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Privacy

Privacy Policy

(Effective Date: September 04, 2024)

The California Medical Association (“CMA”, “we”, “us” or “our”) respects the privacy of our users. This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit or use our cmadocs.org website (“Website”), use the “CMADocs” mobile app (“App”), or use our services (collectively, “Services”), and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting and disclosing that information. This Privacy Policy applies to the data collected by us, or those working on our behalf, through information you enter or from the data imported from authorized and approved sources. It does not apply to data collected through other sites, products, or services not approved by us. 

Our Privacy Policy describes: 

  • How and why we collect your Personal Information; 
  • How your Personal Information is used and protected; 
  • When and with whom we share your Personal Information; and 
  • What choices you can make about how we collect, use, and share your Personal Information. 
  • How we store, use, transfer, and retain your Personal Information. 

If you are a resident of or subject to data privacy laws or regulations of a country outside of the United States, please see the additional provisions at the end of this Privacy Policy. Below in this section are some of the highlights of the Privacy Policy. Please read this entire document for a full description of our policies. 

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR PRIVACY POLICY 

Personal Information

We collect your Personal Information for various purposes, such as, but not limited to, corresponding with you, informing you about your account, security updates and product information, processing your membership application, providing you with Services, processing your order, providing you with a subscription, and other purposes. 

We may combine the information we collect from you with information obtained from other sources to help us improve its overall accuracy and completeness, and to help us improve our business and better tailor our interactions with you. We may also collect information relating to your use of our Website, App, or Services through the use of various technologies, including cookies. 

For Mobile App Users: Pinxter, a Virginia corporation, d/b/a Clowder (“Clowder”) provides to CMA a software application that we use as part of our services. If you visit or use our Clowder branded application, Clowder may, on our behalf, collect and use information about you. Clowder only uses this information about you according to our instructions and direction.

Overview of Uses of Your Data

To create a user account. 

  • To fulfill your requests by us or by others involved in fulfillment. 
  • To contact you for customer satisfaction surveys, market research or in connection with certain transactions. 
  • To support products or services you have obtained from us. 
  • To share with our service providers who provide services to us in support of our business. 
  • To personalize your experience while you are on our Website or App, make navigation easier, and for Website or App usage statistics. 
  • By us and selected organizations for marketing purposes if you have permitted such use. 

Your Choices

When we collect information from you, you may tell us that you do not want it used for further marketing contact. 

You may also turn off cookies in your browser. 

You can view or edit your Personal Information online or contact us to do so. 

You can also opt out from receiving certain communications from us by visiting your online profile page. 

Contacting Us

You may contact us using the Contact Information provided at the end of this Privacy Policy. 

Acknowledgement and Consent

By using or accessing our Website, App, or Services in any manner, you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies described in this Privacy Policy (and as updated from time to time), and you hereby consent that we may collect, use, and share your information as described herein. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is to stop accessing our Website, App, and Services. Your use of our Website, App, and Services is at all times subject to our Terms of Service (the “Terms”), which incorporates this Privacy Policy. Any capitalized terms we use in this Privacy Policy without defining them have the definitions given to them in the Terms. 

DETAILS OF OUR PRIVACY POLICY 

What Does This Privacy Policy Cover? 

This Privacy Policy covers our treatment of personal information, sometimes referred to as personally identifiable information. This is information which may be connected to you specifically as the individual to whom the information relates. Such information may include name, mailing address, email address, telephone number, or any other information defined as personally identifiable information (or similar term) by applicable laws (“Personal Information”). Personal Information does not include your personally identifiable information that has been deidentified, pseudonymized, anonymized, aggregated and/or otherwise processed so as to be unidentifiable (i) in such a way that the data can no longer be attributed to a specific individual, or (ii) in such a way that the data can no longer be attributed to a specific individual (by reasonable means) without the use of additional information, and where such additional information is kept separate and under adequate security to prevent unauthorized re-identification of a specific individual such that one could not, using reasonable efforts, link such information back to a specific individual (“De-Identified Personal Information”). 

