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PRIVACY POLICY(Updated November 15, 2007)
1. Overview The HealthCentral Network, Inc. ("THCN"), a Delaware corporation, owns and operates the web sites www.drdrew.com, www.drkoop.com, www.foodfit.com, www.healthcentral.com, www.healthscout.com, www.healthsquare.com, and www.mdchoice.com (the "Sites"). This Privacy Policy covers THCN's treatment of personally identifiable information ("Personal Data") that THCN gathers when its users access and use the Web Sites and when they use content and/or services on the Web Sites. THCN knows that users care about how their personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy seriously. Please read the following to learn more about our privacy policy. By voluntarily providing us with Personal Data, you are consenting to our use of it in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you provide Personal Data to the Sites, you acknowledge and agree that such Personal Data may be transferred from your current location to the offices and servers of THCN and the authorized third parties referred to herein located in the United States. 2. Information Collected Through the Site: We collect Personal Data through the Sites when you voluntarily chose to provide us with such Personal Data. THCN collects Personal Data from our users at several different points on the Sites. Such types of information, and the points at which they are collected, include: Personal Data: A. Registration. Our Sites' registration system requires users to give us various Personal Data, such as their name and e-mail address, ZIP code, sex, age or income level. Such contact information is used to contact the user when necessary. Users may also choose (opt-in) to subscribe to newsletters (as further explained in the choice/opt-in section below). B. Surveys and Questionnaires. Our online surveys and questionnaires may ask users for contact and demographic information. The user's Personal Data is used to contact the user when necessary. Users may opt-out of receiving future mailings (as further explained in the choice/opt-in section below). Personal Data requested as part of a survey or questionnaire might, for instance, include name, email address, ZIP code, sex, age or income level, as well as health-related information. C. Contests. We may run contests on our Sites in which we ask users for certain Personal Data, as well as demographic information. The user's Personal Data is used to contact the user when necessary. Users may choose to receive future mailings (as further explained in the choice/opt-in section below). Personal Data requested as part of a contest might, for instance, include name, email address, ZIP code, sex, age or income level. Other Information: D. Demographics. We receive and store certain types of information whenever users interact with our Sites. THCN automatically receives and records information on our server logs from users' browsers including IP addresses, THCN cookie information, and the page requested. Generally, our service automatically collects usage information, such as the numbers and frequency of visitors to our Sites and its components, similar to TV ratings that indicate how many people watched a particular show. THCN only uses this data in aggregate form, that is, as a statistical measure, and not in a manner that would identify a user personally. This type of aggregate data enables us to figure out how often users access parts of the Sites so that we can make the Sites appealing to as many users as possible, and improve the content. This information may be shared with advertisers and other third parties on an aggregated basis, but it does not indicate the identity of individual users. Many companies offer programs that help you to visit web sites anonymously. While THCN will not be able to provide you with a personalized experience if we cannot recognize you, we want you to be aware that these programs are available. E. IP Addresses. An IP address is a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet. All computer identification on the Internet is conducted with IP addresses, which allow computers and servers to recognize and communicate with each other. Through the Sites, we collect IP addresses in order to conduct system administration, report aggregate information to sponsors and advertisers, and to conduct Site analysis. If a user requests pages from the Sites, our servers enter the visitor's IP address into a log. To maintain visitor anonymity, we do not associate IP addresses with records containing Personal Data. However, we will use IP addresses to identify any user who refuses to comply with our in-house rules or terms of service, and to identify users who threaten our service, Sites, customers, advertisers or others. F. Cookies. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that a Web site transfers to an individual's hard disk for record keeping purposes. Our Sites use cookies during your online session to deliver content specific to your interests. Cookies allow us to avoid showing you the same ad or other message repeatedly. Our cookies do not collect or contain Personal Data. They do enable us to relate your use of the Sites to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided to our Sites. THCN does not combine the general information collected through cookies with other Personal Data that would reveal the identity of a user, his/her user or screen name or email address. Most browsers have an option for turning off the cookie feature, which will prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, as well as (depending on the sophistication of your browser software) allowing you to decide on acceptance of each new cookie in a variety of ways. We strongly recommend that you leave the cookies activated, however, because cookies enable you to take advantage of some of our Sites' most attractive features. 