This policy elaborates on the process of information gathering and dissemination. What may be collected about you when you use our services made available, how this information may be used, how you can control how your information is used, and what precautions are taken against unauthorized access or use of your information are explained and elaborated here.
The services may be provided in a variety of mediums and devices now known or hereinafter developed including mobile applications, and include without limitation news, reference tools and applications, sponsored programs, personalized content, continuing medical education, communication tools and discussion boards.
Hence, it’s your responsibility to read our privacy policy. We are not responsible for other websites. Rather, we only answer to our own policy.
Privacy Policy Changes
For any significant change on the policy, we will take steps to inform you in a timely fashion. For minor changes, we may or may not inform you. However, when the changes can significantly affect the way we handle personal information, we will not apply the changes without giving you a choice.
Information We Collect
In this section, we discuss the different types of information that we may collect about you and the collection process that goes with it.
1. From Unregistered Visitors
You must register to access all of the services. However, you may be able to access certain limited areas without disclosing any personal and identifiable piece of information. The information we get here is not traced back to any individual and is not used on its own to identify anyone. We do not make use of cookies. Our section of this Privacy Policy entitled Cookies and Web Beacons below, further describes the process.
2. From Registered Visitors
You will asked to provide identifying information such as your name, e-mail address, zip code, and other professional information. You will also have a choice regarding the newsletters and other information that you may want to receive. If you are required to provide additional information to gain more access, or if we would like to use personally identifiable information about you, we adhere to the strict Privacy Policy. It is our responsibility to explain how we intend to use it and we will require your consent.
3. From Outside Sources
We reserve the right to collect additional information about registered users from third party sources to further assist us in our services. We will use such information to verify and update registration information and confirm licensure status.
Other Information
- Discussion Boards: When you post a message to a discussion board, your basic profile will be available for all registered users to see. This said basic profile includes name, specialty, and geographic information. You have the choice to display additional information. Just make sure that you do not post any information about you or any other person to a discussion board or other public forum if you want to keep such information private. Information posted is considered public information and may be used by us and by third parties.
- Tools: Clinical tools are made available through the services. These tools require you to provide information for the tools to operate. These are designed to store information that you provide.
- Additional Forms and Emails: We may also ask you to provide additional information if you want to obtain additional services or to resolve concerns.
- Market Research: As a registered user, you may be invited to participate in a sponsored or non-sponsored market research survey via email invitation, on-site pop-up, or other means. The survey may be administered by one of our companies or a third party market research establishment. Should you choose to participate, provide a response to the survey questions. You may then again be asked to provide further personally identifiable information. Refer to the section on Uses and Disclosures We Make of Your Information for this.
Use of Cookies and Web Beacons
We collect non-personally identifiable information through cookies. This is merely a small data file that your browser allows us to place on your hard drive so we can associate you with the device you have.
We assign cookies for:
- Track usage across the Professional Sites and Services
- Help us dynamically generate advertising and content to users
- Assess which professional site pages and services you access
If you are registered, we may decide to associate your registration information with our cookies. This step allows us to provide more customized content, including advertisements, and enhance personalization and functionality of the services.
As stated below, when you download and install any of our mobile applications onto your device, we assign a random number for your installation. This is similar to a cookie.
Most browser software can be set to reject all cookies. If your browser is set to reject, websites that are cookie-enabled will not recognize you when you return to our site. It’s important to note that some website functionality may be lost.
Refer to the help section of your browser to access options.
We may use web beacons and cookies to serve you targeted advertisements when you visit other sites owned and operated by us. We may also use web beacons to track emails. Web beacons are tiny graphic image files, embedded in a website page that notify the home server (which can belong to the host website, a network advertiser, or some other third party) on a non-personally identifiable basis. This may also result in a cookie.
Our contracts with third parties whose web beacons may be placed on our sites to assist us in targeting its advertising are not owned and operated by the people on our end. These web beacons place cookies to enable third parties to collect non-personally identifiable information about you. These third parties have agreed not to use incriminating or personal information. Again, if your browser is set to reject cookies, this non-personally identifiable information will not be sent.
