PRIVACY POLICY
In Case Of A Medical Emergency, Call Your Doctor Or 911 (Or Your Local Emergency Number). If You Feel Threatened Or Believe Someone Else Is In Danger, Contact Your Local Law Enforcement Agency Or Call 911 (Or Your Local Emergency Number). Please Note That Foralldoctors.Com Cannot Be Used For Emergency Services.
If You Do Not Agree With The Privacy Policy of ForAllDoctors.com or its subsequent amendments at any time, You Must Immediately Stop Using the ForAllDoctors.com Site.
For All Doctors Inc. is committed to protecting individual privacy and securing the personal information made available to us when you visit ForAllDoctors.com. This Privacy Policy describes the information we collect, how that information is processed, as well as your privacy rights under the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and under the California Data Privacy Protection Act (CCPA), amended in 2020 to the California Privacy Rights Act.
For All Doctors Inc. is a registered United States company. However, our site and services connect you with members and users from around the world. To operate our site, we may collect, transfer, store and process your personal data in the United States or other countries outside of where you live. By using our site or services, you are authorizing us to collect, transfer, process and store your information outside your home country.
DEFINITIONS
• Our Site/FAD Site/ForAllDoctors.com: Includes, but is not limited to, our entire digital presence, covering URL, IP addresses, servers, web pages, email addresses, domain management, structures, modules, metrics, scripts, programs, versions, designs, architecture, frameworks, appearance, look & feel, expression, logo, logo colors, color combinations, compilation, icons, illustrations, data, layouts, interfaces, metadata, software, hypertexts, hyperlinks, links, graphics, multimedia, marks, emblems, organization, documents, applications, languages (programming, markup, and style sheets), products, services, discussion boards, forums, listings, directories, chat rooms, and all other similar identifiable sections or means of communication, in electronic, digital or other formats, along with all our content.
• FAD/We/Our/Us: Includes For All Doctors Inc. as well as its partners, affiliates, subsidiaries, successors, officers, directors, executives, representatives, administrators, agents, associates, employees and staff.
• Member/You/Your: Includes registered professionals, users or subscribers, and any other organizations, companies, entities, visitors, and individuals authorized to access ForAllDoctors.com.
• Personal Data/Information: Refers to any information relating to an indentified or identifiable natural person such as name, email, IP address.
• Processing: Refers to any operations performed on personal data or sets of data, whether or not automated, including but not limited to collection, storage, disclosure, erasure, or destruction.
• Sensitive Data: Refers to information that, if disclosed or processed, can reveal details such as personal beliefs, genetic or biometric data, health information, financial details, and private communications.
• Content: Includes, but is not limited to, text-based items (such as data, communications, emails, and writings), interactive elements (such as classifieds listings, forum discussions, and blog posts), multimedia components (such as images, music, and videos), technological aspects (such as structures, coding, and software), organizational elements (including applications and languages), and all other similar content, whether presented in electronic, digital format or any other format.
• Communicate/Communication/Communicating/Communicated: Includes but is not limited to, any user interaction on our site, encompassing activities such as e-mailing, corresponding, writing, calling, uploading, linking, hyperlinking, displaying, suggesting, implying, advertising, transmitting, and other similar means, in electronic or digital format.
• Account: Consists of a member’s or other authorized user’s username or login and password or pass code, or an authorized means of accessing ForAllDocors.com.
• Agreement/Privacy Policy: Refers to this document, including but is not limited to its, obligations, disclaimers, warnings, waivers, exceptions, exemptions, provisions, policies, notices, terms, conditions, notes, guidelines, recommendations, acknowledgements, consents, suggestions, comments, provisions, stipulations, requirements, rules, principles, responsibilities, rights, interests, warranties, guarantees and other such similar content of this Agreement and all amendments to this Agreement.
Information You Give Us When You Apply For Membership Or Use Our Site
You need to create a member account to access much of the information and features on our site. To establish an account on our site, we ask for information such as your name, email address, country, and profession. Your responses to these questions are used to verify your identity and confirm your membership in the profession you declare to be a part of.
For example:
• Basic contact information is requested so we can respond to your request for membership.
• Evidence that you have completed your doctoral education in the fields of medicine, law, or a Ph.D., is required, which we rely on to grant you membership on our site.
To verify you, we use the information you provide to us and information from other sources to confirm the accuracy of your information as part of the authentication process and to establish and maintain your account.
When you use our site, we collect and process personal data about you and may maintain a record of the information related to your application and use of our site.
PERSONAL DATA WE MAY COLLECT AND PROCESS
Much of the personal data we obtain are data you directly provide to us through our site, such as when you Contact Us, become a member, use our site, or communicate, share, post, or upload content on our Site. Where we need to collect and process your personal information to provide you membership or access to our site or services and you do not provide that information when requested, we may have to restrict, suspend or prohibit your access to our site or services.
We may collect and process personal data about you from third parties when we use their products and services such as, your name, email addresses, likeness, username, image, videos, photos, messages, content and other personal information they may have of you. We will limit the collection and processing of your personal information to that necessary to achieve our legitimate purposes, as outlined in this privacy policy. The categories of personal information we collect from you can vary based your level of use of our site and its many features.
The further information we collect can include the following:
• Identity & Contact Data such as your name, username, phone number, email, address, password, likeness, videos, preferences, country, proof of identity, date or place of birth, biometric information, and publicly available data from sources such as, social media websites, government institutions, associations/organizations, hospitals, or educational institutions and their websites;
• Demographic Data such as your age, education level, occupation, gender, language, nationality, country, geographic location;
• Educational and Employment Data such as your profession, title, professional licenses, degrees, schooling, professional and association memberships;
• Government Identifiers such as national identification number, driver’s license number, professional license information and numbers;
• Metadata Details such as author information, creation date, and manipulations, tags and comments associated with the content you upload or post in various formats such as videos, audio recordings, photos and text;
• Support Request Data such as the communications you send for support requests and Contact Us messages;
• Device & Technical Data such as the devices you use to access our site, your IP address, domain name, pages you visit, browser type or version, URL, details about smart devices, time zone settings and location, phone network information, operating system, if you accessed our site via a link on another page (i.e., “referral traffic”) and other technology-related data;
• Site Interaction Data such as your communication preferences, services you view or search for, download errors, page response times, the length and frequency of visits, and details on page interactions such as scrolling and clicks, and the links you utilize;
• Marketing Data & Feedback such as your participation in: focus groups, surveys, research, promotions, marketing campaigns, events, contests, product and service reviews, or your preferences in receiving marketing from us or third parties;
• Consent You Give such as when you register with us and give us permission to conduct verification of your identity and profession;
• Payment & Transaction Data such as payment details (e.g., PayPal), billing and shipping addresses;
• Data Submitted By You such as username, password, preferences, any texts, feedback, blog posts, chats, emails, video chats, calls, forum topics, ads., flags, replies, comments, polls, multimedia you share or download, surveys you conduct or participate in, and posts you view or submit;
• Searches Conducted such as members or products or ads. searched;
• Content By Others About You such as communications, photos, videos & audios of you, messages to you, your poll/survey replies, your chat requests, video chats, and files shared;
• Interactions & Social Connections such as your interactions with other members, professional or social memberships, subscriptions, group participations, ads. you liked, member events attended, or article reviewer or editor participation;
• Site Performance and Troubleshooting such as error messages, overall site performance, problems you experience, or your support or troubleshooting communications with us;
• Marketing Data, such as your preferences in receiving marketing from us or advertisers;
• Communicating and Correspondence Data such as our methods of and communications with you by, video, SMS, phone, email, verbal and other digital, electronic and non electronic communication methods.
We may gather and use aggregated data, like statistical or demographic information, to tailor our marketing and enhance your site experience. This data, although derived from your personal data, does not disclose your identity. For example, we might aggregate your usage information to determine the percentage of members visiting a specific page or clicking on an ad. If aggregated data is combined with your personal information, and directly or indirectly identifies you, we treat the merged data as personal information, and follow this Privacy Policy.
Our services are constantly evolving, and we frequently introduce new features or modify existing features that may necessitate the collection of additional information. In the event of significant changes to the types of personal data collected or substantial modifications in how we collect, process, or share your data, we will provide notification. We may also adjust this privacy policy accordingly.
HOW AND WHY WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
To operate and maintain our site and deliver our services, we need to collect your personal data. We will only process and share your personal data to provide you with our lawful services in accordance with this privacy policy. Our processing of personal data includes both automated and manual (human) methods of processing. You have a right to revoke your consent at any time. However, any processing of personal data prior to the receipt of your revocation will not be affected.
In order to serve you better, we may analyze multiple sources of data you have provided (for example, to look up whether you previously contacted us about the same topic so that we do not send you duplicate responses). We may also use messages or comments collected through the FAD site or official social media pages for our own purposes, such as to make policy decisions, improve our site or in designing promotions.
