Privacy Policy

ABCS Privacy Policy for Ask a Surgeon Tool

Last Modified on October 15, 2019.

This Privacy Policy is effective on October 15, 2019 for all users.

The American Board of Cosmetic Surgery (“ABCS”) values your privacy. This Privacy Policy details important information about the collection, use, disclosure, retention and protection of your personal information. ABCS provides this notice about our practices to help you make an informed decision about whether to use or continue using the Site (as defined below). References to “we”, “us” and “ABCS” are to The American Board of Cosmetic Surgery with its offices at 8840 Calumet Avenue, Suite 205 Munster, IN 46321.

By accessing americanboardcosmeticsurgery.org (“the Site”), you are accepting the terms of this Privacy Policy and you are consenting to the collection, use, disclosure and retention of your personal information in accordance with the practices described in this policy. This policy may change from time to time (see Changes to this privacy policy). Your continued use of the Site after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.

Please note that any content posted by you onto the Site, including but not limited to photos, videos, or questions becomes published content and is publicly available for anyone in the world to view. The ABCS will display this content on the Site and may distribute it through other third-party sites and services in its sole discretion.

Scope

This privacy policy applies to americanboardcosmeticsurgery.org, whether you browse our Site or use the Site as either a user or health care provider. This privacy policy also applies to information we collect in email, text and other electronic messages between you and us.

Information The American Board of Cosmetic Surgery Collects

ABCS acts as a data controller when it collects personal information from you when you visit our Site or when you submit information via the contact forms on our Site. For purposes of this privacy policy, “personal information” means any data and information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. ABCS allows submission of several types of information from you, including:

Information ABCS receives from you:

You provide us with personal information when you submit a question on the Site. This information may include: name, geographic location, email address.
You may also provide us with your personal information when you voluntarily fill in forms on our Site. For example, you may provide us with your first and last name, telephone number, email address and health information when you fill out a form to have a question answered by an ABCS certified surgeon.
You may also provide us with your personal information when you report a problem with our Site.
You also provide ABCS with your information when you use certain features on the Site, such as questions and other postings on the Site (“User Contributions”). You understand that your User Contributions are published or displayed on public areas of the Site, or transmitted to other users of the Site or third parties. Your name is not displayed to other users when you submit a question and your answer is posted to the Site.

Responses to “Ask a Surgeon” Questions

This and all other electronic correspondence from ABCS or associates does not constitute: 1) medical advice 2) an evaluation or 3) a consultation, nor will any such correspondence be considered as a replacement or substitute for a formal office evaluation and/or consultation. Further, information and correspondence contained in related and/or subsequent emails, including all replies, does not and will not create a formal doctor-patient relationship.

Information The American Board of Cosmetic Surgery collects automatically:

Cookies Information. When you visit the Site, we (and third parties with whom we partner) may send one or more cookies – a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters – to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. The cookies may transmit information about you and your use of the Site such as your browser type, IP address, advertisement data and the date and time of your use of the Site.
Log File Information. When you use the Site, our servers automatically record certain information that your web browser sends whenever you visit any website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, browser language, referring/exit pages and URLs, platform type, number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the amount of time spent on particular pages and the date and time of your requests. ABCS collects this information in order to improve the Site.
Web Beacons. When you use the Site, we may employ third-party web beacons or “clear gifs” which are used to track the online usage patterns of our users anonymously (i.e., in a non-personally-identifiable manner). In addition, we may also use web beacons in HTML-based emails sent to our users to track which emails are opened by recipients. ABCS uses web beacons in order to measure the effectiveness of our offerings and content.
Location Information and Device Information. When you access the Site from a mobile device or tablet, ABCS may be able to collect your location information if this feature is enabled on your mobile device or tablet. In addition, if you are accessing the Site from your computer, then ABCS may be able to collect your general location information from your IP address. ABCS may use this information to provide you with a personalized user experience by showing you content relevant to your geographic location. If you are accessing the Site through a mobile device or tablet and you do not want to share your precise geolocation information with ABCS, then you may be able to turn off this feature on your mobile device or tablet. ABCS may also collect information it receives from your devices when you access the Site including: Device ID or unique identifier, device type, ID for advertising, and unique device token.
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 and 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. ABCS does 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.

How ABCS Uses Information

ABCS uses the information, including personal information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, for a range of different purposes. We use your personal information to track usage of the Site, to market the Site, to improve the Site features and functionality, to backup our systems and to provide customer support. Our legal basis for processing your personal information is to carry out our legal obligations, to fulfill a contract with you, to protect your vital interests, for our legitimate business interests, to provide you with notices, and for other purposes with your consent.

We use your personal information:

To answer the question you submitted. This response and all other electronic correspondence from ABCS or associates do not constitute: 1) medical advice 2) an evaluation or 3) a consultation, nor will any such correspondence be considered as a replacement or substitute for a formal office evaluation and/or consultation. Further, information and correspondence contained in related and/or subsequent emails, including all replies, does not and will not create a formal doctor-patient relationship
To provide our Site and its contents to you
To provide customer support, including responding to your requests and contacting you about the requests
If you send direct messages or electronic messages to the ABCS, please note that ABCS may store these messages in order to deliver them and allow you or the recipient of the message to manage them. When contacting you to connect you to health care providers on the Site, ABCS may contact you via email, SMS/text messages or by telephone. Message and data rates may apply
To monitor the usage of our Site, improve the quality and design of the Site, and create new features, functionality, and services
To detect, prevent and address technical issues, and improve the security of our Site
To gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our Site
To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Site
To fulfill any other purposes for which you provide it

