Privacy Policy

Last Updated: November 1, 2022

This Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) describes how Heart Valve Interactive Corp. and its subsidiaries and affiliates (“Heart Valve Interactive,” “us,” “we,” or “our”) may collect, use, and share your personal information in connection with HeartValveSurgery.com, including our Community platform, and any other websites and platforms we own and operate that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Website”), and our related services, events, social media pages, and email and other electronic communications (collectively, and together with the Website, the “Services”), and the choices you have with respect to your personal information. Please note, our privacy practices are subject to the applicable laws of the places in which we operate. You will see additional region-specific terms that only apply to customers located in those geographic regions, or as required by applicable laws. 

Heart Valve Interactive reserves the right, at any time, to modify this Privacy Policy. If we modify how we collect, use, or share personal information, we will post the updated Privacy Policy on this page. In some cases, such as where required by law, we may notify you about an update by sending you an email, posting a notice about the update on the Website, or other means. In all cases, your continued use of the Services following posting or other notification of changes constitutes your acknowledgement of such changes. Please review this Privacy Policy periodically to keep up to date on our most current policies and practices. 

This Privacy Policy covers the following topics:

COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

SHARING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

CHOICES ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

SECURITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

OTHER SITES AND SERVICES

NOTICE TO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS (SHINE THE LIGHT LAW)

NOTICE TO NEVADA RESIDENTS

CONTACTING US

 

COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Personal Information Collected. The table below describes the categories of personal information that we may collect about you. We may also collect other personal information that is not specifically listed here, which we will use as described in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise disclosed at the time of collection.

  • Contact information, such as first and last name, email address, phone number, mailing address, account name or username, and social media handle.
  • Demographic information, such as city, state, and sex/gender.
  • Profile information, such as the log-in details used to establish an account on our Community platform, information that you store in your account, information that you share through journal entries or other Community posts, your photograph, and other details about your use of the Services.
  • Content you choose to upload to the Services, such as text, images, audio, and video, along with the metadata associated with the files you upload.
  • Health information, such as information related to your heart condition and heart surgery. The Services also facilitate access to health care providers. Where you direct us to share your personal information with health care providers, Heart Valve Interactive will, in our capacity as a “business associate,” treat such information as protected health information governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). See our HIPAA Compliance & Security page for more information. Heart Valve Interactive does not engage in the practice of medicine or provide any health services.
  • Preferences, such as any preferences you set in your account and any marketing or communications preferences.
  • Payment information, such as credit or debit card number used to make purchases on the Website. All payment processing services on the Website are provided to you by third-party payment processors. Heart Valve Interactive does not access or keep information related to credit cards or other sensitive financial information.
  • Survey responses, such as the information you provide in response to our surveys, questionnaires, or contests.
  • Communications, such as the information associated with your requests or inquiries, including for support, assistance, or order information, and any feedback you provide when you communicate with us.
  • Online activity information, such as the website you visited before browsing to the Website, pages or screens you viewed, how long you spent on a page or screen, navigation paths between pages or screens, information about your activity on a page or screen, access times, and duration of access.
  • Device information, such as your computer or mobile device operating system type and version number, wireless carrier, manufacturer and model, browser type, screen resolution, IP address, unique identifiers, and general location information such as city, state, or geographic area.
  • Call tracking, such as your phone number, name displayed on the caller ID (when available), call recordings and transcripts of calls you place to a participating health care provider. We use a HIPAA-compliant third-party software to track and record the call and identify specific keywords and phrases used by either you (the caller) or the participating health care provider for the purpose of referral attribution and improving the Services. 

 

Sources of Personal Information. We obtain personal information from a variety of sources, including the following sources:

  • Personal Information You Provide. Heart Valve Interactive collects personal information when you voluntarily submit it to us, such as when you fill out a form on the Website, register for a Community account, participate in a survey or sweepstakes, or communicate with us.
  • Personal Information Automatically Collected. Heart Valve Interactive, our service providers, and our advertising partners may automatically log information about you, your computer, or mobile device, and your activity over time on our Services and other sites and online services, such as the online activity information and device information listed above. Like many online services, we use cookies and similar technologies to facilitate some of the automatic data collection described above. We use cookies, which are text files that websites store on a visitor’s device to uniquely identify the visitor’s browser or to store information or settings in the browser, for the purpose of helping you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, enabling functionality, helping us understand user activity and patterns, and facilitating online advertising.
  • Personal Information Collected Offline. Heart Valve Interactive collects personal information when you engage with us offline, such as when you contact us by phone.
  • Personal Information Obtained from Social Media Platforms. We maintain pages relating to our Services on social media platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and other third party platforms. When you visit or interact with our pages on those platforms, the platform provider’s privacy policy will apply to your interactions and their collection, use and processing of your personal information. You or the platforms may provide us with information through the platform, and we will treat such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you choose to login to the Website via a third-party platform or social media network, we may collect information including your Facebook username, user ID, email address, and profile picture. You can read more about your privacy choices in the “Third party platforms or social media networks” portion of the “Your Choices” section.
  • Personal Information Obtained from Third Parties. Heart Valve Interactive may receive personal information from third parties, such as our service providers, advertising partners, data analytics partners, operating systems and platforms, event sponsors, publicly available sources, or data providers. We may merge or combine such personal information with the personal information we collect from you directly or automatically.
  • Referrals. Users of the Services may have the opportunity to refer colleagues, friends and family, or other contacts to us. Please do not provide us with someone’s contact information unless you have their permission to do so.