We collect and process your personal data to provide our content and services; respond to you requests; and support our business functions. This data is collected in a variety of ways when you interact with s or our site. Not all data may be collected about every member or user. Our goal is to balance the data we collect and share with the data needed to provide our site and services; achieve and support the goals of our business; and provide the best user experience that we can. Please be aware that if you do not agree to provide us with the requested data, we may be unable to continue to maintain your account and/or provide you the services we offer. To do the below, we may combine personal data, collected online and offline, including information from third party sources. Below is a general list of circumstances where and why we may process your personal data:
a. To provide and maintain our site and services we may use information and content you provide, create, share, post or upload, such as documents, images, videos, or audios.
b. To comply with legal obligations, such as:
• Preservation for evidence purposes, or to comply with a request of judicial, administrative, law enforcement and governmental agencies;
• Investigate or identify illegal activity;
• Defend ourselves or avoid harm to any member, authorized user, FAD or our subsidiaries, partners or affiliates, or a third party;
• Protect the security of our system and services;
• Avoid violations of our Terms of Service;
• Protect the rights and property of our site and business;
• Manage, initiate or reply to investigations, disputes, litigations and regulatory affairs;
• Protect the integrity and operation of FAD and its site.
c. To show you advertisements that we believe may be relevant to you.
d. To expand or improve our site and your experience in using our site, and help you connect with other doctors, lawyers, PhDs, patients, clients, groups, businesses, organizations, advertisers, people, products and services from around the world.
e. We may collect and process personal data about you from third parties when we use their products and services such as, your name, email addresses, likeness, username, image, videos, photos, messages, content and other personal information they may have of you. Data we collect from external third-party sources, about you can for instance help us verify your credentials, expedite your registration, correct or supplement our records, connect with you, improve the quality or personalization of our site and services, marketing content to you, or prevent or detect fraud.
f. We may collect and process your personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and, your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
g. We may use information you provide and automatically generated data for statistical analysis to assess, for example, what information is of interest to you, technical design specifications, and system performance. This allows us to make general improvements to our site as well as offer tailored content to you (e.g., a follow-up message to those interested in a specific topic based on information they have provided or automatically generated data). We may analyze multiple sources of data you have provided.
h. We may use data that you passively provide to us. This data may be linked to you personally through the technology you use. This data helps our site work correctly and supports member support, marketing, and analytics.
i. To obtain reports, and provide our advertisers with reports about the performance of their advertisements, products and services and to help them understand how members, and users are interacting with their content, products or services on our site, and for ourselves to better understand, make suggestions or respond to the interests and needs of our members and users.
j. To conduct research and development; gather feedback and opinions; develop and improve our site, services and features; conduct tests and surveys; troubleshoot new and existing features; and for business, public and scientific understanding and enhancement purposes.
k. We may gather and use aggregated data, like statistical or demographic information, to tailor our marketing and enhance your site experience. This data, although derived from your personal information, does not disclose your identity. For example, we might aggregate your usage information to determine the percentage of members visiting a specific page or clicking on an ad. If aggregated data is combined with your personal information, and directly or indirectly identifies you, we treat the merged data as personal information, and follow this privacy policy.
l. We may collect and process your personal data, including information about your interests, actions and connections to provide you with information about existing and/or future services, periodic announcements, valuable and useful advertisements, offers and other sponsored content, and enhance your experience on our site.
m. In order to serve you better, we may analyze multiple sources of data you have provided.
n. We may use messages or comments collected through our site or official social media pages for purposes such as improving our site, services, promotions, and policy decisions, of our business, partners, advertisers and affiliates.
o. We may collect and process your personal data such as your email, profession, education, association/organization memberships, content, group involvements, member connections, event involvements to for example:
• Maintain or create your account;
• Accomplish auditing and monitor transactions and engagements;
• Protect the integrity and security of our site;
• Analyze the efficacy and performance of our personnel, site and business;
• Conduct business analysis, such as analytics;
• Detect, prevent or respond to actual or potential fraud, illegal activity or intellectual property infringement;
• to identify, monitor, and enhance the efficiency of the operational processes, technologies, and communication methods of FAD;
• Comply with laws, regulations, and fulfill legal and contractual obligations;
• Respond to valid legal requests, including to law enforcement, regulatory and governmental agencies;
• Provide, monitor, improve and develop our site and services, including updating, securing, troubleshooting, diagnosing and fixing our site and any technology problems;
• Providing and responding to support and contact requests;
• Carryout the transactions you request;
• Operate, evaluate and improve FAD;
• Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, illegal activity and the breach of our Terms of Service by for instance, reviewing member content, communications, and metadata;
• Help prevent spam or attempts to defraud our site members and users, or to help prevent loss of life or serious injury to anyone;
• Personalize our site and services, make customized suggestions, and analyze and target new markets;
• Perform checks, and verify and confirm your identity, profession, credentials, country, and age for membership, your continued membership and the use of particular features of our site;
• Safeguard the security of our site by preventing potential attacks on our systems and networks, including monitoring browser and user access. This involves overseeing how users interact with our technology and communication tools, such as messaging systems and video conferencing platforms;
• Use member content as part of our campaign to promote our site;
• Advertising and marketing, including sending you promotional and advertising communications, updates, notices and surveys;
• Manage our relationships with you and other members, users, partners, organizations, businesses, associations, hospitals, and the like;
• Measure the effectiveness of advertisements on our site;
• Conduct FAD business and Site administration;
• Operate, research, install, expand, condense, modify, develop and test our site and services;
• Enhance our features and technology by introducing new elements, expanding existing functionalities, establishing certain limits, removing unnecessary features, providing training to our systems or personnel, and overall improving efficiency. To achieve these goals, we may employ advanced technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and various computer codes and algorithms;
• Understand the way you use our site and improve the performance and the member and user experience of our site, services and the products and services offered by our advertisers and other users;
• Provide our content and support our business functions.
• Help members be informed of existing as well as new and innovative products and services relevant to their interests and profession;
• Determine if users of our site are unique or if the same user is using our site on multiple occasions, and monitor aggregate metrics such as the total number of users, pages viewed, and demographic patterns;
• Effectively, efficiently and at no cost to you, enable and facilitate you to connect and interact with other members and users from around the world;
• Help you attract prospects and become globally known to others that may be seeking your knowledge and expertise;
• Help you express and share your thoughts locally and globally;
• Enable you to find and take continuing education courses that you would find interesting and advancing;
• Grow & improve our business and our site;
• Keep you informed of changes, updates, improvements, notifications for instance, new products or services from us, affiliates, members, advertisers, associations, hospitals, publishers, organizations, and other entities. We will communicate through various channels, including physical mail, electronic, digital, phone, fax, email, and postings on our site;
• For purposes we disclosed to you at the time we collected your information or pursuant to your consent;
• To achieve our most important goal of enabling actual, efficient and effective collaboration, communication, research and development among members, associations, hospitals, publishers, businesses, organizations and other entities and users worldwide to generate advancement in areas such as medicine, law, science, economy, literature, technology, veterinary and humanity as a whole.
In the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us about our site members and users may be among the assets transferred. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to ensure that the entity to which we transfer your personal data uses it in a manner that is consistent with this privacy policy.
When we process personal data we may use both automated and manual methods. Our automated processes are often connected to and backed by our manual procedures.
When we process your personal data, we do it with your consent or as necessary to offer our site and services, meet our contractual and legal responsibilities, safeguard the security of our systems, members and users, or address other legitimate business interests as explained in this privacy policy.
If you choose to provide us with information, we may use that information to communicate with you for purposes such as responding to your messages or requests, sending notifications of changes, updates, or additions to our terms, policies, or any other information and content, through various channels, including physical mail, electronic, digital, phone, fax, email, and postings on our site.
WHO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA WITH
Our policy is not to use or share your personal data in ways not outlined in this privacy policy unless we provide you with an opportunity to opt out or object to such unrelated uses. Nevertheless, we may disclose your personal data or information related to your use of our site or services to third parties for the reasons mentioned earlier, or if legal obligations make it necessary, or authorized under our contractual and statutory responsibilities. When we share your personal data with service providers, outside the European Economic Area, we will ensure that they are contractually obligated to comply with their GDPR obligations. The following are examples of recipients of your personal data under the circumstances referred to above:
• We may share your personal data for instance, to conduct our business, or for other businesses to offer you products or services or administer your use or purchase of their products or services.
• Your public information can be seen by anyone on or off of our site, including if they do not have an account. This includes any information you share with a public audience or information in your public profile or your selected section for public use.
• Disclosed personal and public data may also be seen, or accessed, shared or re-shared or downloaded through third party services such as search engines, and offline media groups like televisions or other sites or services that integrate with our site.
• We will sometimes enable other businesses to make their products or services available to you. When you purchase these products or services, we may share with these businesses personal data related to you, your purchases, or your activities on our site.
• If you attend events such as a webinar, or participate in groups or polls, or attend courses and the like, organized by us or other members, we may share your personal data with the sponsors of the activity with your explicit consent if required by the applicable law.
