Privacy Policy

 
 

HEALTH TALKER UNDERSTANDS HOW IMPORTANT THE PRIVACY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION IS TO OUR PARTICIPANTS. THIS PRIVACY POLICY WILL TELL YOU WHAT INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU AND HOW WE PROTECT THAT INFORMATION.

 Summary

  • HealthTalker will closely guard the personal information you have provided to us as part of your registration.

  • HealthTalker will not sell or share the personal information you provide to us with third parties without your direct consent or as required by law.

  • You should think carefully before disclosing any personal information on a HealthTalker Forum. Such information is available to all members of the same HealthTalker Forum and is therefore neither private nor confidential.

  • Authentication of identity on the Internet is difficult and therefore HealthTalker cannot confirm that each Member is who they claim to be. Use caution and common sense when participating in any HealthTalker Forums, particularly since other people's information may be offensive, harmful or inaccurate.

  • You need to be at least 18 years old if you want to register to use this Website.


DETAILS ON THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Non-Personal Information We Collect About You


Cookies

 If you do not register as a Member of HealthTalker, we collect Non-Personal Information about your use of our Website and your use of the Websites of selected sponsors and advertisers through the use of Cookies. A Cookie is a piece of data we store for each user session that gives you a unique ID number for that session. We use cookies to allow us to personalize your experience on the HealthTalker Website, to facilitate user log-in, to monitor how many people are using our Website, how many people open our emails, and for what purposes these actions are being taken. We do not link Non-Personal Information from Cookies to Personally Identifiable Information without your permission and do not use Cookies to collect or store Personal Health Information about you.


Log Files

HealthTalker tracks certain information such as type of browser and log on time for our own use. HealthTalker uses this information solely to track where our users may be coming from and what type of software they are using. We keep this information so we can continuously improve our users’ online experience and improve the HealthTalker Website. None of this information can ever be traced back to a specific person and is useful only to HealthTalker.


Personally Identifiable Information We Collect About You

When you register as a HealthTalker Member, you are asked to voluntarily provide Personally Identifiable Information, which may or may not include Personal Health Information. We retain your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with the authorization you provide at the time of registration. We may or may not use your Personal Health Information (if provided) to deliver you with access to relevant HealthTalker training, Programs, and discussion Forums, to send you emails about relevant subject matter, and inform you of significant changes to this Privacy Policy.


Emails You Send to HealthTalker

Privacy Policy does not apply to content, business information, ideas, concepts or inventions that you send to HealthTalker by email. If you want to keep content or business information, ideas, concepts or inventions private or proprietary, do not send them in an email to HealthTalker. Email is an inherently unsafe format.


Emails to You

At registration and at various times as a registered HealthTalker Member, you will be given the option of receiving periodic informational emails from HealthTalker. These emails will not contain Personal Health Information. You may unsubscribe or change any of your email preferences by clicking on the applicable links in the emails you receive from HealthTalker or by changing your profile within HealthTalker. If you are experiencing difficulties with our automated unsubscribe service, please select the Contact Us link on the Website.


Newsletters

At registration and at various times when you logon to the HealthTalker site, you may be given the option of providing us with Personal Information in order to receive newsletters of an informational/promotional nature - such as a newsletter relating to a specific health condition via email from HealthTalker and/or directly from third parties. When you sign up for our email newsletters, or at any time after signing up, you can choose to opt out of receiving additional information/promotional newsletters from HealthTalker or our Sponsors. You can unsubscribe from a newsletter by following the directions included at the bottom of the newsletter. You can also opt out by logging into the HealthTalker website and unchecking the newsletters you no longer wish to receive under the "My Profile" section.


Email-A-Friend

When you use HealthTalker's "Email a Friend" functionality if available, HealthTalker will email the content you designate to your friend's email address and identify your email address as the sender and may include certain links to health content as defined by the particular Program. HealthTalker only uses the friend's email address solely to send your friend the email you requested and will not directly contact that individual for marketing or other purposes.


Member Forums

As a service to our Members, HealthTalker features public forums where Members with similar medical conditions, concerns, and interests can share information and support one another. Any information shared (including Personally Identifiable and Personal Health Information) that you reveal in a HealthTalker Forum is by design open to those other Members who are participants in the same Program, but is password-protected and all Forum content is maintained on a secure server. However, you should remember that authentication of identity on the Internet is difficult and therefore HealthTalker cannot and does not confirm that each Member is who they claim to be. Therefore, you should think carefully before disclosing any Personal Identifiable or Personal Health Information in any HealthTalker Forum.


Market Research

In efforts to improve our offering, we may administer research surveys through email invitations, pop-up surveys or through the mail. When participating in a survey, we may ask you to enter Personal Information. The Personal Information you submit in a survey may be used by HealthTalker for research and measurement purposes, as described below, including to measure the effectiveness of conversations, your view on toolkits or the overall HealthTalker Program. Market research surveys conducted by or on behalf of HealthTalker will contain a link to this Privacy Policy.


Children's Privacy

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. Neither HealthTalker nor any of its services are designed or intended to attract children under the age of 18. We do not collect Personally Identifiable Information from any person we actually know is under the age of 18.

