Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy outlines Health Hook’s policy for gathering, utilizing, storing, sharing, and safeguarding your personal information. It is applicable to the healthhook.ca website, referred to as “Health Hook” or the “Site,” as well as all associated services and tools (“Services”) referencing this policy. This policy is inclusive of all methods of accessing the Services, including through mobile devices.

By using Health Hook and its Services, you explicitly grant consent to Health Hook for the collection, use, disclosure, and retention of your personal information as outlined in this Privacy Policy, our Cookie Policy, and our Terms & Conditions.

Who We Are

Our website address is: https://healthhook.ca.

At Health Hook, we are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring the security of your personal information. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and manage your data when you interact with our directory.

The Information We Collect & How It Is Used

We collect personal information when you register, use our services, or communicate with us. This includes details such as your name, contact information, and preferences. When you decide to use our Services, you agree that such information is sent to and stored on our servers.

Automatically Collected Information: 

With or without registering for a user account, when you visit our Site, use our Services and/or reply to listings, comments or other content, we automatically collect the information sent to us by your access device (e.g. computer, mobile device). The data collected from your interaction with our Site and Services, includes, but is not limited to:

  • Device connection & ID information, geolocation information, page views statistics, traffic to/from www.healthhook.ca, ad data, IP address, standard web log information; and
  • Information we collect through cookies and similar technologies. 

Information Provided By You:

When you engage with our Site and/or Services, we collect and store personal information for specific tasks, such as when someone:

  • Registers for a user account they provide information to create a profile such as full name and/or username, email address, address, profile photo and other personal or professional contact information;
  • Creates a directory listing they include required information (such as full name, work address, business name, profession) and optional information (such as work details, availability, services offered, business hours);
  • Submits or replies to comments on a listing, article or blog post;
  • Contacts a listing owner in the directory via direct messaging (note that we do not retain the contents of your messages);
  • Makes a listing subscription purchase using our checkout process (payment information is submitted directly to credit card processors with their own privacy and security policies);
  • Provides additional information through third party Services; 
  • Gives information in the context of dispute resolution, correspondence through our Site or correspondence that is sent to us; 
  • Shares information about their location and/or the location of their device (including unique device identifying information) if enabled on their device

We use this collected information for the sole purpose and intention to provide the services you request when interacting with our website and on the basis of our legitimate business interests. Information may be shared with other users and/or third parties only to deliver requested services (e.g. enabling you to contact a listing owner, for payment processing when subscribing to a listing plan, Google Maps for address map displays, etc), maintaining confidentiality otherwise. Additionally, your information allows us to communicate with you, enhance your user experience, improve our offerings, and protect against fraud or misuse.

We recommend that you consider how you share your personal information with others. You are solely responsible for the personal information you share through our Site and therefore we cannot guarantee the privacy or security of the information shared by you with other users.

In case you visit our Site from a shared computer or devices, we strongly recommend that you log off after each session. If you do not want the shared computer to remember you and/or your credentials, you will need to remove cookies and/or the history of your website visits.

Information From Third Parties: 

We may receive or collect additional information about you from third parties such as website statistics via Google Analytics and add this to our account information. Unless explicitly indicated otherwise in this policy, this Privacy Policy applies only to the use and transfer of information Health Hook collects from you. Health Hook has no control over the privacy policies of these third parties. When we work with third parties or use third party tools to provide certain services, we will explicitly indicate which privacy policy applies to you. We therefore encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.

Transfer of your personal information to third parties: 

We may disclose your personal information to third parties in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable legislation and regulations. As further described, we will not disclose your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent. We may share your personal information with:

  • Service providers with whom Health Hook has entered into an agreement to help provide our Services, such as payment service providers PayPal & Stripe), marketing agencies, advertising-related providers, and technical support. In such cases, the personal information shall remain under the control of Health Hook. If you are adding a listing, your listing or business address may be displayed on a map in your ads via Google Maps API and therefore transferred to Google (refer to their Privacy Notice). 
  • Certain third parties (such as intellectual property rights holders, supervising authorities, tax authorities, police and other regulatory authorities) if we are required to do so by law, or in accordance with our Privacy Policy. We may share your personal information:
    • If necessary to comply with legal obligations or a court order; or
    • if required for the prevention, detection or prosecution of criminal offenses, such as fraud, deceit or prosecution, or
    • if required to maintain our policies or to protect the rights and freedoms of others.
  • other third parties to whom you have given consent to share your information via Health Hook;

In addition to the above, we will also, in our commitment to respect your privacy and keep Health Hook free of malicious persons or parties – not disclose your personal information to third parties without a court order or formal request from the government in accordance with applicable law, unless we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to prevent impending injury or financial damages or to report alleged illegal activities.

Further specifics regarding the information we collect from you and how we use it:

User Account & Profile Data

We collect information about you during the account (profile) registration process on our site, updating this information whenever a user edits their profile. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, email address, phone number, address, IP and any other details that might be requested from you for the purpose of building your user profile. Except for their username, all users can see, edit, or delete their provided account information from their user account dashboard. Users can also make adjustments to their privacy settings from here. Website administrators can also see and edit user account information. Any profile information provided to this site may be displayed publicly. We do this on the basis of our legitimate business interests

Handling this data allows us to:

  • Send you important account/order/service information;
  • Display your information in a public facing manner (such as on your user profile page);
  • Allow website users to search and view submitted information;
  • Respond to your queries or complaints;
  • Set up and administer your account;
  • Provide technical and/or customer support;
  • Authenticate your identity & prevent spam users.