This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect:  

  • In email, text and other electronic messages between you and us. 
  • When and where available, through mobile and desktop applications, which provide dedicated non-browser-based interaction between you and us. 
  • When you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party website, apps, or services, if those applications or advertising include links to this Privacy Policy. 

We may also collect Personal Information from you through means other than our Website or App. This may include the Medical Board of California, your local medical society, our affiliated entities, subsidiaries, contracted vendors, and affinity partners, or when you call or visit our office. It may also include emails that you send to us separate from our Website or App. This Privacy Policy does not apply to Personal Information that you provide to us through means other than our Website or App. However, if we combine the Personal Information we collect from you outside of our Website or App with Personal Information that is collected through our Website or App, the Privacy Policy will apply to the combined information, unless specifically disclosed otherwise. 

We may receive Personal Information about you from other sources. For example, if you are applying for membership or employment, whether via our Website, App, or offline, we may obtain information from third parties about your prior membership, licensing, accreditation, certification, professional, and employment history, among other information, as part of the application process. This Privacy Policy does not apply to Personal Information about you that we receive from other sources. However, we may combine the information received from these other sources with Personal Information collected through our Website or App. In those cases, we will apply this Privacy Policy to the combined information, unless specifically disclosed otherwise. 

Other than as stated herein, this Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by 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 our Website or App. 

We gather various types of Personal Information from our users, as explained in more detail below, and we use this Personal Information internally in connection with our Services, including to personalize and improve our Services, to allow you to set up a user account and profile, to contact you and allow other users to contact you, to fulfill your requests for certain products and Services, to provide and improve the Services, and to analyze how you use the Services. In certain cases, we may also share some Personal Information with third parties, but only as described below. 

We are not responsible for the practices of sites linked to from the Services, and before interacting with any of these sites you are advised to review their rules and policies before providing them with any private information. 

Individuals under the Age of 18 

As noted in the Terms, we do not knowingly collect, solicit or maintain Personal Information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register for our Services. If you are under 13, please do not send any Personal Information about yourself (such as your name, address, telephone number, or email address) to us. No one under age 13 is allowed to provide any Personal Information to or on the Services. In the event that we learn that we have collected Personal Information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to delete that information from our database. Please contact us if you have any concerns. 

Changes to Our Privacy Policy 

We’re constantly working to improve our Services, so we may need to change this Privacy Policy from time to time as well, but we will alert you to changes by placing a notice on our Website, App, or as part of communications involving or as part of the Services, by sending you an email, and/or by some other means. Certain parts of our Website and App require you to acknowledge your consent via a pop-up message and click-through box before you can proceed to that particular portion of the Website or App. Please note that if you’ve opted not to receive legal notice emails from us (or you haven’t provided us with your email address), those legal notices will still govern your use of the Services, and you are still responsible for reading and understanding them. If you use the Services after any changes to the Privacy Policy have been posted, that means you agree to the new Privacy Policy including all of the changes. Use of information we collect now is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is collected. 

Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It 

For users of our Website or App who are not members of CMA, we only collect information that is not Personal Information (as defined herein). We collect several types of information from and about users who are members, including Personal Information that is about you but individually does not identify you, such as, time and date of visits to our Website or App, etc., and/or, about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Website or App, and usage details. 

Personal Information collected may include: contact information (such as name, address, zip code, email address, telephone number, facsimile number) and payment information (such as credit card number, expiration date, name printed on credit card, billing address and credit card security code). For registered users with Members Only Access, Personal Information also includes information provided to CMA by you or your county medical society as part of the membership application or renewal process, or by the California Medical Board, including your demographic information (such as education, specialty, mode of practice and similar information).

We collect this information: 

  • Directly from you when you provide it to us. When you sign up for the Services, you provide us with information such as your name and email address. We may also collect information from your public social media accounts. 
  • Automatically as you navigate through the Website or App. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, web beacons and other tracking technologies. 
  • From third parties, for example, our business partners. 

Information You Provide to Us. The information we collect on or through our Website or App may include: 

  • Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Website or App. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Website or App, subscribing to or purchasing our Services, posting material (where permitted) or requesting further Services. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our Website or App. 
  • Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us. 
  • Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes. 
  • Your search queries on the Website or App. 

