Updated November 2021
This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) describes how BackPainSources.COM (“Back Pain Sources”), as a data controller, collects and uses personal data about you when you visit and use any of our websites, or when you correspond or otherwise communicate with us. This Policy applies to information we collect about you on any of our websites (collectively, the “Websites”), including the following:
In this Policy, “we,” “our” and “us” means BackPainSources.COM, and “you” or “your” means any person who visits the Websites or otherwise corresponds with us.
BackPainSources.COM is committed to maintaining the privacy of your online information; it is our priority to build your trust and confidence. Internet privacy is an issue that we take very seriously.
It is important for you to know what information is collected about you, what options you have concerning your information, how that information is used, with whom the information is shared, how we protect your information, and finally, how to contact us if you have additional questions or concerns.
We encourage you to take some time and read this entire Policy. This Policy does not apply to websites maintained by other companies or organizations to which we may link or who may link to us. We are not responsible for the actions and privacy policies of third party websites.
In order to post content to our Websites or receive newsletters, you will be required to register an account. As part of the account registration process, you will be required to affirmatively consent to the terms of this Policy. By checking the appropriate boxes and clicking “I accept,” you agree that you have read and understand this Policy and that you accept and consent to the privacy practices (including the uses, disclosures, processing and transfers to third countries inside or outside of the European Union of information about you by BackPainSources.COM) that are described in this Policy. Kindly note that any consent you provide will be entirely voluntary. HOWEVER, IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THIS POLICY, THEN YOU SHOULD NOT USE, AND ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO USE THE WEBSITES.
What information we collect
BackPainSources.COM may collect a variety of personal data about you.
Personal data means information that directly identifies you (such as your name, address, or email address) or data that could be used to indirectly identify you (such an IP address or browser agents). You can browse our Websites without submitting your personal data to us. However, there are circumstances in which you may supply us with your personal data, including when you subscribe to our newsletters, and other content; complete a survey, participate in market research, upload content on social media; or when you seek employment at BackPainSources.COM. The ways that BackPainSources.COM collects information from you are described below.
How we collect information
BackPainSources.COM collects personal data in the following ways:
Registration
Access to some of our services may be limited to users who have registered an account with us. When you sign up for an account, we collect the personal data you submit to us through the registration process. Some of our tools do not retain your personal data, while others store your personal data in accordance with this Policy.
Social Media, Health Communities, Blogs & Facebook Groups
When you interact with BackPainSources.COM on a social media platform, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or LinkedIn, we may collect the personal data that you make available to us on that page or account including your social media account ID. However, we comply with the privacy policies of the corresponding social media platform and we will only collect and store such personal data that we are permitted to collect by those social media platforms.
BackPainSources.COM features Facebook Groups where users with similar interests or medical conditions can share information and support one another. At times we may also offer online discussions moderated by healthcare experts from time to time.
Any information (including personal data) you share in any online community, including forums or online discussions, is open to the public. You should always consider your online environment before posting any personal data in any public forum. What you post can be seen, disclosed to, or collected by third parties and may be used by others in ways we cannot control or predict, including to contact you for unauthorized purposes. Your post may potentially show up in third-party search engines.
If you choose to use the Facebook Groups and add personally identifying information (including personal medical information) to BackPainSources.COM Facebook Group discussions you understand the information (including personal data) shared is open to the public. You understand this is an online environment and acknowledge the risks of posting any personal data in this public group. You understand that BackPainSources.COM cannot control or predict outside misuse of the information you post and is not responsible for third party use of the information you choose to share.
Newsletters & Emails to You
You have the option of providing us with personal data in order to receive recurring informational and/or promotional newsletters via email from BackPainSources.COM and/or directly from third parties. We collect the personal data you provide to us when you sign up to receive these electronic communications from us (such as name, e-mail address, etc.)
Market Research
From time to time, BackPainSources.COM may conduct online research surveys through email invitations, pop-up surveys, and online focus groups. When participating in a survey, we may ask you to enter personal data. The personal data you submit in a survey may be used by BackPainSources.COM for research and measurement purposes, including measuring the effectiveness of content, advertising, or programs.
Emails You Send to BackPainSources.COM
When you send us personal data in your written communications with us, we may retain that personal data subject to this Policy.
Employment
If you apply for a position at BackPainSources.COM, we will use the personal data you provide to assess your qualifications for a particular position. The information you provide will not be shared with any third-parties and will only be used for employment purposes.
Using Cookies and other Automatic Collection Methods
We and third parties we work with may collect information from the computer, tablet, phone, or other device that you use to access our Websites (such as IP addresses), or that you use to open an email from us. This collection includes automatically collected information, and does not include personal data that directly identifies you unless you provide it through our Websites or you choose to share it with us.
Automatic collection methods we use include cookies (which may be session-based or persistent, and typically are small data files that are stored on your hard drive or in connection with your Internet browser) and web beacons (small images embedded into websites or emails that send information about your computer, tablet, phone, or other device when you visit our website, or open an email we send to you) or pixel tags.
