Privacy Policy

Effective Date: November 18, 2025

Bridging Medicine is owned by the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society. The Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society (“SSVMS ”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) respects the privacy of our website visitors, users, customers, and members (“you” or “your”). This privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”), as posted on our websites (www.bridgingmedicine.org; www.museumofmedicalhistory.org; www.joyofmedicine.org; www.sacopioidcoalition.org; www.ssvms.org; www.smartmedicalclearance.org; www.joyofmedicinepartners.org; www.ssvmsbuyersguide.org; www.ssvmedicine.org) and as amended from time to time and effective as of the date posted, describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit or use any websites where this Privacy Policy appears, or any websites owned by SSVMS or its affiliates or subsidiaries, (collectively, “Site”), or use or access any of our content, products, services, information, or resources (collectively, “Services”), and our practices for collecting, using, processing, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information. The Privacy Policy applies to the data collected by us, or those working on our behalf, through information you enter or from the data we import from authorized and approved sources. It does not apply to data collected through other websites, products, or services not approved by us. 

Our Privacy Policy describes: 

How and why we collect your Personal Information; 
How your Personal Information is used and protected; 
When and with whom we share your Personal Information; and 
What choices you can make about how we collect, use, and share your Personal Information.
How we store, use, transfer, and retain your Personal Information.

If you are a resident or subject to data privacy laws or regulations of a country outside of the United States, please see the additional provisions at the end of this Privacy Policy. Below in this section are some of the highlights of the Privacy Policy. Please read this entire document for a full description of our policies. 

Highlights of our Privacy Policy 

Personal Information

We collect your Personal Information for various purposes, such as, but not limited to, corresponding with you, informing you about your account, security updates and product information, processing your participation or membership application, providing you with Services, processing your order, providing you with a subscription, and other purposes. 

We may combine the information we collect from you with information obtained from other sources to help us improve its overall accuracy and completeness, and to help us improve our business and better tailor our interactions with you. We may also collect information relating to your use of our Site or Services through the use of various technologies, including cookies.

Overview of Uses of Your Data

To create a user account. 
To fulfill your requests by us or by others involved in fulfillment. 
To contact you for customer satisfaction and general surveys, market research or in connection with certain transactions. 
To support products or services you have obtained from us. 
To share with our service providers who provide services to us in support of our business. 
To personalize your experience while you are on our Site, make navigation easier, and for Site usage statistics. 
By us and selected organizations for marketing purposes if you have permitted such use.

Your Choices

When we collect information from you, you may tell us that you do not want it used for further marketing contact. 
You may also turn off cookies in your browser. 
You can view or edit your Personal Information online or contact us to do so. 
You can also opt out from receiving certain communications from us by visiting your online profile page.

Contacting Us

You may contact us using the Contact Information provided at the end of this Privacy Policy. 

Acknowledgement and Consent

By using or accessing our Site or Services in any manner, you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies described in this Privacy Policy (and as updated from time to time), and you hereby consent that we may collect, use, and share your information as described herein. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is to stop accessing our Site and Services. Your use of our Site and Services is at all times subject to our Terms of Service (available at www.ssvms.org/terms, and as amended from time to time and effective as of the date posted (the “Terms”)), which incorporates this Privacy Policy. Any capitalized terms we use in this Privacy Policy without defining them have the definitions given to them in the Terms. 

Details of our Privacy Policy 

What Does This Privacy Policy Cover? 

This Privacy Policy covers our treatment of your personal information. “Personal Information” generally refers to any unencrypted or non-deidentified information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked with a particular person. However, the definition of Personal Information may vary depending on the state or country in which you reside, and that state’s or country’s definition will apply to your Personal Information in the context of this Privacy Policy. Please see additional information below on the particular information we may collect

Personal Information does not include your personally identifiable information that has been deidentified, pseudonymized, anonymized, aggregated and/or otherwise processed so as to be unidentifiable (i) in such a way that the data can no longer be attributed to a specific individual, or (ii) in such a way that the data can no longer be attributed to a specific individual (by reasonable means) without the use of additional information, and where such additional information is kept separate and under adequate security to prevent unauthorized re-identification of a specific individual such that one could not, using reasonable efforts, link such information back to a specific individual (“De-Identified Personal Information”). 

This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect:  

In email, text, or other electronic messages between you and us. 
When and where available, through mobile and desktop applications, which provide dedicated non-browser-based interaction between you and us. 
If you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party websites or services, if those advertising include links to this Privacy Policy.

