Privacy Policy

 

Effective Date: October 10, 2019

This notice describes the Privacy Policy for http://www.thesurgicalist.com (the “Website”), a website containing content relating to medical services (the “Website”) operated by The Surgicalist Group, PLLC, a Florida professional limited liability company (“we” or “us”).   By visiting the Website, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy, which are also deemed to be a part of the Terms of Use of the Website. The use of information collected through the Website shall be limited to the purpose of providing the service for which you, as the user, have requested from us and for the purposes set forth in this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy applied only to information we collect on this Website.  It does not apply to information collected by us offline or through any other means, including on any website operated by third parties, or to any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries), including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on the Website.  Those websites have their own privacy policies and it is recommended that users read through them before providing any information to the website owner.

By using this website, you consent to understanding and accepting the terms listed in this privacy policy. We reserve the right to update, amend, or change this Privacy Policy at any time to conform to new laws and regulations or changes in business standards.  If you do not agree with our policies and practices, you should not use the Website. By accessing or using the Website, you agree to this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of the Website after we make changes constitutes your acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.

 

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When you leave comments on the Website, we collect the data entered into the comments form, and also your IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

 

Media

If you upload images to the Website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the Website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

 

Contact forms

No personal information is collected about you when you visit the Website unless you choose to provide to us information through our Contact Form or unless you choose to include your personal information in the comments form, this includes personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you (“Personal Data”). Personal Data may include, but is not limited to, personally identifiable information, email addresses, names, identities of health systems, addresses, states or provinces of residence or business, ZIP/postal codes, cities, cookies and usage data. We may use your Personal Data to contact you with newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that we determine may be of interest to you. You may opt out of receiving any, or all, of these communications from us by following the unsubscribe link or instructions provided in any email we send.

 

Cookies

If you leave a comment on the Website you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will be effective for one year. If you have an account and you log in to the Website, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no Personal Data and is discarded when you close your browser. When you log into the Website, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies will be effective for two days, and screen options cookies will be effective for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. If you edit or publish an article or blog, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no Personal Data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. This cookie expires after 1 day.  In some cases, we may not be able to remove your Personal Data, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.

 

Embedded content from other websites

Articles or blogs on the Website may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

 

Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of the Website and our services. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network. You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Website available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity. For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/

 

Usage Data

We may also collect information how the Website and our services are accessed and used (“Usage Data”). This Usage Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of the Website that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. For users that register on the Website (if any), we also store the Personal Data they provide in their user profile. Generally, users can see, edit, or delete their Personal Data (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information. You understand and agree, however, that it may not be possible to completely delete all information from our databases and in such case,  we may retain (but not display, distribute, or perform) server copies of your information that have been removed or deleted from your account.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on the Website, have left comments, or have left contact information on a Contact Form, you can request to receive an exported file of the Personal Data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any Personal Data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

This Privacy Policy applies to the use of the Website and to the information obtained from or provided by users of the Website.  You should not submit or provide any medical or health information through the Website.  We maintain a separate policy in connect with the Health Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”).  To obtain a copy of our HIPAA policy, please contact our administrator at info@thesurgicalist.com.

Whenever we knowingly collect sensitive information, such as health history, we will take reasonable measures to encrypt that information and transmit it in a secure way, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. We take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems where we store personal data. Our privacy policy does not cover content that is transmitted via email to our office. Email does not have the same encryption and security protocols and should not be used to transmit sensitive information.

Some areas of the Website may be public areas.  For example, any blog posts or article posts will be viewable to the public. You should be aware that any information you provide in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them. We do not guarantee the accuracy or your safety when posting on any of these public areas.

Where we send your data and disclosure of information

Visitor comments may be checked or verified through an automated spam detection service.  We may also use your Personal Data to contact you for any purpose.  We may also use your Personal Data to seek to detect, investigate and prevent illegal activities or activities that may violate our policies.

We may disclose Personal Data that we collect or you provide as described in this Privacy Policy:

  • To our subsidiaries and affiliates for various purposes.
  • To contractors and service providers we use to support our business and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them. These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us.
  • To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of a bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us about the Website users is among the assets transferred. You will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Website of any change in ownership or uses of your Personal Data, as well as any choices you may have regarding your Personal Data.
  • To third parties who provide services on our behalf to help with our tours and business activities or who provide products or services to you as part of our tour packages and related business activities.
  • To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
  • For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information with your consent.

We may also disclose your Personal Data:

  • When we may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.
  • To comply with any court order, law or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
  • To enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
  • If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect our rights, property, or safety and that of our customers or others.

 

Children’s Privacy

Neither the Website nor our services are intended to address anyone under the age of 18 years (a “Child”). We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 years. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Child have provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from any Child without verification of parental consent, we use reasonable efforts to remove that information from our servers.

 

Transfer Of Data

Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction. We will take such action as is reasonably necessary to treat your data securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. No transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless we determine, in our sole discretion, that there are adequate controls in place including the security of your Personal Data. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information or data represents your agreement to that transfer.

 

How we seek to protect your data ?

We use reasonable efforts to cause the Website to be scanned on a regular basis for security holes and known vulnerabilities.

 

We use regular Malware Scanning

We use reasonable efforts to implement a variety of security measures when a user places an order through the Website or when a user enters, submits, or accesses his or her information to enhance the safety of your Personal Data.

All transactions made through the Website are processed through a third-party gateway provider and are not stored or processed on our servers.

 

Links to Other Websites

The Website may contain links to third-party websites. Any Personal Data or other information you provide on the linked pages is provided directly to that third party and is subject to that third party’s privacy policy. This Privacy Policy does not apply to such linked sites, and we are not responsible for the content or privacy and security practices and policies of these websites or any other sites that are linked to from our Website. We encourage you to learn about all third parties’ privacy and security practices and policies before providing them with personal information.

 

What Steps Do We Take To Protect Your Information Online?

We take reasonable measures to protect your Personal Data in an effort to prevent loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Please be aware, however, that despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable and no method of data transmission that can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse. To protect the confidentiality of your Personal Data and other personal information, you must keep your password confidential and not disclose it to any other person. You are responsible for all uses of the Website by any person using your password. Please advise us immediately if you believe your password has been misused.

 

Social Media Policy

We are not responsible for any information collected by social networks on which we maintain a social media presence. These include, but are not limited to, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Each social network has its own privacy policy and it should be read before creating an account on the network. We are not responsible for any marketing or retargeting performed by a social network after you have visited our pages

 

Mobile Privacy

We may offer you the ability to connect with our Website, or use our applications, services, and tools through a mobile device, either through a mobile application or via a mobile optimized website. The provisions of this Privacy Policy apply to all such mobile access and use of mobile devices. This Privacy Policy will be referenced by all such mobile applications or mobile optimized websites.  When you download or use our mobile applications, or access one of our mobile optimized sites, we may use various technologies to determine location, such as location services of the applicable operating system or browser and sensor data from your device, such as GPS coordinates.

 

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by using the contact information we provided on our contact page.