• We may share your personal data with third parties who we have engaged to help us provide our site, as well as the products and services available through our site. Your personal data may be disclosed to affiliates, contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business. The services provided by these organizations include providing IT and infrastructure support services, advertising, marketing, verification to prevent imposters and payment processing services. Advertising and marketing partners may receive and use your personal data to assist with advertising and marketing efforts by us or, for instance by advertisers, associations, hospitals, and publishers.
• We may share your personal data to fulfill the purpose for which you provide it, and for any other purpose disclosed by us when you provided the data.
• We may share your personal data with a third party with your consent, where for example, you use features on our site to connect with services from third parties, or if you access our site from another website or app.
• We may share your personal data with third parties for purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising where it is not restricted by applicable law.
• We may share your data if we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of other members, users, us or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud prevention and risk reduction or to enforce or apply our Terms of Service or other agreements.
• You should consider the content you share, and content others share or re-share about you, because others can see such content and activity and may without permission and in conflict with our privacy policy and Terms of Service, choose to share it with others on and off our site, including people and business outside the audience you originally shared it with. This may include your posts, messages, products, services, content or communications with others, about others, about yourself, about others about you, or any other combination, which may get screenshot or downloaded and re-shared even after you remove or delete it.
• Members may be able to see certain information about you, such as your status on our site, when you last used our site, if you are currently logged, your username, and some features on our site can allow other members and users to know if there have been views, bookmarks or clicks on their content or communications.
• We may also share your personal data in other circumstances, including situations where we believe sharing is required by law or necessary to protect the health, safety, or property rights of our site, members, users, business, team members, or other individuals or entities. These circumstances may include addressing crimes on our site, identifying and addressing fraud, responding to a search warrant, or complying with an investigative body's request in the event of a breach of agreement, violation of law, or other valid legal inquiry or requirement.
• We may share your personal data with government institutions, regulatory bodies, law enforcement authorities, professional associations/organizations, hospitals, or educational institutions when responding to legitimate inquiries, proceedings, or investigations. This disclosure would be done to facilitate our compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. We explicitly retain the right to divulge information to law enforcement in case of a committed or suspected crime or if compelled by lawful criminal, civil, or administrative processes, discovery requests, subpoenas, court orders, and writs.
• We may share your personal data with legal or other professional consultants for our business purposes and under circumstances set out in this privacy policy and our Terms of Service.
• We may share your personal data, to the extent necessary for us to verify and qualify you to access certain features and sections of our site you have requested.
• We may share your personal data with buyers or other legal successors in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which personal data held by us about our site members and users is among the assets transferred. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to ensure that the entity to which we transfer your personal data uses it in a manner that is consistent with this privacy policy.
• We may disclose to third parties, aggregated information regarding our members and users, as well as data that is not personally identifiable, without any limitations. Furthermore, we may share this aggregated information with third parties for the purpose of conducting general business analysis. This information lacks any personal data and may be used to create content and services designed to be of interest to you and other users.
YOUR MEMBER PROFILE
Please note that information you provide directly on our site when creating an account may be viewed by other members and site users, unless you have specifically adjusted the share settings to limit or hide it where the option is available. Even if your member profile does not contain any personal data, there is a possibility of identification by others through other information on your profile, or through content you have shared or uploaded. Thus, it is important for you to understand that you bear full responsibility for any consequences resulting from your use of your account.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
One of our aims is to enhance our site with new and improved features and services. For example, we may achieve this by developing and improving the algorithms and machine learning models that enable our features and services to function. This includes utilizing both traditional and generative AI techniques. We may use algorithms and machine learning models for purposes such as personalization, advertising, creating and analyzing content and data, safety and security, and to prevent abuse or other violations of our Terms of Service.
You may also encounter various other content types on our site, such as synthetic, fabricated, artificial, computer-generated, automated, and algorithmically generated content or personas. This content may originate from users, members, or our site itself. Although such content serves purposes like creative expression, technological advancement, and scientific research, it is crucial to recognize the potential for malicious or deceptive use. While we remain vigilant in detecting such undesirable occurrences, it is vital for you to exercise caution and critical thinking when interacting with others or content on our site. If you encounter any suspicious or fraudulent activity, please report it to us immediately.
THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES
We maintain official pages or accounts on third-party websites in order to better engage with the public, members and user. Your activity on those sites is governed by the third-party website’s terms of service, security and privacy policies. Third-party sites often share information with the general public, user community, and/or the third-party operating the site. Consequently, you should review the privacy policies of third-party sites before using them and ensure that you understand how your information may be shared and used. You should also adjust privacy settings on your account on any third-party site to match your preferences.
We may archive some information that you submit or publish when engaging with us through FAD site pages or accounts on third-party websites (e.g., by sending a message, posting a comment, “following,” “friending,” or taking similar actions). This information may contain personal information, such as an individual’s username and other public account information, when such information is available based on the user’s privacy settings and the terms of the site. For example:
• On X (formerly known as Twitter), we may archive “tweets”, and may capture “mentions” (tweets from other users to FAD site’s accounts; these tweets contain an @ and the username of an FAD site’s account (e.g., @FAD).
• On Facebook, FAD may archive all content created on official FAD site pages and may capture any content posted on official FAD site pages (for example, the number of Likes to the page and comments posted).
For aggregate statistical analysis and to improve the quality of our site and services, we may integrate web measurement tools with our social media pages. These tools enable basic analysis of social media traffic (such as the number of people visiting a certain page) and may collect personally identifiable information.
LINKS TO EXTERNAL SITES
Our site and our other FAD platforms and pages may link to websites, plug-ins and applications created and maintained by other individuals or organizations. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect and share data about you. When you follow a link to an external site, you are leaving our site and are subject to the external site‘s terms of service, privacy and security policies. We do not control or guarantee the functioning, availability, accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of the site or information contained on an external site. We also do not endorse the site or its sponsors, any views they express, or any products or services they offer. When you leave our site, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every site you visit.
OTHER TECHNOLOGIES AND TOOLS WE MAY USE
We may use website analytics tools. These tools collect basic site usage information such as: how many visits our site receives, the pages visited, time spent on our site and its pages, the number of return visits, the approximate location of the device used to access our site, types of devices used, etc. This information is then used to maintain our site including: monitoring our site stability, measuring site traffic, optimizing content, and helping make our site, or any promotions or advertisements more useful to you and our advertisers. You can opt out of data use by Google analytics by visiting Google Analytics (requires you to install a browser add-on).
We may utilize web beacons, also known as pixels and/or tracking tags, for digital advertising. These see-through images are strategically placed on specific pages of our site, often in conjunction with cookies. Web beacons, unlike cookies, are not stored on your device. When you access pages containing web beacons, they generate a notice of your visit.
To better understand how you and other users interact with our site, we may utilize website log files, which serve as analysis tools and gather information such as IP addresses, referring pages, error logs, page views, user actions, and navigation patterns. Such data are instrumental in improving our site’s overall user experience.
In addition to standard cookies and web beacons, our site may also use other similar technologies such as, IndexedDB for various functions, such as storing language preferences and customization choices on your device, temporarily storing session data, and facilitating faster page loading times by storing frequently accessed resources, among other uses, to enhance how easily, effectively and efficiently you can use our site. However, similar to standard cookies, when used in conjunction with other technologies, these technologies may also store a unique identifier for your computer, potentially enabling behavior tracking. These technologies include Local Shared Objects (or "Flash cookies"). Websites that use Adobe Flash technologies can use Local Shared Objects or "Flash cookies" to store data on your computer. To learn how to manage or block Flash cookies, go to the Flash Player help page.
SENDING YOU MESSAGES OR ADVERTISEMENTS
We may use email, SMS, physical mail, fax, telephone or other digital and electronic means to send you messages related to your use of our site, membership, support requests, surveys, promotions, updates, notices, newsletters, advertisements, or legal or mandatory communications. You may also receive interest based advertising, surveys, promotions or other communications from our affiliates if you have given us explicit consent. If you receive promotions, or interest based advertisement emails or SMS messages from us or our affiliates and would like to opt out, you can do so by following the directions in that message. However, please note that this does not apply to communications such as system notices, information about your account, or information that may be necessary to convey to you as described in our Terms of Service or this privacy policy. Because data used for interest based advertising may also be used for other required purposes such as providing our services, analytics, and fraud detection, opting out on interest based advertising does not stop that data collection. You may also continue to receive ads, although they may be less relevant to you.
Some web browsers include a 'Do Not Track' (DNT) feature, allowing you to signal to websites that you prefer not to be tracked. However, since there's no widely agreed-upon way to interpret these signals yet, we currently do not yet act upon them.
In order to manage our email lists, we retain the names and email address of our members and users, as well as other information shared with us such as addresses, phone numbers, logs of emails we send, and automatically generated email data to improve our communication. Automatically generated email data (generated through tools such as “pixel tags” and link redirects) includes:
• The recipient’s email client;
• Whether the email was opened;
• If a link in the message was clicked;
• Whether an email was delivered;
• If the email was forwarded;
• If the email was printed.
