Privacy Policy

Who we are

This website and web forum are operated by 1st Steps for Vets, a nonprofit dedicated to helping Veterans access their benefits through the VA, with the support of Jackson & MacNichol, a law firm specializing in Veterans’ disability cases.

Posts & Comments

When visitors post or leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

If you post or leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

User posts, articles, and other content on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who we share your data with

This forum is sponsored and supported by Jackson & MacNichol and information you provide to 1st Steps For Vets may be shared with Jackson & MacNichol and their affiliated vendors for marketing purposes. Your information will never be shared or sold to any other parties except as required by law or court order.

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a post or comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left posts or comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service and other information may be shared with our affiliates as described under the heading of “Who we share your data with” above.

Terms of Use

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE FORUMS AT VADISABILITYFORUM.COM.

From time to time, 1st Steps For Vets, Inc., (“1st Steps For Vets”), may elect to provide online community resources, such as online message boards, newsgroups, chat rooms, Wikis, blogs and/or other interactive forums (collectively “Community”) that can be accessed and contributed to by registered users of this 1st Steps For Vets forum. This Community provides opportunities to interact with your peers in order to share knowledge, news, and information about the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) claims process for Veterans’ benefits and veterans disability benefits generally. You may post regarding any VA disability benefit. Your participation in the Community is voluntary and is governed by these VADISABILITYFORUM.COM Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) and 1st Steps For Vets’ Privacy Policy, including all disclaimers of liability included therein. 1st Steps For Vets reserves the right to modify or update these Terms at any time in its discretion. Your continued participation in the Community serves as your agreement to such modified or updated Terms. BY INDICATING YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS OR PARTICIPATING IN THE FORUM, YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT YOU: (I) ARE AUTHORIZED TO SIGN FOR, ACCEPT, AND BIND YOURSELF AND ANY OTHER PARTY ON WHOSE BEHALF YOU PLAN TO USE THE COMMUNITY; AND (II) AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS.

Rules of Conduct

The purpose of the Community is to voluntarily exchange information about the VA claims process and Veterans’ benefits. You expressly agree not to use any part of the Community to:

post content that is unlawful, malicious, misleading, defamatory, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, vulgar, obscene, libelous, objectionable, inappropriate, improper, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable;
impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, 1st Steps For Vets or a 1st Steps For Vets employee, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person, group, or entity; forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any content submitted to any part of the Community;
post any content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as personally identifiable information (“PII”), or protected health information (“PHI”));
post any content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy rights of any third party; post any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation;
post any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy, or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
act illegally or unethically;
or collect or store personal data about other users.

You are solely responsible for the content of your computer and any transmissions you make when using the Community.

Posts on any part of the Community may be edited, moved, deleted, or removed in 1st Steps For Vets’ discretion. 1st Steps For Vets reserves the right to temporarily or permanently withdraw your Community membership in its discretion.

1st Steps For Vets does not guarantee a response to any post on the Community. You understand that posts on the Community are addressed to your peers and not 1st Steps For Vets and 1st Steps For Vets does not guarantee that any issue will be addressed on the Community.

1st Steps For Vets does not make any warranty or guarantee that any information posted on any part of the Community, whether or not such posting is made by a 1st Steps For Vets employee or employee of one of its affiliates, is accurate, complete, or in any way reliable. Community posts represent the statements and opinions of the individual user and are not necessarily the opinion of 1st Steps For Vets or its employees, partners, or affiliates. 1st Steps For Vets does not approve or disapprove of any Community post but reserves the right to remove posts that violate these rules.

Privacy Policy & Terms Of Use