With sale of advertising, we may allow a third party to place a cookie on your browser to enable advertisers to recognize your browser on a non-personally identifiable basis. One again, the same procedures apply.
We do not control the third parties’ use of cookies or web beacons, or how they manage the non-personally identifiable information. However, we do require sponsors, advertisers, and Ad Servers. They have been authorized to collect cookie or web beacon information through the services. They have agreed not to collect any personally identifiable information. Further, they have also agreed not link any non-personal cookie or web beacon.
Certain Ad Servers and third party firms allow you to prevent them from collecting data or serving advertisements through the use of their cookies. You can opt of it. You can also do this for Cookies for several Ad Servers and analytic firms by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative gateway opt-out website. Head over to this site will also allow you to review the privacy policies.
Children’s Privacy
We are committed to protecting the children. The Professional Sites and Services are solely for adults over the age of 18.
Uses and Disclosures We Make of Information
The personally identifiable information that you provide will be used to provide the services you have requested or authorized.
Aggregate Data
We create aggregate data about users for product development and improvement, and for market analysis. We may provide information about users in aggregate form to third parties. The information is done professionally, with your well-being in mind at all times. For instance, we may tell a client what percentage of registered users of the site reside in a particular geographical area or specialize in a particular clinical area, or what percentage of participants in a market research survey selected a particular response to a survey question.
When aggregated information is provided to a third party, it is pooled along with other individual records. These are stripped of any data that could be used to identify you. Any third party that receives aggregated information must agree to this procedure.
Marketing and Advertising
We may target its advertising and marketing based on information you provide upon registration. For instance, a user that we knows is a cardiologist may be served cardiology-related advertisements on both our site and third party websites. We serve these ads with the use of cookies and web beacons. Additionally, we may geographically target its advertising to registered and unregistered users based on IP address.
We may also personalize the services and the advertising that registered users see based on individual interests.
Third Parties
We may also share personally identifiable information with third parties as described below.
- Other Companies: When you are interacting with one of these companies, a specialized privacy policy may apply and will be presented to you at such time.
- Companies and People Who Work for Us: If you are a healthcare professional, we may request that a third-party to validate your licensure status and other related information. We require all companies to comply with the terms of this Privacy Policy. This is done to protect your identity and to limit their access.
- Market Research: From time to time, we may invite you to participate in sponsored or non-sponsored market research surveys as further described above. Should you choose to participate in a survey administered by a third-party market research company, this company may identify you. Nonetheless, we require these companies to approve policies that protect you.
- Business Transfers: If one of us transfers a business unit or an asset to another company, we ensure that these companies to honor the terms.
- Legal Requirements: We only release account and other personally identifiable information when (1) it is required to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order; or (2) when it is reasonable in response to a threat. In the event that the unfortunate happens, we will attempt to notify you unless doing so would violate the law, court order or government instruction.
- Consent: We always get your consent, especially in the release of personally identifiable information to a third party.
If we discover that a third party inadvertently disclosed personally identifiable information about any of our users, we will take immediate action for your safety and precaution.
Security of Information
Here are the security measures we take to protect information we have collected.
General Policies
We have implemented technology and security policies, rules and other measures to protect personal data. This is to ensure and respect your confidentiality. We use security methods to determine the identity of registered users, so that appropriate rights and restrictions can be enforced. Reliable verification of user identity is called authentication. We use both passwords and usernames for this. Users are mainly responsible for maintaining passwords.
Employees
Employees are required to keep your information private. Only authorized employees are permitted to access health information. Everyone is duty-bound to abide by this to avoid termination and legal action.
Access to Information and Choices
We obtain and correct information about you. For errors, you may edit your personal profile any time. Requests for deletion of your record may result in your removal, but we may keep certain demographic information for product improvement purposes. You may contact Customer Support and ask for the changes you deem necessary.
Use of your Information Outside of the EEA
We will collect, store, and process information about your use of the Services in countries outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) as necessary. This is the task that every legitimate business must do.
By using the Services, you agree to such collection, storage, and processing outside of the EEA. We take the necessary steps to ensure your information is protected.
Privacy Questions or Concerns
For privacy questions or concerns about our website or services, please use our Contact Us form
Terms of Use Our Terms of Use agreements can be found Here.