With your consent, which you may withdraw at any time, ABCS also uses your personal information:

To provide you with a personalized user experience by showing you content relevant to your geographic location
For any other purpose, with your consent

When ABCS Discloses Information

Third-Party Service Providers

We provide personal information and non-personally-identifiable information to our subsidiaries, affiliated companies, or other businesses or persons for the purpose of processing such information on our behalf, including, but not limited to, providing analytics, monitoring our Site, A/B testing, and marketing. We require that these parties agree to process such personal information in compliance with this privacy policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures as well as for the sole purpose of providing the specific service to ABCS. The third-party service providers are not permitted to share the personal information or use it for any other purpose.
We do share anonymous aggregated user data (such as usage data, referring/exit pages and URLs, platform types, number of clicks, etc.) with interested third parties to assist them in understanding the usage patterns for certain content, services, advertisements, promotions, and/or functionality on the Site.

Fulfill Your Requests

We will use your personal information to fulfill the purpose for which you provide it. For example, if you submit your first and last name, email address, telephone number, questions or comments through a form on the “Ask a Surgeon” tool, then ABCS will disclose this information to a health care provider for the purpose of answering the question you asked.

Third-party Advertisers

We do not share your personal information (such as name or email address) with other third-party companies for their commercial or marketing use without your consent or except as part of a specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-in or opt-out.

Legal Requests and to Comply with State and Federal Laws

We may disclose personal information if such action is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, to comply with state and federal laws or to respond to a court order, subpoena, or search warrant. ABCS may disclose any of your messages or other content as part of investigations into the use and operation of the Site.
ABCS also reserves the right to disclose personal information that ABCS believes, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to enforce our Terms of Service, take precautions against liability, to investigate and defend itself against any third-party claims or allegations, to protect the security or integrity of the Site, and to protect the vital interests, property, or personal safety of ABCS, our users or others.

Your Choices

ABCS strives to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us, and we understand that you have rights in your personal information such as the right to access, correct, delete, object to and restrict the use of your personal information. We also understand that you have the right to obtain a copy of your personal information from us and to withdraw your consent of the processing of your personal information by us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your personal information:

You can choose not to provide personal information through our Site, in which case ABCS may not be able to respond to your requests.
You may also send us an email at info@abcsurg.com to request access to, correct or delete any personal information that you have provided to us.
You may also request a copy of your personal information that you have provided to us directly by sending an email to info@abcsurg.com. We will provide you a copy of your personal information in a commonly used electronic form.
If you wish to know what personal information we hold about you, and if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us at info@abcsurg.com.

In order to fulfill the above requests, ABCS may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests. Further, your right to access your personal information may not apply in some cases, including where providing access is unreasonably burdensome or expensive under the circumstances or where it would violate the rights of someone other than the individual requesting access.

If you do not want us to use information that we collect or that you provide to us to deliver advertisements, for analytics or remarketing services, then you may opt-out as described below.

For analytics, we use Google Analytics, which is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Site. This data may be shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network. You can opt-out of having your activity on the Site available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents Google Analytics JavaScript from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity. For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit Google Privacy & Terms web page at https://policies.google.com/privacy.
ABCS currently uses Google AdWords, which is a remarketing service provided by Google. You can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize the Google Display Network ads by visiting the Google Ads settings page at http://www.google.com/settings/ads. In addition, Google also recommends installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on for your web browser, which is available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. This tool provides visitors with the ability to prevent their data from being collected and used by Google Analytics.

Visiting ABCS.com from outside the United States

The Site is hosted in the United States. If you are accessing the Site from outside the United States, please be advised that the information you provide ABCS may be transferred to, processed and stored in the United States where the ABCS servers are located and our central database is operated. You acknowledge and understand that the data protection and other laws of the United States might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. Through your continued use of the Site (which is governed by U.S. law, this privacy policy, and our Terms of Service), you consent to the transfer of your personal information to the United States.

Retention of Personal Information

ABCS will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set forth in the privacy policy. ABCS will retain and use your personal information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your personal information to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

Important Information

California Privacy Rights for California Residents.

California residents may request certain information regarding the disclosure of your personal information by ABCS to third parties for direct marketing purposes. As noted above, ABCS does not disclose your personal information to third parties for direct marketing purposes unless you have first agreed to such disclosure. However, if you would like to make such a request, then please contact ABCS at privacy@abcsurg.com.

Call Monitoring and Recording

Telephone calls to or from ABCS may be recorded and monitored by us. ABCS records and monitors telephone calls for user support services and for staff training purposes. ABCS retains the recordings for a reasonable period of time in order to fulfill the purpose for which the telephone calls were recorded and then the recordings are deleted.

Links to Other Sites

Our Site may contain links to other websites that are not operated by ABCS. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third-party’s website. This privacy policy does not apply to third-party websites and ABCS encourages you to review the privacy policy of each third-party websites you visit.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be revised periodically and this will be reflected by the “effective date” above. If we make any material changes in the way in which your personal information is collected, used or disclosed, then we will notify you through the Site or by email. You are advised to review this privacy policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this privacy policy are effective when they are posted on this page. If you object to any of the changes to the privacy policy, then you can close your account by contacting us as provided below.

How You Can Contact Us

If you have any questions or complaints about the use or disclosure of your personal information, this privacy policy, or our privacy practices, please contact ABCS by sending an email to our data protection office at info@abcsurg.com.

In addition, you may also contact ABCS by writing to us at the following address:

American Board of Cosmetic Surgery
8840 Calumet Avenue, Suite 205
Munster, IN 46321