Welcome
This Privacy Policy is designed to inform you of practices regarding collection, use, and disclosure of information that you may provide via this website. Please be sure to read this Privacy Policy, in its entirety, before using or submitting information to this website. Please note: This website is intended for use by physicians licensed for practice in Canada.
Your Consent
By using this site, you agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy. Whenever you submit information via this website, you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of that information, personal or otherwise, in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Please be advised that this website makes every effort to protect your personal information and abides by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (also known as PIPEDA), which requires that consent be obtained in all instances where personal information is requested.
What is "Personal Information"?
Simply stated, personal information is factual information that is not already available in a public directory, such as a telephone book, or on your business card. Examples of personal information include age, full name, weight, height, medical records, and ID numbers (driver's license, medical license number).
About Children
This website is not intended for children under the age of 13. We will not knowingly collect information from website visitors in this age group. We encourage parents to talk to their children about their use of the Internet and the information they disclose to websites.
Active Information Collection
Like many others, this website actively collects information from its visitors both by asking specific questions and by permitting them to communicate directly with us via email, feedback forms, and/or web discussion or bulletin boards. Some of the information that you submit may be personally identifiable information (that is, information that can be uniquely identified with you, such as your full name, address, email address, phone number, and so on). Some areas of this website may require you to submit information in order for you to benefit from the specified features (such as newsletter subscriptions, tips/pointers) or to participate in a particular activity (such as surveys or promotions). You will be informed at each information collection point what information is required and what information is optional. Links or reference to this privacy policy will be made available at such collection points.
MDgroove.com™ may also collect other profile data, including but not limited to: personal interests, gender, age, education and medical specialty. This data collection is for the purposes of assisting users in finding and communicating with each other.
User Profile information, which may include members' pictures and first names are displayed to people in order to facilitate user interaction in the MDgroove.com™ social networking community (called groovePad). Email addresses are used for the purposes of inviting new friends to join the MDgroove.com™ community, to add users to members' friends' networks, and to send notifications related to the service. With the exception of inviting friends, adding friends, and notifications, a user's email address is not shared or displayed to people within a user's personal network. Users' full names are never directly revealed to other members unless the user has adopted their fullname as their username; this is not recommended. To facilitate searching and finding friends and acquaintances on the service, MDgroove.com™ allows users to search for other members using first and last name, email address, and schools and institutions where users may have attended or worked.
Passive Information Collection
As you navigate through a website, certain information can be passively collected (that is, gathered without your actively providing the information) using various technologies and means, such as Internet Protocol addresses, cookies, Internet tags, and navigational data collection. This information is used to manage the website, track usage and improve the website services. This non-personally-identifiable information may be shared with third-parties to provide more relevant services to members of the MDgroove.com™ community.
We use Internet Protocol (IP) addresses on this website. An IP Address is a number assigned to your computer by your Internet Service Provider so you can access the Internet; it is generally considered to be non-personally identifiable information, because in most cases an IP address is dynamic (changing each time you connect to the Internet), rather than static (unique to a particular user's computer). We use your IP address to diagnose problems with our server, report aggregate information, determine the fastest route for your computer to use in connecting to our website, for security and monitoring purposes, and to administer and improve the website. A "cookie" is information that a website sends to your Web browser that helps the website remember information about you and your preferences. "Session" cookies are temporary bits of information that are erased upon closing your Web browser window or otherwise turn your computer off. Session cookies are used to improve navigation on websites and to collect aggregate statistical information. This website uses session cookies. "Persistent" cookies are more permanent bits of information that are placed on the hard drive of your computer and stay there unless you delete the cookie. Persistent cookies store information on your computer for a number of purposes, such as retrieving certain information you have previously provided (e.g., passwords), helping to determine what areas of the website visitors find most valuable, and customizing the website based on your preferences. This website uses persistent cookies. "Internet tags" (also known as single-pixel GIFs, clear GIFs, invisible GIFs, and 1-by-1 GIFs) are smaller than cookies and tell the website server information such as the IP address and browser type related to the visitor's computer. We use Internet tags at this website. Tags have been placed both on online advertisements that bring people to the website and on different pages of the website. These tags indicate how many times a page is opened and which information is consulted. We do not collect or seek personally identifiable information through these tags. "Navigational data" ("log files", "server logs", and "clickstream" data) are used for system management, to improve the content of the website for market research purposes, and to communicate information to visitors. This website uses navigational data.
Use and Disclosure of Information
Except as otherwise stated, we may use your information to improve the content of our website, to customize the website to your preferences, to communicate information to you, for our marketing and research purposes, and for the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy. If you provide personally identifiable information to this website, we may combine such information with other actively collected information unless we specify otherwise at the point of collection. We will take reasonable measures to prevent personally identifiable information from being combined with passively collected information, unless you consent otherwise. We may disclose your personally identifiable information to our affiliates that agree to treat it in accordance with this Privacy Policy. In addition, we may disclose your personally identifiable information to third parties, but only:
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to contractors we use to support our business (e.g., fulfillment services, technical support, delivery services, and financial institutions), in which case we will require such third parties to agree to treat it in accordance with this Privacy Policy;
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in connection with the sale, assignment, or other transfer of the business of this website to which the information relates, in which case we will require any such buyer to agree to treat it in accordance with this Privacy Policy; or
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where required by applicable laws, court orders, or government regulations.
