At DocWorthy.com, we take your personal privacy seriously. In adopting this privacy policy, our intent is to balance our legitimate business interests in collecting and using your personal information with your reasonable expectations of privacy. The policy may be revised or updated at any time and we encourage you to check back often to ensure that you are familiar with the most recent version and the terms of our policy.

When you use the DocWorthy.com site ("DocWorthy"), you expressly consent to such use and disclosure of your information.

If you have any questions about this policy, we can be contacted at privacy@docworthy.com.

When does DocWorthy.com collect my personal information?

You provide personal information to DocWorthy when you initially register for the community. In addition to personal information we collect at registration, we may also collect techincal information that is in no way personally identifiable. This may include the operating system you are working on, the internet browser you are using, the domain name of your internet service provider, and the web sites you visit directly before and after your visit to DocWorthy.com.

We will also collect transaction information (including without limitation prices, item descriptions, shipping destinations and other transaction-related information) about the listings and transactions you conduct through our site. Without your permission, we do not intend to sell or rent any of your personally identifiable information to third parties. When you voluntarily list equipment for sale, purchase products or services, or enter into transactions with other users or third parties through our site, these parties may be provided with your personally identifiable information and transaction information in connection with such activities and transactions.

We may also use cookies on our site. Cookies are small pieces of information stored on your computer hard drive, not on our site. Among other things, cookies can permit you to enter your password less frequently during a session. Cookies can also help us provide information that is targeted to your interests so that we may focus our resources on features that are the most popular. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, although in that case you may be required to reenter your password multiple times during a session.

If you send us correspondence, such as emails or letters, or if other users or third parties send us correspondence about your use of our services, we may collect such information into a file specific to you. We use information in the file we maintain about you, and other information we obtain from your current and past use of the service, to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems and enforce our user agreement.

How does DocWorthy.com use my personal information?

The DocWorthy.com site is based on geography, providing different pages and "mini-communities" for each of a growing-number of metro areas in the U.S. In order for you to interact with Professional Advisors in a particular metro area, we use your zip code as a key identifier within the site. In the future, to provide even more tailored content, we may also use a doctor's area of specialty as an identifier as well.

In order to promote communication between doctors and professional advisors, we have created a unique DocWorthy email for each user. In order for you to be alerted when you have emails in your DocWorthy account, we will email you at the email address you share with us upon registration. When you sign up for our updates or receive e-mail messages from DocWorthy.com, you will always be given the chance to opt-out of special offers and site updates. You may change your preferences at any time and will only be contacted in manners consistent with your stated preferences.

To reduce the cost of membership for docworthy, we display advertisements on our web site. We also use the information you give us to help our advertisers target the audience they want to reach. At no time does any party other than DocWorthy.com have access to your personally identifiable information, and you will never be contacted by any party other than DocWorthy.com. Non-personally identifiable information (such as stated above) may be shared in aggregate form with our advertisers or marketing partners but your personally identifiable information will never be disclosed to them.

The only exceptions to the foregoing are that we may disclose personally identifiable information (i) in response to legal process, for example, in response to a court order or subpoena, (ii) in response to a law enforcement agency's request, or where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take actions regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of another person, violations of our terms of use, or as otherwise required by law, or (iii) in the event we are acquired by or merged with another company.

If your registration form indicates that you want to receive email updates about DocWorthy, as part of our service we may send to you periodic emails and newsletters containing information about us, updates on new product and service features, product and service usage tips, information about third party services that are likely to be of interest to our customers, and customer satisfaction questions. Right now, we think we will send these emails weekly. You may change your preferences at any time and will only be contacted in manners consistent with your stated preferences.

If your registration form indicates that you want DocWorthy to share your name with advertisers, or if you otherwise expressly indicate to us that you would like to receive information about products and services from third parties, we may disclose your name and email address to these parties. You may change your preferences at any time and will only be contacted in manners consistent with your stated preferences.

When I post to Q&As, forums, message boards, chat rooms, etc. is my information protected?

Any information you disclose voluntarily on electronic storefronts, chat rooms, forums, message boards and/or newsgroups available now or in the future on DocWorthy becomes public information. We cannot control the actions of our site users and advise you to use your discretion in sharing information about yourself on the internet. All information sharing is optional and done so at your own risk. Privacy is a very personal matter and we encourage you to be careful and responsible when disclosing personal information online.

When I email a Professional Advisor?

When you email a Professional Advisor on the DocWorthy system, we will make every effort to keep this communication private, subject to the caveats below. However, it is important that these communications may not be considered "confidential" in terms of how the Professional Advisor can treat them. For example, an email to an attorney on the DocWorthy system may not be protected by the attorney-client privilege. For this reason, we strongly urge you not to divulge private sensitive information in the emails on the DocWorthy system. Use this system as a way to 'reach out' to the Professional Advisor and then contact them directly outside of DocWorthy to discuss sensitive private matters.

Can DocWorthy guarantee non-disclosure?

Unfortunately (and notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this policy), due to the existing regulatory and technical environment, we cannot guarantee that all of your communications and other personally identifiable information will never be disclosed in ways not otherwise described in this Privacy Policy. By way of example (without limiting the foregoing), we may be forced to, or deem appropriate to, disclose information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances, or third parties may unlawfully intercept or access your transmissions or communications. Therefore, although we attempt to use standard practices to protect your privacy, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personally identifiable information or communications will remain private.

What type of security does DocWorthy use?

We currently use standard efforts to safeguard the confidentiality of your personally identifiable information, such as firewalls and SSL technology. These are the same technologies that many websites use to safeguard credit card information and other personal information. However, that said, "perfect security" does not exist on the Internet. Under no circumstances will we have any responsibility or liability of any kind for any breaches of this Privacy Policy.

In order to use SSL security technology, we require that you have either Netscape Navigator version 3.0 or later OR Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 or later OR Safari or Firefox.

Document last updated 2009-08-04 00:00:00