We may also collect Personal Information from you through means other than our Site. This may include the Medical Board of California, your local medical society, our affiliated entities, subsidiaries, contracted vendors, and affinity partners, or when you call or visit our office. It may also include emails that you send to us separate from our Site. If we combine the Personal Information we collect from you outside of our Site with Personal Information that is collected through our Site, the Privacy Policy will apply to the combined information, unless specifically disclosed otherwise. 

We may receive Personal Information about you from other sources. For example, if you are applying for membership or employment, certain programs (e.g., opportunities we or our affiliate makes available to medical students, residents, and residency programs) (“Programs”), or using our Services, whether via our Site, or offline, we may obtain information from third parties about your prior membership, participation, licensing, accreditation, certification, professional, and employment history, among other information, as part of the application process. However, we may combine the information received from these other sources with Personal Information collected through our Site. In those cases, this Privacy Policy applies to the combined information, unless specifically disclosed otherwise. 

Other than as stated herein, this Privacy Policy does not apply to Personal Information collected by any third party including through any application content, or advertising that may link to or be accessible from or on our Site. 

We are not responsible for the practices of websites linked to or from the Services, and before interacting with any of these websites, you are advised to review their rules and policies before providing them with any private information. 

Individuals under the Age of 18 

The Site and the Services are intended for access and use by individuals over 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect, solicit, or maintain Personal Information from anyone under the age of 18 or knowingly allow such persons to register for our Services. If you are under 18, please do not send any Personal Information about yourself (such as your name, address, telephone number, or email address) to us. No one under age 18 is allowed to provide any Personal Information to or on the Services. In the event that we learn that we have collected Personal Information from a child under age 18 without verification of parental consent, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to delete that information from our database. Please contact us if you have any concerns. 

Changes to Our Privacy Policy 

We’re constantly working to improve our Site and Services, so we may need to change this Privacy Policy from time to time as well. Our current Privacy Policy will always be on our Site and any updates will be effective upon posting. You are responsible for periodically checking our Site for updates. Under certain circumstances, we also may elect to notify registered users and members of changes or updates to this Privacy Policy by additional means, such as posting a notice on the Site or by sending you an email, but you should not rely on receiving such additional notice Certain parts of our Site may require you to acknowledge your consent via a pop-up message and click-through box before you can proceed to that particular portion of the Site.  If you use the Services after any changes to the Privacy Policy have been posted, that means you agree to the new Privacy Policy including all of the changes. Use of Personal Information we collect now is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is collected. 

Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It 

We may collect several categories of Personal Information from and about you as summarized in the following:

Specific Items of Personal Information

Identifiers

first and last name
user name (which may include first and last name)
email address
postal address
zip code
unique personal identifier, e.g.:
customer/account/user name or number
phone number, fax number
mobile device identifier
social security number
image and likeness

Demographic

birth date, national origin, country of residence

Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law

color, sex (i.e., male/female/nonbinary), gender, gender identity and expression, age, disability, political opinions
racial or ethnic origin
gender

Commercial information

products/services purchasing history and tendencies
donation history

Internet or other electronic network activity; device information

type and manufacturer of device and its ID/UDID or similar device-specific code
operating system fingerprinting data
Internet service provider connection speed, and connection type
browsing, session, interaction, and search history related to our Website
cookies
pixel tags
browser type, language, and version
screen resolution
domain name system requests
material and pages viewed
time and date of access to our Website
number of bytes transferred
number of clicks per visit
date stamp and URL of the last webpage visited before visiting our Website, and URL of the first page visited after leaving our Website
pages viewed, time spent on a page, click-through and clickstream data, queries made, search results selected, comments made

Geolocation

physical location at a given moment in time or movements
precise geolocation

Sensory information

voice and/or video recording
audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information
fingerprint

Professional or employment information

email address that identifies a person; e.g., jane.r.smith@website.com (versus jrs@website.com)
employer, employment status and history, information from professional references, work experience

Inferences drawn from any of the above to create a profile of a consumer

a person’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes

Education information that is not publicly available personally identifiable information (pursuant to FERPA)

education records directly related to a student maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalf, e.g., school name, grades, transcripts, class lists, student schedules, student identification codes, student financial information, or student disciplinary records

Other information

hand-signed signatures
physical characteristics or descriptions
insurance policy numbers
bank account numbers
other financial account information
health insurance information

For registered users with participant-only or Members-Only Access, Personal Information also includes information provided to us by you or the California Medical Association as part of the membership or participation application or renewal process, or by the Medical Board of California, including your demographic information (such as education, specialty, mode of practice, and similar information).