DIGITAL ADVERTISING
Our site may use third party tools to support our digital advertising outreach and education efforts. These tools enable us to reach new members and users and provide information to previous members or users. In order to use these tools, we may use the following technologies:
Click tracking – Our site may use click tracking to identify the ads that are most effective and most useful to you. When you click on an ad, we typically collect data about the ad view, including details such as which ad was viewed, how many times it was viewed, and how many clicks it received. This data can then be used by us to generate reports on ad performance and to make informed decisions about enhancing ads.
Conversion tracking – We may use conversion tracking to assess the effectiveness of our ads and improve outreach. When you view one of our ads on a third-party site, a cookie is placed in your browser. If you later visit our site from the same device, we can connect your visit to the previously viewed ad.
Re-targeting - We may use retargeting to provide information to members and users who have previously visited our site. This helps improve ad performance by targeting relevant audiences. When a device visits our site, a cookie is placed in its browser. Later, when the same device visits other sites displaying our site's ads, the cookie allows us to show relevant ads. Our site does not collect information about the other sites visited by the device. Reports are generated on ad performance, including total views and clicks.
Targeted advertising – We may utilize third-party vendors to engage in targeted advertising, also known as interest based advertising, to provide tailored information to members and site users based on their online activities. This method involves gathering data from specific computers or devices to understand web viewing behaviors or application usage. By analyzing this data, we can predict the preferences or interests of members or users and deliver ads to their computers or devices accordingly.
Personalized advertising – The ads you see are selected based on information we have gathered about you. This includes things like your age, location, what you search for, your interests, and how you use Our Site. We might also get information from other websites and apps you visit. This helps us show you ads that are more relevant to you.
Data collected by other advertising companies – Advertisers sometimes include their own web beacons (or those of their other advertising partners) within their advertisements that we display, enabling them to set and read their own cookies. Additionally, we may partner with third-party ad companies to help provide some of our advertising services.
Also, advertisers may incorporate our web beacons on their sites or utilize similar technologies. This facilitates the collection of information on their sites, including activities, purchases, and visits. We use this data on behalf of our advertisers to deliver ads.
Please note that we do not sell your personal data and so we do not offer an opt-out of sale of personal data. We may share your personal data as defined under the California and other U.S. sate data privacy laws, for personalized advertising purposes as noted in this privacy policy and this digital advertising section.
COOKIES WE MAY USE
When you visit our site the internet browser on your computer may download a small file from our site (commonly called a “cookie”). Cookies are small pieces of text used to store information that is stored on your device to help a website or mobile app remember things about you. We may use cookies, including third party cookies for a number of reasons, including to: Administer our site, make our site easier to use, improve the quality of our services, record session information and pages members or users access, try to avoid the viewing of the same advertisements by the same member, recognize your preferences, enhance your user experience, provide analytics on our site usage, information about the devices you use to access our site, your IP address, pseudonymous identifiers, operating system, and browser type.
• Single Session cookies: Single session cookies last only as long as your Web browser is open. Once you close your browser, the session cookie disappears. We may use session cookies for technical purposes such as to allow better navigation through our site. These cookies let our server know that you are continuing your visit to our site.
• Persistent cookies: Persistent cookies are stored on your device for longer periods than single session cookies. We may use persistent cookies to understand the differences between new and returning visitors to our site. Persistent cookies remain on your device between visits to our site until they expire or are removed by you.
• Multi-Session Cookies – Multi-session cookies have a shorter lifespan than persistent cookies and are usually stored temporarily on your device for the duration of your visit to our site (session). They are deleted when you close your browser. We may use multi-session cookies to for example, store temporary information when you fill out forms on our site. This is helpful for preserving form data across multiple pages or steps.
• Third-party cookies – When you use our site, some pages or features of our site may include content, applications, advertisements, application providers, advertisers, networks, or servers that are served by third parties or functionality from third parties, such as embedded videos hosted by non-FAD site services. These third parties may for example collect information such as browser type, internet protocol (IP) address, operating system, or use web measurement and customization technologies (such as cookies) in conjunction with the provision of this content or functionality. They might utilize this data to deliver personalized advertisements or other content tailored to your interests. You should consult the cookies and privacy policies of these third party sites for the personal information they may collect and the cookies they may use.
• Functionality Cookies – Our site may use functionality cookies, also known as functional cookies, to enhance the functionality and usability of our site. For example, functionality cookies serve to remember your selections providing a more personalized and efficient browsing experience, store your preferences and settings such as language preferences, region, or font size ensuring that our site is displayed according to your chosen settings, assist with authentication and login processes by remembering your login details and allowing you to stay logged in as you navigate different pages, store your preferences for video playback such as volume settings or video quality of embedded videos, contribute to customizing the appearance of our site based on your choices such as theme selection or layout preferences, and specific features and services requested by you.
• Essential Cookies – Essential cookies, also known as necessary cookies, play a crucial role in enabling basic functions and features of a website. These cookies are essential for the proper functioning of a site, and they typically do not collect personally identifiable information beyond what is necessary for their specific purpose. Essential cookies contribute to the security of a website. They may store security tokens or other information that helps protect against security threats, such as unauthorized access. We may use essential cookies to for example, manage your authentication. When you log in to our site, a session cookie or another form of essential cookie may be set to for example, keep you authenticated as you navigate different pages ensuring that you don't have to log in repeatedly, for the functioning of our site, to contribute to the security of our site by preventing unauthorized access and protecting against security threats.
• Performance Cookies – We may use performance cookies to enhance your experience on our site by gaining insights into how you interact with our site. These cookies help us understand various aspects of your engagement, such as the number of visits, pages visited, and time spent on our site. These insights support different elements of our site, including optimizing the layout, Content, and navigation for a smoother and more tailored user experience. Performance data may be utilized to remember some information so that you
don’t have to re-enter it on each page, personalize content based on your preferences and behavior. We may use our own analytics cookies or third party cookies such as Google Analytics to understand our site’s performance. You can opt out of data use by Google analytics by visiting Google Analytics (requires you to install a browser add-on).
• Targeting Cookies – We may use targeting cookies. Targeting cookies customize content by recommending products or services and adapting our site’s layouts based on your usage behavior. They contribute to a consistent experience across devices, manage ad. frequency to prevent overexposure, and enable conversion tracking for our advertisers. These cookies also play a broader role in personalization, facilitating a tailored experience, and supporting market research through data analysis.
• Flash Cookies, Also Known As Local Shared Objects (LSOs) – We may use flash cookies. Flash cookies are similar to regular cookies but are associated with Adobe Flash Player. Flash cookies store information about your online activities, preferences, and settings when you interact with content created using Adobe Flash. Some of the uses of Flash cookies include storing your preferences, such as language settings, volume control, and other personalized configurations related to Flash content; tracking your behavior and gathering analytics data (this information helps us understand how you interact with content on our site); and ad tracking, allowing advertisers to collect information about your interactions with Flashbased advertisements. To learn how to manage or block Flash cookies, go to the Flash Player help page.
We may use other businesses and organizations to collect and receive non-personally identifiable information about you, your browser, or device when you use our site. These businesses and organizations collect this data for advertising and advertisement measurement purposes using their own cookies or similar technologies to gather and analyze data.
Most web browsers provide settings options that allow you to adjust the settings to block or limit the use of cookies, as well as to delete existing cookies stored on your devices. Some web browsers offer privacy features, such as incognito or private browsing modes, which automatically delete cookies and browsing data when the session is closed. You can regularly review and manage the cookies stored on your devices. This can be done through browser settings or specific features provided by the browser to view and delete cookies. You can consider adjusting browser settings to manage the duration of cookies. Some browsers allow you to specify how long cookies are stored, providing more control over their persistence. However, it is important to note that blocking or deleting all or some cookies associated with our site may impact the functionality or access to parts or all of our site, and you may need to make exceptions where essential cookies are needed to work. Keep in mind that while adjusting browser settings can help manage cookies, it may not completely prevent all tracking mechanisms. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our use of cookies.
DATA RETENTION
We will retain your personal data only for the duration necessary to fulfill the intended purposes for which it was collected, which includes meeting any legal, accounting, or reporting obligations. In situations where a complaint arises or there is a reasonable anticipation of potential dispute or litigation concerning our relationship with you, we may extend the retention period.
To determine the appropriate duration for retaining personal data, we take into account factors such as the quantity, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risks associated with unauthorized use or disclosure, the purposes for processing the personal data and the feasibility of achieving those objectives through alternative means, as well as compliance with relevant legal obligations.
If there is no ongoing need to process your personal data as outlined in this privacy policy, we will delete it. However, under circumstances where deletion is not feasible due to legal, regulatory, or technical reasons, we may retain your data for a longer period. In such cases, we ensure that your privacy is safeguarded, and your data is only utilized for the specified purposes.
If you have any questions about our data retention policy, please Contact Us.
