MDsCONNECT

We take your privacy very seriously and we work hard to earn your trust. We have therefore published this Privacy Policy to help you understand how we collect and use your personal information. In this Privacy Policy, the terms "we", "us" or "our" means MDsConnect, LLC, an Ohio limited liability company and any and all entities that control, are controlled by, or are affiliated or under common control with MDsConnect, LLC. Terms used in this Privacy Policy with their initial letters capitalized but which are not defined herein, have the meanings assigned to them in the MDsConnect Terms of Use.

By accessing, visiting, submitting any information to, or otherwise using MDsConnect.net, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

COLLECTION OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION. In providing information to us whether for the purposes of opening your user account or otherwise, you are expressly and voluntarily accepting the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. The supplying of any information by you to us is voluntary and consensual on your part. You have the right to withdraw your consent in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use, however, your withdrawal of consent will not be retroactive.
If you have any hesitation about providing information to us or about having such information displayed on MDsConnect.net or otherwise used in any manner permitted in this Privacy Policy or in the Terms of Use, you should not submit such information to us and should not use MDsConnect.net.

Some features of MDsConnect require you to provide "personally identifiable information". Personally identifiable information generally includes information that could be used to determine your identity, such as your name, address, phone number, email address, birth date, among other types of information. The following are some examples of situations in which we may collect personally identifiable information from you:
1. Registration. When you register with us, we may ask you to provide personally identifiable information, such as your email address, birth date, the state or states in which you are licensed to practice medicine, your state medical license number(s), a brief summary of your professional background, username (valid email address), and a password chosen by you.
2. Profile Information. Once you register with us, you may provide additional information in the Profile section, describing your practice area, skills, and professional experiences, and if you so choose, your networking objectives.
3. Use of Forums. If you choose to transmit, submit, or post information through any Forum available on MDsConnect.net, we may collect the information you so provide.
4. Forms. We may collect personally identifiable information from you if you choose to fill out any form, profile, or survey on MDsConnect.net.
5. Correspondence. If you send us personal correspondence, whether as emails, letters, or otherwise, or if other users or third parties send us correspondence about your activities or postings on MDsConnect.net, we may choose to collect such information about you.
6. Other Sources. We may receive and collect information about you from other sources, such as instant messaging services, blogs, newspapers, other users of our products and services, and our affiliates or business associates.
MDsConnect is intended to be accessed and used only by MD's and DO's, and as such, only by adults. MDsConnect is not directed to children under the age of 18. We do not knowingly permit registration of, nor do we knowingly collect personally identifiable information from, anyone under the age of 18. You hereby agree not to submit any information to us about anyone under the age of 18. We cannot verify that a submission does not constitute information about a person under the age of 18.
USE OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION. We may use your personally identifiable information as follows:
1. to fulfill your requests for certain products and services;
2. to contact you and deliver information to you, such as administrative notices, offerings, or other communications relative to your use of MDsConnect.net;
3. to provide you with information about products, seminars, services, events, or other information offered by MDsConnect, LLC, its affiliates or others;
4. to analyze website usage, conduct market research, improve marketing and promotional efforts, and improve and customize our content, layout, products and services;
5. to provide customer support, and to troubleshoot and resolve problems and disputes;
6. for trying to detect and protect against error, fraud, or other criminal activity, enforcing our Terms of Use, other internal purposes, or as otherwise described to you at the time of collection of such information; and
7. as otherwise set forth in this Privacy Policy from time to time.
You expressly agree to our use of your personally identifiable information as set forth in this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use.
DISCLOSURE OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION. The following describes (some of) the ways that your personally identifiable information may be disclosed:
1. Forums. Any information that you place or submit to be placed within any Forum, blog, or chat room on MDsConnect.net may be disclosed to the public.
2. Advertisers. We may aggregate personally identifiable information and disclose that information in a non-personally identifiable manner to advertisers and other third parties for their marketing and promotional purposes.
3. External Service Providers. There may be a number of separate services offered on MDsConnect.net by third parties who we refer to as external service providers, and which services may be complimentary to your use of MDsConnect.net. We may provide your personally identifiable information to an external service provider with your consent. To prevent disclosure of your personally identifiable information to an external service provider, you may decline such consent or simply not use their services.
  Note however, that if you choose to use the services of, or to disclose information to, an external service provider, then the external service provider's use of your information is governed by that external service provider's privacy policy. You should always evaluate the practices of external service providers before deciding whether or not to use their services.
  