 

USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Heart Valve Interactive’s primary purpose in collecting personal information is to provide the Services that you request. We also use personal information for the purposes set forth below and as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy or at the time of collection.

To Provide the Services. We may use personal information to provide our Services and operate our business. For example, we use personal information to:

  • process your transactions, including purchasing products (e.g., Adam Pick’s book) and referring you to the health care providers that you select;
  • establish, manage, monitor, and maintain your Community account; 
  • improve and personalize your experience on or with the Services;
  • communicate with you, including providing notices about your account or transaction and responding to any of your requests, feedback, or questions;
  • provide any contests, surveys, sweepstakes, or other promotions you participate in;
  • provide maintenance and support; and
  • fulfill any other purpose for which you provide personal information.

 

Research and Development. We use personal information for research and development purposes, including to study and improve the Services and our business, understand and analyze the usage trends and preferences of our users, and develop new features, functionality, products, and services. As part of these activities, we may create aggregated, de-identified, or other anonymous data from personal information we collect. We make personal information into anonymous data by removing information that makes the data personally identifiable to you. We may use this anonymous data and share it with third parties for our lawful business purposes.

Direct Marketing. We may send you Heart Valve Interactive-related or other direct marketing communications as permitted by law, including our educational Newsletter and other materials, updates, information, special offers, and promotional material from us and our business partners. You may opt-out of our Newsletter and other marketing communications as described in the “YOUR CHOICES” section below. 

Interest-Based Advertising. We work with third-party advertising companies and social media companies to help us advertise our business and to display ads for our products and services. These companies may use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about you (including the online activity information and device information described above in the section called “Personal Information Automatically Collected”) over time across our Services and other websites and services or your interaction with our emails, and use that information to serve ads that they think will interest you. In addition, some of these companies may use hashed customer lists that we share with them to deliver ads to you and to similar users on their platforms. You can learn more about your choices for limiting interest-based advertising in the “YOUR CHOICES” section below. 

To Comply with Laws and Regulations. We will use personal information as we believe necessary or appropriate to comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas or requests from government authorities.

For Compliance, Fraud Prevention, and Safety. We may use personal information and disclose it to law enforcement, government authorities, and private parties as we believe necessary or appropriate to: (a) maintain the safety, security, and integrity of the Services and our products and services, business, databases, and other technology assets; (b) protect our, your, or others’ rights, privacy, safety or property (including by making and defending legal claims); (c) audit our internal processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements and internal policies; (d) enforce the terms and conditions that govern the Services; and (e) prevent, identify, investigate, and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical or illegal activity, including cyberattacks and identity theft.

With Your Consent. We will disclose your personal information in accordance with your prior direction or, in some cases, we may specifically ask you for your consent to collect, use, or share your personal information, such as when required by law.

 

SHARING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

In addition to the specific situations discussed elsewhere in this Privacy Policy or at the point of collection, Heart Valve Interactive may share your personal information with the following entities or persons:

Related Companies. We may share your personal information with our affiliates, subsidiaries, and other related companies. 

Partnering Hospitals and Surgeons. We will share your personal information with a specific hospital or surgeon where you complete an online form directing us to do so. Additionally, we may share the “call tracking” information described above with the respective hospital or surgeon who was the recipient of your call. The information described in this paragraph will be treated as protected health information pursuant to HIPAA. 

Service Providers. We may share your personal information with third parties who perform services on our behalf that are necessary for the orderly operation of our business. For example, we work with service providers that help us perform website hosting, maintenance services, database management, analytics, marketing, customer relationship management, finances, and other purposes.

Advertising Partners. We may also share personal information with third parties who we partner with for advertising campaigns or that collect information about your activity on the Services for the purposes described in the “Interest-Based Advertising” section above.