LINKS TO EXTERNAL SITES
Our Site may link to other sites/pages created and maintained by other public and/or private entities or individuals. When you follow a link to any external site, you are leaving our site and are subject to the external site‘s privacy and terms of service policies. We do not control or guarantee the functioning, availability, accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of the site or information contained on an external site. We also do not endorse that site’s sponsors, the views they express, or any products or services they offer.
FORALLDOCTORS.COM CONTENT EMBEDDED IN THIRD-PARTY SITES
In some instances, a third-party site or page may feature embedded foralldoctors.com content such as videos, images, social media posts, or interactive elements served by our site.
STORAGE AND SECURITY
We utilize U.S. companies where we store your information. We take all reasonable precautions to protect our site and information voluntarily submitted to our site or automatically collected by our site. For example, we restrict access to personally identifiable information to employees, contractors, and vendors who require access to this information in order to perform their official duties and exercise controls to limit what data they can view based on the specific needs of their position. We also utilize various practices and technical controls to protect the information in our control. These practices and controls include: using unique password protected access, encrypting the transfer of personal data over the internet via secure sockets layer (SSL), using high-strength firewalls and intrusion detection systems (IDS) to safeguard personal information, and maintaining strict technical controls and procedures to ensure the integrity of all data on our site.
Even though we try very hard to protect your information, data protection and data communication over the internet cannot be guaranteed 100% safe. Hence, we cannot guarantee that data retention or transmission over the internet or other networks would be 100% secure, and we are not responsible for circumventions of any privacy settings or security measures contained on our site. That is why we request that you do not freely give your information away, and help yourself and us prevent bad actors the opportunity to intercept or steal your personal data.
In the event your personal data is compromised as a breach of security, we will take reasonable steps to investigate and where necessary, we will notify you of this compromised situation as soon as reasonably possible and in accordance with applicable laws.
POLICY UPDATES
We will update this privacy policy from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated revised date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make major changes to this privacy policy, we may notify you either by promptly posting notice on our site or by directly sending you notification. We encourage you to review our privacy policy frequently to be informed of all changes, including of how we are accessing, processing and protecting your personal data or changing legal requirements.
HOW YOU CAN MANAGE OR DELETE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
With limitations stated here in this privacy policy and our Terms of Service, we provide you with the ability to access, correct or delete much of your personal and non personal data on our site at no cost to you at any time. For example you can simply log in, go to your profile page, and make the changes and deletions right there. If you are in need of a copy of your personal data, please make sure you make a copy before you delete it from our site. Please note that once your account or posted information is deleted, we may not be able to access it for you. Again, as stated in this privacy policy and our Terms of Service, it may not be feasible to remove some content, communication and information that you have voluntarily disclosed and posted, or posts that others have shared about you. If you are not sure if you want any of your personal or non-personal information to be available to other members, users or the public, please do not share it.
If you decide to no longer be a member, please Contact Us and we can have your account removed. Please note that once you delete your account, if you wish to participate in our site again, you may not be able to use the same username and may have to go through the credentialing and verification again. COMMUNICATION WITH LEGAL AND MEDICAL PERSONS OR ENTITIES
Under no circumstances should you release your personal, private or sensitive information to anyone. That is why you made a username so you can protect your privacy better. If you choose to give away your information, do it only if you have to in a very limited basis, and the less you give away the better. Just because a member or user may have been verified, that does not mean you can trust them, especially when it comes to your privacy and other personal, sensitive and proprietary information.
Please also remember that our site is a platform for members and users to have conversations about different issues. All communications with all parties are the opinions of each of the parties themselves and not that of FAD. We do not endorse any members or users or any third party. If you need any legal or medical advice you must contact your own healthcare providers or legal counsel. Material discussed on our site should not be taken as legal or medical advice.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACCOUNT AND PRIVATE INFORMATION
Membership and some features and uses of our site will require you to give some personal and non personal information before you are granted access.
Our Terms of Service and this privacy policy outline the terms and policies governing the use of this platform. If you intend to use our site for any purpose other than its intended use, you must refrain from inputting your personal information at all times. Entering any information, whether personal or otherwise, on our site or through our site is done at your own risk.
Please be aware that one of the many reasons we ask for minimal of your personal information before we grant membership is that despite efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. You are not allowed to share your access to our site with anyone and you are ultimately responsible to safeguard your personal information, prevent unauthorized access to your account, and maintain the secrecy of your password.
RESTRICTED TO ADULTS
We do not collect personally identifiable information for under age adults and, no-one under age of 18 is allowed to use our site for any purpose, even if parents or legal guardian(s) allow. Your use of our site is prohibited if you are under age and you will be deemed an imposter and prosecuted to the maximum extent permitted by law. Our site is not permitted to individuals less than eighteen year of age or below the age of majority in the jurisdiction from which they access our site. If you become aware of anyone who has violated this restriction, please Contact Us. We take this type of violation very seriously.
Your Rights With Respect To Your Personal Data
Below is a description of your rights and the circumstances in which they apply.
1. Access Your Personal Data: You have the right to obtain access to, and copies of, the personal data that we may have about you, and that we are processing it lawfully. You have a right to a copy of your personal data free of charge. Any further copies may be subject to a reasonable fee. When the request is made by electronic means (for example through an e-mail), and unless otherwise requested by you, the information will be provided in a commonly used electronic form. This right is not absolute; the use of the right to access your personal data should not affect the rights and freedoms of others, including trade secrets or intellectual property.
2. Correct Your Personal Data: You have the right to require us to correct the personal data we have about you if you believe that your personal data might be incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate. We will respond within 1 month or justify in writing why your request cannot be accepted.
3. Erase Your Personal Data: You have the right to require us to erase your personal data if you believe the personal data is no longer needed for the purpose it was provided; if we are processing it in an unlawful manner; or to withdraw consent for processing where you have previously provided consent.
Please be aware that if you ask us to delete your personal data, you might lose access to most of our site and services.
Your right to erase can be exercised free of charge. There may be some instances where a fee may be requested, notably when the requests are unfounded, excessive or have a repetitive character.
Your requests under this right will be replied to without within 1 month from the receipt of your request.” The deadline can be extended to 2 additional months taking into account the complexity and number of requests. You will be informed of such extension within one month from our receipt of your request.
4. Restrict Data Processing: You have the right to require us to restrict our data processing of your personal data. You may exercise your right to restriction of processing your personal data when: a. the data is no longer accurate;
b. You do not want the data to be erased, but the data has not been used lawfully;
c. We no longer need your personal data for processing purposes, but you require it for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims;
d. You have objected to our processing of your personal data and we are in the process of verifying whether our legitimate grounds override yours.
It is important to be aware that if you request us to restrict the processing of your personal data, we may have to suspend our services to you or you may no longer be able to user some of our site’s features or services.
5. Object To The Processing: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for specific reasons and whether such a specific situation exists must be examined on a case-by-case basis. If you object to our processing of your personal data, we will no longer process your personal data unless we can demonstrate that we need to process it for reasons that override your interests, rights and freedoms or if the data is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
You have a right to object free of charge, at any time to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes. If you object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, we will no longer process your personal data for such purposes.
Based on the situation, it may be necessary for us to limit or stop the processing of your personal data entirely, or, upon request, erase your personal data. It is important to be aware that depending on the situation, if you object to the processing of your personal data, we may have to suspend our services to you.
6. You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated means if the decision produces legal effects concerning you or significantly affects you in a similar way. A decision produces legal effects when your legal rights are impacted (such as your right to vote). In addition, processing can significantly affect you if it influences your circumstances, behavior or choices. For example automatic processing may lead to the refusal of your online credit application.
7. Data portability: You have the right to receive from us, in a portable format, the personal data that you provided to us. The right may only be exercised where personal data was collected in the context of a contract or on the basis of consent, and such data is processed by automated means. You may also request us to provide it directly to a third party if technically feasible. We will do so free of charge to you. However, there may be some instances where a fee may be requested, notably when the requests are unfounded, excessive or have a repetitive character. We are not responsible for the third party’s use of your personal data.
Keep in mind that if we request your consent to use your personal data, you can withdraw it anytime.
However, withdrawing consent might limit your access to certain features on our site or to our services.
Please be aware that if you ask us to delete your personal data, you might lose access to most of our site and services. This could also mean we have to delete your account because some of your data, like your email address, is tied to it. Also, please note that we might need to request additional information from you to confirm your identity and ensure that we are properly deleting your data as per your request.
If you have any questions or would like to file a complaint about your data protection rights under this privacy policy, you can always communicate with us by emailing us at our Contact Us page and we will respond to you within a reasonable time upon our receipt of your complaint.
To learn more about your right to lodge a complaint under the GDPR and how to exercise them, you can go to the European Commission website on rules for the protection of personal data inside and outside the EU for individuals located in the European Economic Area (EEA). If you believe your personal data protection rights have not been respected, you can also file a complaint with the supervisory authority of the national Data Protection Authority (DPA) of your country if you reside in a country that is an EU member state or is located within the EEA.
