Privacy Policy

Web and Mobile Data Privacy Policy

Introduction:

SpecialistVirtuCare (“SVC”, “us”, “our”, or “we”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through compliance with our Web and Mobile Data Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”). This Privacy Policy is being provided to you to inform you of, among other things: (i) the types of information we collect about you; (ii) your choices on how we may use your information; and (iii) how we use, secure, process, share, update and/or retain your information. This Privacy Policy applies to any information that we may collect from you or that you may provide to us through (i) our telemedicine website (“Website”); (ii) our telemedicine mobile/tablet sites; (iii) our official social media accounts; (iv) our telemedicine messaging platforms; (v) emails and/or text communications from us that you have expressly opted in to receive; or (vii) any other instance when you contact us, ((ii) through (vii) is collectively referred to herein as the “Services”).
PLEASE REVIEW THIS POLICY CAREFULLY to understand our policies and practices regarding your “Personal Information” (as herein defined) and your Protected Health Information (“PHI”) (as herein defined), and how we will treat such Personal Information and PHI. If you DO NOT AGREE with our policies and practices stated herein, your choice is to not use our Website or our Services.
If you do not provide us with your Personal Information and PHI as we reasonably require, we may be unable to provide you with the services that you have requested from us. By accessing and/or using our Website or Services, you are agreeing to the terms of this Privacy Policy. SVC may, from time to time, modify this Privacy Policy as set forth in Changes To Our Privacy Policy. Your continued use of our Website, Services, products and services, constitutes your acceptance of this Privacy Policy.
YOU CAN WITHDRAW YOUR CONSENT AT ANY TIME.
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY PART OF THIS POLICY OR IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH OUR TERMS & CONDITIONS OR IF YOU DO NOT CONSENT TO PROVIDE US YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND PHI FOR PROCESSING AS DESCRIBED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY, THEN PLEASE DO NOT VISIT OUR WEBSITE OR ACCESS OUR SERVICES.
SVC only collects information you provide to us or permit us access to when you use our Website or Services. We may collect or receive information that you or third-parties provide to us for purposes of obtaining specialty telemedicine care from SVC, which is subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA“) , as set forth in “SVC’s HIPAA Privacy Notice” a separate document that governs how we can use and/or disclose your PHI as well as your rights with respect to PHI. This Privacy Policy supplements SVC’s HIPAA Privacy Notice for PHI. If there is ever any conflict between this Privacy Policy and SVC’s HIPAA Privacy Notice regarding your PHI, the SVC HIPAA Privacy Notice will apply. SVC may also collect or receive information that you or third-parties provide to us that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer, household, or device (“Personal Information”). The information we may collect may include personally identifiable information such as your name, postal address, birth date, email address, gender, phone number, social media information, any other identifier by which you may be contacted online or offline. Other information we may collect from you includes but is not limited to (i) commercial information such as products or services purchased, (ii) geolocation information, such as the information about the location of the computer, mobile device, or internet service used to access our Website or Services (i.e. the location data derived from GPS or Wi-Fi, internet protocol (IP) address, other available information that indicates your current or prior location through sources such as geotagging), or (iii) internet activity such as browsing history, search history, information on your interaction with a website, application, or advertisement. We collect several categories of information from the sources listed below.

1. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

To provide you with services, including telemedicine services through our Website or Services (collectively the “Telemedicine Services“) we may collect your Personal Information and/or PHI from the sources listed below, when you provide your information to you engage in the following activities:

•  Contact information such as your full name, email address, mobile phone number, and address.
•  Payment information such as your credit card number, expiration date, credit card security code, and billing address.
• PHI, including information about your diagnosis, previous treatments, general health, mental health, the names of your other health care providers and your health insurance.
• Doctor or provider reviews.
• Any other information you provide to us for purposes of the Telemedicine Services.
• Create an account on our Website or mobile services.
• Request customer service or by contacting us.
• Interact with our official social media pages (e.g., commenting, following, reposting, etc.).
• Search queries on the Website. 
• Request further services from our third-party business partners.

We may combine such information with information we already have about you.

Information We Receive From Third Parties.