A parent or guardian who becomes a HealthTalker and provides information related to the health condition of a minor is solely responsible for providing supervision of the minor's use of HealthTalker, if any. The parent or guardian also assumes full responsibility for the interpretation and use of any information provided through HealthTalker for the minor.

Security

Listed below are some of the security procedures that HealthTalker uses to protect your privacy:

  • Requires both a personal username (log-in name) and a password for users to access their Personally Identifiable Information or Personal Health Information (if any).

  • Requires a public 'nickname' different from the username and password, used for any Forums. 

  • Uses firewalls to protect information held in our servers.

  • Utilizes Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption in transmitting Personally Identifiable Information to our servers. In order to take advantage of encryption technology, you must have an Internet browser which supports 128-bit encryption.

  • Closely monitors the limited number of HealthTalker employees who have potential access to your Personally Identifiable Information.

  • Requires all HealthTalker employees to abide by our Privacy Policy and to be subject to disciplinary action if they violate it.

  • Backs-up our systems with a third-party service provider to protect the integrity of your Personally Identifiable and Personal Health Information (if any).

  • Despite HealthTalker’s efforts to protect your Personally Identifiable Information and Personal Health Information, there is always some risk that an unauthorized third party may find a way around our security systems or that transmissions of your information over the Internet may be intercepted.

 

BECOMING A MEMBER

Registration

Once qualified to become a HealthTalker Member, a user must first complete the registration form. During the registration process, a user will be required to give their contact information (such as name, e-mail address, and postal address).

 

Account

When you become a Member of HealthTalker, you will create a password and an account. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and account. Furthermore, you are entirely responsible for any and all activities that occur under your account. You agree to immediately notify HealthTalker of any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security known to the member.

By registering to be a member, you will have opted-in to the specific HealthTalker Program. "Opted-in" means the Member has approved e-mails to be sent to them from HealthTalker regarding the Program subject.

 

Announcements

In rare circumstances HealthTalker may need to contact specific or all users in order to make an important announcement about the HealthTalker site or service changes. Members are not able to unsubscribe, or "opt-in/opt-out" of these announcements because they may contain very important information regarding their accounts. Before these measures are taken, however, HealthTalker will post information regarding changes directly on the Website. HealthTalker reserves the right to contact users to correct account errors or to supply important information HealthTalker deems relevant.

 

INFORMATION DISCLOSURE

Disclosure of Your Information

Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy or as specifically agreed to by you, HealthTalker will not disclose any Personally Identifiable or Personal Health Information it gathers from you on our Website. We may only release Personally Identifiable or Personal Health Information to third parties: (1) to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order; or (2) in special cases, such as in response to a physical threat to you or others, to protect property or defend or assert legal rights. In the event that we are legally compelled to disclose your Personally Identifiable or Personal Health Information to a third party, we will attempt to notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court order. In addition, we may disclose Personal Information as described below.

 

Disclosure to Linked Sites

For your convenience, there are links to third party websites operated by companies that are not affiliated with the HealthTalker Website and that do not have contracts to provide content or services through the HealthTalker Website. HealthTalker does not disclose your Personal Health Information or other Personally Identifiable Information to these third-party websites without obtaining your consent. HealthTalker does not endorse and is not responsible for the privacy practices of these sites. If you choose to link to one of these third-party websites, you should review the privacy policy posted on this other website to understand how that third-party website collects and uses your personal information.

 

Updating and Removing Your Personal Information

If you want to correct, update, or remove the Personal Identifiable Information or Personal Health Information you provided to us, please select the Contact Us link on the Website.

We remove Personal Health Information only at the request of the authorized user. In order to verify that it is the authorized user requesting removal of his/her Personal Health Information, we require you to send a signed statement, including your name, address, email address and birth date, to the address below authorizing HealthTalker to remove your Personal Health Information from our active databases and other readily searchable media. Upon receiving your request, your personal health identifiers stored in active databases and other readily searchable media will be removed so that you cannot be identified or associated with any Personal Health Information you previously provided. Mail your requests to:

HealthTalker, LLC.
Attn: Officer of Privacy
3600 Route 66, Suite 150
Neptune, NJ 07753

973-665-6915

hello@healthtalker.com

Upon your request, we will delete your Personally Identifiable or Personal Health Information from our active databases and where feasible from our back-up media. You should be aware that it is not technologically possible to remove each and every record of the information you have provided to HealthTalker from our servers.

 

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We will inform you if a material change in the Privacy Policy is made that involves the use of your Personal Health Information, and your express opt-in authorization will be requested.

We will inform you if a material change to the Privacy Policy is made, which means a change that expands the permissible uses or disclosures of Personally Identifiable Information allowed by the prior version of the Privacy Policy. Your continued use of the HealthTalker Website will indicate acceptance of the changes. You may of course choose to opt-out of continuing to use the HealthTalker Website. Please exit the Website immediately if you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy or any revised policy.

HealthTalker may make non-significant changes to the Privacy Policy that do not affect Personally Identifiable Information or Personal Health Information. In these instances, HealthTalker may not notify you of such non-significant changes.

 

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