Last updated: July 20, 2026

Please read these Terms of Service (“Terms”) carefully before using https://www.lakemchenryscanner.com (the “Service”), operated by SJB Business Solutions, Inc., D.B.A. Lake and McHenry County Scanner, (“us”, “we”, or “our”).

Your access to and use of the Service is conditioned on your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms. They apply to everyone who accesses or uses the Service. By accessing or using the Service you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you disagree with any part of them, you may not access the Service.

How we handle personal information is described in our Privacy Policy. Please read it — your use of the Service also constitutes your agreement to its terms. By using the Service you confirm that you have read and understood these Terms and our Privacy Policy, and that you agree to them. If you do not, please stop using the Service.

1. Who may use the Service

The Service is not intended for children under the age of 13. You may not create an account, post a comment, or provide personal information to us if you are under 13. If you are between 13 and 17, you must have the permission of a parent or legal guardian before creating an account or posting a comment.

You agree to use the Service only for lawful purposes, and you acknowledge that failing to do so may subject you to civil and criminal liability. Unless we specify otherwise, the Service is intended for your personal use only.

2. Reader accounts

Some parts of the Service — including posting comments — require an account.

Creating an account. You may create an account with an email address and password, or by signing in with Facebook, Google, or Apple. What we receive from each of those providers, and how we use it, is described in our Privacy Policy.

Accuracy and identity. You agree that the information you provide is accurate and kept up to date. You may not impersonate, imitate, or pretend to be another person, and you may not create an account using someone else’s name, likeness, or identity.

One account per person. You may not maintain multiple accounts to evade moderation, a suspension, or a ban.

Account security. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account, whether or not you authorized it — including use by anyone who obtains your credentials, with or without your authorization, or who has access to a device where your account is signed in.

You may not authorize others to use your account, and you may not sub-license, transfer, sell, or assign your account or these Terms to anyone else without our written approval. Any attempt to do so is null and void and is a material breach of these Terms.

If you believe your account is no longer secure, act immediately: change your password if your account has one, or sign out of all devices and revoke this site’s access from your Facebook, Google, or Apple account settings if you sign in that way. Then contact us at [email protected].

Deleting your account. You may delete your account, and how to do so is described in our Privacy Policy. What happens to your personal information and your comments is described there as well.

3. Community rules for comments and other content

The comment sections exist for discussion of local news. When you post a comment or submit any other content to the Service, you agree that you will not:

  1. use obscene, indecent, or offensive language, or post anything defamatory, abusive, bullying, harassing, threatening, hateful, racist, or violent, or engage in ethnic slurs, religious intolerance, homophobia, or personal attacks;
  2. post sexually explicit material, or solicit sexual contact through the Service;
  3. post junk mail, spam, advertising, or commercial offers, or repeat the same posting multiple times;
  4. impersonate any person or organization, or misrepresent your affiliation with anyone;
  5. post material that invades another person’s privacy, including publishing someone’s personal information without their consent;
  6. post material that references or encourages conduct that would be a criminal offense or give rise to civil liability, or that otherwise violates any local, state, federal, or international law;
  7. post instructions for the manufacture or use of weapons or explosives;
  8. post material that infringes the copyright, trademark, trade secret, or other rights of any third party, unless you have the rights holder’s permission;
  9. disrupt, overwhelm, attack, modify, reverse engineer, or interfere with the Service or its software, hardware, or servers, or interfere with anyone else’s use of the Service; or
  10. attempt to access our servers by any means other than ordinary use of a web browser or an application we officially publish, including by masquerading as an administrator.

You are responsible for everything you post. Information you post in public areas of the Service is visible to everyone.

4. Content you post

You retain ownership of the content you post. By posting messages, uploading text, graphics, photographs, images, video or audio, inputting data, or otherwise communicating through the Service, you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, enhance, transmit, distribute, publicly perform, display, or sublicense that content, together with the display name and any information about you shown alongside it, in any medium now existing or later developed and for any purpose, including commercial purposes, and to authorize others to do so.

One exception, for accounts created with Facebook, Google, or Apple. Where your display name, profile picture, or other identifying details were supplied to us by one of those providers because you signed in with it, the license above is limited to our own use of those details on and in connection with the Service — showing who wrote a comment. We do not sublicense provider-supplied information to anyone else, and we do not authorize others to use it. Those providers’ terms do not allow it, and our Privacy Policy says the same. This exception does not affect the license you grant over the content you actually write or upload.

You represent that you have the right to grant this license for everything you post.

5. Moderation and enforcement

We reserve the right, but undertake no duty, to review, edit, move, or delete any content posted to the Service, at our sole discretion and without notice. We are not obligated to monitor content, and our decision not to remove something is not an endorsement of it.

We may suspend or terminate your account, remove your content, or restrict your access to the Service or any part of it — immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason or no reason, including if we believe you have breached these Terms, and in addition to any other remedies available to us.