We use Google Analytics to measure and report how users interact with our Websites, emails and advertisements to analyze the traffic to our websites and for the other purposes set forth in the “How We Use Your Information” Section below. For more information about Google Analytics and how it collects and processes data, please see “How Google Uses Data When You Use Our Partners’ Sites or Apps.” For more information about how Google Analytics uses cookies to measure user interactions on websites, click here. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to the Site is restricted by Google’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. If you do not want your website visit data reported by the Google Analytics JavaScript, you can install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. This add-on instructs the Google Analytics JavaScript to prohibit sending visit information to Google Analytics, but does not prevent information from being sent to the website itself or in other ways to other website analytics services. Click here if you would like to learn more about the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, and click here to install the opt-out browser add-on.
How we use your information
Providing BackPainSources.COM with your personal data helps us serve you better. Information collected by BackPainSources.COM about you is used by BackPainSources.COM to:
- Administer your account;
- Provide you with access to particular tools and services;
- Respond to the inquiries you send us and to send you administrative communications about our Websites or services;
- Obtain your feedback about the Websites or our offerings;
- Statistically analyze user behavior and activity, including how frequently areas of the site are visited and how many emails are received and opened;
- Provide you (and people with similar demographic characteristics and interests) with more relevant content or advertising both on our Websites or on other websites that you visit after you leave our Websites;
- Send you personalized emails or secure electronic messages pertaining to your health interests, including news, announcements, reminders, and opportunities from BackPainSources.COM;
- Send you relevant offers and informational materials pertaining to your health interests on behalf of our sponsors;
- BackPainSources.COM may combine personal and non-personal data collected about you by BackPainSources.COM, and may combine this information with information from external sources.
BackPainSources.COM uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Website. We do not use profiling or make any decisions based solely on the automated processing of your personal information.
How we share your information
In general, BackPainSources.COM does not share personal data about you with third parties for their own direct marketing or advertising purposes unless you request or consent to such sharing, or as otherwise described below. However, we do share personal data with third parties for the following limited purposes.
Disclosures to BackPainSources.COM Contractors
BackPainSources.COM contractors sometimes have limited access to your personal data in the course of providing products or services to BackPainSources.COM. These contractors include vendors and suppliers that provide us with technology, services, data analysis, research, advertising, marketing assistance, and/or content in connection with our operation and maintenance of the Websites. We contractually require that our contractors:
- Protect the privacy of your personal data consistent with this Policy, and
- Not use or disclose your personal data for any purpose other than providing the limited service or function for BackPainSources.COM.
Advertising
BackPainSources.COM collects aggregate queries for internal reporting and targeted advertising. We also count, track, and aggregate visitors’ activity into our analysis of general traffic flows at our sites. We may merge information about you into group data, which may then be shared on an aggregated basis with our advertisers, but BackPainSources.COM will not disclose your individual identity or personal data without your permission. When BackPainSources.COM does present aggregated information to outside companies, no one will be able to identify or contact you.
In addition, BackPainSources.COM does not provide third-party access to your personal data except in the aggregate and only after the information has been anonymized and/or without your express permission. The information will be in the form of grouped statistics compiled from our users’ answers to survey questions and on-site behavior.
Our advertising partners’ ad server may use cookies when you view pages on our site. These cookies collect anonymous information as a way of measuring the effectiveness of advertising sold on BackPainSources.COM. If you click on an advertisement on BackPainSources.COM and visit a site maintained by one of our sponsors or advertisers, please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. Certain advertiser sites may contain tracking code allowing our ad server systems to capture information about the activity on those sites, e.g., how many people from BackPainSources.COM visited a certain page of the advertiser’s site, how many people from BackPainSources.COM completed a product purchase on that site, etc. Again, this information is used to measure the effectiveness of the advertising on BackPainSources.COM.
BackPainSources.COM does not sell any personal data about you, unless we have your explicit permission to do so.
Legal Compliance
We may release personal data to third parties to comply with legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena, or court order, or in response to a physical threat to you or others, to protect property, or defend or assert legal rights. Parties to a Business Transaction
Location of Data/Notice to non-US Persons
Our Websites are hosted and operated in the United States or European Union. In addition, we may further transfer your information inside/ outside the United States for the purposes described in this Policy. Those who access or use our Websites from jurisdictions outside the United States do so at their own choice and risk and are solely responsible for compliance with local law. If you are not a resident of the United States, you acknowledge and agree that we may collect and use your personal information outside your home jurisdiction, and that we may store your personal information in the United States or elsewhere. While we take certain steps to safeguard your personal data, please note that the United States has NOT been deemed by the European Commission to ensure an adequate level of protection for personal data. Accordingly, the level of safeguards and legal protections provided in the United States or other non-European countries from which you may access our Websites may not be as stringent as that under European Union privacy standards or the privacy laws of some other countries, possibly including your home jurisdiction. BY CHECKING THE APPROPRIATE BOX(ES) AND CLICKING “I ACCEPT”, YOU AGREE THAT YOU ACCEPT AND FULLY UNDERSTAND THE RISKS OF, AND EXPRESSLY CONSENT TO, THE TRANSFER, STORAGE AND PROCESSING OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA IN THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES OUTSIDE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION BY BACKPAINSOURCES.COM IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS POLICY.