  Notwithstanding the foregoing, we reserve the right (and you authorize us) to share or disclose your personally identifiable information in the event we determine, in our sole discretion, that a disclosure is necessary to identify or contact you, or to bring a legal action, including legal actions against you, if:
  1. you are, or may be, violating this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use;
  2. you are or may be interfering with another person's or entity's rights or property, including but not limited to, our rights or property;
  3. you are or may be violating any applicable law, rule, or regulation;
  4. we have a good faith belief that disclosure is necessary or required by any applicable law, rule, or regulation;
  5. disclosure is requested by authorities in the event of any act of terrorism or instance of local, regional, or national emergency;
  6. we have a good faith belief that it is necessary to comply with a court order, ongoing judicial proceeding, subpoena, or other legal process or request to mdsconnect, LLC, brought in any country throughout the world, or to exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims.
  Personally identifiable information and other information collected from you may also be transferred to a third party as a result of a sale, acquisition, merger, other transfer, reorganization, or bankruptcy (a "Transfer") involving us or our affiliates. We specifically reserve the right to transfer personally identifiable information (and any other information) collected from you, whether through MDsConnect.net or otherwise, or any of its databases, together with any personally identifiable or other information contained therein, to a third party in connection with a Transfer, and nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to nor may be construed or operate so as to interfere with our ability to Transfer all or part of our business or assets (including MDsConnect.net) to an affiliate or independent third party at any time, for any purpose, without any limitation whatsoever.
  
  Although we use security measures to keep your personally identifiable information anonymous, no security measure is perfect or impenetrable. We cannot ensure that all of your private communications on or through MDsConnect.net and other personally identifiable information will never be disclosed in ways not otherwise described in this Privacy Policy. By way of example, but not limitation, we may be forced to disclose personally identifiable information to the government or to third parties under certain circumstances, or third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. Therefore, notwithstanding anything to the contrary within this Privacy Policy, the Terms of Use or elsewhere on MDsConnect.net, your use of MDsConnect.net is at your own risk, and we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personally identifiable information or private communications will always remain private.
4. Third Party Contractors. We may from time to time utilize the services of third party contractors to assist us in our business operations. Such contractors may access your information in furtherance of their rendition of services to us, but may not use or disclose your information except as permitted by us.
CHANGES TO PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION AND USER PREFERENCES. You can review the personally identifiable information you have provided to us and make changes to that information, or to the settings for your MDsConnect.net account, including your email and contact preferences, by logging into your account on MDsConnect.net. Note however that even after your request for a change is processed we may for a time retain the prior residual information about you in back-up and/or archival copies of our database.
You can close your MDsConnect.net account and opt out of our use of your personally identifiable information by availing yourself of our Unsubscribe Process. We will remove your name and other personally identifiable information from our publicly viewable database. We may in our discretion retain certain data about or provided by you if we believe it may be necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business purposes such as analysis of aggregated, non-personally identifiable data, account recovery, or if required by law. To request that we close your account and remove your information from MDsConnect.net you must send your request to unsubscribe@mdsconnect.net using an email account that you have registered with us under your name. You will receive a response to such request usually within 5 business days.