Listings

Unless indicated otherwise, the information you choose to include on your directory listing is publicly available, visible, and read by others using the website and as such, this information cannot be treated confidentially. We collect information about you during the initial sign-up process on our site. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, IP address, email address, phone number, address, location details, and any other details that might be requested from you for the purpose of adding your business/personal listings. Do not add any information to your listing that you do not wish to be publicly visible- note particular considerations for mobile providers working from their home address, personal phone numbers, etc)

Handling this data allows us to:

  • Display this information in a public facing manner (such as a listing web page or map API request) and allow website users to search and view your submitted listing information;
  • Send you important account/order/service information;
  • Provide a way for users to contact you via the provided contact information;
  • Notify you of user interactions such as but not limited to comments and contact notifications;
  • Respond to your queries or complaints;
  • Set up and administer your account, provide technical and/or customer support, and verify your identity. We do this on the basis of our legitimate business interests.

Comments

Comments can be viewed by all users and visitors. While we can remove comments upon request, we cannot guarantee this information will be made unavailable on other servers. If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

When users leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, email address, IP address, website URL, image(s), and comment texts.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. 

Handling this data also allows us to:

  • Display this information in a public facing manner (such as the comments section on a listing or blog article).
  • Notify you of interactions such as approval or rejection of your comment.
  • Notify you of user interactions such as reply notifications.
  • Prevent spam.

Note: All comments are visible to the public which can include directory browsers, listing owners, registered and unregistered users, third parties and others accessing the site. It is strongly recommended that you do not include personal, sensitive, confidential or identifying information in the comments- this information will not be treated as confidential and will be accessible to all who access the Site.

Marketing & Personalization

We will not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent. 

When you no longer wish to receive marketing communications from us, you can, where applicable, change your preferences, or follow the unsubscribe link in the marketing emails or newsletters you receive.

Advertising

You can change your preference at any time if you do not wish to participate in personalized advertising using your information or tracking programs. You can do so by following the directions provided within the applicable advertisement and/or by adjusting your cookies settings. Advertisements will still be shown to you, however the ads you see will not be personalized for you by means of cookies or similar technologies.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

Like many sites, we use cookies to personalize your experience and provide certain functionalities. However, we do not use cookies to acquire personally identifying information unless it is provided by you. Note that opting out of cookies may restrict certain features and functionalities.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

For further information on how we use cookies and similar technologies in your browsing experience, you can view our Cookies Policy. By using our services, you consent to our use of cookies as described in this policy.

This website uses the Privacy Suite for WordPress by Complianz to collect and record Browser and Device-based Consent for cookies. For this functionality, your IP address is anonymized and stored in our database. This service does not process any personally identifiable information and does not share any data with the service provider. For more information, see the Complianz Privacy Statement.

Contact Forms

We may collect information about you when you submit a contact form. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, email address, IP address and contact texts.

Handling this data also allows us to:

  • Send your contact message and details to the contact email;
  • Monitor the contact system for spam and abuse.

Claiming Listings

We collect information about you during the claim listing process on our site. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, email address, phone number, position in the business and any other details that might be requested from you for the purpose of verifying you have the authority to claim and manage the listing.

Handling this data also allows us to:

  • Verify that you have the authority to manage the claimed listing;
  • Make you the owner of the claimed listing which can make your name and avatar visible to the public;
  • Contact you to inform you if your claim has been approved or rejected.

Invoices & Checkout

We collect information about you during the checkout process on our site. This information may include, but is not limited to, your name, email address, phone number, address, IP and any other details that might be requested from you for the purpose of processing your payment and retaining your invoice details for legal reasons.

Handling this data also allows us to:

  • Send you important account/invoice/service information;
  • Estimate taxes based on your location;
  • Respond to your queries or complaints;
  • Process payments and prevent fraudulent transactions;
  • Retain historical payment and invoice history. We do this on the basis of legal obligations;
  • Set up and administer your account, provide technical and/or customer support, and verify your identity. We do this on the basis of our legitimate business interests.

We share information with third parties who help us provide our payment and invoicing services to you. For example, we accept payments using PayPal & Stripe third party services. When processing payments, some of your data will be passed to PayPal & Stripe, including information required to process or support the payment, such as the purchase total and billing information.

Please see the PayPal Privacy Policy and Stripe Privacy Policy for more details.

In addition to collecting information at checkout we may also use and store your contact details when manually creating invoices for required payments relating to contractual agreements or agreed terms. You understand that your content (not including credit card information), may be transferred unencrypted and involve (a) transmissions over various networks; and (b) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices. Credit card information is always encrypted during transfer over networks.

Site Statistics

Similar to many other websites, we keep track site usage to assess our users’ engagement with different sections of the website. This includes monitoring pages viewed, the duration of visits, and types of web browsers utilized. To ensure individual user anonymity, data is analyzed in aggregate form. 

