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Body Health Resources Corporation, which produces The Body, is committed to protecting the privacy of any information you choose to provide to us.
This privacy policy may change from time to time. Questions or comments regarding it may be directed to registration@thebody.com, or in writing to Body Health Resources Corporation, 250 West 57 Street, New York, New York 10107.
Collection and Use of Personal Information
You do not need to provide any information that identifies you ("personal information") to obtain information from The Body. In general, you can visit the site without revealing your identity or any personal information. Your decision to provide personal information, including your name, e-mail address, or personal health information, to access special features at The Body is completely voluntary.
You may choose to provide The Body with personal information for the following purposes:
- Information Updates
You may opt to give us your e-mail address and join a list of visitors to whom The Body distributes regular updates about new features, information and services (such as new treatment options, forums, conference coverage, or pharmacy or clinical trial services we may offer from time to time). These updates are distributed by e-mail. We do not furnish these e-mail addresses to third parties, such as other services or organizations, unless you explicitly agree. To make our communications personally relevant (unless we state otherwise at the time you furnish the e-mail address), we may associate your e-mail address with other information provided to us by you, previously, concurrently or subsequently. You may unsubscribe from this feature at any time.
- Comments
You may write to us with comments about the site. You need not identify yourself to send a comment or question; you may remain anonymous. If you choose to provide personal information in your comment or question, we may keep it in our correspondence files and we may send you a response. The Body does not furnish any e-mail addresses received in this manner to third parties, such as other services or organizations.
- Public Forums
You may choose to participate in expert question and answer forums, bulletin boards and chat rooms. You need not disclose personal information to participate in these activities. We make no attempt to deduce personal identities from non-personal information such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. In expert question and answer forums, we attempt to eliminate inadvertent disclosures by visitors of potentially identifying information in publicly posted questions, but there can be no assurance that we will delete all personal information that may be disclosed. Accordingly, please remember that any information posted publicly in these areas becomes public information. You should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information in public.
- Research and Buyers' Club Opportunities
If you are at least 18 years of age, you may submit personal information about your health to The Body for purposes of volunteering for research which may be conducted or arranged by various clinical researchers and laboratories which are independent of The Body, or utilizing discount buying programs which may be hosted by The Body, and involve the services of various companies, such as pharmacies, that are also independent of The Body. Your decision to provide your personal health information, including your HIV-related health information, is completely voluntary. We understand how sensitive this information is.
Accordingly, before you provide any of your personal health information in an application to participate in clinical trials or buying programs, The Body requires you to read and agree to the terms and conditions of The Body's Participation Agreement and to consent to the release to others of the health information you will be providing, particularly your HIV status. The terms under which this personal information is provided are set out in more detail in the Participation Agreement, and we urge you to read it carefully. It also indicates the care we take to store the information you provide in a secure manner, using encryption. Your consent authorizes The Body to provide your personal information to the clinical researchers and laboratories involved in the specific trials for which you are volunteering and/or to the independent buyers' club providers described in the Participation Agreement, such as pharmacies. You can change your mind and decide not to disclose your personal health information at any time before you submit the Participation Agreement. Further, if you choose to agree to the Participation Agreement and to disclose your personal health information, at any time, you may request that The Body no longer provide your personal health information to clinical researchers, laboratories, buyers' club providers or other third parties.
Collection and Use of Non-Personal Information
- Anonymous Surveys
You may elect to participate in a visitor survey by filling out an electronic survey form and submitting the results. Unless you explicitly agree, these surveys do not collect any personal information -- and when data is collected anonymously it is not associated with your name or any identifying information about you other than a "cookie" as below. Data collected anonymously may, however, be associated with an e-mail address you provide to us (unless we state otherwise at the time you furnish the e-mail address), and used to make the information and services updates we e-mail to you more personally relevant in our judgement.
- Cookies
Web sites can gather certain non-personal information about the usage of their sites through the use of "cookies." "Cookies" are small text files that are used to recognize repeat visitors, facilitate ongoing access to some sites, allow sites to understand how and when pages are visited and by how many people, and maintain identities during user sessions.
The Body currently uses (1) cookies to maintain identities during user sessions, and (2) cookies which may be placed in response to visitor survey responses, including anonymous survey responses. We use survey-response cookies to track site usage demographics, and (unless we state otherwise at the time you furnish the e-mail address) to make e-mail more personally relevant by associating certain e-mail topics with certain survey responses. We do not use software that recognizes the cookies placed on your computer by other sites not under contract to us as servers of advertisements, and we require such servers to abide by this privacy policy.