After we process your opt out request, we will stop using your personally identifiable information. Note however, that after you opt out of our use of your personally identifiable information, third parties may nonetheless continue to use personally identifiable information that may be in their possession and you may still receive offers from third parties. You must contact such third parties directly in order to opt out of their use of your personally identifiable information. We are not responsible for any third party's use, or failure to stop using, your personally identifiable information.
NETWORK ADVERTISING. We may use third party advertising companies for marketing, advertising, and promotional purposes, and to serve advertisements to you. Using third party advertising companies helps us, and third party advertisers, better determine which advertisements or content to serve to you. For example, third party advertisers may use information regarding your visits to MDsConnect.net and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services that third party advertisers believe will be of interest to you.
The types of information that may be collected by third party advertising companies include the following:
1. the type of internet browser you use;
2. the type of computer operating system you use;
3. the domain name of a website you visit, as well as information related to websites and web pages you are viewing when an advertisement is requested;
4. whether or not you visit specific pages of MDsConnect.net or other websites;
5. the location of your internet service provider's point of presence;
6. the date and time of a visit to a website;
7. search keywords passed from another server;
8. the number of times you have clicked on an advertisement; and
9. other interactions between you and a website.
EMAILS AND NEWSLETTERS. We may from time to time try to provide you with relevant information regarding a variety of topics, through the use of newsletters or other email communications. We understand that not every user of MDsConnect.net may be interested in all of the information or opportunities we may from time to time offer. So that you might customize your experience on MDsConnect.net, we may ask you to select the type or types of emails that you want to receive. However you can opt into or out of any of these email services at any time by sending us an email to: updateprofile@MDsConnect.net. Your request will usually be processed within 5 business days.
If you choose to use MDsConnect.net to send a colleague information from our website (such as an email or newsletter) we will ask for that person's email address and will send an email with the information requested by the sender. We do not use the recipient's email address for anything other than the intended use. Nor do we store the recipient email address except in cases when the recipient requests that we include them in future MDsConnect.net communications.
CAN-SPAM COMPLIANCE. We send only verified, opt-in emails, specifically requested by our subscribers. We are compliant with the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing of Act of 2003.
OUR USE OF COOKIES AND WEB BEACONS. Like most websites, MDsConnect.net uses Cookies and web log files to track site usage. "Cookies" are alphanumeric identifiers in the form of text files that are inserted and stored by your web browser on your computer's hard drive. We, our external service providers, internal service providers, and third party advertising companies, may set and may access Cookies on your computer in order to track and store preferential information about you. We and our external service providers, internal service providers, and third party advertising companies, gather anonymous information about you through Cookie technology on the aggregate level. We use both "session" Cookies and “persistent” Cookies on our website to help us provide you with a more personalized experience. For example, a third party advertising company may assign a Cookie (and a web beacon described below) to you, in order to limit the amount of times you see a particular advertisement, or to help better determine which advertisements to serve to you.
A "persistent" Cookie is set once you've logged into your MDsConnect.net account. The next time you visit MDsConnect.net, the persistent Cookie will allow us to recognize you as an existing registered user. In order to access or change any of your private information (for example, a credit card number) or to send a message to another user, however, you must log in securely again with your password regardless of whether your computer contains your persistent Cookie. Furthermore, if you log out of the MDsConnect.net website, you will need to reenter your password the next time you visit in order to log in to your account.

"Session" Cookies are used to identify a particular visit to MDsConnect.net. Session Cookies expire when, or a short period of time after, you close your web browser.

We use Cookies to improve the quality of our Services by storing user preferences and tracking user trends. In the course of serving advertisements or improving services to our users, we may allow authorized third parties to place or recognize a unique Cookie on your browser. Information provided to third parties through such Cookies may provide general segment information (such as your geographic location, your area of practice, information about your professional or educational background) to enhance customization of your user experience on MDsConnect.net. Most browsers are initially set up to accept Cookies, however you can usually reset your browser to refuse Cookies or to indicate when a Cookie is being sent. If your browser does not allow Cookies or if you opt to refuse all Cookies, you may not be able to use the MDsConnect.net or some parts thereof.

"Web Beacons", also called pixel tags, single pixel (1 X 1) or clear gifs, are electronic images which allow a website to access Cookies and help track marketing campaigns and general usage patterns of visitors to websites. Web Beacons can recognize certain types of information, such as Cookie numbers, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page where the Web Beacon is placed. Personally identifiable information about you is not shared with third parties through the use of Web Beacons.

We may use Web Beacons to count users and recognize users through Cookies. Access to Cookies helps us personalize your experience when you visit MDsConnect.

