apps, you may be presented with additional Terms of Use, which are specific to such App. Such additional terms (if any) shall be incorporated into these Terms of Use and, together with these Terms of Use, govern your use of such App.

Please read these Terms of Use carefully before you start to use the Services. BY ACCESSING, BROWSING, OR USING THE SERVICES (INCLUDING YOUR SUBMISSION OF INFORMATION TO THE WEBSITE), YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREED TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS OF USE, INCLUDING THE PRIVACY POLICY (WHICH IS INCORPORATED HEREIN BY REFERENCE), AND TO COMPLY WITH ALL APPLICABLE LAWS AND REGULATIONS. You agree that the Terms of Use, combined with your act of using the Services, has the same legal force and effect as a written contract with your written signature and satisfy any laws that require a writing or signature. You further agree that you shall not challenge the validity, enforceability, or admissibility of the Terms of Use on the grounds that it was electronically transmitted or authorized.

The Services are offered and available to users who are 18 years of age or older. By using the Services, you represent and warrant that you meet the foregoing eligibility requirement. If you do not meet this requirement, you must not access or use the Services.

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THESE TERMS INCLUDE LIMITATIONS ON THE LIABILITY OF HEALTHLINE AND OUR OBLIGATIONS RELATING TO THE SERVICES, CERTAIN CONDITIONS WITH RESPECT TO JURISDICTION, AND CERTAIN EXCLUSIONS OF HEALTHLINE’S RESPONSIBILITY.

THE SERVICES DO NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

The contents of the Services, such as text, graphics, images, information obtained from Healthline's licensors, and other material  contained on the website, apps, newsletter, and products (“Content”) are for informational purposes only. The Content and Services are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately. Healthline does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the Content or Services. Reliance on any information provided by Healthline, Healthline employees, others appearing in the Content or on the Services at the invitation of Healthline, or other visitors to the Services is solely at your own risk. The Content and Services may contain health- or medical-related materials that are sexually explicit. If you find these materials offensive, you may not want to use our Content or Services.

Unless otherwise noted, all Content and Services, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, as well as all derivative works, are property owned, controlled, licensed, or used with permission by Healthline, and/or its parents, subsidiaries and affiliates, or other parties that have licensed or otherwise permitted their material to be used by Healthline. The Services as a whole and the Contents are protected by copyright, trademark, trade dress, and other laws. All worldwide right, title, and interest in and to the Services and Contents are owned by Healthline or used with permission. The Website, the Website’s logos, the Apps, the Apps’ logos, and all other trademarks appearing on the Content and Services are trademarks of Healthline or are licensed or used with permission of the owner by Healthline. You agree not to display or use such trademarks without Healthline’s prior written permission. Healthline disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks, service marks, logos, slogans, domain names, and trade names other than its own.

The Contents and Services are intended solely for personal, non-commercial use by the users of the Services and may not be used except as permitted in these Terms of Use. You may share the Content with the use of the social media links (i.e., “Share,” “Pin It,” and “Tweet”) provided on our Services. You may also share the Content via email through the use of our “Share” link. You may download or copy the Content and other downloadable materials displayed on the Services for your personal use only. No right, title, or interest in any downloaded materials or software is transferred to you as a result of any such downloading, sharing, or copying. Except as noted above, you may not reproduce, republish, publish, upload, post, transmit, distribute (including by email or other electronic means), publicly display, modify, create derivative works from, sell or participate in any sale of, or exploit in any way, in whole or in part, any of the Content, the Services, or any related software without the prior written consent of Healthline or the owner of such material. Nothing contained on the Content or Services grants or should be construed as granting any license or right to use, implied or otherwise, any trademarks, trade names, service marks, trade dress, or copyrighted or other proprietary material displayed on these Contend and Services without the prior written consent of Healthline or the owner of such material. All rights not expressly granted herein by Healthline to you are reserved by Healthline and/or its licensors. Third-party trade names, product names, and logos contained in these Websites may be the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

The information presented on or through the Content and Services is made available solely for general information purposes. We may update the Content from time to time, but the Content is not necessarily complete or up to date. Any of the material on the Services may be out of date at any given time, and We are under no obligation to update such material.

