Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to the Sexual Health infoCenter. We understand that sexual health is a very personal, private subject, and we want you to feel as comfortable as possible visiting our website and using its services. Perhaps you are visiting Sexual Health infoCenter to learn about sexual health for yourself, perhaps on behalf of someone else. This Privacy Policy and Agreement ("Privacy Policy") will tell you what information we collect about you and about your use of our website. It will explain how we protect that information and what choices you have about how it is used. We urge you to read this Privacy Policy carefully so that you will understand clearly both our commitment to you and your privacy, and how we may collect and use information. By using the Sexual Health infoCenter site, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Please remember that any information (including personal and medical information) that you reveal in a Sexual Health infoCenter public forum (such as a comment or story post) is not protected by this Privacy Policy. Such postings will be seen by third parties not related to Sexual Health infoCenter. What you've written could be used by others in ways we are unable to control or predict, including to contact you for unauthorized purposes. Also, if you access a third party site from a link on Sexual Health infoCenter, any information you reveal on that site is not subject to this Privacy Policy. You should consult the privacy policies of each site you visit.

ARTICLE 1

Information We Collect

Personal Information is information that can be used to identify or contact you. The Sexual Health infoCenter collects only the personal information you provide to us. We collect the Personal Information that you provide to us in two general and distinct ways: (1) When you register as a Member and/or when you update your Member Profile, and (2) When you choose to use various Sexual Health infoCenter Interactive Tools and Services or participate in discussion boards. We also collect non-personal information through the use of "cookies." Sexual Health infoCenter does not store any personally identifiable information (PII) in any cookies on your computer. All of these are described in more detail below.

Registration and Member Profile

You may use our website without registering or submitting any Personal Information. In that case, the only information we collect will be non-personal information collected through the use of cookies (see details below). However, in order to have access to certain services and content available on our site, you are required to complete a registration form. We use the Personal Information that you provide through registration to respond to questions from you. We may also use this information to send you emails with special promotions or newsletters with content that we think may be of interest to you. You can always opt-out of receiving such emails or unsubscribe to newsletters at the time you register or at any time see Article 4 below for more detail about opting-out of receiving emails and newsletters.

Interactive Tools

We also collect other information, some of which may be Personal Information, that you voluntarily provide to us when you choose to use some of the Sexual Health infoCenter Interactive Tools and Services. We also collect information you provide voluntarily through responses to surveys, questionnaires and the like. Some of the free Interactive Tools on our site ask you for health-related Personal Information.

We also collect anonymous, non-personal information about your use of our site through the use of "Cookies". Cookies are small computer files that we transfer to your computer's hard drive that allow us to know how often someone visits our site and the activities they conduct while on our site. Every computer is assigned a different cookie by Sexual Health infoCenter. The information collected by cookies helps us identify when you have signed in and provide content accordingly.

Your browser software can be set to reject all cookies. Most browsers offer instructions on how to reset the browser to reject cookies in the "Help" section of the toolbar. If you reject our cookie, certain of the functions and conveniences of our site may not work properly but you do not have to accept our cookie in order to productively use our site. While it may be possible to link non-personal cookie information to Personal Information collected in other ways, we want you to know that if you accept our cookie we will not, without your consent, link the cookie information we collect to Personal Information you provide to us on our site.

Sponsors, partners or advertisers on Sexual Health infoCenter may also use their own cookies when you click on their advertisement or link to their site or service, or even if the advertisement simply appears on a page that you are viewing. Some advertisers use companies other than Sexual Health infoCenter to serve their ads and these companies ("Ad Servers") may also collect non-personal information through the use of cookies on our website. We do not control these third parties' use of Cookies, or how they manage the non-personal information they gather through them. However, we do require sponsors, advertisers and Ad Servers who collect cookie information through our website to agree that they will not collect any Personal Information from our site without your consent. They have promised us they will not link any non-personal cookie information collected by them on our site to Personal Information they or others collect in other ways or from other sites. You should review the privacy policy of other sites you visit or link to from our site to understand how these other sites use cookies and how they use the information they collect through the use of cookies on their own sites. In addition, Sexual Health infoCenter’s Advertising Policy is posted on our website and will provide additional detail about our relationship with advertisers and the companies that serve ads.

Children

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. This website is not designed or intended to attract children under the age of 18. We do not collect Personal Information from any person we actually know is under the age of 18.

Public Forums

This Privacy Policy does not protect you when you use Sexual Health infoCenter public forums. As a service to our users, Sexual Health infoCenter features bulletin boards where users with similar conditions can share information and support one another. You should be aware that any information shared in a bulletin board is public information and may be seen or collected by third parties that do not adhere to our Privacy Policy. You should think carefully before disclosing any personal information in any public forum.

