Houston Concierge Medicine (HCM) Privacy Policy

Houston Concierge Medicine respects your privacy. This Privacy Notice (“Privacy Notice”), describes what information we collect from or about you, including how we collect, use, share and store that information, and what choices you may have regarding your information in connection with www.hcmwc.com or any other HCM-related website, webpage, application, social media, or other Internet, mobile, or wireless offerings (collectively “Website”) that posts a link to this Privacy Notice or HCM’s Terms of Use.

This Privacy Notice applies to any individual in the United States, regardless of the individual’s state of residency, who visits the HCM Website or related content or receives HCM services (“User”, “you, or “your”).

Please read this Privacy Notice in its entirety. By using the Website, you are consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy and agree to be bound thereby. If you do not agree with the terms of the Privacy Policy, please do not use the Website.

• Types of Information:

HCM may collect your personal information in connection with your access to, use of, or your submissions to the Website and any services offered by HCM in connection with the Website (“Services”). For example, we may collect personal information about you, such as your name, street address, email address, telephone number, HCM account and password information, commercial transactions you may initiate with HCM, your general location, IP address, and information about your browsing and navigation on the Website.

Some of the information we collect about you may include personal health information or credit card or financial information, or other sensitive information that you choose to share with us.

We may also obtain additional information about you that may or may not be directly linked to you. Examples include, but are not limited to, aggregate information, analytics information using cookie IDs, advertising segment information, advertising IDs/cookie or device information.

• Sources of Information:

HCM collects information about you from a variety of sources, including:

• Directly from you, for example, when you complete web forms, use HCM applications, communicate with us by email, phone or SMS text, or enrol in HCM’s membership Services.
• Indirectly from you, for example, by observing your actions on our Website, or through information we collect during the course of providing Services.
• Directly and indirectly from your activity on the Website, for example, through Website portal or Website usage details that are collected automatically or through your inquiries or submissions on the Website.
• From your HCM-affiliated physician, for example, when your HCM affiliated physician shares information about you pursuant to a “Business Associate Agreement” between the physician and HCM.

HCM may use personal information for a variety of HCM’s business purposes and to the extent and manner permitted by law:

• To fulfill or meet the reason for which the information is provided. For example, to respond to your questions or communications regarding membership in an HCM-affiliated practice, Services, pricing, or affiliated physicians. If you become a member in an HCM-affiliated practice, we may use your personal information to process your payment, provide membership and renewal information and to support and facilitate your receipt of HCM Services or programs.
• To publish content on the Website when, under some circumstances, HCM publishes testimonial comments or enables public participation forum by Users on the Website.
• To personalize your Website experience and to deliver content and service offerings relevant to your interests, including targeted offers and ads through our Website, third-party sites, or via email or text message (with your consent, where required by law).
• To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our Website, Services, databases and other technology assets, and business on behalf of HCM and its Users.
• To investigate or prevent a violation of any individual’s contractual or other relationship with HCM or where HCM has a good faith belief that access, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of HCM, its Users or the public or to prevent or respond to any illegal, fraudulent, or harmful activity.
• For testing, research, analysis, and product development, including to develop and improve our Website and Services and your experience with the Website and Services.
• For marketing HCM’s Services or Programs, including providing you (via alerts, banner ads, postal mail, event registration, email, and other notices) with information about offers, programs and Services that HCM believes may be of interest to you.
• At the request of law enforcement or governmental agencies or in response to subpoenas, court orders or other legal process, or to establish, protect or exercise HCM’s legal or other rights to defend against a legal claim or as otherwise allowed by law or regulation.
• To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us about our Users is among the assets transferred.

HCM does not sell your personal information, personal health information or sensitive information to non-affiliated third parties for their business purposes, nor do we share your information, except as permitted by law, as described in this Privacy Policy or otherwise with your consent.

We may share information about you to third parties for HCM’s business purpose, such as with agents, contractors, service providers or affiliates of ours, who help us operate the Website, assist with HCM’s marketing, conduct business on our behalf or help us complete a service you requested, such as processing your credit card payment. When we share information for a business purpose, we do so only to the extent required for our business purpose and only as permitted by relevant law. Before doing so, we enter into a contract with the third party that describes the purpose for which the information is shared, requires the recipient to maintain the confidentiality of that confidential information and to not use it for any purpose except performing the contract or as permitted by law.

