Privacy Policy to protect the Vasculitis and chronic illness community

1. Introduction.
   Team Vasculitis (“Team Vascuitis,” “us,” “our,” or “we”) is a patient awareness, advocacy and education group focused on providing communities with content, patient engagement, education, community support and market research services regarding certain chronic and rare diseases. Through our rare disease specific content services, which include websites, social media, private communities, and email we provide patients, caregivers, physicians, and industry professionals access to comprehensive, disease-specific content coverage.

We take your privacy very seriously; we are committed to respect and to protect the privacy of the personal information you provide us so we have created this Privacy Policy to inform you about the types of information we may collect about you, how we may use that information, when we may disclose that information, and how you can control the use and disclosure of your information.

This Privacy Policy applies to all information collected about you when you interact with our services, websites, and other interfaces. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by third-party sites or content or applications that may link to or be accessible from or on our site. We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy carefully. We may amend or update this Privacy Policy at any time.

By accessing or using this website or our services, you are acknowledging that you have read, understand, and accept the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to such terms, please do not access this website or use our services.

1. Types and Uses of Collected Information.

We collect or obtain information directly from you and we may receive information about you from third parties.

1. a) Types of information we may collect:
   We may collect the following types of personal information about you: Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) (such as  your first and last name, your mailing address and other contact details, your age, birth date, gender, etc.) and Non-Personally Identifiable information, which is information that does not identify you as a specific person (such as the Uniform Resource Locator -“URL”- of the website you visited before coming to the Team Vasculitis website, the type of browser you are using, etc.). Additionally, we might take your PII and transform into Non-Personally Identifiable information.
2. b) Use of collected information:
   We may process your information, for the following purposes: (a) providing services to you; (b) communicating with you; (c) providing advertising to you on our websites or in connection with our services; (d) analyzing engagement with our visitors and audience; (e) observing user engagement and purchase activity across our websites and services; (f) offering lead generation services; (g) marketing our websites, services, and offerings to current and prospective users and customers; (h) managing our information technology systems; (i) financial management; (j) conducting surveys; (k) ensuring the security of our systems; (l) conducting investigations, if necessary; (m) complying with applicable laws and regulations; (n) improving our websites and services; (o) creating information about use, including records of your interactions with us; (p) providing products and services to you; (q) aggregating information for promotional and publication use; (r) collecting information and providing you information about relevant clinical trials; (s) providing products and services through “Third Party Service Providers” who might perform functions on our or your behalf and provide information to individuals and companies with which we have business relationships or contracts. The use of your information by such third parties is governed by their privacy policies and terms and conditions.
3. c) Consent to Provide Your Personal Identifiable Information to Team Vasculitis:
   We require and you provide your explicit consent to collect your information PII when you inquire about services and education, provide PII to us, or when we conduct a survey that has PII type questions
4. d) Way in which we contact you:
   Using the contact details that you have provide to us, in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, we may contact you directly via email, telephone, direct mail, or other methods of communication.
5. e) Control of your information:
   First and foremost, providing your information to us is completely voluntary. You can always choose not to provide certain information, although as explained above, a certain level of information may be needed to engage and participate in some Team Vasculitis services. If for any reason you should change your mind, you may unsubscribe from any subscriber lists, emails, or other communications at any time at no charge, by emailing us at hello@teamvasculitis.com or by hitting the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of any of our emails, in which case we will complete your email opt-out requests in a timely manner, but you may still receive communications from us for a short period of time while we process your request.
6. Data Tracking
7. a) To facilitate and customize your experience with our website, we may store cookies on your computer or other similar device through which you access our service that may be used. This Privacy Policy does not cover the use of cookies by Third-Party Service Providers. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting, you may be unable to access certain parts of our website.
8. b) Other Tracking Devices. We may use other industry standard technologies like pixel tags, web beacons, and other technology that may be available to track your use of the website, or we may allow our Third-Party Service Providers to use these devices on our behalf. If you do not want the services that tracking technologies provide, you may be able to opt-out by visiting http://www.aboutads.info.
9. c) Third Parties’ websites or services that may be accessible through our website may have their own privacy policies and data collection, for which we are not responsible.