ACCEPTABLE USE

You are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security measures on the Services, including, without limitation:

  1. Using a false password or one belonging to another user, or accessing data not intended for the user, or logging in to a server or account which such user is not authorized to access;
  2. Disclosing a password or permitting a third party to use a password or failing to notify us if a password is compromised;
  3. Attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the system or network, or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization;
  4. Attempting to interfere with service to any user, host, or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, "flooding,” "mail bombing," or "crashing";
  5. Sending unsolicited email or commercial electronic messages, including promotions and/or advertising of products or services;
  6. Forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or newsgroup posting; or
  7. Hijacking all or any part of the Services or Content; deleting or changing any Services or Content; deploying pop-up messages or advertising, running or displaying the Services or Content in frames or through similar means on another website; or linking to the Services or Content, without our specific written permission.

GENERAL RULES

You agree to use the Content and Services only for lawful purposes and only for your own personal, non-commercial use. You may not use the Services to transmit, post, download, distribute, copy, display publicly, store or destroy material (a) in violation of any applicable law or regulation, (b) in a manner that will infringe the copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property rights of others, or violate the privacy or publicity or other personal rights of others, or (c) that is libelous, obscene, offensive, threatening, defamatory, abusive, or hateful.

We have absolute discretion to determine if any use violates these rules, and to act as We deem appropriate in the event of any violation. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. We will investigate occurrences which may involve such violations and may involve, cooperate with, and make disclosures to law enforcement authorities in identifying and prosecuting users who are involved in such violations.

COMMUNITY GUIDELINES FOR APPS

Please treat each other with respect.

Healthline’s mission is to empower people through support, hope, and knowledge. We strive to ensure all members feel welcome, safe, and respected. Following the guidelines below helps to keep the community safe for everyone.

THE RULES:

  • Any manner of bullying, intimidation, or harassment is forbidden.
  • This is not a dating application; using the App in that way will result in expulsion from the community. 
  • You may not post pornographic or violent content in messages, in group chats, or on your profile. This includes adding photographs, drawings, or comments, even as a joke. Depictions of nudity in non-sexual contexts, such as images of your surgery scars, are okay.
  • Do not ask other members to take the conversation to another messaging platform such as WhatsApp, Google Hangouts, Gmail, etc. 
  • The promotion, advertising, or selling of any goods or services is not allowed. Unauthorized content will be removed from the App.
  • Do not attempt to convert other members to your religious beliefs or otherwise make them feel uncomfortable. 
  • It should go without saying, but all illegal activity is prohibited and may be reported to the appropriate authorities.
  • Finally, don’t spam anyone.

REPORTING

We rely on you, our Apps community members, to report other members or content that violates these guidelines. Violating these Community Guidelines has consequences, which may include removal of content, suspension of posting privileges, or even expulsion from the Apps community. Please keep in mind that while something may be disagreeable to you, it does not necessarily violate our Community Guidelines.

TO REPORT ANOTHER MEMBER OR CONTENT

When reporting another member, you have two options:

  • Block Member: This blocks both parties from showing up in the other person’s Member list, Home activity feed, and Group discussions. In addition, 1:1 communication is not possible. 
  • Report and Block Member: In addition to blocking the member, this creates a report, marking this member as someone who has broken the community guidelines. 

You can report and/or block a member from the following places: 

  • 1:1 chats 
    • When you receive a match request from another member, you can accept, decline, or choose to report and block.
    • After you are already connected with another member, you may click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner in your private messaging screen and choose “Report” or “Block” from the menu options.
  • Group chats 
    • Click on the member's profile picture and tap “Block Member” or “Report and Block Member.”
    • Long-press on the offensive message and select “Block Member” or “Report and Block Member.”
  • Home
    • Click on the member's profile picture and tap “Block Member” or “Report and Block Member.”
    • Press the three dots in the upper right hand corner of the offensive message and select ‘‘Block Member” or “Report and Block Member.”