We may also share personal information with third parties if you have directed and authorized us to do so in connection with Services HCM provides to you or on behalf of its affiliated physicians.

HCM may share personal information when required to do so by Federal or State enforcement officials, when state or federal law requires us to do so (such as to comply with an inquiry from law enforcement officials), when ordered by a court or by other compulsory legal process or when we believe, in good faith, it is necessary for HCM to comply with its legal obligations or to investigate or prevent suspected illegal activities or fraud.

IP Addresses:

HCM maintains internal logs for Internal Protocol (IP) addresses. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer each time you access the Internet. Your IP address does not contain personally identifiable information. HCM collects IP addresses in order to conduct system administration, report aggregate information, conduct site analysis, and to detect improper use of the site. HCM sometimes uses IP addresses to identify the location of your computer based on publicly available and third-party information and, if located, to market to you through Internet marketing, mail or call campaigns, or online targeted, interest-based advertising.

• Browser Cookies:

HCM uses “cookies” for authentication, other types of security, User log-ins, enabling our services collecting analytics information, marketing our Services to you, sending you targeted advertising for our Services, optimizing our Website, and personalizing and customizing your web experience. By placing a small file known as a “cookie” in your browser, the web servers operated by HCM and its third-party service providers can remember and distinguish your web browser software over time. This is necessary in order to enable the functions described above. If you disagree with this use, you should turn off or disable “cookies” on your browser or device. If you decline cookies, the Website may not work properly or as it was intended.

• Other Technical Information We Collect:

In addition to using browser cookies to remember your browser, HCM also may use other technologies such as pixels, local shared objects (such as “Flash cookies”), and HTML5 local storage to collect information and remember your device. Some of the technical information we collect is the type of browser you use (such as Google Chrome or Internet Explorer or Safari), your Internet protocol (“IP”) address, the name of your ISP, the version of your operating system, the dimensions and resolution of your display, your referrer URL (which is the URL for the website that you were viewing prior to visiting the Website), how you were directed to the Website, which specific pages you access on the Website, how long you view each page, the time and date you access our Website, and any other interaction you have with the Website or HCM. We use your IP address and may use other third-party geolocation services to determine the physical location of your computer or device.

Most popular Internet browser applications will allow you to configure the browser so as not to accept cookies. However, setting your browser to reject cookies may, in certain instances, prevent you from taking full advantage of the Website and its capabilities, or cause some features of the Website to function improperly or slower.

The Website uses various third-party services, including Google Analytics. You can consult the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy for more information on how Google Analytics uses the data it collects.

Google utilizes the data collected to track and examine the use of the Website, to prepare reports on its activities and share them with other Google services. Google may use the data collected on the Website to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network. To more fully understand how Google may use the data it collects on the Website, please review “How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps”, (located here or any successor URL). If you would like additional information regarding the security and privacy practices of Google Analytics, please review the materials provided by Google here.

HCM uses email forms to allow Users to ask questions about HCM, our Services or programs. While we make reasonable efforts to protect the personal information that you share with us, it is important to note that such email messages are unsecured. Please consider the information you choose to include in any email you send. Should you choose to send your information via email, you do so at your own risk. We recommend that if your communication is sensitive or contains personal information, you may want to send it another way.

If you choose to correspond to us via email, we reserve the right (but not the obligation) to retain the content of your email messages as well as your email address or other personal information, and our responses.

On occasion and under certain circumstances, HCM may, in its sole discretion, offer Users the opportunity to submit content to the Website. You should consider what information you choose to share in the content that you submit. If you include personal, health or sensitive information in the content that you provide to HCM for public postings to the Website, including any bulletin boards, forum posts, etc., such information may be made available to third parties using the Website. HCM does not edit or otherwise remove such information from User content before it is posted on the Website. If you do not wish to have your information made available in this manner, you must remove any such information from the content before posting. Your contact information (which may include, without limitation, a Username and email address) may be included with any content that you post via the Website.

HCM is not liable for any damages caused or incurred due to information that you have made available in the foregoing manner.