4. Browser Cookies: A browser cookie is a client-side, multi-byte file which communicates a small amount of information to a web server. This includes Team Vasculitis servers or third parties authorized to collect data on our behalf. This allows Team Vasculitis to recognize your personal device. Cookies can be associated with PII, inasmuch as they permit automatic recognition capabilities on restricted areas of our website or identify repeat traffic channels. A cookie will not otherwise contain PII. At your own discretion, you may modify the settings in your Internet browser on your device to no longer accept some or all cookies. You may also choose to be alerted if a new cookie is being added to your browser. Refusing or disabling browser cookies may prevent your use of certain parts of a Team Vasculitis website, and you will be required to login to access certain parts of this website. You can learn more about how cookies function by visiting https://www.whatismybrowser.com/guides/how-to-enable-cookies/

Beacons: Similar in function to cookies, a web beacon, pixel tag or clear GIF is a server-side, multi-byte graphics file that sends a flag to the server when it is visible on your screen. These flags can be aggregated for website statistics by Team Vasculitis, and are helpful for us in cultivating content centered your engagement and interest. These web beacons can also be disabled in your browser settings or by third-party tools and browser extensions.

We may collect the following types of personal information about you:

Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) (such as  your first and last name, your mailing address and other contact details, your age, birth date, gender, etc.)

Non-Personally Identifiable information, which is information that does not identify you as a specific person (such as the Uniform Resource Locator -“URL”- of the website you visited before coming to the Team Vasculitis website, the type of browser you are using, etc.)

Additionally, we might take your PII and transform into Non-Personally Identifiable information.

Listed below are the first-party cookies we use, when the cookie is placed, the information it collects, how we use this information and which third parties have access to the information collected by the cookie:

Cookie-notice-accepted Clicking “accept” on the bottom entrance banner. If you accept our privacy policy and use of cookies Informs us of your cookie preferences.

No third parties cookie Friend A new visit to the website Your referring URL Counting traffic sources. 

Google Analytics, Qualtrics Lazy-load Visiting a second webpage That you visited a second web page Implementing “lazy load” on our advertisements

No third parties

Listed below are the third parties who place cookies on your browser through our website or place web beacons on our website, what information they collect, and if parties outside of this entity and Team Vasculitis use the information.

Google Analyticsnon-PIIYesGoogle Ad Managernon-PIIYesGoogle Adsnon-PIINoFacebook Businessnon-PIIYesFacebook Adsnon-PIINoSumonon-PIINoChartbeatnon-PIINoMailchimpPII, non-PIIYes (only non-PII)MatomoPII, non-PIIYes (only non-PII)

We may process your information collected by first- or third-party sources for the following purposes:

(a) providing services to you;

(b) communicating with you;

(c) providing advertising to you on our websites or in connection with our services;

(d) analyzing engagement with our visitors and audience;

(e) observing user engagement and purchase activity across our websites and services;

(f) offering lead generation services;

(g) marketing our websites, services, and offerings to current and prospective users and customers;

(h) managing our information technology systems;

(i) financial management;

(j) conducting surveys;

(k) ensuring the security of our systems;

(l) conducting investigations, if necessary;

(m) complying with applicable laws and regulations;

(n) improving our websites and services;

(o) creating information about use, including records of your interactions with us;

(p) providing products and services to you;

(q) aggregating information for promotional and publication use;

(r) collecting information and providing you information about relevant clinical trials;

(s) providing products and services through “Third Party Service Providers” who might perform functions on our or your behalf and provide information to individuals and companies with which we have business relationships or contracts.

Only non-PII is shared with third parties. The use of your information by such third parties is governed by our privacy policies and terms and conditions.

Google Analytics: Team Vasculitis, on occasion, may collect information with Google Analytics to understand popular content and channels to improve our website. Google Analytics does not collect PII on you, though Team Vasculitis may target an aggregate of users with particular interests with appropriate ads after leaving our website. This retargeting effort could mean that you encounter custom advertisements in Google search results page or on another other webpage connected to the Google Display Network. These ads strictly follow our above Privacy Policy and Google’s privacy policy. To opt out of such retargeting efforts, please visit: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. You can also learn more about how Google collects data by visiting: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/.

