JOURNEYTOTHENEWYOU.COM (Long Island Laparoscopic Doctors) Privacy Policy

Effective Date: August 13, 2024

• Introduction

Welcome and thank you for visiting a website operated by Long Island Laparoscopic Doctors, Dr. Hesham Atawa, Dr. Jon Leung, Dr. Ghaith Khair and Dr. Nicholas Craig (“the Practice,” “we,” “us” or “our”). At the Practice, we take the privacy of our patients and all visitors to our websites seriously. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) informs you how we handle privacy matters and process your Personal Information. Please note that patients of the Practice will be provided with (and are subject to) a separate “HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices” for health information provided to us in the context of the physician-patient relationship. For the purpose of this Policy, “Personal Information” means any Personal Information relating to an identified or identifiable individual. We obtain Personal Information relating to you from various sources described below. “Services” means the provision of our website for general educational information.

• Scope

This Policy applies to the website, https://journeytothenewyou.com/, its subdomains, and all subdomains or portals operated by us that link to this Policy (collectively, the “Site”), and all Personal Information that is shared when you visit the Site or interact online with our Services. By using the Site, you agree to the Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy.

• Information We Collect

Through our Site and our Services, we may receive information that, alone or in combination with other information, could be used to identify an individual, a device, or a household. We may receive information (including Personal Information) in the following ways:

Information That You Provide to Us

When you request information from the Site or interact with our Services, we may receive the following Personal Information from you:

Website Visitors:

• Contact information, such as your first and last name, email address, and telephone number.  (Please do not provide sensitive or confidential information in any webforms or via emails to us through the Site.)
• Consumer information, like your preferences or a consumer profile based on your use of the Site or the Services.
• Insurance information.
• General Health Information, like your gender, height, weight, and generalized medical conditions you may be seeking information about.
• Social media information, such as social media handles, content and other data shared with us through third-party features that you use on our Site and other services (such as apps, tools, payment services, widgets and plug-ins offered by social media services (like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn) that may have referred you to our Site).
• Other information that could reasonably be used to identify you personally or identify your household or device used to access our Site.

Patients:

• All of the above, plus consumer information, like a username, your visit history, your initial inquiries (if through the Site), your preferences, or a consumer profile based on your use of the Site or the Services.
• Insurance or financial information.
• Protected Health Information (as defined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)), like your or your family’s health and medical history, diagnoses, or treatment information, which is further covered by our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices and any disclosures and policies provided to you in-office.

Information Automatically Collected

Like many businesses, we and/or our service providers may automatically collect and/or store certain information when you visit or interact with the Site. This information may be stored and/or accessed from your personal computer, laptop, tablet, mobile phone or other device whenever you visit or interact with our Site. Usage Information may include:

• Your Internet Protocol (IP) address, which is a number automatically assigned to your computer or device whenever you access the Internet and can sometimes be used to derive your general geographic area, and other unique identifiers, including mobile device identification numbers (e.g., IDFA, Android/Google Advertising ID, IMEI, or another unique identifiers);
• Your device functionality (including browser, browser language, operating system, hardware, mobile network information) and characteristics;
• Sites you visited before and after visiting our Site (referring and exit web pages and URLs);
• The areas within the Site that you visit and your activities there, including remembering you and your preferences;
• Your device location or other geolocation information, including the zip code, state or country from which you accessed the Services;
• Information collected through cookies, web beacons, pixels and other technologies;
• Standard server log information; and
• Certain other device data, including the time of day you visit our Site or other information used to provide analytics or other usage information.

Information Collected by Third Parties

The Site may include functionality that allows certain kinds of interactions between the Site and your account on a third-party website or application, for instance, our online store provided through Bariatric Advantage, our newsletter provided through daily.ai, or via links to or from our social media platforms. The use of this functionality may involve the third-party site providing information to us. For example, we might obtain information about the traffic and usage of the Site from third parties. We might also provide links to facilitate sending a communication from the Site, or we may use third parties to facilitate emails or postings to social media (like a “Share” or “Forward” button). These third parties also use cookies and other tracking technologies to capture information about your interactions with the Site. We do not have control over the information that is collected, used, and shared by these third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy statements of these third parties to understand their privacy practices.

Communications

When you send email or other communications to the Practice, we may keep those communications to process your questions, respond to your requests and improve our Site. We may use your email address to communicate with you about our Services.  We request that you do not provide sensitive or confidential information through unsecured email or via the Site.  We may also collect information about your interactions with email messages, such as the links clicked on and whether the messages were received, opened, or forwarded.

