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Utilities Kingston website

Social media terms of use

These Terms of Use apply to you when you communicate with Utilities Kingston through social media websites, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, so please read them carefully. 

Thanks for following an official Utilities Kingston account on social media. We hope that they point you in the right direction to find information about your utility services.

What you can expect from our online updates

Our accounts vary in terms of frequency and content, but usually publish a few times a day on weekdays (but usually less on holidays observed in Ontario). We’ll publish helpful information about your utility services and link you to more detailed information and resources when available. During business hours, we work hard to share regular, timely updates on utility emergencies such as power outages.

We make our best effort to respond quickly to direct questions (e.g., private messages, @ mentions on Twitter and comments on Facebook) during business hours.

If you’re connecting with us about utility emergencies, we urge you to call us using our 24-hour emergency line at 613-546-1181. This line is monitored 24/7 and is private and secure.

If you need emergency medical, police or other similar services, please call 9-1-1 to help you reach the emergency service you need.

Things to consider

  • Accounts will be monitored during normal business hours, unless otherwise specified — during this time we make our best effort to respond to your questions.
  • Comments that do not follow our Terms of Use or one or more of the following rules may be removed, and users that ignore these comment policies may be blocked.  
  • For any matter that is confidential, please contact us as described on our website.
  • For any matter that is related to a utility emergency, please call our 24-hour emergency line at 613-546-1181.
  • Don’t forget that the social media service providers (such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube) also have additional or different terms of use. You should carefully review the terms and conditions that apply to you before obtaining the particular service.
  • Although we will work hard to help you, we can’t guarantee that we will understand your question completely or answer it accurately. By contacting us through a social media site, you acknowledge that any response we provide to you through the same site:
    • is intended to provide helpful information or resources
    • is not considered to be definitive advice or guaranteed to solve your issue
  • Although we work hard to provide complete and accurate information, the limitations of social media (e.g., character limits or other reasons) may make that difficult and we make no warranty as to the completeness and accuracy of information. 

Commenting policy

Help is keep this a safe place of kindness and respect:

Stay on topic. We encourage focused, thoughtful opinions, comments and discussion that respond or relate to a particular topic, new initiative or upcoming event. Comments that are not related to our content or attempt to derail the conversation may be removed.

Be respectful. If you choose to post content, please keep in mind that you must not:

  • mislead us or anyone else as to your identity or the origin of the posted content, or falsely claim to represent a person, organization or entity
  • post or transmit any message, content or link to content that:
    • you either do not own or do not have the necessary rights to post or transmit;
    • is in violation of any law, rule or regulation or any third party right, or promotes illegal activity or conduct that would contravene any law, rule or regulation or third party right;
    • is abusive, hateful, homophobic, discriminatory, malicious, aggressive, threatening, violent, sexist, harassing, inflammatory, indecent, tortious, defamatory, knowingly false, misleading, deceptive, vulgar, obscene, offensive, scandalous, sexually explicit, profane or otherwise objectionable;
    • incites hatred, racism, bigotry or physical harm of any kind;
    • is unsolicited or unauthorized, such as unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional material, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letter," "pyramid scheme," or any other form of solicitation (commercial or otherwise);
    • is in breach of any confidence;
    • includes personal data or information about others; or
    • can result in us being liable to anyone else under any intellectual property rights law.

We may not respond to posts that violate any of these rules and we may notify the social media service provider of your violation. If we suffer costs or damages as a result of your violating these rules, we expect you to cover our costs and damages.

While we may moderate posts, we are not required to, nor should you expect that we will, take action in response to any content posted on our page or feed. The views expressed by others represent their own views and are not endorsed or approved by us, nor do we endorse or approve any events or other activities posted by a user.

Our employees moderate our social media sites and their contents. Any conduct that is discriminatory or harassing will be removed and the user may be banned from future use of Utilities Kingston channels. 