3. Our Use of Your Personal Data and Other Information: We use the Personal Data you provide in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy. If you provide Personal Data for a certain reason, we may use the Personal Data in connection with the reason for which it was provided. For instance, if you contact us by e-mail, will we use the Personal Data you provide to answer your question or resolve your problem. Also, if you provide Personal Data in order to obtain access to the certain services available through the Sites, we will use your Personal Data to provide access to such services and to monitor your use of such services. We and our subsidiaries and affiliates (the "THCN Related Companies") may also use your Personal Data and other personally non-identifiable information collected through the Sites to help us improve the content and functionality of the Sites, to better understand our users and to improve our services. The THCN Related Companies may use this information to contact you in the future to tell you about services we believe will be of interest to you. Out of respect for your privacy, we present the option not to receive these types of communications. Please see Section 10, regarding "Choice and Opt-Out," below. In addition, at any time you wish not to receive any future communications or to have your name deleted from our mailing lists please contact us as indicated below. If we intend on using any Personal Data in any manner that is not consistent with this Privacy Policy, you will be informed of such anticipated use prior to or at the time at which the Personal Data is collected. 4. Our Disclosure of your Personal Data and Other Information: THCN is not in the business of selling your Personal Data. We consider this information to be a vital part of our relationship with you and will not disclose your Personal Data to a third party except as set forth in this Privacy Policy. There are, however, certain circumstances in which we may share your Personal Data with certain third parties without further notice to you, as set forth below: A. Business Transfers: As we develop our business, we might sell or buy businesses or assets. In the event of a corporate sale, merger, reorganization, dissolution or similar event, Personal Data may be part of the transferred assets. To the extent possible, we would require any acquiring company to follow the terms of this Privacy Policy. B. Related Companies: We may also share your Personal Data with the THCN Related Companies for purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy. The use by the THCN Related Companies of any Personal Data is for the same purposes as the use by THCN itself. Namely, such Personal Data may be used by the THCN Related Companies to improve the content and functionality of the Sites, to better understand our users and to improve our services. The THCN Related Companies may also use this information to contact you about services we believe will be of interest to you. Each THCN Related Company is subject to this Privacy Policy. The services of the THCN Related Companies are generally integrated with those of THCN itself. To the extent that THCN ever intends to provide Personal Data to a THCN Related Company that is not simply providing services to THCN with respect to the Sites, you will be offered the opportunity to choose not to have such information shared. C. Agents, Consultants and Related Third Parties: THCN, like many businesses, sometimes hires other companies to perform certain business-related functions. We may use third party companies to provide mailing services, database maintenance and payment processing. When you register for the site, we will share your Personal Data, such as your e-mail address, as necessary for the third party to provide such services. Those third parties are prohibited from using your personally identifiable information for any other purpose. Other than the agents, consultants and related third parties described above, THCN will not share, rent, or trade Personal Data with any third parties for their promotional purposes. D. Legal Requirements: We reserve the right to disclose your Personal Data as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on us or our Sites. THCN may also disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to (i) protect and defend the rights or property of THCN, (ii) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of the Sites or the public, or (iii) protect against legal liability. E. Consent: Except as set forth above, you will be notified when your Personal Data may be shared with third parties, and will be able to prevent the sharing of this information. F. If your Personal Data changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct, update, delete or deactivate it by making the change on the Sites. You may update your Profile by logging into your account and clicking on "Update" under the "Profile" heading. In addition, if you wish to change a subscription to our e-mail newsletters, you may do so by going to www.HealthCentral.com and clicking on the "Free Newsletter" link at the upper lefthand side of the page and then clicking on "change your email address" or "Change or stop a subscription". Alternatively, you may email our Customer Support at privacy@thcn.com or contact us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed below. 5. External Links: In order to provide users with greater value, our Sites may provide links to various third party web sites. However, even if a third-party affiliation exists between the Sites and that destination site, we do not exercise authority over these linked sites, each of which maintains independent privacy and data collection policies and procedures. We do not assume responsibility or liability for these independent methods or actions and are not responsible for the independent policies or procedures of destination sites. Similarly, we cannot take responsibility for the privacy initiatives or the content of such web sites. These links to third party web sites are provided only for your convenience, and as such, you access them at your own risk. However, we wish to ensure the integrity of the Sites and their destination links, so any comments pertaining to the Sites or any sites accessed through these links are greatly appreciated. 6. Third Party Ad Services: Our Site utilizes certain services of third party service providers to display advertising for our third party advertisers. We do not share Personal Data with these third parties. The services provided by these third parties may in certain instances specifically ask you to provide to them Personal Data such as in response to contests or special offers. Such Personal Data is not provided to the Site and is not subject to this policy. These third party service providers are, however, bound to THCN not to collect Personal Data from you in any way other than from your voluntary response to a specific request stating the intended use of the information you provide.