•  In connection with your treatment, we may collect PHI, including medical records from your past, current, and future health care providers. Such information may include information about your diagnosis, previous treatments, general health, laboratory and pathology test results and reports, social histories, any family history of illness, and records about phone calls and emails related to your health.
• We may receive your Personal Information from other sources, including, but not limited to public databases; social media platforms; marketing partners; and from third-party service providers that provide us feedback about our Website and analytics and general information about browsing patterns to improve our Website.
• We may have access to information you have provided to your social media platform when you access our social media platforms from your social media accounts, depending on your privacy settings, and we may use and disclose such information as described in this Privacy Policy.
• If you access the Telemedicine Services from an advertisement on a third-party website, application, or other service we may receive information from the owner of the third-party Service related to you or that advertisement.

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies.

As you navigate through and interact with our Website or Services through your device, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect and record certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including but not limited to the following (collectively referred to as “User Activity Data”). We may collect:

• Details of your visits to our Website or Services, including location data, logs, traffic data, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
• Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP addresses, device characteristics (such as connection type, operating system, browser type, screen resolution).
• If you are accessing the Website or Services using a mobile device, information about your mobile device, including device model, operating system, and network information. 

The User Activity Data we collect automatically may include Personal Information, or we may maintain it or associate it with Personal Information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. We do not collect Personal Information automatically, but we may tie non-Personal Information collected automatically to Personal Information about you that we collect from other sources or that you provide to us.  User Activity Data helps us improve our Website and deliver a better and more personalized experience to you, including: 

• Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
• Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests.
• Speed up your searches.
• Recognize you when you return to our Website.

Automatic data collection technologies used by us may include: 

• Cookies (or browser cookies). Cookies are small text files or pieces of information that are stored on the hard drive of your computer, tablet, or mobile device that contains information about your device, such as a user ID, user setting, browsing history, and online activity when using our Website or Services. The information produced by a cookie often consists of a string of numbers and letters that uniquely identifies your device. For more detailed information about the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them, please see our Cookie Policy. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website or use our Services. For information about managing your privacy and security settings for cookies, see Your Choices.
• Web Beacons. Pages of our Website and our e-mails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as tracking pixels, clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit SVC, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an e-mail and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity). Web beacons may also be used to help inform advertisements on third-party platforms based on the activity tracked from your browser or device, to identify return traffic from third-party platforms such as social media applications, and for third-party web analytics.
• Website Analytics. We may use third-party website analytics services in connection with the Website, including, for example, to register mouse clicks, mouse movements, scrolling activity and text that you type into the Website. These website analytics services generally do not collect Personal Information unless you voluntarily provide it and generally do not track your browsing habits across websites that do not use their services.
• Mobile Device Identifiers. Mobile device identifiers are data stored on your mobile device that may track mobile device and data and activities occurring on and through it, as well as the applications installed on it. Mobile device identifiers enable collection of Personal Information (such as media access control, address and location) and aggregate data.
• Log Files. Like many standard website servers, our web servers use log files. Log files include IP addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp and number of clicks. Log files are used to analyze trends, administer the site, track aggregated users’ movement and gather broad demographic information.

In addition, we may use Data Technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking). For information about managing your privacy and security settings related to behavioral tracking, see Your Choices.

2. USE OF INFORMATION COLLECTED

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any information that is classified as PHI or Personal Information under applicable laws for legitimate business purposes, except as restricted by applicable law:

• To present our Website and its contents and/or Services to you.
• To provide, enhance, personalize and customize user experience.
• To provide you with information or services that you request from us, including the Telemedicine Services.
• To validate payments.
• To process credit card payments and other like transactions. 
• To register and service your account to which you have registered. 
• To allow us to better service you and respond to your customer service requests.
• To provide and improve the Telemedicine Services.
• To send you information about additional clinical services or general wellness from us or on behalf of our affiliates.
• To advertise our products and services to you and those of our partners that may be of interest to you. 
• To provide and conduct marketing and promotions. 
• To conduct research and analysis, which may be subject to your separate written authorization 
• To administer promotions, events, surveys or other features.
• To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection.
• To notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide through it.
• To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Website.
• In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
• [Other uses]
• For any other purpose with your consent.
• To comply with legal obligations which we are subject to. 
• To protect the security and integrity of our Services and overall business practices.

For more information, see Sharing of Information. We may use the information we have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers’ target audiences. Even though we do not disclose your Personal Information for these purposes without your consent, if you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, you will be leaving our Website, and the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria.