Social Media: Websites under Team Vasculitis may contain links to a variety of social media platforms, and likewise may manage social media accounts which link to a particular website. By your own discretion, you may engage with our content and connect to our social media accounts on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. In so doing, you consent to our ability to collect additional information from you, which may include self-described demographic information, contact details, and user generated content through these platforms. By using these platforms, you consent to such information being collected from you by the platform, and Team Vasculitis has no authority over the collection of this data by the social media platform, nor their discretionary use or sharing of such data. We advise you to review each website’s particular terms of service to learn more about what information may be collected by each platform. Team Vasculitis may connect to your social media account on one of our websites if you are logged into the website in your browser by way of social media plugins. This is if and only if you click on a clearly indicated social media function on our website, such as a “Like” button or a “Retweet” button.

Notice of exemption: Team Vasculitis will not collect or retain any information on you through the use of cookies or beacons if we become aware that you are in the European Union (EU).

Understanding Your Online Rights

Your Cookies Preferences: To enhance your experience with our offerings, Team Vasculitis will use cookies and web beacons to help us identify content most relevant for you. At any time, you may modify your browser settings to no longer allow cookies and web beacons from our website or delete cookies already placed on your computer. You may also ask for help in completing either of these tasks by contacting us in our Contact Us page. However, please note that the best use of all Team Vasculitis offerings requires accepting all cookies and allowing all web beacons. All of our websites utilize these for many basic functions of our website, including access to certain parts of our website. For this reason, websites under BioNews, Inc. do not alter practices in response to “Do Not Track” or other “opt out” features signaled by your browser.

1. Other Information
   a) Acquisition:
   As with any other company, Team Vasculitis could merge with, or be acquired by another company. If this occurs, the successor company would acquire your information that we retain. However, all of your information would remain subject to this Privacy Policy.
2. b) Disclosures Required by Law:
   We reserve the right to disclose your PII or other information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on us, enforce or apply this Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, or other agreements, or protect the rights, property, or safety of Team Vasculitis, our Service, users of our Service, or others.
3. c) Referrals:
   You may choose to invite friends to join or read Team Vasculitis by sending invitation emails via an invite feature. All respondents’ data will be subjected to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
4. d) Public Areas. We may provide areas on the Team Vasculitis website where you can publicly post information about yourself or can communicate with others such as on forums. This information may be accessible by other users and companies and may appear on other websites or web searches, and therefore this information could be read, collected, and used by others. We have no control over who reads your postings or what other users may do with the information you voluntarily post, so please use caution when posting any content or providing anything that could be deemed personal information.
5. e) Notice of Privacy Rights to California Residents:
   If you are a California resident, California law may provide you with additional rights regarding use of your personal information, including the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), California Online Privacy Protection Act (“CalOPPA”), California Business and Professions Code, and California “Shine the Light” Law. At your request, we will inform you of: (1) the categories of PII we collect and the third parties with whom we share that information; (2) the names and addresses of those third parties; and (3) examples of the products marketed by those companies. You may notify us of parties to whom you do not want us to share that information. To obtain this information, please send a request by email or physical mail to the address found below. When contacting us, please indicate your name, address, email address, and what PII you do not want us to share with our marketing partners. The request should be sent to the attention of our legal department, and labeled “California Customer Choice Notice.” Please allow 30 days for a response. Also, please note that there is no charge for controlling the sharing of your PII or requesting this notice.
6. f) Notice to Nevada Residents:
   Nevada residents who wish to exercise sale opt-out rights under Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 603A may submit a request to us at hello@teamvasculitis.com
7. g) Children Under Age 18:
   The Team Vasculitis websites are not intended for children under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information of children under age 18 without prior approval of a parent or guardian. If we learn that we have collected or received personal information from a child under age 18 without verification of parental or guardian consent, we will plan to delete that information. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under the age of 18, please contact us at hello@teamvasculitis.com

California residents under 18 years of age may have additional rights regarding the collection and use of their personal information. Please see Notice of Privacy rights to California Residents for more information.

1. h) Team Vasculitis Terms and Conditions:
   In addition to this Privacy Policy, Team Vasculitis has its Terms of Service, which govern its services and the use of its websites and other online offerings. The Terms of Service are incorporated by reference into this Privacy Policy. Please review the Terms of Service regularly to keep apprised of any updates or changes.
2. i) Customer Service:
   For assistance or questions regarding this Privacy Policy or this Team Vasculitis website, you may contact us at hello@teamvasculitis.com