• How We Use Information Collected from You

We may use your Personal Information for the following business purposes:

1. To provide the Services or information you requested or products bought from us.
2. To create and verify user accounts.
3. To enhance our products and Services.
4. To operate, maintain, and provide features of the Services.
5. To respond to comments and questions, and otherwise to provide support to users.
6. To understand and analyze the usage trends and preferences of our users and to customize your experience and personalization when you are on our Site.
7. To improve the Services, and to develop new products, services, features, and functionality.
8. To contact you for administrative and informational purposes. This may include providing customer service or sending communications, including changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
9. For marketing purposes, such as developing and providing promotional and advertising materials that may be useful, relevant or valuable.
10. For our business purposes, such as audits, security, compliance with our internal policies, license agreements with content providers;
11. To comply with applicable laws and regulations, including fraud and financial crime monitoring and prevention and to respond to lawful governmental requests, as needed.
12. To enforce our Terms of Use or other legal rights or to maintain appropriate records for business purposes.

• Use Of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies 

We may use various methods and technologies to store or collect Usage Information, record log data, personalize your experience, analyze user trends, provide analytics, and improve the Services (“Tracking Technologies”). Other data technologies may be used that collect comparable information for security and fraud detection purposes.  Tracking Technologies may set, change, alter or modify settings or configurations on your Device. A few of the Tracking Technologies used on the Site, include, but are not limited to, the following (as well as future-developed tracking technology or methods that are not listed here):

• Cookies. A cookie is a file placed on a Device to uniquely identify your browser or to store information on your Device. Our Site may use HTTP cookies, HTML5 cookies and other types of cookie technology to store information on local storage.
• Pixels: A pixel is a small graphic file that allows us and third parties to monitor the use of the Site and provide us with information based on your interaction with the Site.
• Web Beacons. A Web Beacon is a small tag (which may be invisible to you) that may be placed on our Site’s pages and messages.
• Embedded Scripts. An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Site, such as the links you click on.
• ETag, or entity tag. An Etag or entity tag is a feature of the cache in browsers. It is an opaque identifier assigned by a web server to a specific version of a resource found at a URL.
• Browser Fingerprinting. Collection and analysis of information from your Device, such as, without limitation, your operating system, plug-ins, system fonts and other data, for purposes of identification.
• Recognition Technologies. Technologies, including application of statistical probability to data sets, which attempt to recognize or make assumptions about users and devices (e.g., that a user of multiple devices is the same user).

We may use the following types of cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies. These cookies are essential for you to browse the Sites or App and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the site.
• Functionality cookies. Also known as “preference cookies,” these cookies allow the Sites or App to remember choices you have made in the past, like what language you prefer, or what your username and password are so you can automatically log in.
• Analytics cookies. Also known as “performance cookies,” these cookies collect information about how you use a website, like which pages you visited and which links you clicked on. Their purpose is to improve website functions. This includes cookies from third-party analytics services if the cookies are for the exclusive use of the owner of the website visited.
• Advertising cookies. These cookies track your online activity to help advertisers deliver more relevant advertising or to limit how many times you see an ad. These cookies can share that information with other organizations or advertisers. These are persistent cookies and almost always of third-party provenance.

By using the Site, you consent to our use of these Tracking Technologies. You can decide if and how your computer will accept a cookie by configuring your preferences or options in your browser. However, if you choose to reject cookies, you may not be able to use certain online products, services or features on the Website.  For example, we may not be able to recognize your computer or device, and you may need to log in every time you visit. You can get more information about Cookies and Tracking Technologies, and instructions on how to opt out of these items, you may visit All About Cookies.  You may also learn more at the Digital Advertising Alliance or the NAI industry opt-out platform.

We specifically share your information with Google (including YouTube, Google Analytics, Google AdSense), Meta (including Facebook and Instagram) and Vimeo. We use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site. Read more about how Google uses your Personal Information or opt-out of Google Analytics. You have the option to manage Google’s personalized ads by visiting the Google advertising center at https://myadcenter.google.com/?ref=privacy-policy. You can read more about how Meta uses your Personal Information and how to manage your Meta ad preferences.  You can read Vimeo’s privacy policy and information on Vimeo’s video privacy settings.  Please note that depending on your settings, the next time you access our Services the analytics may be reactivated, so you may have to disable the technology each time.

• How We Share Your Personal Information

We may share your Personal Information as follows:

• With our affiliates and subsidiaries for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
• With business partners or advertising partners to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you.
• With our third-party service providers who provide services such as website hosting, data analysis, information technology and related infrastructure provision, customer service, email delivery, auditing, and other Services.
• With a potential or actual acquirer, successor, or assignee as part of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or stock (including in bankruptcy or similar proceedings).
• If required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is appropriate: (a) under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities, including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) to enforce our terms and conditions; (e) to protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you or others; and (g) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

We may also share Personal Information about you with other third parties with your permission. We may use and disclose for any purpose aggregated or anonymized information that does not identify or otherwise relate to an individual, unless we are prohibited from doing so under applicable law.