3. SHARING OF INFORMATION

We may use and/or disclose, or share aggregated information, including information that is defined as PHI or Personal Information under applicable laws, and de-identified information about our users, except as restricted by applicable law. We may disclose or share PHI or Personal Information that we collect, or you provide as described in this Privacy Policy for the following legitimate business purposes: 

• To provide, support, personalize, and develop our Website, products, and services.
• To create, maintain, customize, and secure your account with us.
• To process your requests, purchases, transactions, and payments and prevent transactional fraud.
• To provide you with support and to respond to your inquiries, including to investigate and address your concerns and monitor and improve our responses.
• To our subsidiaries and affiliates in order to perform services requested or functions initiated by you.
• 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 SVC’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which PHI (as permitted under HIPPA) or Personal Information held by SVC about our Website and/or Services users is among the assets transferred. 
• To third parties and service-providers that help us with specialized services, including billing, payment processing, providing medical advice, management and hosting of telemedicine services, customer service, email deployment, business analytics, marketing (including but not limited to advertising, attribution, deep-linking, direct mail, mobile marketing, optimization and retargeting) advertising, performance monitoring, hosting, and data processing. These third-party vendors and service providers may not use your information for purposes other than those related to the services they are providing to us. No PHI and no information provided by patients during medical consultations is used for marketing purposes. [We contractually require these third parties to keep Personal Information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.] 
• To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it. For example, if you share your name and contact information to request a price quote or ask a question about our products or services, we will use that Personal Information to respond to your inquiry. If you provide your Personal Information to purchase a product or service, we will use that information to process your payment and facilitate delivery. We may also save your information to facilitate new product orders or process returns.
• To personalize your Website experience and to deliver content and product and service offerings relevant to your interests, including targeted offers and ads through our Website, third-party sites, and via email or text message (with your consent, where required by law).
• To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our Website, products and services, databases and other technology assets, and business.
• For testing, research, analysis, and product development, including to develop and improve our Website, products, and services.
• To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
• To enforce or apply our Terms & Conditions [or apply our Terms of Sale] and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
• If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of SVC, our customers, or others. 
• For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
• With your consent.
• We may transfer your PHI as described in SVC’s HIPAA Privacy Notice and permitted under HIPAA.

4. SECURITY

We take industry-standard security precautions on-line and off-line designed to protect the security of the information you submit, or we collect, including your PHI and Personal Information submitted via the Website, our Telemedicine Services, or our official social media pages or otherwise.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers behind firewalls. User accounts are password protected with restricted access, we use 2 factor authentication for sign in to the patient portal.

Patient Portal must be accessed with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) compatible browser or terminal. The SSL web server used by the Patient Portal uses authentication and offers the highest level of encryption technology commercially available (128-bit RC4).  Firewalls, passwords, encryption, and audit trails are further used to safeguard your information. 

 Any payment transaction will be encrypted using 256-bit secure socket layer (SSL) encryption. While we may use these encryption technologies to protect PHI and Personal Information transmitted online, as appropriate, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the PHI or Personal Information to perform a specific job (e.g., billing or customer service) are granted access to PHI or Personal Information. The computers/servers on which we store PHI and Personal Information are kept in a secure environment and access is restricted to those within SVC who need to know. All accesses are controlled and monitored.

The security of your PHI and Personal Information is important to us but be aware that no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage, is one hundred (100.00%) secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your PHI and Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. Any transmission of PHI or Personal Information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for any interception or interruption of any communications through the internet or for changes to or losses of data.  

Customers and visitors to our Website, official social media pages and [applications] are responsible for maintaining the security of any password, user ID or other form of authentication involved in obtaining access to password protected or secure areas of any of our digital services. If you have created an account on our Website, you are solely responsible for keeping the password you created to register a user account confidential. We strongly advise you not to share this password with anyone. Further, we urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Website like message boards. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Website.

In order to protect you and your data, we may suspend your use of any of the services and access to the Website or official social media pages, without notice, pending an investigation, if any fraud or breach of security is suspected. Access to and use of password protected and/or secure areas of any of the services are restricted to authorized users only. Unauthorized access to such areas is prohibited and may lead to criminal prosecution.

5. RETENTION OF INFORMATION

We will retain information, including your PHI and Personal Information, for as long as necessary or in accordance with the time frame agreed to in an agreement, applicable regulatory requirements, including HIPPA, market practice or under law, to fulfill the purposes for which it has been collected, to comply with legal obligations, or other essential purposes, such as resolving disputes, enforcing our agreements with you, and preventing fraud and abuse. We will retain parts of your Personal Information which are necessary for marketing purposes until you have withdrawn your consent and/or opted out.