We may include Web Beacons in html formatted email messages that we or our affiliates or agents send. Including Web Beacons in email messages helps us determine your interest in, and the effectiveness of, such emails.
LOG FILES, IP ADDRESSES, AND INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER. We gather and use certain information automatically and store it in log files. When you visit MDsConnect.net we automatically receive the URL of the site from which you came and the site to which you are going when you leave MDsConnect.net. We also receive the internet protocol (IP) address of your computer (or of the proxy server you use to access the worldwide web), your computer operating system, and type of web browser you are using, email patterns, as well as the name of your internet service provider (ISP). This information is used to analyze overall trends to help us improve our Services. The linkage between your IP address and your personally identifiable information is not shared with third parties without your permission or except when otherwise required by law.
SECURITY. We use industry standard security measures to protect your information. In the unlikely event that an unauthorized third party compromises our security measures, we will not be responsible for any damages directly or indirectly caused by an unauthorized third party's ability to view, use or disseminate such information.
LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES. We may include links on MDsConnect.net to third party websites. Such links are not an endorsement by us of those websites or of any products or services offered on or through such websites. Third party websites may have different privacy policies and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third party websites. If you click on a link to a third party website, we encourage you to check the privacy policy of that website inasmuch as it may differ substantially from that of this Privacy Policy.
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY. We reserve the right at all times to update, amend, or change this Privacy Policy or any part thereof at any time in our sole and absolute discretion and without notice. Updates to this Privacy Policy will be posted here. Information we collect from you online is subject only to our most current Privacy Policy. You are encouraged to revisit this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to review any changes that have been made. Your continued access and use of MDsConnect following our posting of any such changes shall automatically be deemed your acceptance of those changes.
GOVERNING LAW; ARBITRATION. This Privacy Policy shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the internal laws of the state of Ohio without regard for principles of conflicts of laws. Any civil action, claim, dispute, or proceeding arising out of, or relating to, this Privacy Policy shall be referred to final and binding arbitration before a single arbitrator under the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association in Medina County, Ohio. You and we shall select the arbitrator and if you and we are unable to reach agreement on selection of the arbitrator within 45 days after the notice of arbitration is served, then the American Arbitration Association shall select the arbitrator. The arbitration shall not commence until the party requesting it has deposited $1,000.00 with the arbitrator as a retainer for the arbitrator's fees and costs. The party requesting arbitration shall advance such sums as are required from time to time by the arbitrator to pay the arbitrator's fees and costs until the prevailing party is determined or the parties have agreed in writing to an alternate allocation of fees and costs.
Judgment upon on any award rendered by the arbitrator shall be final, binding, and conclusive upon you and us and your and our respective administrators, executors, legal representatives, successors and assigns, and may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Notwithstanding the immediately preceding sentence, in no event shall either you or we be entitled to punitive, special, indirect, or consequential damages, and both you and we hereby waive respective rights to any punitive, special, indirect, or consequential damages, including but not limited to, damages from a loss of profit, revenue, or business. The provisions of the Terms of Use, including but not limited to, disclaimers of warranty limitation of liability and indemnification apply to this Privacy Policy.
CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS/PRIVACY RIGHTS. Companies that collect personally identifiable information from California residents and disclose such information to third parties (including affiliated entities) for marketing purposes must, in response to a request by a consumer, either: (1) provide a list detailing the categories of information shared and the entities to which such information was provided; or (2) provide a mechanism by which a consumer may opt out of having their information shared with third parties. We have elected the second option and therefore you may request that our personally identifiable information not be shared with third parties by sending your request, including your name, email address and postal address to: caPrivacyInfo@mdsconnect.net or by mail to California Privacy Information, c/o MDsConnect, LLC, 4082 Montauk Pointe, Medina, OH 44256. In accordance with California Civil Code Section 1789.3, California resident users are entitled to know that they may file grievances and complaints with California Department of Consumer Affairs, 400 R Street, Suite 1080, Sacramento, CA 95814; or by phone at 916-445-1254 or 800-952-5210; or by email at DCA@DCA.CA.gov.
QUESTIONS/COMPLAINTS/COMMENTS. You may direct any questions, complaints or comments concerning this Privacy Policy to us at the following addresses: MDsConnect, LLC., 4082 Montauk Pointe, Medina, OH 44256

October 1, 2009