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies. As you navigate through and interact with our Website or App, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns, including: 

  • Details of your activity on our Website or App, including, but not limited to, traffic data, geolocation data, logs and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website or App. 
  • Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, browser type, clickstream patters, the URL of the most recent website you visited before coming to our Website or using our App, the amount of time you spent on our Website or App, and the pages you viewed while on our Website or App. 
  • We also may use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites, apps, or other online services (behavioral tracking). For more information on how to opt-out of third-party advertiser tracking mechanisms, please click here. 

The information we collect automatically is statistical data and may include Personal Information, but we may maintain it or associate it with Personal Information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Services and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including, but not limited to, by enabling us to: 

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

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include cookies, flash cookies, web beacons, pixel tracking, GIF and/or IP address. Each of these is discussed below. 

Cookies (or browser cookies: A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer or mobile device. It may contain certain data, including, but not limited to: the name of the server that has placed it there, an identifier in the form of a unique number, and, an expiration date (some cookies only). Cookies are managed by the web browser on your computer (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome). 

Different types of cookies which have different purposes are used on our Website and App. 

Essential Cookies: These cookies are essential to allow you to use the functions of our Website and App. Without them, services such as shopping baskets and electronic invoicing would not be able to work. 

Performance Cookies: These cookies collect information on the use of our Website or App, such as which pages are consulted most often. This information enables us to optimize our Website and App and simplify browsing. Performance cookies also enable our affiliates and partners to find out whether you have accessed one of our Website or Apps from their site and whether your visit has led to the use or purchase of a product or Service from our Website or App, including the references for the product or Service purchased. These cookies do not collect any information which could be used to identify you. All the information collected is aggregated, and therefore anonymous. 

Functionality Cookies: These cookies enable our Website or App to remember the choices you have made when browsing. For example, we can store your geographical location in a cookie so that the Website or App corresponding to your area is shown. We can also remember your preferences, such as the text size, font and other customizable aspects of the Website or App. Functionality cookies may also be able to keep track of the products or videos consulted to avoid repetition. The information collected by these cookies cannot be used to identify you and cannot monitor your browsing activity on sites which do not belong to us. 

It is possible that you will comes across third-party cookies on some pages of sites that are not under our control. 

You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting in your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website or App. 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 App. 

We also use cookies to implement tracking technology on our Website or App. This allows us to display advertising that is tailored to you on our Website or App, which parts of our content interest you the most and which Service categories you request. This tracking uses Personal Information data. At any time, you can prevent the use of cookies like this in the future. To do so, you may activate the appropriate setting in your browser to refuse to accept browser cookies. However, if you do, your experience on our Website or App may be impacted. Some of our contracted vendors and affinity partners are allowed to place cookies on our Website or App. Those entities may also provide you with the option of preventing the use of cookies in the future. For more information, contact the relevant third-party provider. 

Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Website or App may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from and on our Website or App. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies. 

Web Beacons. Pages of our Website and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags and single-pixel gifs) that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website or app statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website or app content and verifying system and server integrity). 

Pixel Tracking. In addition to using Cookies, the Website may employ “pixel tracking.” a common process which may be used in connection with advertisements on other sites. Pixel tracking involves the use of pixel tags that are not visible to the user and consist of a few lines of computer code. Pixel tracking measures the effectiveness of advertisements and compiles aggregate and specific usage statistics. A “pixel tag” is an invisible tag placed on certain pages of websites that is used to track an individual user’s activity. We may access these pixel tags to identify activity and interests that may allow us to better match our goods, services, and other offers with your interests and needs. For example, if you visit our Website from an advertisement on another website, the pixel tag will allow the advertiser to track that its advertisement brought you to the Website. If you visit our Website, and we link you to another website, we may also be able to determine that you were sent to and/or transacted with a third-party website. This data is collected for use in our marketing and research. 