REPRODUCTION OF CONTENT ON OTHER WEBSITES

Any Content placed on your website must be accredited to the applicable Website, with links placed to the original article on the applicable Website. You are permitted to display the following on your website, provided you do so in a way that gives full credit to us as the original publisher and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it:

  • An active, follow link to the original full article on the applicable Website. 
  • A canonical in your header code. Instructions for how to set a canonical here: https://yoast.com/rel-canonical/.

However: 

  • You may not place, or use any software to place, any complete articles from the applicable Website on your website, unless you have contacted us first and have received written permission from us to place the entire article online — these full terms of use will apply.
  • You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you.
  • Use of any and all Healthline logos are not permitted.
  • You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval, or endorsement on our part where none exists.
  • You may not directly or indirectly suggest any endorsement or approval by the applicable Websites of your website, products, content, or any views expressed within your website.

Our Content may only be placed on websites that: 

  • Do not promote, facilitate, or encourage Illegal activities (and do not display actionable Content under U.K. or U.S. law).
  • Do not promote, facilitate, or encourage hatred of any form (including, but not limited to, racism, terrorism, violence, and discrimination of any kind).
  • Do not have misleading, pornographic, or defamatory content.
  • Do not display any material that is in breach of any third-party intellectual property rights.

If you use a script to gather the information from our RSS feeds, you must use a server-side scripting language such as PHP or ASP, not JavaScript. You must gather the data from the feeds at regular intervals of an hour or more and use a database to store it. Using a script that gathers data from our site with every page load is not permitted.

Healthline provides the Content at no charge and you may not charge users specifically for accessing Healthline Content, nor attempt to sell our Content in any way.

Healthline reserves the right to restrict, suspend, or terminate any Content, your access to Content, the availability of Content or these Terms of Use at any time, without liability. You agree to remove all of the Content from your website upon receiving notice of termination from Healthline. You may terminate these Terms of Use at any time by removing all Content from your website and destroying all copies of our Content in your possession.

LIABILITY OF HEALTHLINE AND ITS LICENSORS

BECAUSE SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW EXCLUSIONS OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY LASTS, OR THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE BELOW LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

The Services and the Content are provided on an "as is" basis and your use of the Services and the Content is at your own risk. When using the Services, information will be transmitted over a medium that may be beyond the control and jurisdiction of Healthline. Accordingly, Healthline assumes no liability for or relating to the delay, failure, interruption, or corruption of any data or other information transmitted in connection with use of the Services.

HEALTHLINE, ITS AFFILIATES, LICENSORS, AND CONTRACTORS, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS, AND FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Without limiting the foregoing, Healthline, its affiliates, and its licensors make no representations or warranties about the following:

  1. The accuracy, reliability, completeness, currentness, or timeliness of the Content, software, text, graphics, links, or communications provided on or through the use of the Services.
  2. The satisfaction of any government regulations requiring disclosure of information on prescription drug products or the approval or compliance of any software tools with regard to the Content contained on the Services.
  3. Damages to, interruption of service or viruses that may infect your computer or telecommunications equipment arising from your access to or use of Services and its contents.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Healthline, its affiliates, licensors, contractors, or any of their respective officers, directors, employees or agents, or any third parties mentioned on the Services be liable for any damages (including, without limitation, incidental and consequential damages, personal injury/wrongful death, lost profits, or damages resulting from lost data or business interruption) even if Healthline has been previously advised of the possibility of such damages, whether in an action under contract, negligence or any other theory, arising out of or in connection with the use, inability to use or performance of the information and Content and the Services. These limitations shall apply notwithstanding any failure of essential purpose or the existence of any limited remedy. Healthline is not liable for any personal injury, including death, or infringement caused by your use or misuse of the Services, Content, or Comments (defined below). Any claims arising in connection with your use of the Services, any Content, or Comments must be brought within one (1) year of the date of the event giving rise to such action occurred. Remedies under these Terms of Use are exclusive and are limited to those expressly provided for in these Terms of Use.

For additional disclaimers and information regarding health content, please read our HEALTH INFORMATION DISCLAIMERS, which are incorporated herein by reference.