How we protect your information
BackPainSources.COM uses reasonable security measures to protect the confidentiality of personal data under our control and appropriately limit access to it. We use a variety of information security measures to protect your online transactions with us. We anonymize data by removing and replacing personal data with an empty string or blank spaces prior to the form being saved on our servers. Our Websites use encryption technology to protect your personal data you submit via our Websites and during data transport. That being said, BackPainSources.COM cannot guarantee or warrant the security of information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. We have taken reasonable steps to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of personal data that you may provide. However, electronic transmissions via the Internet are not necessarily secure from interception, and so we cannot absolutely guarantee the security or confidentiality of such transmissions.
How long we keep your information
We will retain your personal data as long as your account is active and/or it is needed to provide you services. At any time, you can remove your personal data or instruct us to remove it. We will retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
Your Choices and Access Requests
We strive to offer you choices about how certain personal data is used and shared. Your choices include:
Online Advertising
You can manage third-party advertising preferences for some of the third parties we work with to serve advertising across the Internet by utilizing the choices available at https://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp and https://www.aboutads.info/choices. We do not guarantee that all of the third parties we work with will honor the elections you make using those options.
Social Media Platforms and Networks
We encourage you to review your privacy options and settings with the social media platforms and networks you use to understand what choices you have about sharing information from those platforms and networks with us.
Email Choices
To further protect your privacy, you may choose to stop receiving marketing or promotional marketing communications from BackPainSources.COM, or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services. To opt out, you can unsubscribe from a newsletter by clicking the unsubscribe link on the newsletter or promotional materials. You may choose to stop receiving newsletter or other marketing emails by following the unsubscribe instructions included in these emails or you can contact us at [email protected].
Mobile Devices
Your mobile device may offer settings relating to cookies, web beacons, and other similar technologies. We encourage to you to visit your device’s help menu to learn about your options to limit tracking when using your device.
Browsers do not track signals
Some browsers have incorporated “Do Not Track” (DNT) features that can send a signal to the websites you visit indicating that you do not wish to be tracked. There is not yet a common understanding of how to interpret the DNT signal. We currently do not respond to web browser DNT signals.
Links to other websites and services
Our Websites may provide links to other Internet sites, content or videos (embedded or direct links) maintained by third parties. We are not responsible for the sites, content, or videos accessed via the links, and we have not reviewed the privacy practices of those third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy practices of those third parties.
Rights of Residents in the European Union
If you are a resident of the European Union, you have certain rights under European data protection law with respect to your personal data, including the right to request access to, correct, amend, delete, limit the use of, or withdraw your consent for the processing of your personal data. You also have the right to receive a copy of your personal data in a commonly used and machine-readable format and to transmit such data to another controller. To request deletion of, access to, or to make changes to data, or to otherwise exercise any of your rights in this paragraph, email us at [email protected]. Please remember that if you delete or limit the use of your personal data, you may not be able to use the services provided through the Websites.
Rights of California Residents
Once per calendar year, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 provides California residents with the right to receive: information identifying (names and addresses) any third party(ies) to whom we may have disclosed, within the preceding calendar year, certain of your personal data for that third party’s direct marketing purposes; and (b) a description of the categories of personal data disclosed, where and as required under this law. To request such information free of charge, please contact email us at [email protected]
If you are a California resident under the age of 18, and have a registered account on any of our Websites, California Business and Professions Code Section 22581 permits you to request and obtain removal of content or information you have publicly posted. To make such a request, please send an email with a detailed description of the specific content or information to [email protected]. Please be aware that such a request does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information you have posted and that there may be circumstances in which the law does not require or allow removal even if requested.
Call Recording
In limited services, BackPainSources.COM partners with third-party vendors to record calls for the purpose of quality management, accuracy and analytic reporting. If your call is recorded you will be notified at the beginning of every conversation and you will be given an opportunity to object and opt out of the recording. All data collected from call recordings is protected in the same manner BackPainSources.COM protects any digital or written data where the customer can be identified by that information as covered in this Policy.
Children’s Privacy
None of the Websites are directed to or intended to be used by individuals under the age of 16. BackPainSources.COM will never knowingly request personal data from anyone under the age of 16 without prior verifiable parental consent. If you believe that your child under the age of 16 has submitted personal data to us in connection with our Websites, and without prior verifiable parental consent, please contact us at [email protected] so that we can take steps to delete the personal data that he or she provided as required in accordance with applicable law.
Changes to this privacy policy
We reserve the right to change or modify this Policy or any of our tools or services at any time and any changes will be effective upon being posted unless we advise otherwise. We encourage you to periodically review our Websites for the latest information on our privacy practices.
When we make material changes to this Policy, we will notify you by posting the updated Policy on our website, and we will update the effective date at the top of this Policy. By continuing to use any of our Websites after being notified of material changes to this Policy, you agree that the terms of this Policy as of the effective date will apply to information previously collected or collected in the future.
Contact Us
If you have additional questions about this Policy, please contact us at [email protected]
If your inquiry with BackPainSources.COM has not be satisfactorily addressed, or if you believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law or this Policy, please contact [email protected] and we will do our best to resolve your concerns.