Information We Transfer
European Economic Area (EEA) residents should know that we may share your personal data with third parties located outside of the EEA, which means your data may be transferred to countries that may not have the same level of data protection laws as your own. The safeguards which we rely on in ensuring your personal data benefits from an adequate level of protection include at least one of the following:
• We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission.
• Where we transfer your personal data to third parties located outside the European Economic Area, we may utilize specific contracts approved by the European Commission. These contracts ensure that your personal data receives the same level of protection as it does within the EEA.
• When we transfer your personal data to a party outside the EEA we will do so with your prior explicit consent; or where such transfer is necessary for the provision of our services to you.
Please note however that in certain circumstances, transfers can also occur based on exemptions provided under data protection laws. For example, sharing with law enforcement in emergency situations where we learn that a person’s life is at risk.
RIGHTS OF CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS UNDER THE CALIFORNIA CONSUMER PRIVACY ACT CCPA/CPRA
The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) took effect on January 1, 2020. The CCPA has been amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 and outlines requirements for businesses collecting personal data about California consumers. Please consider the use of the terms ‘consumer’ and ‘business’ as it is used in the below sections referring to the CCPA/CPRA to be interchangeable with ‘you’ and ‘us’ as we have consistently used throughout this privacy policy.
We do not sell your personal data, and we have not done so in the preceding 12 months. However, in compliance with the rights of California residents under the CCPA/CPRA data privacy regulations and the terms outlined in this privacy policy agreement, we may disclose certain personal data to third-part service providers or other entities to facilitate specific services on our behalf and to ensure the maintenance and performance of our website and its features and services.
The below information is from the State of California Department of Justice website with regard to
California residents’ rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) which amended the CCPA in November of 2020. For the clear understanding of your rights, the relevant portions of the page as they appeared on January 3, 2024 have been provided for you below and are as follows:
These FAQs provide general consumer information about the CCPA and how you can exercise your rights under the CCPA. They are not legal advice, regulatory guidance, or an opinion of the Attorney General. We will update this information periodically.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What rights do I have under the CCPA?
If you are a California resident, you may ask businesses to disclose what personal information they have about you and what they do with that information, to delete your personal information, to direct businesses not to sell or share your personal information, to correct inaccurate information that they have about you, and to limit businesses’ use and disclosure of your sensitive personal information:
• Right to know: You can request that a business disclose to you: (1) the categories and/or specific pieces of personal information they have collected about you, (2) the categories of sources for that personal information, (3) the purposes for which the business uses that information, (4) the categories of third parties with whom the business discloses the information, and (5) the categories of information that the business sells or discloses to third parties. You can make a request to know up to twice a year, free of charge.
• Right to delete: You can request that businesses delete personal information they collected from you and tell their service providers to do the same, subject to certain exceptions (such as if the business is legally required to keep the information).
• Right to opt-out of sale or sharing: You may request that businesses stop selling or sharing your personal information (“opt-out”), including via a user-enabled global privacy control. Businesses cannot sell or share your personal information after they receive your opt-out request unless you later authorize them to do so again.
• Right to correct: You may ask businesses to correct inaccurate information that they have about you.
• Right to limit use and disclosure of sensitive personal information: You can direct businesses to only use your sensitive personal information (for example, Your social security number, financial account information, your precise geolocation data, or your genetic data) for limited purposes, such as providing you with the services you requested.
You also have the right to be notified, before or at the point businesses collect your personal information, of the types of personal information they are collecting and what they may do with that information. Generally, businesses cannot discriminate against you for exercising your rights under the CCPA. Businesses cannot make you waive these rights, and any contract provision that says you waive these rights is unenforceable.
2. What if I am not a California resident?
Only California residents have rights under the CCPA. A California resident is a natural person (as opposed to a corporation or other business entity) who resides in California, even if the person is temporarily outside of the state.
3. What is considered personal information and sensitive personal information under the CCPA?
Personal information is information that identifies, relates to, or could reasonably be linked with you or your household. For example, it could include your name, social security number, email address, records of products purchased, internet browsing history, geolocation data, fingerprints, and inferences from other personal information that could create a profile about your preferences and characteristics.
Sensitive personal information is a specific subset of personal information that includes certain government identifiers (such as social security numbers); an account log-in, financial account, debit card, or credit card number with any required security code, password, or credentials allowing access to an account; precise geolocation; contents of mail, email, and text messages; genetic data; biometric information processed to identify a consumer; information concerning a consumer’s health, sex life, or sexual orientation; or information about racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, or union membership. Consumers have the right to also limit a business’s use and disclosure of their sensitive personal information.
Personal information does not include publicly available information (including public real estate/property records) and certain types of information.
4. What is not considered personal information under the CCPA?
Personal information does not include publicly available information that is from federal, state, or local government records, such as professional licenses and public real estate/property records. The definition of publicly available information also includes information that a business has a reasonable basis to believe is lawfully made available to the general public by the consumer or from widely distributed media, or certain information disclosed by a consumer and made available if the consumer has not restricted the information to a specific audience.
The CCPA also exempts certain types of information such as certain medical information and consumer credit reporting information.
5. What businesses does the CCPA apply to?
The CCPA applies to for-profit businesses that do business in California and meet any of the following:
• Have a gross annual revenue of over $25 million;
• Buy, sell, or share the personal information of 100,000 or more California residents, households, or devices; or
• Derive 50% or more of their annual revenue from selling California residents’ personal information.
6. Does the CCPA apply to nonprofits or government agencies?
The CCPA generally does not apply to nonprofit organizations or government agencies.
7. What can I do if I think a business violated the CCPA?
You cannot sue businesses for most CCPA violations. You can only sue a business under the CCPA if there is a data breach, and even then, only under limited circumstances. You can sue a business if your nonencrypted and nonredacted personal information was stolen in a data breach as a result of the business’s failure to maintain reasonable security procedures and practices to protect it. If this happens, you can sue for the amount of monetary damages you actually suffered from the breach or “statutory damages” of up to $750 per incident. Before suing, you must give the business written notice of which CCPA sections it violated and allow 30 days to respond in writing that it has cured the violations and that no further violations will occur. If the business is able to actually cure the violation and gives you its written statement that it has done so, you cannot sue the business, unless it continues to violate the CCPA contrary to its statement.
For all other violations of the CCPA, only the Attorney General or the California Privacy Protection Agency may take legal action against non-compliant entities. The Attorney General does not represent individual California consumers. Using consumer complaints and other information, the Attorney General may identify patterns of misconduct that may lead to investigations and actions on behalf of the collective legal interests of the people of California. If you believe a business has violated the CCPA, you may file a consumer complaint with the Office of the Attorney General. If you choose to file a complaint with our office, explain exactly how the business violated the CCPA, and describe when and how the violation occurred. Please note that the Attorney General cannot represent you or give you legal advice on how to resolve your individual complaint. Starting on July 1, 2023, you also will be able to file complaints with the California Privacy Protection Agency for violations of the CCPA, as amended, occurring on or after that date.
8. What kind of data breach can I sue a business for under the CCPA?
You can only sue businesses under the CCPA if certain conditions are met. The type of personal information that must have been stolen is your first name (or first initial) and last name in combination with any of the following:
• Your social security number
• Your driver’s license number, tax identification number, passport number, military identification number, or other unique identification number issued on a government document commonly used to identify a person's identity
• Your financial account number, credit card number, or debit card number if combined with any required security code, access code, or password that would allow someone access to your account
• Your medical or health insurance information
• Your fingerprint, retina or iris image, or other unique biometric data used to identify a person's identity (but not including photographs unless used or stored for facial recognition purposes)
This personal information must have been stolen in nonencrypted and nonredacted form. In addition, the personal information must have been stolen in a data breach as a result of the business’s failure to maintain reasonable security procedures and practices to protect it. If this happens, you can sue for the amount of monetary damages you actually suffered from the breach or “statutory damages” of up to $750 per incident. Before suing, you must give the business written notice of which CCPA sections it violated and allow 30 days to respond in writing that it has cured the violations and that no further violations will occur. If the business is able to actually cure the violation and gives you its written statement that it has done so, you cannot sue the business, unless it continues to violate the CCPA contrary to its statement.
9. Do businesses need to comply with the statutory CPRA amendments to the CCPA that went into effect on January 1, 2023?
Yes. As of January 1, 2023, the CPRA’s amendments to the CCPA are in effect, and businesses are required to comply with all express statutory requirements. Businesses are also required to comply with those CCPA regulations currently in effect.
10. Are there any CCPA regulations currently in effect?
Yes. The California Department of Justice promulgated an initial round of regulations implementing the CCPA on August 14, 2020 and further amended on March 15, 2021. Those regulations were recently updated by the California Privacy Protection Agency. These regulations appear in Title 11, Division 6, Section 7001 et seq. of the California Code of Regulations and were effective on March 29, 2023.
11. Are the statutory exemptions for employee data and business-to-business transactions still in effect?
No. The exemptions for employment-related personal information and personal information reflecting business-to-business transactions described in Civil Code Sec. 1798.145(m)-(n) expired on December 31, 2022.
