HealthCircles™ Privacy Policy
The HealthCircles™ Privacy Policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect and use personal information you provide to us and help you make informed decisions in how you use our website, products and services. References in this document to “us”, “we”, and “our” refer to HealthCircles™ and its affiliated companies.
Our Commitment to Your Privacy
HealthCircles™ is committed to protecting your privacy and takes precautions – including technical, administrative and physical measures – to safeguard your information against loss, unauthorized access, misuse, theft, disclosure, alteration and destruction. To ensure your personal information is secure, we communicate our privacy and security guidelines to HealthCircles™ employees and strictly enforce privacy safeguards. Information we collect is used to improve the content of this site and the quality of services we offer, and is not shared with or sold to other organizations for commercial purposes.
Intended Audience
HealthCircles™ publishes health and wellness information for educational purposes via its website at www.healthcircles.org. The website provides free access to information, articles, eBooks and other media relating to health in various categories such as heart health, nutrition, supplements, diet, weight loss, exercise, fitness, spine and joint health, diseases and conditions, men’s and women’s health, and children’s health. HealthCircles™ offers health-related products and services, and access to a public online discussion forum where users may post opinions and questions, and receive responses from HealthCircles™ or from third-party information providers. The website also offers users the opportunity to create a private HealthCircles™ membership that allows access to additional information and services. HealthCircles™ may from time to time remove or change website content, services, and information categories at its sole discretion.
While the website may offer information about children’s health, it is designed for the use of adults 18 years of age and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 18. Parents may use the website to access information relevant to their child’s health condition. Parents who allow their child to create a membership account or who create an account for their child will be solely responsible for supervising their child’s use of the website.
Types of Information We Collect
When visiting the HealthCircles™ website you may provide us with two types of information based on how you interact with the site: personal information you choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis, and non-personal website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse the site.
Non-personal information may be collected using web-based technologies that track how our website is used. Every computer that visits the site will be assigned a unique anonymous identifier often referred to as a “cookie” (unless the user’s browser is configured to block this activity). Information gathered through cookies and other technologies may include pages viewed, date and time of visits, time spent on the site, and which promotions, sponsored links and advertisements users have seen and how users responded to them. The site uses cookies to differentiate you from other users. In some cases, cookies may be used to prevent you from seeing unnecessary advertisements or requiring you to log in more than is necessary for security. In conjunction with web server’s log files, cookies enable us to calculate which parts of the site are most popular, giving us feedback to constantly improve our site and better serve our customers. Cookies do not allow us to gather any personal information about you.
Personal information and personal health information may be collected only when the user voluntarily provides it. Personal information identifies you as a unique person and includes information such as name, address, email, and phone number. Personal information is collected when a user voluntarily registers as a member of the website or when a user submits an email inquiry to HealthCircles™. Personal health information is personal information combined with information a user may voluntarily provide that relates to personal health or a disease condition. The website user is responsible for the accuracy of all personal information and personal health information submitted to HealthCircles™.
Scope of Privacy Policy
Any information that a user chooses to share in a public chat room, blog, forum or social networking service is deemed as publicly disclosed information. For example, if you list your name and email address in a forum posting, that information is public. You are responsible for personal information you choose to submit in these instances. HealthCircles™ may handle and use information that has been made freely available as publicly disclosed information in a manner outside the scope of limitations described in this Privacy Policy.
User suggestions or business information offered to HealthCircles™ to improve products, services, models, inventions, or business ideas will not be covered by this Privacy Policy and will be deemed publicly disclosed unless HealthCircles™ signs and returns a written non-disclosure agreement prior to the submission of such information.
Third Party Sites and Services
We provide links to other websites, products, applications or services that offer information on topics that may be useful to users of our site. Our Privacy Policy is no longer in effect when you use a link to go from our site to another website. Your interaction with and browsing on any other website, including sites which have a link on our site, is subject to that website’s privacy practices. We encourage you to learn about the privacy practices of those third parties.
Disclosure to Third Parties
We use third parties to facilitate our business activities, including, but not limited to processing payments and sending email. In connection with these business operations, these third parties may have access to your personal information.
It may be necessary – by law, litigation, or legal process and/or requests from governmental authorities – for HealthCircles™ to disclose your personal information. We may also disclose information about you if we determine that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect our operations, affiliated parties, or users. In the event of a reorganization, merger, or sale, we may transfer personal information we collect to the relevant third party.
Privacy Questions
By using the HealthCircles™ website you consent to our collection and use of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. HealthCircles™ may update its Privacy Policy from time to time. When a change is made to the policy, a notice will be posted on our website along with the updated Privacy Policy.
If you have questions or concerns about the HealthCircles™ Privacy Policy please contact us.
Last updated: August 24, 2019