We do not track your movements to other sites and neither we nor our servers of advertisements have agreements with third-party advertisers or others to use cookies to create user profiles.
- Internet Protocol Addresses
An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet. This number does not identify your name, e-mail address or other personal information. If you request pages from The Body, The Body's servers enter your IP address into a log. To maintain user anonymity, The Body does not associate IP addresses with records containing personal information. We also do not permit IP addresses to be associated and viewed with posts to chat rooms and bulletin boards. The Body stores IP addresses for a period of time to help us to identify anyone who refuses to comply with The Body's in-house rules or terms of service, and to identify visitors who threaten our service, site, customers or others. The Body also uses its log of IP addresses to compile aggregate information on how our visitors are using The Body and to measure site traffic for internal purposes for us and our sponsors. This aggregate data helps us to understand how people are using The Body and helps us improve your experience with The Body.
Disclosure of Personal Information
The Body takes very seriously its responsibility to keep your personal information private. Accordingly, unless you have explicitly agreed otherwise, we do not make any of your personal information available to third parties. We may hire third-party technology providers to host our equipment or enable certain functions at our Web site and store your information, but we ensure that these technology providers are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality of all personal information.
At the specific request of users who volunteer for research opportunities or buying programs, we may share the personal information of those volunteers with participating researchers, laboratories or buyers' club providers administering the programs for which those users have volunteered. We will require by contract that these third parties hold personal information in strict confidence, and not use it for any reasons other than the ones for which the volunteer gave permission. These researchers, laboratories and buyers' club providers are independent of The Body, however, and there are limits on the assurance The Body gives you when information passes into their hands. Visitors considering volunteering should read carefully the Participation Agreement discussed under Research Opportunities, above, to understand the limits of our responsibility.
We may be required to disclose personal information by law or legal process, to protect and defend the rights or property of The Body, or to protect the personal safety of users of our Web site. We must reserve the right to contact appropriate authorities when activities that are illegal or violate our policies are taking place on our Web site.
Except under the limited circumstances described above, we do not disclose your personal information to unaffiliated third parties.
How We Protect Personal Information
Our goal is to take measures to protect the privacy of any information you choose to provide, that are reasonable in the context of the information provided. Accordingly, The Body uses physical, electronic, managerial, and contractual procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online, and we use encryption and heightened security procedures when storing or transferring data provided to us by visitors seeking to participate in research opportunities. We only keep information for certain periods of time; we delete personal information received and general information on bulletin board postings and other public areas of the site when such information is no longer needed or has become outdated in our judgment.
We also safeguard personal information from unauthorized access. Only authorized employees and agents required by contract to observe our privacy practices are permitted to access personal information, and they only may do so for permitted business functions. Any employee who would violate our privacy access policies would be subject to disciplinary action.
External Links
The Body provides links to various Web sites other than our own, and we do not control them. Even if an affiliation exists between The Body and such a third-party Web site, The Body exercises no control over linked sites. When you click on one of these links, you will be transferred out of The Body and connected to the Web site of the organization or company that you selected. Each of these linked sites maintains its own independent privacy and data collection policies and procedures. If you visit a Web site that is linked to The Body, you should consult that site's privacy policy before providing any personal information.
Safeguarding Children's Privacy
It is The Body's policy not to collect personal information or any other identifying data from children under 13 years of age. Should a child whom we know to be under 13 send personal information to us, it is our policy not to use that information except to respond directly to that child to inform him or her that it is our policy not to accept the submission. Certain areas of The Body are dedicated to the important issues of AIDS and HIV among young people and children. These areas of our site present issues that are important to parents, children and health-care professionals, but are not directed toward children under the age of 13. In this context, please be mindful of The Body's policy concerning external links, above.
Terms, Changes and Questions
By using The Body, you signify your agreement to the terms of our privacy policy. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not disclose any personal information through The Body. If we decide to change The Body's privacy policy, we will post those changes here so that you will be aware of what information we gather, how we might use that information, and whether we will disclose it to anyone.
Questions or comments about this policy or the use of personal information may be sent to registration@thebody.com. We will use reasonable efforts to promptly investigate any complaint you may have regarding our use of personal information.
Last Updated March 30, 2004
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