Utilities Kingston will not tolerate workplace harassment, workplace sexual harassment or discrimination and will take all reasonable and practical measures to prevent and protect employees from these acts. Utilities Kingston recognizes that every person possesses the right to a workplace free from discrimination, and a workplace that promotes dignity and respect for all. Utilities Kingston will adhere to the spirit and intent of all applicable legislation governing workplace harassment, including, but not limited to, the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

We reserve the right not to keep any content that you post on our page or feed, and to remove, edit or move, at any time, any content posted that does not comply with these Terms of Use or for any other appropriate reason.

We will cooperate with law enforcement officials and comply with any court order with respect to any claim or investigation due to any content posted and will provide such content and provide information regarding your identity as well as other relevant information.

  • Avoid posting personal or confidential information. Our social media accounts are publicly accessible and posts are visible to the public. Therefore, please don’t post any personal information about you or anyone else!

Do not solicit personal information from other users. All or part of any posts containing personal or confidential information (e.g. a person’s home address or account number) may be removed.

To the extent that we collect any personal information through a social media website, we will handle it according to what we say in our privacy policy.

If you choose to communicate with Utilities Kingston through a social media channel, please note that we don’t have any control over the social media channel and therefore we have no responsibility or liability for the manner in which those organizations collect, use, disclose, secure or otherwise treat your personal information. You should review the privacy policies of any social media platform before providing any personal or other information. Others may not comply with the same privacy laws, policies and practices that we do! Please be careful.

  • Use informative links. If you provide external links for citations or advancing discussion through additional information, do not post links to advertising or solicitation content, spam/malware or other irrelevant material.

Links to other websites

We may display links to other websites because they may be of interest to you. Just to be clear, providing a link to them doesn’t mean that we endorse or recommend them to you.

Also, since these other websites are controlled and maintained by other people, we can’t be sure that the link will still work when you click on it or that the service or content is useful, appropriate, virus-free or reliable. Therefore, you need to decide for yourself whether you want to follow any link or to agree to receive or rely on any service or content that is made available to you. 

Warranty disclaimer

Use of our social media sites and their contents is at your own risk. They and all of their content are provided "as is". You must not rely on any content published on or linked from our social media sites without first making your own inquiries to verify it is accurate, current and complete. We do not make, and expressly disclaim, any representations, warranties, covenants and conditions, express or implied, arising out of operation of law, course of performance, course of dealing, usage of trade or otherwise, including any express or implied warranties and conditions of: merchantability; merchantable quality; fitness for a particular purpose; non-infringement; safety; quality; freedom from defects or that defects will be corrected; uninterrupted, virus-free or error-free use of our social media site; or accuracy, currency, reliability, completeness or appropriateness relating to the content of them.

Limitation of liability

Under no circumstances will Utilities Kingston, Kingston Hydro or its Directors and their employees, agents and independent contractors have any responsibility or liability for any loss or damage whatsoever (including without limitation direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, punitive, exemplary or other damages, and including without limitation to any loss of profit, costs, expenses, harm to business, business interruption, reputation, loss of information or programs or data, loss of savings, loss of revenue, loss of goodwill, loss of tangible or intangible property, legal fees or legal costs, wasted management or office time or damages of any kind whatsoever), whether based in contract, tort, negligence or any other legal basis, arising out of or in connection with our social media sites, any linked website or linked social media platform (including without limitation any damages suffered as a result of the use, inability to use or failure of, or any omissions or inaccuracies on, our social media sites, any linked websites or linked social media platforms, or any of the services or content of the foregoing), even if Utilities Kingston has been specifically advised of the possibility of such damage or loss, or if such damage or loss was foreseeable.

In closing

Utilities Kingston reserves the right to supplement, remove or modify these Terms of Use at any time and from time to time without notice. Please check this website regularly for any changes. If you continue to access our social media sites following a change to these Terms of Use, you will be deemed to have accepted the changes.

If any term or condition set out in these Terms of Use is held to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, the remaining terms and conditions will continue in full force.

These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the Government of Canada as applicable.

Thank you for helping us foster a respectful exchange of ideas!