We may also post, from time to time, additional rules of usage that apply to specific parts of the Service. Such additional rules will be posted in the relevant part of the Service, and your continued use constitutes your agreement to comply with them.

Provisions of these Terms which by their nature should survive termination will survive, including ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnification, and limitations of liability.

6. Comments by others are not endorsed by us

We do not necessarily endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify, or agree with comments, opinions, or statements posted by users of the Service. Any information or material posted by a user is the view and responsibility of the person who posted it and does not necessarily represent our views. We and our third-party service providers are not responsible and have no liability to you with respect to material posted by others, including defamatory, offensive, or illicit material, even material that violates these Terms.

7. Our content

The Service contains text, photographs, images, video, audio, software, code, and other material provided by us or our licensors, including the organization, design, compilation, and “look and feel” of the Service and the advertising on it (“Website Content”). Website Content is protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws and is our property or that of our licensors.

Copying, reproducing, publishing, displaying, rearranging, redistributing, modifying, revising, altering, cropping, resizing, reverse engineering, moving, deleting, or making any other use or change to any Website Content, directly or indirectly — including the removal or alteration of advertising — is prohibited except as permitted by copyright law or with our express written permission.

You may not make commercial or other unauthorized use — by publication, re-transmission, distribution, performance, caching, or otherwise — of any material obtained through the Service, except as permitted by copyright law or as we expressly permit in writing.

8. Copyright complaints

If you believe material on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice to [email protected] including:

  1. a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the right allegedly infringed;
  2. identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or a representative list if multiple works at one site are covered by a single notice;
  3. identification of the material claimed to be infringing, with information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate it;
  4. information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact you, such as an address, telephone number, and email address;
  5. a statement that you have a good faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
  6. a statement that the information in the notice is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the right allegedly infringed.

9. Links to other websites

The Service may contain links to third-party websites or services that we do not own or control. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party website or service. We are not responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods, or services. We strongly advise you to read the terms and privacy policies of any third-party website you visit.

10. Disclaimer of warranties

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU ARE USING THE SERVICE AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, AND WE, OUR AFFILIATES, AND OUR THIRD-PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS AND IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR ANY OTHER WARRANTY, CONDITION, GUARANTEE, OR REPRESENTATION, WHETHER ORAL, IN WRITING, OR IN ELECTRONIC FORM, INCLUDING AS TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY INFORMATION ON THE SERVICE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT ACCESS TO THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, OR THAT THERE WILL BE NO FAILURES, ERRORS, OMISSIONS, LOSS OF TRANSMITTED INFORMATION, OR VIRUSES.

11. Limitation of liability

WE, OUR AFFILIATES, AND OUR THIRD-PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THESE TERMS, THE PROVISION OF THE SERVICE, YOUR ACCESS TO OR INABILITY TO ACCESS THE SERVICE — INCLUDING FOR VIRUSES ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN OBTAINED FROM THE SERVICE — OR YOUR USE OF OR RELIANCE ON THE SERVICE OR ANY INFORMATION ON IT, REGARDLESS OF THE TYPE OF CLAIM OR NATURE OF THE CAUSE OF ACTION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER RIGHTS THAT VARY FROM STATE TO STATE.

YOU HEREBY AGREE TO RELEASE US, OUR AFFILIATES AND THIRD-PARTY SERVICE PROVIDERS, AND EACH OF THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS FROM CLAIMS, DEMANDS AND DAMAGES (ACTUAL AND CONSEQUENTIAL) OF EVERY KIND AND NATURE, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN, SUSPECTED AND UNSUSPECTED, DISCLOSED AND UNDISCLOSED (“CLAIMS”), ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. IF YOU ARE A CALIFORNIA RESIDENT, YOU WAIVE CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODE SECTION 1542, WHICH STATES, IN PART: “A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS WHICH THE CREDITOR DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE, WHICH IF KNOWN BY HIM MUST HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR”.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify us and our affiliates, employees, agents, representatives, and third-party service providers, and to defend and hold each of them harmless, from any and all claims and liabilities (including attorneys’ fees) arising from content you submit, from your unauthorized use of material obtained through the Service, from your breach of these Terms, or from any acts through your use of the Service.

13. Governing law and venue

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any action based on, relating to, or alleging a breach of these Terms must be brought in a state or federal court located in Illinois, and both parties consent to the exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue of those courts.

We make no representation that materials on the Service are appropriate, available, or legal in any particular location. Those who access the Service do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local law.

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms is not a waiver of that right. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between us regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements.

14. Changes to these Terms

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. If a revision is material, we will try to provide at least 30 days’ notice before the new terms take effect. What constitutes a material change is determined at our sole discretion. By continuing to access or use the Service after revisions become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the new terms, please stop using the Service.

15. Contact us

Questions about these Terms can be sent to Lake and McHenry County Scanner.

Email: [email protected]

Address: 6615 Grand Avenue, Unit #6025, Gurnee, IL 60031