Terms of Service

National Veteran Health Survey | veteranhealthregistry.org 
A Program of Blue Ridge Mountain Foundation, Inc.
Effective Date: April 12, 2026

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using veteranhealthregistry.org (the "Site"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use this Site. These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Blue Ridge Mountain Foundation, Inc., a North Carolina 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation ("Foundation," "we," "us," or "our").

2. About the Project and 501(c)(3) Status

The National Veteran Health Survey is a charitable advocacy program of Blue Ridge Mountain Foundation, Inc. (EIN: 88-2645356). We are an independent nonprofit and are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a part of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense (DoD), or any other government agency. Donations are generally tax deductible. Please consult your tax advisor.

3. Consent to Electronic Signatures (E-SIGN Act)

In accordance with the E-SIGN Act and UETA, your use of the Site or clicking any "Submit" or "Agree" button constitutes your electronic signature. You agree that this electronic record has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature and that you intend to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

4. Not Medical or Legal Advice

The Foundation is not a healthcare provider or a law firm. All content, tools, and reports provided on this Site are for informational and advocacy purposes only.

Nothing on this Site constitutes medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Nothing on this Site constitutes legal advice or the formation of an attorney-client relationship. Always seek the advice of a physician for health concerns or a licensed attorney for legal matters.

5. Prohibited Uses and Enforcement

No Re-Identification: You are prohibited from attempting to de-anonymize or re-identify any survey participant.

No Scraping: Unauthorized use of bots, crawlers, or automated tools to extract data is prohibited.

Indemnity: You agree to release, indemnify, and hold harmless the Foundation and its officers, directors, and volunteers from any claims arising out of your own misuse of the Site, your violation of these Terms, or your Bad Actor activity. This indemnity does not apply to claims arising from the Foundation's own negligence or misconduct.

Liquidated Damages: Any Bad Actor who attempts re-identification or unauthorized scraping agrees to pay the Foundation liquidated damages of $10,000 per incident or $250 per record accessed, whichever is greater, plus reasonable legal fees. The parties acknowledge that these amounts represent a reasonable estimate of actual harm, including costs of investigation, remediation, notification, and reputational damage, and are not intended as a penalty. This provision applies solely to commercial or malicious actors and not to good-faith participants.

6. Jurisdictional Compliance and Self-Exclusion

This Site is intended for use only where lawful. If you access this Site from a jurisdiction where these Terms or the Site content are prohibited, you do not have permission to use the Site. You are solely responsible for compliance with local laws. This offer is void where prohibited by law.

7. Data Integrity and Right to Sanitize

The Foundation reserves the right to audit, flag, or permanently delete any survey submission determined to be fraudulent, automated, malicious, or intended to skew the integrity of the registry. We reserve the right to use technical metadata, including IP addresses, to identify and prosecute individuals engaging in such activity.

8. Data Methodology and Statistical Transparency

All data in this registry is self-reported by participants and is not clinically verified, peer-reviewed, or certified by any medical authority. The Foundation publishes a plain-language Data Methodology Statement at veteranhealthregistry.org/methodology that explains how data is collected, stored, banded, deduplicated, weighted, and presented in statistical reports. Users and researchers relying on registry statistics should review that page before drawing conclusions. Key disclosures include:

Year banding: Birth year and service years are stored and reported in three-year bands, not exact years, to reduce re-identification risk.

Deduplication limitations: Because submissions are anonymous and token-based, exact deduplication is not possible. The registry may contain duplicate entries from participants who submitted more than once. Statistical outputs are presented with this limitation disclosed.

Weighting: Where applicable, statistical comparisons against general population data such as CDC or NHANES datasets are noted and the methodology for any weighting or normalization is described in the Data Methodology Statement.

Self-reported nature: No submission has been clinically verified. Data is presented as participant-reported and should be interpreted accordingly by researchers, attorneys, and advocates using this data to support claims or policy arguments.

The Foundation makes no warranty regarding the precision of aggregate statistics but is committed to presenting data honestly and with full disclosure of its limitations.

9. Privacy, HIPAA Notice, and Data Storage

This Site is not operated by a covered entity as defined under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Submissions to this registry are voluntary, self-reported, and non-clinical. HIPAA does not govern this Site or the data collected here.

The Foundation's data architecture is designed to minimize privacy risk for all participants. Specifically:

Participant email addresses are used solely for one-time submission verification and are permanently deleted from the registry upon confirmation.

No email address is stored in the same database as any health or service data.

The only persistent identifier linked to a health record is an anonymous token that is not connected to any personal information.

Subscription requests for location or condition updates are stored in a completely separate database with no connection to health record data.

For complete details on what is and is not stored, please review our Privacy Policy at veteranhealthregistry.org/privacy.

10. Intellectual Property

All original content, logos, and data compilations on this Site are the property of the Foundation. "National Veteran Health Survey" is a service mark of Blue Ridge Mountain Foundation, Inc. We grant you a limited, revocable license for personal, non-commercial use of the Site. You may not commercially exploit our data without express written consent.

11. Affiliate and Third-Party Links

This Site may contain affiliate links or links to third-party resources. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. We do not control and are not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or outcomes of third-party websites or services.

12. Disclaimer of Warranties

This Site is provided on an "as is" basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Foundation disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and accuracy of data. We make no guarantee regarding the accuracy of third-party datasets, such as CDC or NHANES, used in our reporting.

13. Dispute Resolution and Right to Cure

Notice Requirement: You must provide the Foundation with a written Notice of Dispute via our contact form at least 30 days before taking any formal legal action.

Right to Cure: You agree to give the Foundation 30 days to investigate and, if necessary, resolve or cure the issue.

Mandatory Arbitration: If not resolved within 30 days, all disputes shall be settled by final and binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, with proceedings conducted in North Carolina. Individual claims seeking less than $1,000 in damages may, at the claimant's option, be brought in small claims court in lieu of arbitration.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Foundation's total cumulative liability for any claims shall not exceed the total amount paid by you to the Foundation or $100.00, whichever is lower.

15. Force Majeure

The Foundation is not liable for any failure of the Site or data loss caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, cyber attacks, or network failures.

16. Class Action Waiver

All dispute resolution proceedings will be conducted on an individual basis only, and not in a class, consolidated, or representative action.

17. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina. Any legal proceedings not subject to arbitration shall take place exclusively in the courts located in North Carolina.

18. Entire Agreement and Severability

These Terms and our Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and the Foundation. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force.

19. Contact Us

For questions or to submit a Notice of Dispute, please use the contact form on veteranhealthregistry.org.

National Veteran Health Survey is a program of Blue Ridge Mountain Foundation, Inc., a North Carolina 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN: 88-2645356). All rights reserved.