In addition, we will make full use of all information acquired through this website that is not deemed personally identifiable.
Invitations and Other Communications to Non-members
Members of the MDgroove.com™ community can invite friends to join the service by sending invitation emails via our automated invitation system. MDgroove.com™ stores the email addresses that members provide so that the respondents may be added to the friend's list of the member sending the invitations, and also to send reminders of the invitations. MDgroove.com™ does not sell these email addresses or use them to send any other communication besides invitations and invitation reminders (up to three (3) per email address). Recipients of invitations from MDgroove.com™ may contact MDgroove.com™ to request the removal of their information from our database.
You may prevent MDgroove.com™ email invitations and other messages from being sent to any email address you control by sending a single email with the subject "BLOCK" to groovemaster@MDgroove.com Please note that the email must come from the account you wish to block.
Continuing Medical Education
When you register for a Continuing Medical Education ("CME") or a Continuing Education ("CE") activity through MDgroove.com™, we collect certain personally identifiable information from you such as your name, email address and mailing address. If you are a nurse or a pharmacist and wish to receive CE credit, you may also be required to provide the province in which you are licensed and your license number. In addition to personally identifiable information, we collect aggregated non-personally identifiable information about the activities undertaken by our users.
We use the information that we collect through CME/CE activities in several ways:
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We may provide personally identifiable information to partners or bodies (e.g., university Faculty of Medicine, specialty society) who accredit the CME/CE activities posted on our website, as required by each accrediting body. These reports may include personally identifiable information about you and credits issued to you, for the purpose of maintaining records that you can request from the accredited provider and demonstrating that you have completed a program;
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Commercial supporters of CME/CE activities on our Web site will receive only aggregated data about CME/CE activities that are relevant to their interests and/or the courses they support;
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Our Editorial and Customer Support Staff will have internal access to files containing personally identifiable information, including evaluation forms and aggregated CME /CE participant information. These files can be accessed in order to respond to your questions or comments;
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Our staff may also use personally identifiable information, including registration information and evaluation data, in assessing educational needs and planning marketing activities; and MDgroove.com™ may use the information we collect as otherwise permitted in this Privacy Policy.
Chat Rooms, Journals and WebLogs, Message Boards, Classifieds and Public Forums
Please be aware that whenever you voluntarily post public information to Journals, WebLogs, message boards including Ask the Expert, or any other public forums provided at this website, that information can be accessed by the public and can in turn be used by those people to send you unsolicited communications. You post this content at your own risk. You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal from MDgroove.com™, copies of member content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other members have copied or stored this content.
Access and Correction
To keep your personally identifiable information accurate, current, and complete, please contact us as specified below. We will take reasonable steps to update or correct personally identifiable information in our possession that you have previously submitted via this website.
Members of the MDgroove.com™ community may modify or remove any of their personal information at any time by logging into their account and accessing features on their customizable member page.
Security
MDgroove.com™ member accounts are secured by member-created passwords MDgroove.com™ takes precautions to insure that member account information is kept private. We take reasonable steps to protect your personally identifiable information as you transmit your information from your computer to our website and to protect such information from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. We use reasonable measures to protect member information that is stored within our database, and we restrict access to member information to those employees who need access to perform their job functions, such as our customer service personnel and technical staff. Please note that we cannot guarantee the security of member account information. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors may compromise the security of member information at any time.
You should keep in mind that no Internet transmission is ever 100% secure or error-free. In particular, email sent to or from this website may not be secure, and you should therefore take special care in deciding what information you send to us via email. Moreover, when using passwords, ID numbers, or other special access features, on this website, it is your responsibility to safeguard them.
Links to Other Websites
This website may contain links or references to other websites. Please be aware that we do not control other websites and that, in any case, this Privacy Policy does not apply to those websites. Our privacy policy only governs information collected on MDgroove.com™.
We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.
Other Terms
Your use of this website is subject to our Terms and Conditions.
How to Contact Us
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this Privacy Policy or the information practices of this site, please contact us as follows:
groovemaster@MDgroove.com
Meducom International Inc.
18 Macdonell Street, Suite 200
Guelph, ON N1H 2Z3 Canada
519-767-6644
Changes to This Privacy Policy
From time to time, we may make changes to our Privacy Policy. If this Privacy Policy changes, the revised policy will be posted on this website. Please check back periodically, and especially before you provide any personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy was last updated on January 18,2008.
groovePad
Use of groovePad, the social networking platform at MDgrooveTM, is governed by the MDgroove.com™ Privacy Policy and the following additional policy.
You consent to allow other users to search for your page using personal information that you have provided to MDgroove.com™; this includes an option to search for you by your real first and family names, even though these are not published elsewhere on the site (unless you have opted to use these names as your username). However, users will not have access to the information on your groovePad page unless you grant them permission to become a contact.