ARTICLE 2

Disclosure of Your Information

Except as set forth in this Article or as specifically agreed to by you, the Sexual Health infoCenter will not disclose any Personal Information it gathers from you on our website. We may release Personal Information to third parties: (1) to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order; or (2) in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others. In the event that we are legally compelled to disclose your Personal Information to a third party, we will notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court order.

Disclosure to Sexual Health infoCenter Subsidiaries

Sexual Health infoCenter may disclose Personal Information to its corporate subsidiaries. Any Personal Information provided to subsidiaries of Sexual Health infoCenter will be treated by those subsidiaries in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Disclosure to Website Service and Content Contractors

Certain content and services offered to you through our website are served on websites hosted and operated by a company other than Sexual Health infoCenter ("Third Party Contractor Websites"). If you purchase an item through one of Sexual Health infoCenter's co-branded stores (e.g., from Intimategifts.com), you will be purchasing it from the Third Party Contractor Website (i.e, Intimategifts.com) and not the Sexual Health infoCenter. Sexual Health infoCenter does not disclose your Personal Information to these Third Party Contractor Websites without your consent, but you should be aware that any information you disclose once you access these other sites is not subject to this Privacy Policy. The Sexual Health infoCenter does not endorse and is not responsible for the privacy practices of these Third Party Contractor Websites. You should review the privacy policy posted on the other site to understand how that Third Party Contractor Website collects and uses your Personal Information. Sexual Health infoCenter makes an effort to make it obvious to you when you leave our website and enter a Third Party Contractor Website, either by requiring you to click on a link or by notifying you on the site. In addition, if you see a phrase such as "Powered by" or "in association with" followed by the name of a company other than Sexual Health infoCenter, then you are on a website hosted by a company other than Sexual Health infoCenter.

ARTICLE 3

How Sexual Health infoCenter Handles Privacy and Security Internally

Sexual Health infoCenter wants your Personal Information to remain as secure as possible. That is why we have a two-tier security system at Sexual Health infoCenter that combines leading technical safeguards and a code of conduct for those employees that are permitted to access our customers' Personal Information. On the employee side, only a limited number of Sexual Health infoCenter employees are authorized to access your Personal Information. All Sexual Health infoCenter employees must abide by our Privacy Policy and those who violate our Privacy Policy are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination. Although we will make every reasonable effort to protect your Personal Information from loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk involved in transmitting information over the Internet. There is also some risk that thieves could find a way to thwart our security systems.

ARTICLE 4

Your Privacy Choices

When you complete Registration or update your Profile, you will be given the option of receiving recurring informational/promotional emails from Sexual Health infoCenter and/or third parties. You may opt out of receiving emails from or on behalf of Sexual Health infoCenter at Registration by making sure the box beside 'Headline Mailing List' on your user profile reads 'Don't Email'. You may also opt out of receiving these emails and newsletters at any time by changing your preferences within your Profile.

At Registration and at various times as you use the site, you may have the option of receiving emails or newsletters from third parties, participating in research or marketing surveys and participating in other activities. You may exercise these options by placing a check mark beside a statement that expresses a preference for receiving these communications or participating in these activities. You may change your decision at any time by changing your preferences within your Member Profile or by following other directions provided in association with the individual communication or activity.

This privacy statement applies only to the Sexual Health infoCenter website. The Sexual Health infoCenter site does contain links to other sites. Once you enter another website (whether through an advertisement, service, or content link), be aware that Sexual Health infoCenter is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage you to look for and review the privacy statements of each and every web site that you visit through a link or advertisement on Sexual Health infoCenter's site or any site that collects Personal Information from you.

Article 5

Updating Your Personal Information and Contacting Sexual Health infoCenter

You can always contact us in order to (1) delete your Personal Information from our systems, (2) update the Personal Information that you have provided to us, and (3) change your preferences with respect to marketing contacts or other activities, by emailing us at info@sexhealth.org. Such changes will not have any effect on other information that Sexual Health infoCenter maintains.

You should be aware that it is not technologically possible to remove each and every record of the information you have provided to Sexual Health infoCenter from our servers. The need to back-up our systems to protect information from inadvertent loss means that a copy of your personal information may exist in a non-erasable form that will be difficult or impossible for us to locate. Nevertheless, we promise that upon receiving your request, all personal information stored in the databases we actively use for research and daily business activities, and other readily searchable media, will be deleted.

Privacy as it applies to the Internet is a dynamic, rapidly developing area. In the future, we may make significant changes to our privacy policy affecting the use of the Personal Information we collect. We may also make non-significant changes to our Privacy Policy that generally will not affect our use of your Personal Information. You should check this posted Privacy Policy for any future changes. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy or any revised policy, please exit the site immediately.

Revised December, 2000

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