ADVERTISEMENTS, SEARCHES, AND LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Healthline may select certain sites as priority responses to search terms you enter, and Healthline may agree to allow advertisers to respond to certain search terms with advertisements or sponsored content. Healthline does not recommend and does not endorse the content on any third-party websites. Healthline is not responsible for the content of linked third-party sites, sites framed within the Services, third-party sites provided as search results, or third-party advertisements, and does not make any representations regarding their content or accuracy. Your use of third-party websites is at your own risk and subject to the terms of use for such sites. Healthline does not endorse any product advertised on the Content or Services.

INDEMNITY

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Healthline, its officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, and suppliers harmless from and against any claims, actions or demands, liabilities, and settlements, including without limitation reasonable legal and accounting fees, resulting from, or alleged to result from, (i) your use of and access of the Services, (ii) your violation of any term of these Terms of Use, (iii) your violation of any third party right, including without limitation any copyright, property, or privacy right, or (iv) any claim that your use of the Services caused damage to a third party.

LOCATION AND SURVIVAL

Healthline is based in San Francisco, CA, in the United States of America. Healthline makes no claims that the Content is appropriate or may be downloaded outside of the United States. Access to the Content may not be legal by certain persons or in certain countries. If you access the Services from outside the United States, you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with the laws of your jurisdiction.

The following provisions survive the expiration or termination of this Terms of Use for any reason whatsoever: Location and Survival, Liability of Healthline and its Licensors, Comments, Indemnity, Jurisdiction, No Waiver, and Complete Agreement and Amendment.

JURISDICTION

You expressly agree that exclusive jurisdiction for any dispute with Healthline, or in any way relating to your use of the Services and/or the Content, resides in the courts of the State of California and you further agree and expressly consent to the exercise of personal jurisdiction in the courts of the State of California in connection with any such dispute including any claim involving Healthline or its affiliates, subsidiaries, employees, contractors, officers, directors, telecommunication providers, and content providers.

These Terms of Use are governed by the internal substantive laws of the State of California, without respect to its conflict of laws principles. If any provision of these Terms of Use is found to be invalid by any court having competent jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of these Terms of Use, which shall remain in full force and effect. No waiver of any of these Terms of Use shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or any other term or condition.

COMMENTS

All comments, feedback, suggestions, ideas, and other submissions disclosed, submitted, or offered to Healthline on or by the Content and/or Services or otherwise disclosed, submitted, or offered in connection with your use of the Content and/or Services (collectively, “Comments”) shall be and remain Healthline’s property. Such disclosure, submission, or offer of any Comments shall constitute an assignment to Healthline of all worldwide right, title, and interest in all copyrights and other intellectual properties in the Comments. Healthline is and shall be under no obligation (1) to maintain any Comments in confidence; (2) to pay to user any compensation for any Comments; or (3) to respond to any user Comments.

You agree not to post on or transmit through the Services any Comments or other material that:

  • is unlawful, libelous, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, profane, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable in any manner;
  • is an advertisement or promotion for any product or service that had not been approved in writing by Healthline;
  • is false, misleading, or constitutes an unfair or deceptive trade practice;
  • promotes the use of alcohol, tobacco, or any illegal substance;
  • constitutes a breach of your contractual and/or fiduciary obligations or an invasion of privacy;
  • infringes on any third party patent, trademark, trade name, corporate name, trade secret, copyright, publicity, or other proprietary or property rights; or
  • contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms or other code, scripts, routines, files or programs designed to alter, interrupt, impede, limit, or destroy the performance and/or functioning of any software, hardware, or other equipment.

You further agree that any Comments you provide do not contain any confidential, proprietary, or trade secret information of any third party, and will not be treated as confidential by Healthline. Healthline shall have no obligation to store, keep copies of, or return any Comments. Healthline further reserves the right (but does not have the obligation), in its sole discretion, to modify, delete, or remove any Comments from the Services that it deems to be in violation of the foregoing requirements.

Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, Healthline shall have the right to:

  • Remove or refuse to post any Comments for any or no reason in our sole discretion.
  • Take any action with respect to any Comments that We deem necessary or appropriate in our sole discretion, including if We believe that such Comment violates the Terms of Use, infringes any intellectual property right or other right of any person or entity, threatens the personal safety of users of the Services or the public, or could create liability for Healthline.
  • Disclose your identity or other information about you to any third party who claims that material posted by you violates their rights, including their intellectual property rights or their right to privacy.
  • Take appropriate legal action, including without limitation, referral to law enforcement, for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Services.
  • Terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Services for any or no reason, including without limitation, any violation of these Terms of Use.