12. Can I use an authorized agent to submit a request?
Yes. You may authorize another person to submit a CCPA request on your behalf. You may also authorize a business entity registered with the California Secretary of State to submit a request on your behalf.
Please note that if you use an authorized agent, businesses may require more information from either the authorized agent or from you to verify that you are the person directing the agent. For example, for requests to know or delete your personal information, the business may require the authorized agent to provide proof that you gave that agent signed permission to submit the request. Businesses may also require you to verify your identity directly with the business or directly confirm with the business that you gave the authorized agent permission to submit the request.
B. RIGHT TO OPT-OUT OF SALE OR SHARING
1. What is the right to opt-out?
You may request that businesses stop selling or sharing your personal information (“opt-out”). Note that sharing refers specifically to sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising, which is the targeting of advertising to a consumer based on the consumer’s personal information obtained from the consumer’s online activity across numerous websites. With some exceptions, businesses cannot sell or share your personal information after they receive your opt-out request unless you later provide authorization allowing them to do so again. Businesses must wait at least 12 months before asking you to opt back in to the sale or sharing of your personal information.
2. Can businesses sell a child’s personal information?
Businesses can only sell the personal information of a child that they know to be under the age of 16 if they get affirmative authorization (“opt-in”) for the sale of the child’s personal information. For children under the age of 13, that opt-in must come from the child’s parent or guardian. For children who are at least 13 years old but under the age of 16, the opt-in can come from the child.
3. How do I submit my opt-out request?
Businesses that sell personal information are subject to the CCPA's requirement to provide a clear and conspicuous “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link on their website that allows you to submit an opt-out request. Businesses cannot require you to create an account in order to submit your request. Businesses also should not require you to verify your identity, though they can ask you basic questions to identify which personal information is associated with you.
You can also submit an opt-out request via a user-enabled global privacy control, like the GPC, discussed in FAQ 8 & 9 below. If you can’t find a business’s “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link, review its privacy policy to see if it sells or shares personal information. If the business does, it must also include that link in its privacy policy.
If a business’s "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" link or other designated method of submitting optout requests is not working or difficult to find, you may report the business to our office (https://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company).
4. How long does the business have to respond to my opt-out request?
Businesses must respond as soon as feasibly possible to your request, up to a maximum of 15 business days from the date they received your request to opt-out.
5. Why is the business asking me for more information?
While businesses are not required to verify that the person submitting an opt-out request is really the consumer for whom the business has personal information, they may need to ask you for additional information to make sure they stop selling the right person’s personal information. If the business asks for personal information to verify your identity, it can only use that information for this verification purpose.
6. Why did the business deny my opt-out request?
There are some exceptions to the opt-out right. Common reasons why businesses may refuse to stop selling your personal information include:
• Sale or sharing is necessary for the business to comply with legal obligations, exercise legal claims or rights, or defend legal claims
• The information is publicly available information, certain medical information, consumer credit reporting information, or other types of information exempt from the CCPA.
See Civil Code section 1798.145 for more exceptions.
If you do not know why a business denied your opt-out request, follow up with the business to ask it for its reasons.
7. Why did I get a response that the business is a service provider that does not have to act on my request?
Many businesses use other businesses to provide services for them. For example, a retailer may contract with a payment card processor to process customer credit card transactions or a shipping company to deliver orders. These entities may qualify as “service providers” under the CCPA.
The CCPA treats service providers differently than the businesses they serve. It is the business that is responsible for responding to consumer requests. If you submit a request to opt-out to a service provider of a business instead of the business itself, the service provider may deny the request. You must submit your request to the business itself.
If a service provider has said that it does not or cannot act on your request because it is a service provider, you may follow up to ask who the business is. However, sometimes the service provider will not be able to provide that information. You may be able to determine who the business is based on the services that the service provider provides, although sometimes this may be difficult or impossible.
8. What is the GPC?
Businesses that sell or share personal information must offer two or more methods for consumers to submit requests to opt-out of the sale of their personal information. For businesses that collect personal information from consumers online, one acceptable method for consumers to opt-out of sales or sharing is via a user-enabled global privacy control, like the GPC. Developed in response to the CCPA and to enhance consumer privacy rights, the GPC is a ‘stop selling or sharing my data switch’ that is available on some internet browsers, like Mozilla Firefox, Duck Duck Go, and Brave, or as a browser extension. It is a proposed technical standard that reflects what the CCPA regulations contemplated – some consumers want a comprehensive option that broadly signals their opt-out request, as opposed to making requests on multiple websites on different browsers or devices. Opting out of the sale or sharing of personal information should be easy for consumers, and the GPC is one option for consumers who want to submit requests to opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information via a user-enabled global privacy control. Under law, it must be honored by covered businesses as a valid consumer request to stop the sale or sharing of personal information.
9. How do I submit my opt-out request using the GPC?
To learn more about the GPC, you can visit its website here. Developers have begun to innovate around the GPC and created different mechanisms for consumers, such as EFF’s Privacy Badger extension or the Brave Privacy Browser.
C. REQUESTS TO KNOW
1. What is the right to know?
You may request that businesses disclose to you what personal information they have collected, used, shared, or sold about you, and why they collected, used, shared, or sold that information. Specifically, you may request that businesses disclose:
• The categories of personal information collected
• Specific pieces of personal information collected
• The categories of sources from which the business collected personal information
• The purposes for which the business uses the personal information
• The categories of third parties with whom the business shares the personal information
• The categories of information that the business sells or discloses to third parties
Businesses must provide you this information for the 12-month period preceding your request. They must provide this information to you free of charge.
2. How do I submit my request to know?
Businesses must designate at least two methods for you to submit your request—for example, an email address, website form, or hard copy form. One of those methods has to be a toll-free phone number and, if the business has a website, one of those methods has to be through its website. However, if a business operates exclusively online, it only needs to provide an email address for submitting requests to know.
Businesses cannot make you create an account just to submit a request to know, but if you already have an account with the business, it may require you to submit your request through that account.
Make sure you submit your request to know through one of the business’s designated methods, which may be different from its normal customer service contact information. If you can’t find a business’s designated methods, review its privacy policy, which must include instructions on how you can submit your request.
If a business’s designated method of submitting requests to know is not working, notify the business in writing and consider submitting your request through another designated method if possible.
3. How long does the business have to respond to my request to know?
Businesses must respond to your request within 45 calendar days. They can extend that deadline by another 45 days (90 days total) if they notify you.
If you submitted a request to know and have not received any response within the timeline, check the business’s privacy policy to make sure you submitted your request through the designated way. Follow up with the business to see if the business is subject to the CCPA and to follow up on your request.
4. Why is the business asking me for more information?
Businesses must verify that the person making a request to know is the consumer about whom the business has personal information. Businesses may need to ask you for additional information for verification purposes. If the business asks for personal information to verify your identity, it can only use that information for this verification purpose.
5. Why did the business deny my request to know?
There are some exceptions to the right to know. Common reasons why businesses may refuse to disclose your personal information include:
• The business cannot verify your request
• The request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, or the business has already provided personal information to you more than twice in a 12-month period
• Businesses cannot disclose certain sensitive information, such as your social security number, financial account number, or account passwords, but they must tell you if they’re collecting that type of information
• Disclosure would restrict the business’s ability to comply with legal obligations, exercise legal claims or rights, or defend legal claims
• If the personal information is certain medical information, consumer credit reporting information, or other types of information exempt from the CCPA
See Civil Code section 1798.145 for more exceptions.
If you do not know why a business denied your request to know, follow up with the business to ask it for its reasons.
6. Why did I get a response that the business is a service provider that does not have to act on my request?
Many businesses use other businesses to provide services for them. For example, a retailer may contract with a payment card processor to process customer credit card transactions or a shipping company to deliver orders. These entities may qualify as “service providers” under the CCPA.
The CCPA treats service providers differently than the businesses they serve. It is the business that is responsible for responding to consumer requests. If you submit a request to know to a service provider of a business instead of the business itself, the service provider may deny the request. You must submit your request to the business itself.
If a service provider has said that it does not or cannot act on your request because it is a service provider, you may follow up to ask who the business is. However, sometimes the service provider will not be able to provide that information. You may be able to determine who the business is based on the services that the service provider provides, although sometimes this may be difficult or impossible.
D. REQUESTS TO DELETE
1. What is my right to delete personal information?
You may request that businesses delete personal information they collected from you and to tell their service providers to do the same. However, there are many exceptions (see FAQ D.5) that allow businesses to keep your personal information.
2. How do I submit my right to delete?
Review the business’s privacy policy, which must include instructions on how you can submit your request to delete.
Businesses must designate at least two methods for you to submit your request—for example, a tollfree number, email address, website form, or hard copy form. However, if a business operates exclusively online, it only needs to provide an email address for submitting requests.
Businesses cannot make you create an account just to submit a deletion request, but if you already have an account with the business, it may require you to submit your request through that account.