Embedded Content From Other Websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Further provisions on how we use your information

In addition to the mentioned use cases, you agree that we may use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • to prevent, detect and investigate potentially prohibited or illegal activities, fraud and security breaches and to enforce our Terms & Conditions; 
  • to personalize, measure and improve our Services, content and ads; 
  • to contact you via email to inquire about our Services and for the purpose of targeted marketing, updates, and promotional offers based on your message preferences (where applicable), or for any other purposes as set forth in this Privacy Policy; 
  • to provide you with other services by you, as described when we collect the information 

Your Data Rights

Accessing or obtaining a copy of your information

If you have an account on the Site and/or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You may also access your personal account information by logging into your Health Hook account. Alternatively, you can also contact us to request or obtain a copy of your personal information stored by us (including favourites & comments), unless we are not required to provide access or a copy under applicable law. We may charge a fee to compensate costs; however the fee shall not exceed the amount permitted by law. 

Your privacy choices

You can manage your preferences, access, update, or delete your information through your account dashboard settings or by contacting us.

Rectifying your information

If your information is factually incorrect or incomplete or irrelevant for the purposes for which we process your information, you may request that we rectify your information by contacting us. Such requests will be handled in accordance with applicable law. 

Changing your information

Except for your username, you can modify your own information by logging into your Health Hook account. When you add a listing to the directory, you can at any time edit, remove, change and update all information it contains including personal information such as your name, contact information, address, email address and other information via your Account Dashboard. 

Deleting your information

You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you including deletion of your account. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

There are various options for removing and deleting your listing and/or account information from the Site. Listing owners may request any of the following by contacting us:

  • Listing removal from public visibility on the Site
    • You may request listing removal by anytime. Upon receipt and processing of the request, listings will be placed in “draft mode”. A listing in draft mode is only visible to the listing owner privately from their user account. All information contained in the listing remains intact and accessible from their user account and is available for future editing, reinstatement and publication to the Site. 
  • Complete listing removal and permanent deletion from the Site
    • The listing, including its contained information and any associated comments, is erased from the Site. The listing owner’s user account and profile remains intact and accessible.
  • Complete user account deletion.
    • All listings associated with the user account are irreversibly erased.
    • All comments left by the user on listings, articles, and other site pages are anonymized- this means any identifying information is removed. Unless full erasure is requested at time of account deletion, we preserve the user’s comments in their original locations. This ensures that directory users can continue to benefit from the insights, opinions, and contributions made by the user to the Health Hook community.
    • All user profile and account information and access is deleted- including but not limited to profile settings, account history including payments made, and other information.

We will process all requests within a reasonable period of time and in accordance with applicable law. Please be aware we cannot guarantee that any information deleted or erased from our sire is no longer accessible from servers maintained by third parties or that others have not already retrieved and stored such information.

Protection & Retention of Your Data

We protect your information by using technical and administrative security measures (such as firewalls, data encryption, physical and administrative access controls) that limit the risk of loss, abuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, and alteration. If you believe your account or information has been abused, please contact us.

We use reCAPTCHA on our Site to help detect and prevent fraud, spam and abuse. This tool collects information about your hardware and software (such as device or application data) and sends it to Google to run and improve the tool, as well as for general security purposes. Please note that your use of reCAPTCHA is subject to Google’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. 

We retain personal information no longer than is legally permissible and delete personal information when it is no longer necessary for the purposes as described above.

Withdrawing Consent

You have the right to opt-out of certain uses and disclosures of your personal information, and may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us. 

Requests are subject to certain exceptions, and therefore may not be applicable in instances where we need to retain the information:

(i) under applicable law or to preserve our rights, 

(ii) as required to deter and identify potential fraud, spam, criminal activity or other suspicious behaviour, 

(iii) as reasonably required to keep records of your request and/or services provided, 

(iv) if related to previously deleted listings or replies (which information, subject to (i)-(iii), may still be in the process of being deleted).

Abuse and Spam

We do not tolerate abuse of our Site. You do not have permission to add other Health Hook users to mailing lists (e-mail or postal) for any purpose, even if a user has purchased something from you, unless the user has given their explicit consent. If you notice that someone is abusing our Site (for example sending spam or spoof emails), please notify us.

It is not allowed to use the directory’s email messaging system to send spam or content that violates our Terms & Conditions in any way. To monitor this, we may scan messages automatically and check for spam, viruses, phishing and other malicious activity or illegal or prohibited content. We do not permanently store messages sent through these resources.

Changes

Health Hook may change this Privacy Policy from time to time- we advise you to revisit it regularly. Substantial changes to our Privacy Policy will be announced on our Site and/or via email notification. Any changes made to the Privacy Policy are effective as of its most recent updated date (referenced as the bottom of the page).

Despite our efforts to protect your privacy, we cannot guarantee complete confidentiality. In compliance with legal processes or as required by law, we may disclose information. We reserve the right to update this policy in accordance with the Terms & Conditions on our website. 

For further information or inquiries regarding our Privacy Policy, please contact us.

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