• Security

The Practice has developed or engaged reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect Personal Information against unauthorized access or misuse. However, the Internet cannot be guaranteed to be fully secure and we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you provide to us. We do not accept liability for unintentional disclosure.

• International Transfers Of Data

This Site is operated in the United States and intended for users in the United States. If you are located in another jurisdiction, please know that your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States. By using this Site and providing us with information, you consent to this transfer, processing and storage of your information in the United States. It is important to note that the privacy laws in the United States may not be as comprehensive as those in other countries such as those in the European Union (“EU”). Our service providers use appropriate safeguards to transfer your Personal Information to the United States.

• Retention Of Personal Information

The Practice will retain your Personal Information only for as long as necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. In most cases, we will only retain Personal Information you provided online for one year. We 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.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers or those of our third-party data storage providers.

• Exercising Your Privacy Rights 

If applicable, you may exercise any of your rights by submitting a verifiable data subject request to us by using the information in the “Contact Us” section below. You may make a request related to your Personal Information or on behalf of someone for which you have authorization. You must include your full name and email address in your request. We may require you to confirm your identity and/or legal standing for the request as well as your residency to obtain the information.

Please note that we will ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests, and we may deny your request if we are unable to verify your identity or authority to make the request.

If you have a concern about our use of your data (and without prejudice to any other rights you may have), please contact us.

• Your Privacy Rights

Depending on the state in which you live, you may be able to exercise the following privacy rights. We will honor requests received to the extent required by applicable law and within the time provided by law.

Depending upon your jurisdiction of residency, you may have the following rights:

• • Right to access.  The right to request that we disclose the following to you, in each case, in the twelve-month period preceding your request:
    • Categories of Personal Information we have collected about you;
    • Categories of sources from which the Personal Information is collected;
    • Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling Personal Information;
    • Categories of third parties with whom we share Personal Information;
    • Specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you;
    • Categories of Personal Information about you, if any, that we have disclosed for monetary or other valuable consideration and the categories of third parties to which we have disclosed the information, by category or categories of Personal Information for each third party to which we disclosed the Personal Information; and
    • Categories of Personal Information about you that we disclosed for a business purpose.

• Right to delete. Subject to certain limitations, the right to delete Personal Information that we collect about you.

• Right to correct. The right to correct Personal Information that we collect about you.

• Right to opt-out. In some states, you have the right to opt out of the processing of your personal data for purposes of (i) targeted advertising, (ii) the sale of personal data, or (iii) profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning the consumer. To exercise this right, please use the information in the Contact Us section below.
• Right to Limit the Use or Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information. In some states, you have the right to limit the use or disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information for reasons other than providing you with the Services. We only use Sensitive Personal Information as necessary to perform the Services you have requested, and we do not use Sensitive Personal Information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about a consumer.

• Right to Non-Discrimination. We may not discriminate against you because you have exercised any of the aforementioned privacy rights, including by denying you goods or services; charging different prices or rates for goods or services; providing you a different level or quality of goods or services; or suggesting that you will receive different price or rate for goods or service or at a different level or quality of goods or services. We do not offer financial incentives for providing us with your Personal Information.

• Children’s Privacy

Our Services and Site are not directed at children under 16 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect or receive Personal Information from minors without parental consent. If we learn that we have received Personal Information from a child who is under 16, we will delete the data. If you believe that we have received Personal Information from a child under the age of 16, you may contact us at the information in the Contact Us section below to request the deletion of that child’s information.

• Do Not Track Signals

Our Site currently does not respond to Do Not Track (“DNT”) signals and operates as described in this Policy, whether or not a DNT signal is received.

• Global Privacy Control

Some browsers and browser extensions support the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”) that can send a signal to the websites you visit indicating your choice to opt-out from certain types of data processing, including data sales. GPC is a web-browser level setting, maintained by either a browser or a browser extension, that is typically set by the user, not the website. In certain regions, when we detect such a signal, we will make reasonable efforts to respect your choices indicated by a GPC setting as required by applicable law.

• Changes To This Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy at any time. We will post all changes to this Privacy Policy on this page and will indicate at the top of the page the modified Policy’s effective date. We therefore encourage you to refer to this page on an ongoing basis so that you are aware of our current privacy Policy. If required by the applicable law, we will notify you if the changes. By continuing to use the Site and/or the Services or providing us with information following such a replacement Policy being uploaded, you agree that you will be deemed to have agreed to be bound by the Privacy Policy as changed.

• Contact Us

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Long Island Laparascopic Doctors

Privacy Officer

4 Technology Drive

Suite 220

East Setauket, NY 11733

Email: info@journeytothenewyou.com

Phone Number: (631) 476-9296