Meta Pixel. We incorporate “pixels” provided by Meta Platforms, Inc. on our Website. This enables us to track user behavior after a user clicks on a Facebook ad and is redirected to our website. By doing so, we can assess the effectiveness of Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes and sometimes retarget certain users. Please note that the data collected through this process remains anonymous to us, meaning we do not have access to personal information of individual users. However, Facebook stores and processes this data. Therefore, we are providing you with this information based on our current understanding. It is important to be aware that Facebook may associate this information with your Facebook account and utilize it for its own promotional activities, in accordance with Facebook’s Data Usage Policy available here. You have the option to authorize Facebook and its partners to display advertisements on and off Facebook (see here). Additionally, a cookie may be stored on your computer for these purposes.

GIF. We may use tiny images known as clear GIFs to track behavior of users, including statistics on who opens our emails. 

IP Address. Our servers automatically record certain log file information reported from your browser when you access the Services. These server logs may include information such as which pages of the Service you visited, your internet protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, and other information on how you interact with the Services. These log files are generally deleted periodically. 

Posted Content. You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “posted”) on the Members-Only or public areas of the Website or App, or transmitted to other users of the Website, App, or third parties (collectively, “Content”). Your Content is posted and transmitted to others at your own risk. We cannot control the actions of other users of the Website or App with whom you may choose to share your Content. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your Content will not be viewed by unauthorized persons. You agree to and do hereby grant us a royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, and worldwide right to Use, modify, and perform any User Content you post to our Website, App, or that you submit for posting. The term “Use” includes, but is not limited to, use, reproduce, modify, publish, list information regarding, edit, delete, translate, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, and make derivative works of the content. This right to Use you grant us also extends to any content we may post on our Website or App that you have posted at other Website or Apps, e.g., Google. 

Third-Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies 

Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Website or App are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Website or App. The information they collect may be associated with your Personal Information or they may collect information, including Personal Information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) advertising or other targeted content. 

We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly. 

Google

Google Analytics. We use, and some of our third-party service providers may use, Google Analytics (click for link to Google’s website) or other analytics service to help us understand use of our Services. Such service providers may place their own cookies in your browser. This Privacy Policy covers use of cookies by us only and not the use of cookies by third parties. 

We, along with third-party vendors such as Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions and other ad service functions as they relate to our Website or App. 

Google Maps. We also use Google Maps, which may, among other things, request access to your geolocation. 

Users can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt out by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative Opt Out page or by using the Google Analytics Opt Out Browser add on. 

How We Use Your Information 

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any Personal Information: 

  • To present our Website or App and its contents to you.  
  • To provide you with information on products or services that you request from us. 
  • To provide you with services or process transactions that you have requested. 
  • To provide you with notices about your account, including expiration and renewal notices. 
  • To communicate with you regarding information, features or offers that we believe will be of interest to you. 
  • To respond to your questions or other requests. 
  • To contact you with regard to the Website or App. 
  • To process any applications, changes to your account information, or process payments from you (including, but not limited to, membership dues and subscriptions, registration fees, voluntary contributions, examination fees, credential and designation fees, and payments, refunds and reimbursements for any products or services that you choose to purchase from us). 
  • To process other information or Personal Information that you submit through this Website or App. 
  • To notify you about changes to our Website or App, our policies, terms or any products or services we offer or provide though it. 
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Website or App. 
  • To provide access to restricted parts of our Website or App. 
  • To ask for ratings and reviews of our Website or App, Services, and/or products. 
  • To contact you regarding a sweepstakes, contest or promotion in which you have participated. 
  • To request your participation in surveys, focus groups, or other initiatives which help us to gather information used to develop and enhance our products and Services. 
  • To determine eligibility for membership, credentials, designations, or volunteer opportunities.  
  • To evaluate your performance on continued learning courses and assist you in the tracking of your progress. 
  • For examination scheduling, administration and registration purposes. 
  • To serve relevant information to you when you visit our Website or App or other third-party sites (including social media platforms). 
  • To enhance and improve our products and Services, for example, by performing internal research, analyzing user trends and measuring demographics and interests. 
  • Internal purposes, such as Website or App and system administration or internal audits and reviews. 
  • To comply with applicable law(s) (for example, to comply with a search warrant, subpoena or court order) or to carry out professional ethics/conduct investigations.
  • For analyzing how the Services are used, diagnosing service or technical problems, maintaining security, and personalizing content. 
  • To operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of the Services. 
  • To provide statistics about the usage levels of the Website or App and other related information to reputable third parties, but these statistics will not include information which will allow you to be identified. 
  • To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it. 
  • In any other way we may describe when you provide the information. 
  • We also may disclose Personal Information to outside companies that help us bring you the products, services, information and resources we offer. For example, we may work with an outside company to: (a) manage a database of customer information; (b) assist us in distributing e-mails; (c) assist us with direct marketing and data collection; (d) provide us storage and analysis; (e) provide fraud prevention; and (f) other services designed to assist us in maximizing our business potential. We require that these outside companies agree to keep confidential all information we share with them and to use the information only to perform their obligations in the agreements. 
  • We may disclose your Personal Information to business affiliates, subsidiaries or affinity partners who may offer you products, services, information or resources that we believe may be of benefit or interest to you. 
  • For registered users with Members Only access: We share your Personal Information with your corresponding county medical society as part of and to facilitate your dual membership with that entity and us. We may also share your Personal Information, individually, categorically or as part of our membership list, with its business affiliates, subsidiaries or affinity partners. 