Some information we collect may be considered “sensitive” under privacy laws. Sensitive information that is publicly available is not considered sensitive information or Personal Information. We collect sensitive information with your explicit consent where required by law.

How We Collect Personal Information and from What Sources

We collect:

Information that you provide by filling in webforms on our Website. This includes information provided when creating an online account, purchasing or using our Products or Services, subscribing to our e-newsletters or other communications, requesting information from us, submitting or posting material (where permitted) on our forums, or interacting with customer support or service, report a problem with our Website or Services, or otherwise communicating with us.
Membership application information
Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us
Registration for an event
Your responses to surveys that we or our Service Providers might ask you to complete for participation or research purposes
Your search queries on the Website
Information collected in stores (parent, subsidiary, and affiliate brands)
Information collected when communicating with customer service/support
Information collected through participation in loyalty/rewards programs
Information collected through third-party websites and mobile applications (e.g., websites that share information with us or advertising partners regarding online activities)
Information from
data suppliers (e.g., companies that provide demographics and other information regarding consumers)
joint marketing partners
online advertising companies
mailing list providers
fulfillment and delivery service providers
social media companies
other Service Providers
Information collected when responding to employment opportunities
Information collected from applying to become a certified or approved partner, reseller, etc.
Information collected when making a donation via our Website or offline (e.g., telephone)

Membership Directory Content. In addition to data collected by us, members may update or supplement data provided in our membership directory. The membership directory is available online to all members. We permit members to upload and share user-generated content, such as photographs and resumes, with other members. We expect our members to respect the intellectual property rights and data privacy rights of others at all times. Our membership directory area is provided as a service to members to foster information exchange. The use of the data in the membership directory for any commercial purposes by you is expressly forbidden. If you feel that your information in the membership directory has been used inappropriately, please contact us.

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies. As you navigate through and interact with our Site, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns, including: 

Details of your activity on our Site, including, but not limited to, traffic data, geolocation data, logs and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Site. 
Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, browser type, clickstream patterns, the URL of the most recent website you visited before coming to our Site, the amount of time you spent on our Site, and the pages you viewed while on our Site.

We also may use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites, apps, or other online services (behavioral tracking). More information is available here on how to opt-out of third-party advertiser tracking mechanisms. 

The information we collect automatically is statistical data and may include Personal Information, but we may maintain it or associate it with Personal Information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. Such information helps us to improve our Services and products and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including, but not limited to, by enabling us to: 

Estimate our audience size and usage patterns. 
Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize and improve our Site. 
Speed up your searches. 
Recognize you when you return to our Site.

Behavioral Tracking. We also may use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services, or associate Personal Information with other information collected in this manner.

Location Analytics. We may use our or a third party’s mobile App which may include functionality which, in certain cases, allows our attendees to identify their location at the event. App users choose to use the app anonymously or to login as an identified user, in which case the Personal Information provided upon registration may be used. Information such as IP address, device ID and location may be gathered.

Cookie Policy

The technologies we use for automatic data collection may include cookies, flash cookies, web beacons, pixel tracking, GIF, and/or IP address. Each of these is discussed below. 

Browser Cookies. A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer or mobile device. It may contain certain data, including, but not limited to: the name of the server that has placed it there, an identifier in the form of a unique number, and, an expiration date (some cookies only). Cookies are managed by the web browser on your computer (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Google Chrome). 

Different types of cookies which have different purposes are used on our Site. 

Essential Cookies. These cookies are essential to allow you to use the functions of our Site. Without them, services such as shopping baskets and electronic invoicing would not be able to work. 

Performance Cookies. These cookies collect information on the use of our Site, such as which pages are consulted most often. This information enables us to optimize our Site and simplify browsing. Performance cookies also enable our affiliates and partners to find out whether you have accessed one of our Site from their site and whether your visit has led to the use or purchase of a product or Service from our Site, including the references for the product or Service purchased. These cookies do not collect any information which could be used to identify you. All the information collected is aggregated, and therefore anonymous. 