Make sure you submit your deletion request through one of the business’s designated methods, which may be different from its normal customer service contact information.
If a business’s designated method of submitting requests to delete is not working, notify the business in writing and consider submitting your request through another designated method if possible.
3. How long does the business have to respond to my request to delete?
Businesses must respond to your request within 45 calendar days. They can extend that deadline by another 45 days (90 days total) if they notify you.
If you submitted a request to delete and have not received any response within the timeline, check the business’s privacy policy to make sure you submitted your request through the designated way. Follow up with the business to see if the business is subject to the CCPA and to follow up on your request.
4. Why is the business asking me for more information?
Businesses must verify that the person making a request to delete is the consumer about whom the business has personal information. Businesses may need to ask you for additional information for verification purposes. If the business asks for personal information to verify your identity, it can only use that information for this verification purpose.
5. Why did the business deny my request to delete?
There are exceptions to the right to delete. Common reasons why businesses may keep your personal information include: • If the information is exempt from the CCPA. This includes:
o Publicly available information (such as your address, which is often in public real estate/property records). However, if you are a law enforcement officer, public official, or Safe at Home participant (available to victims of domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, human trafficking, elder and dependent abuse, as well as reproductive health workers), you may request a website to not publicly post your address as described here.
o Certain types of information such as medical information or consumer credit reporting information.
• The business cannot verify your request
• To complete your transaction, provide a reasonably anticipated product or service, or for certain warranty and product recall purposes
• For certain business security practices
• For certain internal uses that are compatible with reasonable consumer expectations or the context in which the information was provided
• To comply with legal obligations, exercise legal claims or rights, or defend legal claims
• If the personal information is certain medical information, consumer credit reporting information, or other types of information exempt from the CCPA
See Civil Code sections 1798.105(d) and 1798.145 for more exceptions.
If you do not know why a business denied your request to delete, follow up with the business to ask it for its reasons.
6. Why did I get a response that the business is a service provider that does not have to act on my request?
Many businesses use other businesses to provide services for them. For example, a retailer may contract with a payment card processor to process customer credit card transactions or a shipping company to deliver orders. These entities may qualify as “service providers” under the CCPA.
The CCPA treats service providers differently than the businesses they serve. It is the business that is responsible for responding to consumer requests. If you submit a request to delete to a service provider of a business instead of the business itself, the service provider may deny the request. You must submit your request to the business itself.
If a service provider has said that it does not or cannot act on your request because it is a service provider, you may follow up to ask who the business is. However, sometimes the service provider will not be able to provide that information. You may be able to determine who the business is based on the services that the service provider provides, although sometimes this may be difficult or impossible.
E. REQUESTS TO CORRECT (RIGHT TO CORRECT)
1. What is the right to correct?
You may ask businesses to correct inaccurate information that they have about you.
The California Privacy Protection Agency is currently engaged in a formal rulemaking process and has proposed CCPA regulations pertaining to the right to correct, but these are not currently final or effective.
2. How do I submit my request to correct?
Review the business’s privacy policy, which should include instructions on how you can submit your request to correct.
Businesses must designate at least two methods for you to submit your request—for example, a tollfree number, email address, website form, or hard copy form. However, if a business operates exclusively online, it only needs to provide an email address for submitting requests.
Businesses cannot make you create an account just to submit a correction request, but if you already have an account with the business, it may require you to submit your request through that account.
Make sure you submit your correction request through one of the business’s designated methods, which may be different from its normal customer service contact information.
If a business’s designated method of submitting requests to correct is not working, notify the business in writing and consider submitting your request through another designated method if possible.
3. How long does the business have to respond to my request to correct?
Businesses must respond to your request within 45 calendar days. They can extend that deadline by another 45 days (90 days total) if they notify you.
If you submitted a request to correct and have not received any response within the timeline, check the business’s privacy policy to make sure you submitted your request through the designated way. Follow up with the business to see if the business is subject to the CCPA and to follow up on your request.
4. Why is the business asking me for more information?
Businesses must verify that the person making a request to correct is the consumer about whom the business has personal information. Businesses may need to ask you for additional information for verification purposes. If the business asks for personal information to verify your identity, it can only use that information for this verification purpose.
5. Why did the business deny my request to correct?
There are exceptions to the right to correct. Common reasons why businesses may deny your request to correct include:
• The business cannot verify your identity to complete your request
• The request is manifestly unfounded or excessive
• The information is publicly available information, certain medical information, consumer credit reporting information, or other types of information exempt from the CCPA
If you do not know why a business denied your request to correct, follow up with the business to ask it for its reasons.
F. REQUESTS TO LIMIT USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION (RIGHT TO LIMIT)
1. What is the right to limit?
You can direct businesses to only use your sensitive personal information (for example, your social security number, financial account information, your precise geolocation data, or your genetic data) for limited purposes, such as providing you with the services you requested.
The California Privacy Protection Agency is currently engaged in a formal rulemaking process and has proposed CCPA regulations pertaining to the right to limit, but these are not currently final or effective.
G. RIGHT TO NON-DISCRIMINATION
Businesses cannot deny goods or services, charge you a different price, or provide a different level or quality of goods or services just because you exercised your rights under the CCPA.
However, if you refuse to provide your personal information to a business or ask it to delete or stop selling your personal information, and that personal information or sale is necessary for the business to provide you with goods or services, the business may not be able to complete that transaction.
Businesses can also offer you promotions, discounts and other deals in exchange for collecting, keeping, or selling your personal information. But they can only do this if the financial incentive offered is reasonably related to the value of your personal information. If you ask a business to delete or stop selling your personal information, you may not be able to continue participating in the special deals they offer in exchange for personal information. If you are not sure how your request may affect your participation in a special offer, ask the business. H. REQUIRED NOTICES
1. What is a notice at collection?
The CCPA requires businesses to give consumers certain information in a “notice at collection.” A notice at collection must list the categories of personal information businesses collect about consumers and the purposes for which they use the categories of information. (To find out how you can learn what specific information a business has collected about you, see the Right to Know section.) If the business sells consumers’ personal information, then the notice at collection must include a Do Not Sell or Share link. The notice must also contain a link to the business’s privacy policy, where consumers can get a fuller description of the business’s privacy practices and of their privacy rights.
2. Where can I find a business’s notice at collection?
This notice must be provided at or before the point at which the business collects your personal information. For example, you might find a link to the notice at collection on a website’s homepage and on a webpage where you place an order or enter your personal information for another reason. On a mobile app, you might find a link to the notice in the settings menu. In a retail store, you might find the notice on a printed form used to collect your personal information.
3. What is a privacy policy?
A business’s privacy policy is a written statement that gives a broad picture of its online and offline practices for the collection, use, sharing, and sale of consumers’ personal information. The CCPA requires business privacy policies to include information on consumers’ privacy rights and how to exercise them: the Right to Know, the Right to Delete, the Right to Opt-Out of Sale, the the Right to Correct, the the Right to Limit, and the Right to Non-Discrimination.
4. Where can I find a business’s privacy policy?
Most businesses post their privacy policy on their websites. A link to it can usually be found at the bottom of the homepage and other webpages. The link’s title may include “Privacy” or “California Privacy Rights.” In a mobile app, the privacy policy may be linked on the download page for the app or in the app’s settings menu.
I. DATA BROKERS AND THE CCPA
1. What is a data broker?
Another California law, Civil Code section 1798.99.80, defines a data broker as “a business that knowingly collects and sells to third parties the personal information of a consumer with whom the business does not have a direct relationship.” This law exempts certain businesses that are regulated by other laws from this definition. Exempted businesses include consumer reporting agencies (commonly known as credit bureaus) and certain financial institutions and insurance companies.
Data brokers collect information about consumers from many sources including websites, other businesses, and public records. The data broker analyzes and packages the data for sale to other businesses.
2. How can I find data brokers that collect and sell my personal information?
The California law on data brokers requires data brokers covered by the law to register with the Attorney General and to provide certain information on their practices. The Data Broker Registry can be found on the Attorney General’s website at https://oag.ca.gov/data-brokers.
Data brokers are subject to the CCPA. On the Data Broker Registry website, you will find contact information and a website link for each registered data broker, as well as additional information to help you exercise your CCPA rights.
3. How can I stop a data broker from selling my personal information?
You can click on the “View Full Submission” link on the Data Broker Registry to get instructions on how to opt-out of the sale of your personal information. However, you may not be able to stop the sale of all of your information. The CCPA’s definition of “personal information” does not include information lawfully made available from government records, which are often sources used by data brokers.
You can also go to a data broker’s website through the link posted on the Registry and find the broker’s privacy policy to learn more about its privacy practices and how to exercise your CCPA rights.
OTHER CONSUMER RESOURCES ON CCPA
• Take action! Exercise Your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act
If you have questions, comments or requests with regard to this privacy policy or wish to obtain more information about the personal data we process about you, please send us an email from our Contact Us page.
Revised 1-4-2024