De-Identified Personal Information is aggregated for system administration and to monitor usage of the Website or App. It is utilized to measure the number of visits to our Website or App, average time spent, number of pages viewed and to monitor various other Website or App statistics. This monitoring helps us evaluate how visitors use and navigate our Website or App so we can improve the content. 

We use cookies, clear gifs, and log file information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the Website or App; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of our Service; (d) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, and demographic patterns; (e) diagnose or fix technology problems reported by our users or engineers that are associated with certain IP addresses; and, (f) help you efficiently access your information after you sign in. 

We may also use your Personal Information to contact you about our own and third-parties’ goods and services that may be of interest to you. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, please either check the relevant box located on the form on which we collect your data or adjust your user preferences in your online account profile. We may use your Personal Information you provide to us and which we obtain from other sources to better understand your interests so we can try to predict what other products, services and information you might be most interested in. This practice is called “profiling”, which involves making automated decisions about you based on this information in order to better enable us to tailor our interactions with you to make them more relevant and interesting. You may object to such profiling at any time by contacting us (see Contact Information/User Rights below). 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, the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria. 

Social Media Plugins 

We may integrate social media application program interfaces or plug-ins (Plug-ins) from social networks, including, but not limited to, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and/or possibly other companies, into the Website or the App. 

For example, when you visit our Website, the plugin creates a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server. This allows Facebook to receive information about your visit to our Website with your IP address. If you click the Facebook “Like” button while you are logged on to your Facebook account, you can link the contents of our Website to your Facebook profile. This allows Facebook to assign your visit to our Website to your user account. Please note that as provider of the Website, we receive no notification about the contents of the transmitted data or their use by Facebook. If you do not want Facebook to assign your visit to our Website to your Facebook user account, please log out of your Facebook user account. 

If you do so, you authorize us to access certain SMS account information, such as your public SMS profile (consistent with your privacy settings in SMS), your email address, interests, likes, gender, birthday, education history, relationships, interests, current city, photos, personal description, friend list, and information about and photos of your SMS friends who might be common SMS friends with other users. Plug-ins may transfer information about you to the Plug-in’s respective platform without action by you. This information may include your platform user identification number, which website you are on, and more. Interacting with a Plug-in will transmit information directly to that Plug-in’s social network and that information may be visible by others on that platform. Plug-ins are controlled by the respective platform’s privacy policy, and not by our Privacy Policy. You can find the privacy policy for a platform on their website. 

Retention of Your Information 

Following termination or deactivation of your account, we may retain your profile information and all information posted to public areas of the Website and the App. Following termination or deactivation of your account, we may retain your Personal Information and other data, but will maintain it as confidential according to the Terms, this Privacy Policy and as required by applicable law. We have the right to delete all of your Personal Information and other data after termination of your account without notice to you. 