6. YOUR CHOICES

Email Opt-Out. We will only send you promotional emails if you have opted-in to receive emails from us. If you no longer wish to receive promotional emails from us you may do so by one of the following methods: (i) click the “unsubscribe link” provided in our email communications; (ii) by visiting your account and update your account settings; (v) by emailing us your request at [email protected] . Your decision to opt-out of future promotional email communications does not apply to all communications by us to you (e.g., responding to an inquiry by you, sending you order updates, etc.).

SMS Opt-Out. We will only send you text communications, including, but not limited to information about promotional offers, appointment confirmations, cancellations, reminders, billing information, if you have opted-in to receive SMS messages from us or, as applicable, our third-party service provider. You may, at any time, revoke your consent to receive text communications from us by texting “STOP” to our text communications. Revoking your consent to receive text communications from us will only apply to the phone number in receipt of our text communication. Message and data rates may apply. For more information about text communications, please see our Terms and Conditions.

Automatic Data Collection and Tracking Technologies and Advertising. Most browsers today automatically accept cookies, however, you have choices relating to how your device interacts with our Website and/or Services, as applicable. If you wish to opt-out or modify certain cookies, you may do so by accessing your browser settings or consulting the “Help” feature on most browsers. Your browser settings may allow you to limit, turn off cookies and other collection tools, or prevent your browser from accepting new cookies. If you turn off certain permitted cookies or collection tools, you may not have access to many features that make your experience more efficient and some of our services and features may not function properly.

Interest-Based Advertising by Third Parties. Some of our advertising and technology partners and/or third parties (e.g., Google) may collect Personal Information or User Activity Data from you in connection with your use of the Website and Services. These parties may offer you choices relating to their tracking technologies and as such you should consult with the applicable party’s policies regarding its tracking technology practices. Certain third-party Automatic Data Collection Technology operators that may be associated with our Website or Services may participate in the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (“DAA”) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. To learn more about how you can exercise certain choices regarding opt outs of interest-based advertising and other applicable uses of Web-viewing data please visit DAA’s WebChoices Tool (for desktops) or download the AppChoices mobile application on your phone. In addition, Certain third-party Automatic Data Collection Technology operators that may be associated with our Website or Services may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”). To learn more about how you can exercise certain choices regarding opt outs of interest-based advertising please visit NAI’s Opt Out of Interest-Based Advertising. Do note that the information provided is third-party information, and as such, we are not responsible for the completeness or accuracy of such information. Further note, opting out of interest-based advertising from those items listed herein only apply to those parties offering you choices relating to their tracking technologies or are participants of DAA and/or NAI. As such, you may still receive interest-based advertisements from other third parties. 

Do Not Track (“DNT”). DNT is a feature available in most browser settings that automatically transmits a DNT signal to websites and online services that you do not wish to be tracked for advertising or analytics purposes. Note, most browsers turn off DNT by default, and require you to manually turn on DNT. You can turn on DNT by accessing your browser settings or consulting the “Help” feature on most browsers. Further note, there is no standard interpretation, legal standard of practice for recognizing, responding and/or honoring DNT signals, and we, like many online services, do not alter our practices when we receive a DNT signal from a visitor’s browser. To learn more about DNT see https://allaboutdnt.com/ for more information. This information is being provided to you for informational purposes only, and, as third-party information, we are not responsible for the completeness or accuracy of such information. Residents of certain states may have additional rights regarding DNT signals, with which we comply. Please see Your U.S. State Privacy Rights for more information regarding these rights. 

Disclosure of Your Information for Third-Party Advertising. If you do not want us to share your Personal Information with unaffiliated or non-agent third parties for promotional purposes, you can opt-out by logging into the patient portal and updating your messaging preference and making changes in your profile settings. 

Third-Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies. Some content or applications, including advertisements, on our Website and Services are served by third parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers (“Vendor”). A link to a Vendor’s service does not mean that we endorse it, or the quality or accuracy of information presented on it. If you decide to click on a link provided by a Vendor, you may be directed to a webpage hosted by such Vendor (“Vendor Page”). We encourage you to carefully review the legal and privacy notices of all Vendors and other digital services you visit. Any Personal Information that you provide through the Vendor Pages will be collected by the Vendor and not for or on behalf of SVC, and will be subject to the Vendor’s privacy policy, rather than this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy DOES NOT apply to information collected by Vendor or through Vendor Page that you may access through the Website or Services. SVC has no control over, and shall not be responsible for, such Vendor’s use of your information collected by Vendor or through Vendor Page.