Functionality Cookies. These cookies enable our Site to remember the choices you have made when browsing. For example, we can store your geographical location in a cookie so that the Site corresponding to your area is shown. We can also remember your preferences, such as the text size, font, and other customizable aspects of the Site. Functionality cookies may also be able to keep track of the products or videos consulted to avoid repetition. The information collected by these cookies cannot be used to identify you and cannot monitor your browsing activity on sites which do not belong to us. 

It is possible that you will comes across third-party cookies on some pages of sites that are not under our control. 

You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting in your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Site. 

We also use cookies to implement tracking technology on our Site. This allows us to display advertising that is tailored to you on our Site, which parts of our content interest you the most, and which Service categories you request. This tracking uses Personal Information data. At any time, you can prevent the use of cookies like this in the future. To do so, you may activate the appropriate setting in your browser to refuse to accept browser cookies. However, if you do, your experience on our Site may be impacted. Some of our contracted vendors and affinity partners are allowed to place cookies on our Site. Those entities may also provide you with the option of preventing the use of cookies in the future. For more information, contact the relevant third-party provider. 

Local Storage Cookies. Certain features of our Site may use local stored objects to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Site. Local storage cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies.

Flash Cookies. Certain features of our may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Site. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies. 

Web Beacons. Pages of our Site and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags and single-pixel gifs) that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website and verifying system and server integrity). 

Pixel Tracking. In addition to using Cookies, the Site may employ “pixel tracking”, a common process which may be used in connection with advertisements on other sites. Pixel tracking involves the use of pixel tags that are not visible to the user and consist of a few lines of computer code. Pixel tracking measures the effectiveness of advertisements and compiles aggregate and specific usage statistics. A “pixel tag” is an invisible tag placed on certain pages of websites that is used to track an individual user’s activity. We may access these pixel tags to identify activity and interests that may allow us to better match our goods, services, and other offers with your interests and needs. For example, if you visit our Site from an advertisement on another website, the pixel tag will allow the advertiser to track that its advertisement brought you to the Site. If you visit our Site, and we link you to another website, we may also be able to determine that you were sent to and/or transacted with a third-party website. This data is collected for use in our marketing and research. 

Meta Pixel. We incorporate “pixels” provided by Meta Platforms, Inc. on our Site. This enables us to track user behavior after a user clicks on a Facebook ad and is redirected to our website. By doing so, we can assess the effectiveness of Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes and sometimes retarget certain users. Please note that the data collected through this process remains anonymous to us, meaning we do not have access to personal information of individual users. However, Facebook stores and processes this data. Therefore, we are providing you with this information based on our current understanding. It is important to be aware that Facebook may associate this information with your Facebook account and utilize it for its own promotional activities, in accordance with Facebook’s Data Usage Policy available here. You have the option to authorize Facebook and its partners to display advertisements on and off Facebook (see here). Additionally, a cookie may be stored on your computer for these purposes.

GIF. We may use tiny images known as clear GIFs to track behavior of users, including statistics on who opens our emails. 

IP Address. Our servers automatically record certain log file information reported from your browser when you access the Services. These server logs may include information such as which pages of the Service you visited, your internet protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, and other information on how you interact with the Services. These log files are generally deleted periodically. 

Third-Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies 

Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Site are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Site. The information they collect may be associated with your Personal Information or they may collect information, including Personal Information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) advertising or other targeted content.

We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly.

Google

Google Analytics. We use, and some of our third-party service providers may use, Google Analytics or other analytics service to help us understand use of our Services. Such service providers may place their own cookies in your browser. This Privacy Policy covers use of cookies by us only and not the use of cookies by third parties. 

We, along with third-party vendors such as Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions and other ad service functions as they relate to our Site. 

Google reCAPTCHA. We use Google reCAPTCHA, which identifies bots by collecting hardware and software information and sending that data to Google for analysis. More about Google reCAPTCHA is available here.

Google Maps. We also use Google Maps, which may, among other things, request access to your geolocation. 

Users can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt out by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative Opt Out page here or by using the Google Analytics Opt Out Browser add on. 

Posted Content. You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “posted”) on the members-Only, participant only, or public areas of the Site, or transmitted to other users of the Siteor third parties (collectively, “Content”). All Content posted is governed by our Terms of Service and Content Guidelines. Your Content is posted and transmitted to others at your own risk. We cannot control the actions of other users of the Site with whom you may choose to share your Content. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your Content will not be viewed by unauthorized persons. You agree to and do hereby grant us a royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, and worldwide right to Use, modify, and perform any User Content you post to our Siteor that you submit for posting. The term “Use” includes, but is not limited to, use, reproduce, modify, publish, list information regarding, edit, delete, translate, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, and make derivative works of the content. This right to Use you grant us also extends to any content we may post on our Site that you have posted at other Sites or Apps, e.g., Google. 

How We Use Your Information 

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any Personal Information: 

To present our Site and its contents to you.  
To provide you with information on products or services that you request from us. 
To provide you with Services or process transactions that you have requested. 
To provide you with notices about your account, including expiration and renewal notices. 
To communicate with you regarding information, features, or offers that we believe will be of interest to you. 
To respond to your questions or other requests. 
To contact you with regard to the Site.
To process any applications, changes to your account information, or process payments from you (including, but not limited to, membership dues, participation subscriptions, subscriptions, registration fees, voluntary contributions, examination fees, credential and designation fees, and payments, refunds and reimbursements for any products or services that you choose to purchase from us). 
To verify your identity.
To process other information or Personal Information that you submit through this Site. 
To notify you about changes to our Site, our policies, terms, or any products or services we offer or provide though it. 
To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Site.
To provide access to restricted parts of our Site. 
To ask for ratings and reviews of our Site, Services, and/or products. 
To contact you regarding a sweepstakes, contest, or promotion in which you have participated. 
To request your participation in surveys, focus groups, or other initiatives which help us to gather information used to develop and enhance our products and Services. 
To determine eligibility for participation, membership, credentials, designations, or volunteer opportunities.  
To evaluate your performance on continued learning courses and assist you in the tracking of your progress. 
For examination scheduling, administration, and registration purposes. 
To serve relevant information to you when you visit our Site or other third-party sites (including social media platforms). 
To enhance, personalize, and improve our products and Services, for example, by performing internal research, analyzing user trends and measuring demographics and interests. 
Internal purposes, such as Site and system administration or internal audits and reviews. 
To comply with applicable law(s) (for example, to comply with a search warrant, subpoena or court order) or to carry out professional ethics/conduct investigations.
For analyzing how the Services are used, diagnosing service or technical problems, maintaining security, and personalizing content. 
To operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of the Services. 
To provide statistics about the usage levels of the Site and other related information to reputable third parties, but these statistics will not include information which will allow you to be identified. 
To develop and train artificial intelligence (AI) and/or machine learning models, develop, provide, and personalize our Products and Services, and gain insights with the help of AI, automated systems, and inferences, so that our Products and Services can be more relevant and useful to you and others.
To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it. 
In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.

We also may disclose Personal Information to outside companies that help us bring you the products, Services, information, and resources we offer. For example, we may work with an outside company to: (a) manage a database of customer information; (b) assist us in distributing e-mails; (c) assist us with direct marketing and data collection; (d) provide us storage and analysis; (e) provide fraud prevention; and, (f) other services designed to assist us in maximizing our business potential. We require that these outside companies agree to keep confidential all information we share with them and to use the information only to perform their obligations in the agreements. 

We may disclose your Personal Information to business affiliates, subsidiaries, or affinity partners who may offer you products, services, information, or resources that we believe may be of benefit or interest to you. 

For registered users with SSVMS Members Only access: We share your Personal Information with California Medical Association as part of and to facilitate your dual membership with that entity and us. We may also share your Personal Information, individually, categorically, or as part of our membership list or participation list, with its business affiliates, subsidiaries or affinity partners. 

De-Identified Personal Information is aggregated for system administration and to monitor usage of the Site. It is utilized to measure the number of visits to our Site, average time spent, number of pages viewed and to monitor various other Site statistics. This monitoring helps us evaluate how visitors use and navigate our Site so we can improve the content.

We use cookies, clear gifs, and log file information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the Site; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of our Service; (d) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, and demographic patterns; (e) diagnose or fix technology problems reported by our users or engineers that are associated with certain IP addresses; and, (f) help you efficiently access your information after you sign in. 

We may also use your Personal Information to contact you about our own and third-parties’ goods and services that may be of interest to you.. We may use your Personal Information you provide to us and which we obtain from other sources to better understand your interests so we can try to predict what other products, services and information you might be most interested in. This practice is called “profiling” and involves making automated decisions about you based on this information in order to better enable us to tailor our interactions with you to make them more relevant and interesting. You may object to such profiling at any time by contacting us (see Contact Information/User Rights below). We may use the information we have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers’ target audiences. Even though we do not disclose your Personal Information for these purposes without your consent, if you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria. 

Text Messages

Our Services may include sending you Short Message Service (“SMS”) messages as described in this section, to which you hereby consent. Message frequency may vary. Additionally, we may also contact you by SMS messages with billing and payment reminders, surveys, informational, and service-related communications, including important security updates, Site updates, conduct surveys, or informational or service-related communications, including important security updates as well as for marketing. You may request us to stop sending text messages by replying “STOP” to the SMS text message you received. After you send the SMS message “STOP” to us, we will send you a SMS message to confirm that you have been unsubscribed. Alternatively, you may submit your request by email to us, including the email address and phone number you registered with us, or by any reasonable means. After this, you will no longer receive SMS messages from us. If you want to join again, just sign up as you did the first time and we will start sending SMS messages to you again. For help, please reply to a text with HELP. Message and data rates may apply, depending on your cell phone plan. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

Social Media Plugins 

We may integrate social media application program interfaces or plug-ins (Plug-ins) from social networks, including, but not limited to, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and/or possibly other companies, into the Site. 

For example, when you visit our Site, the plugin creates a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server. This allows Facebook to receive information about your visit to our Site with your IP address. If you click the Facebook “Like” button while you are logged on to your Facebook account, you can link the contents of our Site to your Facebook profile. This allows Facebook to assign your visit to our Site to your user account. Please note that as provider of the Site, we receive no notification about the contents of the transmitted data or their use by Facebook. If you do not want Facebook to assign your visit to our Site to your Facebook user account, please log out of your Facebook user account. 

If you do so, you authorize us to access certain SMS account information, such as your public SMS profile (consistent with your privacy settings in SMS), your email address, interests, likes, gender, birthday, education history, relationships, interests, current city, photos, personal description, friend list, and information about and photos of your SMS friends who might be common SMS friends with other users. Plug-ins may transfer information about you to the Plug-in’s respective platform without action by you. This information may include your platform user identification number, which website you are on, and more. Interacting with a Plug-in will transmit information directly to that Plug-in’s social network and that information may be visible by others on that platform. Plug-ins are controlled by the respective platform’s privacy policy, and not by our Privacy Policy. You can find the privacy policy for a platform on their website. 

How We Share Your Information 

We will never rent or sell your Personal Information to third parties, other than as noted below under the section titled “Disclosure/Assignment of Your Personal Information.” We may share your Personal Information with third parties for the purpose of providing or improving the Services to you. We may share your Personal Information with third parties who perform services on our behalf or on behalf of one of our subsidiaries, affiliates, affinity partners, or contracted vendors. This includes, without limitation, third parties that send communications, process payments, analyze data, provide marketing assistance, or create, host, and/or provide customer service on our behalf. These third parties may have access to Personal Information in order to provide these services to us or on our behalf. If we do this, such third parties’ use of your Personal Information will be bound by obligations of confidentiality. We may store Personal Information in locations outside our direct control (for instance, on servers or databases located or co-located with hosting providers). Any Personal Information or content that you voluntarily disclose for posting to the Site may, if posted, become available to the public, as controlled by any applicable privacy or website customization settings. To change your privacy settings on the Site, you may visit the account settings page. If you remove information that you posted to the Site, copies may remain viewable in archived versions of the Site, or if other users have copied or saved that information. 

Events

From time to time, we may run contests, special offers, or other events or activities (“Events”) on the Site together with a third-party vendor. If you provide information to such third parties, you give them permission to use it for the purpose of that Event and any other use to which you consent. We cannot control third parties’ use of your information. If you do not want your information to be collected by or shared with a third party, you can choose not to participate in these Events. 

We may disclose your Personal Information if required to do so by law, court order, legal process, or subpoena, including to respond to any government or regulatory request, or if we believe that such action is necessary to (a) conform to the law, comply with legal process served on us or our affiliates, subsidiaries, component medical societies, contracted vendors, or affinity partners, or investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities; (b) to enforce our Terms (including for billing and collection purposes), take precautions against liability, to investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations, to assist government enforcement agencies, or to protect the security or integrity of our Site; or, (c) to exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of us, our users or others. 

It is likely that the identity and categories of such third parties will change during the life of your account but, depending on your use of the Site, it is anticipated that your Personal Information will be disclosed to the categories of third-party service providers listed below who perform functions on our behalf. We require that our third-party service providers only use your Personal Information as necessary to provide the requested services to us and each service provider is subject to a set of terms consistent with this Privacy Policy. 

Who We May Disclose Personal Information to and for What Purpose 

We may share your Personal Information with:

Your corresponding county medical society as part of and to facilitate your dual membership with that entity and us. 
We may also share your Personal Information, individually, categorically, or as part of our membership list, with our business affiliates, subsidiaries, contracted vendors, county medical societies, and/or affinity partners. 
Hosting providers for the secure storage and transmission of your data. 
Learning technology and online event providers for the delivery and improvement of web events and learning programs and the tracking of your progress. 
Digital credential providers for the delivery of digital badges earned through your participation in learning programs. 
Examination providers for the scheduling and delivery of credential and designation examinations. 
Identity management providers for authentication purposes. 
Database software providers for the management and tracking of your data. 
Legal and compliance consultants, such as external counsel, external auditors, or tax consultants. 
Marketing providers who send communications on our behalf regarding our products and Services. 
Payment solution providers for the secure processing of payments you provide to us.  
Publishers and learning providers who develop products on our behalf. 
Technology providers who assist in the development and management of our Site. 
Outbound call center providers, who may perform outreach on our behalf regarding our products and Services. 
Fulfillment and postal vendors for the fulfillment of our products and Services. 
Our volunteers or committee members who perform various functions on our behalf. 
Survey and research providers who perform studies on our behalf. 
Advertising partners, including social media providers, for the delivery of targeted advertisements.

De-Identified Personal Information: We may share De-Identified Personal Information (such as anonymous usage data, referring/exit pages and URLs, IP address, platform types, number of clicks, etc.) with interest third parties to help them understand the usage patterns for certain Services. 

Disclosure/Assignment of Your Personal Information: 

Required Disclosures. Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, we will not disclose your Personal Information to any third party unless required to do so by law, court order, legal process (e.g., subpoena), including, but not limited to, in order to respond to any government, regulatory, or licensing request, or if we believe that such action is necessary to: (a) comply with the law, comply with legal process served on us or our affiliates, subsidiaries, service providers, or partners, or investigate prevent violation of the law; (b) enforce our Terms or customer agreement (including for billing and collection purposes); (c) take precautions against liability; (d) investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations or to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities; (e) assist government enforcement agencies or to meet national or other security requirements; (f) to protect the security or integrity of our Website, Services, or any software we provide related thereto; or, (g) exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of us, our users or others. We will attempt to notify you, where reasonably practicable, about these requests unless: (i) providing notice is prohibited by the legal process itself, by court order we receive, or by applicable law or regulation, or (ii) we believe that providing notice would be futile, ineffective, create a risk of harm to an individual or group, or create or increase a risk of acts of fraud done upon us or our users. In instances where we comply with legal requests without notice for these reasons, we will attempt to notify that user about the request after the fact if we determine in good faith that we are no longer legally prohibited from doing so and that no risk scenarios described in this paragraph apply.

Consent to Disclosure/Transfer/Assignment of Your Personal Information. You consent (and shall not object) to our disclosure, transfer, assignment, and/or sale of your Personal Information, De-Identified Personal Information, and other information you provide to us, as well as the rights you have granted or consented to in this Privacy Policy  (collectively, “Transferred Information”) to a potential or actual buyer or acquirer of assets or equity of our company or other successor for the purpose of considering or undergoing a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, change in control, or sale or transfer of some or all of our assets (each of the foregoing referred to as a “Transfer”), whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or other court proceeding, in which Personal Information held by us is among the assets transferred. We cannot make any representations regarding the use or transfer of Transferred Information that we may have in the event of our bankruptcy, reorganization, insolvency, receivership, or an assignment for the benefit of creditors. Furthermore, except as required by law, we are not and will not be responsible for any breach of security by any third parties or for any actions of any third parties that receive any of the Transferred Information that is disclosed to us.

Security 

We have implemented measures designed to secure your Personal Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration and disclosure.  

Your Personal Information is contained behind secured networks and a firewall and is only accessible by a limited number of persons and service providers who have special access rights to such systems and are required to keep the information confidential. 
Any payment transactions will be performed using our third-party payment processors or gateways, who will use appropriate security procedures designed to protect your information. 
Our Site is scanned on a regular basis for security holes and known vulnerabilities in order to make your visit to our Site safer. 
We may store, retrieve, access, and transmit your Personal Information in the US or in other countries.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of the Site, or Services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. You should not share your password with anyone. You must prevent unauthorized access to your account and Personal Information by selecting and protecting your password appropriately and limiting access to your computer or device and browser by signing off after you have finished accessing your account. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by other users. We’ll never email you to ask for your password or other account information. If you receive such an email, please send it to us so we can investigate.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do use security measures designed to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Information transmitted to us or which we obtain. Any transmission of Personal Information is at your own risk. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors, may compromise the security of user information at any time. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site or used with our Services. 

Data Retention 

In general, our retention of Personal Information is reasonably necessary and proportionate to achieve the purposes for which the Personal Information was collected or processed, or for another disclosed purpose that is compatible with the context in which the Personal Information was collected, and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes. We will keep your Personal Information for as long as your account is active, or as long as you are a registered subscriber, participant, member, or user of our Services or for as long as we have another business purpose to do so and, thereafter, for no longer than is required or permitted by law, or our records retention policy, reasonably necessary for internal reporting and reconciliation purposes, or to provide you with feedback or information you might request. This period of retention is subject to our review and modification. The information we collect may be stored and processed in servers in the United States and wherever we and our service providers have facilities around the globe. We have the right to purge your information in accordance with our Terms.

What You Can Access, Change, or Delete

We desire to keep you in control of the Personal Information you provide. Accordingly, you can review, correct, change, remove, or restrict the use or sharing of the Personal Information you provide to us. In order to do so, or to elect not to receive future communications from us, please email with your specific request. The information that you can view, update, and delete may change as the Services change. If you have any questions about viewing or updating information we have on file about you, please contact us. 

California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) 

Under California Civil Code Sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to ask us annually for a notice identifying the categories of Personal Information which we share with our affiliates and/or third parties for marketing purposes and providing contact information for such affiliates and/or third parties with whom the business has shared such information during the immediately preceding calendar year. See more at the CalOPPA website. To obtain information under CalOPPA from us, please contact us by using the Contact Us information on the Site, or calling 916-452-2671 Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Please note that not all information sharing is covered by CalOPPA, and we will only include in our response information relating to our sharing practices for covered information. 

As required by CalOPPA: 

Users can visit our Site anonymously by adjusting the settings in your browser. 
We do not allow personalized third-party behavioral tracking, though we may use De-Identified Personal Information to track users’ click or browsing patterns.

CalOPPA requires us to let you know how we respond to web browser Do Not Track (“DNT”) signals. DNT is a privacy preference you can set in your web browser to indicate that you do not want certain information about your webpage visits collected across Sites when you have not interacted with that service on the page. For details, including how to turn on DNT, see here. Because there currently isn’t an industry or legal standard recognizing or honoring DNT signals, we don’t respond to them at this time. We await the result of work by the privacy community and industry to determine when such a response is appropriate and what form it should take.

Notices; Opting Out 

By providing us with your email address (including by “following,” “liking,” linking your account to our Service or other services, etc., on a third-party website or network), you consent to our using the email address to send you Service-related notices, including any notices required by law, in lieu of communication by postal mail. You also agree that we may send you notifications of activity on the Service to the email address you give us, in accordance with any applicable privacy settings. We may use your email address to send you other messages or content, such as, but not limited to, newsletters, additions, or changes to features of the Service, or special offers. If you do not want to receive such email messages, you may opt out by emailing us your opt-out request. Opting out may prevent you from receiving email messages regarding updates, improvements, special features, announcements, or offers. 

You may not opt out of Service-related emails. You may be able to add, update, or delete information as explained above. When you update information, however, we may maintain a copy of the unrevised information in our records. You may request deletion of your account by emailing us. 

Additional Information for Non-US Residents 

This Privacy Policy originates and is hosted on a Site located in the United States, which has different data protection laws from those of other nations, and particularly member nations in the European Union. Due to differing laws and legal practice, be aware that law enforcement agencies in the United States may have access to your Personal Information. 

If you are located in the European Economic Area or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from the laws in the United States, please note that we may transfer your information to a country or jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction. If required by applicable law, we will seek your explicit consent to process your Personal Information collected on you or volunteered by you on our Site.

Contact Information 

To ask questions or comment about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, or for any other purposes, please contact us by emailing us using the information available on our Contact Us  website page, or  calling us at (916) 452-2671, Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time.