How We Share Your Information 

Personal Information 

We will never rent or sell your Personal Information to third parties, other than as noted below under “Disclosure/Assignment of Your Personal Information”. We may share your Personal Information with third parties for the purpose of providing or improving the Services to you. We may share your Personal Information with third parties who perform services on our behalf or on behalf of one of our subsidiaries, affiliates, affinity partners, or contracted vendors. This includes, without limitation, third parties that send communications, process payments, analyze data, provide marketing assistance, or create, host and/or provide customer service on our behalf. These third parties may have access to Personal Information in order to provide these services to us or on our behalf. If we do this, such third parties’ use of your Personal Information will be bound by obligations of confidentiality. We may store Personal Information in locations outside our direct control (for instance, on servers or databases located or co-located with hosting providers). Any Personal Information or content that you voluntarily disclose for posting to the Website or App may, if posted, become available to the public, as controlled by any applicable privacy or website customization settings. To change your privacy settings on the Website or App, you may visit the account settings page. If you remove information that you posted to the Website or App, copies may remain viewable in archived versions of the Website or App, or if other users have copied or saved that information. 

Events. From time to time, we may run contests, special offers, or other events or activities (“Events”) on the Website or App together with a third party vendor. If you provide information to such third parties, you give them permission to use it for the purpose of that Event and any other use to which you consent. We cannot control third parties’ use of your information. If you do not want your information to be collected by or shared with a third party, you can choose not to participate in these Events. 

Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, we will not disclose Personal Information to any third party unless required to do so by law, court order, legal process, or subpoena, including to respond to any government or regulatory request, or if we believe that such action is necessary to (a) conform to the law, comply with legal process served on us or our affiliates, subsidiaries, component medical societies, contracted vendors, or affinity partners, or investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities; (b) to enforce our Terms (including for billing and collection purposes), take precautions against liability, to investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations, to assist government enforcement agencies, or to protect the security or integrity of our Website and App; and (c) to exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of us, our users or others. 

It is likely that the identity and categories of such third parties will change during the life of your account but, depending on your use of the Website or App, it is anticipated that your Personal Data will be disclosed to the categories of third-party service providers listed below who perform functions on our behalf. We require that our third-party service providers only use your Personal Data as necessary to provide the requested services to us and each service provider is subject to a set of terms consistent with this Privacy Policy. 

Who We May Disclose Personal Information to and for What Purpose 

  • Your corresponding county medical society as part of and to facilitate your dual membership with that entity and us. 
  • We may also share your Personal Information, individually, categorically, or as part of our membership list, with our business affiliates, subsidiaries, contracted vendors, county medical societies, and/or affinity partners. 
  • Hosting providers for the secure storage and transmission of your data 
  • Learning technology and online event providers for the delivery and improvement of web events and learning programs and the tracking of your progress 
  • Digital credential providers for the delivery of digital badges earned through your participation in learning programs 
  • Examination providers for the scheduling and delivery of credential and designation examinations 
  • Identity management providers for authentication purposes 
  • Database software providers for the management and tracking of your data 
  • Legal and compliance consultants, such as external counsel, external auditors, or tax consultants 
  • Marketing providers who send communications on our behalf regarding our products and Services 
  • Payment solution providers for the secure processing of payments you provide to us  
  • Publishers and learning providers who develop products on our behalf 
  • Technology providers who assist in the development and management of our Website or App 
  • Outbound call center providers, who may perform outreach on our behalf regarding our products and Services 
  • Fulfillment and postal vendors for the fulfillment of our products and Services 
  • Our volunteers or committee members who perform various functions on our behalf 
  • Survey and research providers who perform studies on our behalf 
  • Advertising partners, including social media providers, for the delivery of targeted advertisements 

De-Identified Personal Information: We may share De-Identified Personal Information (such as anonymous usage data, referring/exit pages and URLs, IP address, platform types, number of clicks, etc.) with interested third parties to help them understand the usage patterns for certain Services. 

Disclosure/Assignment of Your Personal Information: 

Your Consent You consent to our disclosure of your Personal Information and other information to a potential buyer or other successor for the purpose of considering a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or sale or transfer of some or all of 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 Website or App users is among the assets transferred. You agree to and do hereby consent to our assignment, conveyance, or transfer (whether by contract, merger or operation of law) of rights to your Personal Information and other information, with or without notice to you and without your further consent. 

Security 

We have implemented measures designed to secure your Personal Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration and disclosure.  