Promotional Offers from SVC. If you no longer wish to have your [email address/contact information] used by SVC to promote our own or third parties’ products or services, or for any future contacts from Specialistvirtucare you can opt-out by logging into the patient portal and updating your messaging preference and making changes in your profile settings. 

 These opt outs do not apply to information retained by Specialistvirtucare for the purpose of fulfilling obligations under ongoing product purchase, warranty registration, product service experience or other transactions. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may send us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions. This opt out does not apply to information provided to the SVC as a result of a Telemedicine Service experience or other transactions.

Targeted Advertising. If you do not want us to use information that we collect or that you provide to us to deliver advertisements according to our advertisers’ target-audience preferences, you can opt-out by sending an email to [email protected]. [For this opt-out to function, you must have your browser set to accept all browser cookies.]] We do not share your PHI with third parties for their direct marketing purposes.

7. CROSS-BORDER USE AND INTERNATIONAL LAWS/USERS

The Telemedicine Services are intended to be made available only to individuals 18 years of age and older who are in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the Information on the Website or the Application is only for such persons. Nothing on the Telemedicine Services shall be considered a solicitation to sell advisory services to any person in any jurisdiction where such offer or solicitation would be unlawful under the laws of such jurisdiction. If you choose to access the Telemedicine Services from a location outside the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, you do so at your own initiative and are fully responsible for compliance with all applicable local laws. SVC makes no claims that the Telemedicine Services are appropriate or may be downloaded outside of the United States. Access to or use of the Telemedicine Services may not be legal by certain persons or in certain countries. If you access or use the Telemedicine Services from outside the United States, you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with all applicable laws and regulations of your jurisdiction.

We maintain information in the United States of America and in accordance with the laws of the United States, which may not provide the same level of protection as the laws in your jurisdiction. By attempting to use the Telemedicine Services and providing us with information, you understand and agree that your information may be transferred to and stored on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction and, to the extent you are a resident of a country other than the United States, that you consent to the transfer of such data to the United States for processing by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

8. CHILDREN

Our Website is designed for a “general audience” and is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 unless such information has been obtained in accordance with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). For the purposes of this Section of this Privacy Policy, the term “personal information” shall have the meaning ascribed to it under COPPA. If you are under the age of 13, do not use this Website or provide any personal information on this Website, through any of the Website’s features, register for an account on the Website, make any purchases through the Website, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use. If we learn we have collected or received information from a child under the age of 13 in a manner not permitted by COPPA, such information will be deleted in accordance with COPPA. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under the age of 13, please contact us at [email protected].

9. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

Notification of Changes. This Privacy Policy is effective as of the Last Updated set forth at the top of this Privacy Policy. By accessing our Website, Services, or Telemedicine Services, you agree to this Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to update, revise, and/or modify this Privacy Policy at any time and at our sole discretion. Whenever possible, we will provide customers who engage our services with advance written notice of material changes to this Privacy Policy, by notifying you by email to the primary email address specified in your account. In the event we make a material change to this Privacy Policy, and such change would materially and adversely affect your rights hereunder, we will provide you advance notice including by posting a notice of material changes to this Privacy Policy on the Website .Upon the effective date of the Last Updated set forth at the top of this Privacy Policy, your continued use of the Telemedicine Services, accessing the Website or Services or our official social media pages shall constitute your acceptance of the amended Privacy Policy. The amended Privacy Policy supersedes all previous versions. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Website and this Privacy Policy to check for any changes. If you do not agree with the amended Privacy Policy or if you do not wish to be bound by such amended Privacy Policy, you should cease using the Website and Services immediately.    

Other Provisions as Required by Law. We continuously look for changes in laws and regulations that may impact the personal and corporate data we collect and maintain. We will adjust this Privacy Policy accordingly to ensure we are meeting the laws within the states [and countries] where we operate and where we support customer operations.

10. QUESTIONS

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this Privacy Policy, the ways in which SVC collects and uses the information described herein, your choices and rights regarding such use, would like a copy of your information you have previously sent us, would like to delete the information SVC holds about you, need to access this Privacy Policy in an alternative format due to having a disability, or about any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact use at one of the following methods: