Privacy Policy
A. General Online Privacy Policy
http://totalarthritis.com is respectful of the privacy concerns of the visitors to its site on the Internet. We are committed to providing a fun, educational, and safe website for people of all ages. We are dedicated to safeguarding any personal information collected on the totalarthritis.com website. We ensure that our Privacy Policy and our information practices adhere to the United States Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), other applicable data privacy laws and all other applicable legislation. To make sure that this site stays safe and fun, we make the following promises:
(1)Non-Personally Identifiable Information
As a general policy, no personal information is required to be collected from visitors to this site. However, certain non-personal visitor information is recorded by the standard operation of AACP’s servers. This information is primarily used to provide an enhanced on-line experience for the visitor. Information tracked includes the type of browser being used by the visitor (e.g., Netscape, Internet Explorer), the type of operating system (e.g., Macintosh, Windows) being used by the visitor and the domain name of the visitor’s Internet service provider (e.g., America Online, Netcom). By having this information, AACP is able to optimize its Web pages automatically for each particular visitor. Other uses of this information include tracking the number of visitors to the site (but visitors are tracked only in an aggregate and non-personally-identifiable form).
(2) Cookies
Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to an individual’s hard drive for record-keeping purposes. The use of cookies is an industry standard that is used by many major Internet websites. Cookies are required for several areas of the totalarthritis.com website. AACP never uses cookies to retrieve information from your computer that was not originally sent in a cookie. Please be advised that when you are accessing totalarthritis.com's third party tools, such as links to external websites, such third party may also collect information about you, including, but not limited to non-personal information such as an Internet protocol (IP) address, and the information they collect is covered under that particular third party’s privacy policies, not AACP’s Notice of Privacy Practices.
(3) Limited Personally Identifiable Information
As previously stated, in almost all activities, the information we collect is non-personal (such as first name only, age, and state). If you enter a contest, send us a question or send an electronic postcard, we will also ask for an e-mail address. Our use of e-mail addresses is further described in the examples below. We only collect enough information from our visitors to make activities on totalarthritis.com fun and interesting.
If you submit stories, artwork, comments, or anything else to us that is posted on our site, you will be identified on our site only by first name, age, city and state.
No one will be excluded from our site for not giving us personal information. When we do ask for personal information (like an e-mail address) as part of an activity, we will only use it for that activity and keep it only until that particular activity is complete. For example:
If you send us an e-mail with a question or comment, or enter one of our contests, we will respond using the e-mail address you supply, but we will not keep the address or use it again for any other purpose.
If you ask Pharmacy is Right for Me to send an electronic postcard or e-mail message, we will ask for your first name and e-mail address as well as the e-mail address of the person who will receive the postcard. We will only use this information to send the postcard or message to the person you specify and we will delete the information when the postcard or message has been sent.
We will only share any personal information that you provide with third parties third parties who: (1) are engaged by us to maintain the technical functioning of our website or web service, or to fulfill a request made by a user; (2) are restricted in their access and use of personal information only to the extent necessary to maintain the technical functioning of the website or web service, or to fulfill a request made by a user; and (3) have promised to keep the personal information that they access confidential.
B. Privacy Policy Regarding Children under the Age of 13 (in Compliance with COPPA)
If we know a visitor is under the age of thirteen, we will collect a parent’s permission offline (by postal mail, fax or phone) before we collect, use, store or disclose any personal information supplied by that visitor. We will also allow parents to review any personal information we may collect from children under 13 and to request that we stop using and delete such information at any time. If our policies change with regard to personal information that we previously received parental consent to collect, we will notify the parents of the changed policies. Below is a more comprehensive description of our policy regarding children under the age of thirteen.
(1) Collection of Personally Identifiable Information Collected from Kids
Similar to the general policy for all visitors, AACP will only request limited personally identifiable information, including the first name and email address of the child in order to offer a service, a promotion or other activity to the children or to complete an immediate request from the child. In such an instance, we will request that the child provide his or her email address, as well as the email address of his or her parent or legal guardian (“parent”). AACP will use that email address to send the parent an email letting him or her know about the child’s contact. The email will include details on how the parent may (i) provide AACP with consent; (ii) prohibit AACP from any further contact with the child; or (iii) delete the child’s personally identifiable information.
AACP will not collect more information than is reasonably necessary for the child to participate in the activity at issue. Below are some examples of instances in which we may collect the first name and email address from kids on the Sites and require parental consent:
If the child wants to enter a sweepstakes, contest or other promotion; and If the child wants to receive newsletters on a recurring basis. The personally identifiable information that is collected from children (after parental consent) will only be used for the requested purpose and will be deleted once the purpose has been fulfilled. AACP will not permanently store or otherwise use that information. Here are some examples of instances in which AACP may delete the child’s information after the completion of the activity:
If the child emails an inquiry, AACP will delete the information once the inquiry has been answered; If the child participates in a game, AACP will delete the information when the game is complete; If the child submits a story or video clip to share on the site, AACP will delete the information when the story or video clip is removed from the site; If the child refers a game to a friend, we may request his or her first name and email address and the friend’s first name and email address and delete the information once the friend has been notified
(2) Use of Personally Identifiable Information Collected from Kids
When we collect personally identifiable information from kids, we will only use that information for the express purpose for which it was collected. For example, if a child enters a sweepstakes, we will request the parent’s information (as described above) and will only use the child’s email address to enter the child into the sweepstakes, to notify the parent of the child’s entry, and to identify and notify the child if he or she is a potential winner. The personally identifiable information will not be used for any other purpose, and the personally identifiable information will not be used after the promotion is complete.
In addition to the purposes described above, we may actively collect and use email addresses and user names to track usage and to ensure users are following the site’s Terms of Use. In addition, we may use an email address and user name to ban a user temporarily or permanently from the Pharmacy website if that user engages in inappropriate conduct on the site. We may also use email addresses and user names to enable parents to review personally identifiable information that the children have submitted to the totalarthritis.com website and to provide notification regarding the site, such as any future amendments to this Privacy Policy. We also may use information in the aggregate to analyze site usage, as well as to offer products, programs, or services.
(3) Sharing of Personally Identifiable Information
Collected from Kids Except as provided in this Section, we do not share personally identifiable information collected from kids with any unaffiliated third parties. If your child is selected as a potential winner of one of our contests or sweepstakes, we will notify the parent, via the email address that the child submitted. If the parent consents, we will collect and share this information in order to fulfill the terms of the promotion. Finally, we may disclose kids’ personally identifiable information to third parties if we believe we are required to do so in order to comply with law (including court orders and subpoenas); to comply with requests from law enforcement agencies or other public agencies (including schools or children’s services); to enforce our Visitor Agreement; if we feel that such disclosure may prevent the instigation of a crime, facilitate an investigation related to public safety or protect the safety of a child using our website, protect the security or integrity of our website; to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property and the rights, privacy, safety or property of our employees or other users of our Sites; to protect our operations; and to permit us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
(4) Non Personally Identifiable Information
We collect and store the non-personally identifiable information that is described in Section A1 of this privacy policy. We do not, however, link this information to personally identifiable information when it is collected from kids.
(5) Contact Us
If you have questions or wish to send us comments about this Privacy Policy, telephone us at (201) 203-1234. (If you are not 18 years of age or older, you must have your parent or guardian’s permission to call this number.)
Please be sure to include your email address and a telephone number where we can reach you. To protect you and your child’s privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to help verify your identity before granting you access to the personal information that we collect and maintain about you or your child.
Please be assured that any personal information that you provide in communications to the above e-mail and postal mail addresses and telephone numbers will not be used to send you promotional materials, unless you so request.
(6) Note to Parents and Legal Guardians
Please contact AACP using the contact information above at any time regarding privacy questions or concerns, or to request to review what personally identifiable information we have collected from a child. Parents may also contact us at any time to request that we delete the personally identifiable information of a child or a parent and/or refuse to permit further collection or use of a child’s information. We will take steps to ensure that any person contacting us for a child’s information is that child’s parent or guardian.
Your family’s use of this site is conditioned on your having accepted these terms. You should check back to this policy frequently, since it is subject to change from time to time, and your continued use of the site is conditioned upon your acceptance of any modifications hereto.
We want to make this site a place where families can surf together, and where parents and caregivers are happy to have their children interact, learn and play. We are committed to protecting the safety and wellbeing of children, and we continually work to ensure that our data collection practices conform to all applicable laws, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If you have any comments or questions, we’re happy to hear them.
The Internet offers a world of opportunity for children. Your guidance and involvement are essential to help ensure that children have a safe and rewarding online experience. We encourage you to visit the GetNetWise.org site and look through the “Kids Safety” section together. Your efforts to instill responsible information practices will help steer your children to age-appropriate sites and will go a long way toward ensuring that your children have enriching experiences online.
(7) Effective Date
The privacy policy set out above is effective as of January 1, 2014. Due to the changing nature of the Internet, this policy may be changed at any time at AACP’s discretion. We reserve the right to change the privacy policy at our sole discretion. totalarthritis.com/ users will be informed of any such change by us posting a new privacy policy on the website and the effective date of any change of privacy policy will be clearly marked. As required by law, we will not use personally identifiable information in ways that are materially different from the ones described in this Privacy Policy without also providing notification of such practices and obtaining consent to any such different uses. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page.