  • Your Personal Information is contained behind secured networks and a firewall and is only accessible by a limited number of persons and service providers who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. 
  • Any payment transactions will be performed using our third party payment processors or gateways, who will use appropriate security procedures designed to protect your information. 
  • Our Website and App is scanned on a regular basis for security holes and known vulnerabilities in order to make your visit to our Website or App safer. 
  • We may store, retrieve, access, and transmit your Personal Information in the US or in other countries. 

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of the Website, App, or Services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. You should not share your password with anyone. You must prevent unauthorized access to your account and Personal Information by selecting and protecting your password appropriately and limiting access to your computer or device and browser by signing off after you have finished accessing your account. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by other users. We’ll never email you to ask for your password or other account information. If you receive such an email, please send it to us so we can investigate. 

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do use security measures designed to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Information transmitted to us or which we obtain. Any transmission of Personal Information is at your own risk. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors, may compromise the security of user information at any time. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website or App or used with our Services. 

Data Retention 

We will keep your Personal Information for as long as your account is active, or as long as you are a registered subscriber, Member, or user of our Services or for as long as we have another business purpose to do so and, thereafter, for no longer than is required or permitted by law, or our records retention policy, reasonably necessary for internal reporting and reconciliation purposes, or to provide you with feedback or information you might request. This period of retention is subject to our review and modification. The information we collect may be stored and processed in servers in the United States and wherever we and our service providers have facilities around the globe. 

What You Can Access and Change 

We desire to keep you in control of the Personal Information you provide. Accordingly, you can review, correct, change, remove or restrict the use or sharing of the Personal Information you provide to us. In order to do so, or to elect not to receive future communications from us, please email with your specific request. The information that you can view, update, and delete may change as the Services change. If you have any questions about viewing or updating information we have on file about you, please contact us. 

California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA”) 

Under California Civil Code Sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to ask us annually for a notice identifying the categories of Personal Information which we share with our affiliates and/or third parties for marketing purposes, and providing contact information for such affiliates and/or third parties with whom the business has shared such information during the immediately preceding calendar year. See more at the CalOPPA website. To obtain information under CalOPPA from us, please contact our Member Services Department by: (a) using the Contact Us information on the Website; or (b) calling 800-786-4262 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Pacific Time. Please note that not all information sharing is covered by CalOPPA, and we will only include in our response information relating to our sharing practices for covered information. 

As required by CalOPPA, we agree to the following: 

Users can visit our Website anonymously by adjusting the settings in your browser. 

We do not allow personalized third-party behavioral tracking, though we may use De-Identified Personal Information to track users’ click or browsing patterns. 

Notices; Opting Out 

By providing us with your email address (including by “following,” “liking,” linking your account to our Service or other services, etc., on a third party website, app, or network), you consent to our using the email address to send you Service-related notices, including any notices required by law, in lieu of communication by postal mail. You also agree that we may send you notifications of activity on the Service to the email address you give us, in accordance with any applicable privacy settings. We may use your email address to send you other messages or content, such as, but not limited to, newsletters, additions or changes to features of the Service, or special offers. If you do not want to receive such email messages, you may opt out by emailing us your opt-out request. Opting out may prevent you from receiving email messages regarding updates, improvements, special features, announcements, or offers. 

You may not opt out of Service-related emails. You may be able to add, update, or delete information as explained above. When you update information, however, we may maintain a copy of the unrevised information in our records. You may request deletion of your account by emailing us. 

Contact Information 

To ask questions or comment about this Privacy Policy and our privacy practices, or for any other purposes, please contact our Member Services Department by: (a) using the Contact Us information found on the Website; or (b) calling (800) 786-4262 Monday through Friday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Pacific Time. 

Additional Information for Non-US Residents 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This Privacy Policy originates and is hosted on a Website located in the United States, which has different data protection laws from those of other nations, and particularly member nations in the European Union. Due to differing laws and legal practice, be aware that law enforcement agencies in the United States may have access to your Personal Information. 

If you are located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from the laws in the United States, please note that we may transfer your information to a country or jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction. If required by applicable law, we will seek your explicit consent to process your Personal Information collected on you or volunteered by you on our Website or App.