Without limiting the foregoing, We have the right to fully cooperate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing Us to disclose the identity or other information of anyone posting any materials on or through the Services. YOU WAIVE AND HOLD HARMLESS THE COMPANY AND ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, LICENSORS, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS FROM ANY CLAIMS RESULTING FROM ANY ACTION TAKEN BY ANY OF THE FOREGOING PARTIES DURING OR AS A RESULT OF ITS INVESTIGATIONS AND FROM ANY ACTIONS TAKEN AS A CONSEQUENCE OF INVESTIGATIONS BY EITHER SUCH PARTIES OR LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES.

However, We cannot review all material before it is posted on the Services and cannot ensure prompt removal of objectionable material after it has been posted. Accordingly, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, We assume no liability for any action or inaction regarding transmissions, communications, or content provided by any user or third party. We have no liability or responsibility to anyone for performance or nonperformance of the activities described in this section.

Third-Party Content

Healthline may from time to time post Content supplied by third parties and users (collectively “Third-Party Content”). In addition, if you register to receive our free newsletters and emails that promote the Services (“Newsletters”), you may receive Newsletters containing Third-Party Content or advertising that was sponsored by third parties.

Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties in the Third-Party Content are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of Healthline. Healthline does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any Third-Party Content, nor its merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Additional disclaimers and limitation of liability are noted below.

NOTICES FOR REPORTING AND MAKING CLAIMS OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

This policy is intended to comply with the requirements of the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Healthline will investigate notices of copyright infringement and take appropriate actions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c)(2) (“DMCA”). If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide Healthline’s copyright agent the written information specified below:

  • An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest.
  • A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed upon.
  • A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Services.
  • Your address, telephone number, and email address.
  • A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
  • A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Pursuant to the DMCA, written notification of claimed copyright infringement must be submitted to the following designated agent for these Websites:

Healthline Media, Inc.
Attn: DMCA Copyright Agent
660 Third Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94109

ViaI email: info@healthline.com

YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS

All information We collect on the Services is subject to our Privacy Policy. By using the Services, you consent to all actions taken by Us with respect to your information in compliance with the Privacy Policy, which is available at http://www.healthline.com/health/privacy-policy.

Please send any concerns regarding our products or services by clicking here.

COMPLETE AGREEMENT AND AMENDMENTS

Except as expressly provided in a particular “legal notice” on the Services, these Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and Healthline with respect to the use of the Services and Content.

Healthline, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to update, revise, supplement, and to otherwise modify these Terms of Use, and to impose new or additional terms and conditions on your use of the Services from time to time. Such updates, revisions, supplements, modifications and additional rules, policies, terms and conditions (collectively referred to in these Terms of Use as “Additional Terms”) will be effective immediately and incorporated into these Terms of Use upon notice thereof, which may be given by any reasonable means, including by posting to the Services. Your continued viewing or use of the Services following such notice will be deemed to conclusively indicate your acceptance of any and all such Additional Terms.

TERMINATION

You may stop using the Services at any time (subject to the surviving terms set forth herein). Healthline also may terminate these Terms of Use and/or Services at any time and may do so immediately without notice. Accordingly Healthline may deny you access to the Services, if in Healthline’s sole discretion you fail to comply with any term or provision of the Terms of Use.

NO WAIVER

Healthline’s failure to enforce strict performance of any provision of these Terms of Use will not constitute a waiver of Healthline’s right to subsequently enforce such a provision or any other provision of this Agreement, nor will any delay or omission on the part of Healthline to exercise or take advantage of any right or remedy that Healthline has or may have hereunder, operate as a waiver of any right or remedy.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Thank you for your cooperation. We hope you find our Services helpful and convenient to use. Questions or comments regarding these Services, including any reports of non-functioning links, should be directed to:

Healthline Media, Inc.

660 Third Street, 2nd Floor

San Francisco, CA 94107

Via email: info@healthline.com