Other Users of the Services and the Public. We provide functionality that enables you to disclose personal information to other users of the Services or the public. For instance, you are able to maintain a user profile within our Community with information about yourself, your health information, or your use of the Services that you can make available to other users, your friends and family, or the public. You may also be able to submit content to the Services (such as comments, questions, stories, reviews, surveys, journals, photos, and videos), and we will identify you by displaying information such as your name, username, social media handle, or a link to your user profile along with the content you submit. We do not control how other users or third parties use any personal information that you make available to other users or the public. Please think carefully before disclosing any personal information in any public forum.

Professional Advisors. We may share personal information with persons, companies, or professional firms providing Heart Valve Interactive with advice and consulting in accounting, administrative, legal, tax, financial, debt collection, and other matters.

Law Enforcement. Under certain circumstances, we may be required to disclose personal information to law enforcement, government authorities, and other parties if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court or a government agency). 

Compliance. We may disclose personal information in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a legal obligation or for the purposes described above in the section titled “Compliance, Fraud Prevention, and Safety.”

Business Transaction Participants. We may disclose personal information to third parties in connection with any business transaction (or potential transaction) involving a merger, acquisition, sale of shares or assets, financing, consolidation, reorganization, divestiture, or dissolution of all or a portion of our business (including in connection with a bankruptcy or similar proceedings).

 

CHOICES ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION 

You can make the following choices regarding your personal information:

Review and Request Changes to Your Personal Information. We rely on you to update and correct the personal information contained in your Community account. Note that we may keep historical information in our backup files as permitted by law. If the Website does not permit you to update or correct certain personal information, please submit a request to us using the contact information listed at the end of this Privacy Policy.

Marketing Emails. You may opt-out of our Newsletter and marketing-related emails by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email or by contacting us as described below. You may still receive service-related communications, such as those about your account, in response to your request to be referred to a hospital or surgeon, to fulfill orders for products you have requested, or deliver notifications directly to you through the Services.

Cookies. Most browsers let you remove and/or stop accepting cookies from the websites you visit. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser’s settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all functionality of the Services and our Website may not work properly. For more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your browser and how to manage and delete them, click here

Analytics. The Website uses Google Analytics to help us analyze how the Website is being accessed and used. You can learn more about Google Analytics cookies by clicking here and about how Google protects your data by clicking here. To opt-out of Google Analytics, you can download and install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, available here

Advertising Choices. You can limit the use of your information for interest-based advertising by blocking third-party cookies in your browser settings, using browser plug-ins/extensions, and/or using your mobile device settings to limit the use of the advertising ID associated with your mobile device. You can also opt out of interest-based ads from companies participating in the following industry opt-out programs by visiting the linked websites: the Network Advertising Initiative and the Digital Advertising Alliance. Some of the companies we work with may offer their own opt-out mechanisms. For example, you can learn more about how Google uses cookies for advertising purposes by clicking here and opt-out of ad personalization by Google by clicking here.

Many of the opt-out preferences described in this section must be set on each device and/or browser for which you want them to apply. Please note that some of the advertising companies we work with may not participate in the opt-out mechanisms described above, so even after opting-out, you may still receive interest-based advertisements from other companies. If you opt-out of interest-based advertisements, you will still see advertisements online but they may be less relevant to you.

Do Not Track. Some browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. The Website currently does not respond to “Do Not Track” or similar signals. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit All About Do Not Track

 

CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

The Services are not intended for use by anyone under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. 

 

SECURITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is fully secure. While we use reasonable efforts to protect your personal information from the risks presented by unauthorized access or acquisition, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information. 

 

OTHER SITES AND SERVICES

The Services may contain links to other websites and online services operated by third parties. These links are not an endorsement of, or representation that we are affiliated with, any third party. In addition, our content may be included on web pages or online services that are not associated with us. We do not control third party websites or online services, and we are not responsible for their actions. Other websites and services follow different rules regarding the collection, use, and sharing of your personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of the other websites and online services you use.

 

NOTICE TO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS (SHINE THE LIGHT LAW)

Under California Civil Code sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents who have an established business relationship with Heart Valve Interactive are entitled to ask us for a notice describing what categories of personal information we share with third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit your request to the email address listed at the end of this Privacy Policy with “Shine the Light” in the subject line.

 

NOTICE TO NEVADA RESIDENTS

Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 603A allows Nevada residents to opt-out of the “sale” of certain types of personal information. Subject to several exceptions, Nevada law defines “sale” to mean the exchange of certain types of personal information for monetary consideration to another person. If you are a Nevada resident who wishes to exercise your “sale” opt-out rights, you may submit a request to us using the contact information listed at the end of this Privacy Policy. 

 

CONTACTING US

If you have any questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy or any other privacy or security issue, please email us at privacy@heartvalvesurgery.com or write to us at:

Heart Valve Interactive Corp.
2785 Pacific Coast Hwy
Suite 517
Torrance, CA 90505

The previous Privacy Policy effective prior to November 1, 2022 is available here

 

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