Some of our business partners (e.g., advertisers and third-party ad serving companies) use cookies in connection with the Sites. We have no access to or control over these cookies. This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by THCN and the Sites only and does not cover the use of cookies by any third parties. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having cookies used by these companies, click here: (http://networkadvertising.org/consumer/ 7. Exclusions: This Privacy Policy does not apply to any information collected by THCN other than Personal Data collected through the Sites. This Privacy Policy shall not apply to any unsolicited information you provide to THCN through the Sites or through any other means. This includes, but is not limited to, information posted to any public areas of the Sites, such as user profiles, comments, SharePosts and message boards (collectively, "Public Areas") any ideas for new products or modifications to existing products, and other unsolicited submissions (collectively, "Unsolicited Information"). Please think carefully before disclosing Personal Data or other Unsolicited Information in a Public Area. All such Unsolicited Information is not confidential and THCN shall be free to reproduce, use, disclose, and distribute such Unsolicited Information to others without limitation or attribution and may be used by others in ways we cannot prevent for unauthorized purposes. If you use a bulletin board, blog or chat room on the Sites, you should be aware that any Personal Data you submit there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums. 8. Children: THCN respects the sensitive nature of children's privacy online. We are a general audience site. We do not direct any of our content specifically at, nor do we knowingly collect Personal Data from children under the age of 13. If you are under thirteen, please do not submit any Personal Data through the Sites. We encourage parents and legal guardians to monitor their children's Internet usage and to help enforce our Privacy Policy by instructing their children to never provider Personal Data on this Site without their permission. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 13 has provided Personal Data to THCN through the Sites, please contact us, and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases. We have implemented procedures to ensure that if we obtain actual knowledge of a child's personal information we will take steps to delete that information. 9. Security: We employ reasonable security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the Personal Data under our control. We employ strict security measures to safeguard online transactions, including usernames and passwords. Personal Data is stored in a secured database and always sent via an encrypted Internet channel. However, no Internet or e-mail transmission is ever fully secure or error free. In particular, e-mail sent to or from the Sites may not be secure. Therefore, you should therefore take special care in deciding what information you send to us via e-mail. 10. Choice/Opt-Out: We provide you the opportunity to "opt-out" of having your personally identifiable information used for certain purposes, when we ask for this information. For example, when you register for the Sites, if you do not wish to receive any additional material from us, you can indicate your preference on our registration form. If you no longer wish to receive any promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each communication or by emailing us at privacy@thcn.com. 11. Third Party Personal Data At times the Sites may ask you for Personal Data relating to third parties. For example, you may have the opportunity to send certain content to a friend by entering that friend's email address. If you choose to use one of these services, THCN stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email. Your friend may contact us at privacy@thcn.com to request that we remove this information from our database. 12. Framing At times, the Sites make use of "framing" technology, during which a frame within the window of one of the Sites is actually displaying the content of another web site not owned or operated by THCN. You should read the privacy policies of such other web sites as they will govern the information that is collected there. 13. Other Terms and Conditions: Your access to and use of the Sites are subject to the Terms of Use. The Sites are intended for United States users. United States law governs all transaction conducted on the Sites and any use of materials found on the Sites. ALL CONTENT PROVIDED ON THESE WEB SITES IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THE CONTENT PROVIDED ON THESE WEB SITES SHOULD NOT BE TREATED AS MEDICAL OR HEALTH CARE ADVICE. NOTHING CONTAINED ON THESE WEB SITES IS INTENDED TO BE USED FOR MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS OR TREATEMENT OR AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR CONSULTATION WITH A QUALIFIED HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF YOUR PHYSICIAN OR OTHER QUALIFIED HEALTH CARE PROVIDER WITH ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE REGARDING A MEDICAL CONDITION. NEVER DISREGARD MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY IN SEEKING IT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU HAVE READ ON THESE WEB SITES. 14. Contacting the Web Sites: If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of the Sites, or your interaction with the Sites, please contact us by clicking on the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page or at the following address:
The HealthCentral Network, Inc. 16. Changes to this Privacy Policy. THCN reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy from time to time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes in the way we use Personal Data, we will notify you here, by email or by posting an announcement on the home pages of our Sites. Your continued use of the Sites after such changes to the Privacy Policy are posted will indicate your acceptance of the changed terms of the Privacy Policy.
Copyright Notice
Registered Trademarks
Questions or Concerns THCN is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build user's trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy statement covers the Web sites www.drdrew.com, www.drkoop.com, www.foodfit.com, www.healthcentral.com, www.healthscout.com, www.healthsquare.com, and www.mdchoice.com. Because THCN wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact our General Counsel at privacy@thcn.com or 703-302-1040. If you do not receive acknowledgement of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily address, you should contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/ This privacy policy is effective as of November 15, 2007.  Disclaimer: The information provided on this website is for educational purposes only and does not serve as a replacement for care provided by your own personal health care team. This website does not render or provide medical advice, and no individual should make any medical decisions or change their health behavior based on information provided here. All pertinent content provided on this website should be discussed with your personal physician to evaluate whether it has any relevance to or impact on your specific condition. Reliance on any information provided by this website is solely at your own risk.
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