The Website may contain links to non-HCM websites. Links to other websites are provided to you for information and convenience only and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by HCM. We are not responsible for, and this Privacy Notice does not apply to, the privacy practices of those sites or of any companies that we do not own or control. We make no representations or warranties regarding the correctness, accuracy, performance, security, privacy or quality of any content, software, service, or application found at any Linked Site. We encourage you to seek out and read the privacy policy and terms of use of each website that you visit.

HCM takes reasonable precautions to protect your information. We seek to store personal information, personal health information and other sensitive information in a secured manner and to transmit it via a secure Internet channel. For example, when you enter sensitive information, such as a credit card number, HCM uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to encrypt the transmission of that information. However, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and HCM cannot guarantee that the information submitted to, maintained on, or transmitted from its systems will be completely secure. HCM is not responsible for the circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the site by any Users or third parties.

Remember that you are the first and best defense against unauthorized access to your information. Please do not share your User account information with others and take the necessary steps to assess whether your personal information is being transmitted to its intended recipient in a reasonably secure manner.

• Inquiries Concerning the Collection and Deletion of Your Personal Information:

We understand that you may have certain questions about HCM’s access and use of information that we have collected. Under some circumstances, you may be able to opt out of our continued collection or use of your personal information, and/or seek access to or deletion of personal information that we have collected about you in the past.

There are circumstances when HCM will not be able to comply with such requests. For example, we may deny a request if we determine, in good faith, that we should not comply because: doing so would violate or conflict with HCM’’s legal obligations, including, but not limited to, the preservation and non-disclosure of medical or personal health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) or other laws; the information is the privileged, proprietary or confidential information of HCM or someone other than the person making the request; the identity or authority of the person making the request cannot be confirmed; compliance with the request would compromise the privacy or legal rights of others; the burden or expense of responding would be disproportionate to the requesting individual’s privacy risk; the information is commercially necessary for us to complete transactions or provide services that the User requested; or to do so would impede HCM’s detection, correction or prevention of any security incident or intentional or non-intentional interference with the Website or Services.

Additionally, even if you opt out, we may still collect and use non-personal information regarding your activities on our Website and/or information from the advertisement on third-party websites for non-interest-based advertising purposes, such as to determine the effectiveness of the advertisements.

If you have any questions or concerns about HCM’s collection or use of your personal information, wish to opt out of further collection of your personal information or request deletion of personal information presently in HCM’s possession, please contact us using one of the methods set forth below. Upon receiving your request, we will endeavour to respond to your request in a reasonable time.

Please submit your request to us by either:

Calling us at 1-713-333-6464

Email: info@hcmwc.com

Mail: Attention: Houston Concierge Medicine

9432 Katy Freeway Ste. 400

Houston TX, 77055

• Opt-Out Request of Specific Phone, Email, Text, or Marketing Offers:

If you do not wish to receive phone, mail, or email marketing offers, you may request that we remove your name from our internal email, direct mail, or internal telemarketing lists.

If you no longer would like to receive via email special offer information or other promotional messages from us, you may click the link at the bottom of any email you receive from us and follow the instructions. Your email address will be removed from our marketing list. However, HCM may continue to communicate with you concerning your membership, Services, billing, renewal and other matters.

Please allow us a reasonable period of time in order to satisfy your request, as some promotions may already be in process.

The Website is intended for a general audience and is not intended for use or view by children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect information about children or sell products or services to children. Consistent with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, we will not knowingly collect any information from children under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 13, please do not use the Website.

Except where otherwise noted, this Privacy Notice and use of HCM’s Website or Services shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Florida. If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from the other provisions and shall not affect the validity of the other provisions.

If you are visiting the Website from outside of the United States of America, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, or processed in the United States. The data protection, privacy and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. By using any portion of the Website, you understand and consent to the transfer of your information to our facilities in the United States and to those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Privacy Policy.

We may update or change this Privacy Notice at any time and from time to time. The most recent version of the Privacy Notice and its effective date is reflected by the version and date located at the top of this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to consult this Privacy Notice periodically for any updates or changes.

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Notice, the practices of this Website, or your interaction with this Website, contact:

Email: info@houstonconciergemd.com

Mail: Attention: Houston Concierge Medicine

9432 Katy Freeway Suite 400

Houston Texas 77055