Privacy and Information Security Policy

Effective Date: August 1, 2024

This Privacy and Information Security Policy (the "Policy") discusses the personally identifying information ("PII") that we collect about you when you use our website http://www.AutoimmuneMom.com/ (the "Site"). This Policy applies only to information collected by us or submitted by you through the Site, and not to any information collected or submitted outside of the Site.

Who We Are. We are AutoimmuneMom.com, a division of Camino Real Ventures, Inc.  ("AutoimmuneMom,” “AutoimmuneMom.com” "Site," "we," "us," or "our"). AutoimmuneMom publishes medical or personal stories for the purpose of community building for those who visit the Site. THE WEBSITE IS NOT DESIGNED TO PROVIDE AND SHOULD NOT BE INTERPRETED AS MEDICAL, HEALTHCARE OR CLINICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF YOUR PHYSICIAN OR OTHER QUALIFIED HEALTHCARE PROVIDER WITH ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE REGARDING YOUR HEALTH. NEVER DISREGARD PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY IN SEEKING IT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU READ ON THE WEBSITE. IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY, CALL YOUR DOCTOR OR 911 IMMEDIATELY. [AP1] In conducting our business, we may collect information, including PII, about the individuals who use the Site.

This Policy and the Terms of Use. This Policy is part of and incorporated into AutoimmuneMom Terms of Use (collectively, the "Terms").

BY PROVIDING PII OR OTHER INFORMATION TO US OR BY USING OUR SERVICE, YOU AGREE TO THIS POLICY AND THE PRACTICES DESCRIBED IN THE POLICY.

1. INFORMATION YOU GIVE US

1.1.   We collect any information you enter on the Site. The information that we collect varies depending upon how you use our Site. Our submission process to participate in AutoimmuneMom asks that you provide us with PII such as your name, phone number, address and e-mail address. Our newsletter subscription requires that you provide us with your email address.

2.  AUTOMATIC INFORMATION COLLECTION

2.1.   Cookies. Like many Web sites, we use "cookies". Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser. We use persistent, identifying cookies to remember your information and to link your activities to you. While you can take steps to warn of, block or disable cookies, if you do, the Site may not function and appear as we have designed it. Nonetheless, if you want to take these steps, you can do so by following the instructions associated with your browser. Our cookies do not collect PII that you provide to us during the application process, but they do collect other information such as:

a.         the domain name and host from which you access the Internet and the Internet address of the site from which you direct-linked to ours;

b.        the date and time you access the Site;

c.         your computer's IP address and information about its operating system, platform and the Web browser type and version you use;

d.        demographic and other non-personally identifiable profile information about you; and

e.         information to combat fraud or misuse.

2.2.   Pixel Tags. In our e-mails to you, we use "pixel tags" to determine if your email software or service can display html-formatted e-mail (this helps us optimize the size of our e-mail messages and conserve bandwidth).

2.3.   Collection of Information by Third Parties. Some of the advertisers and other businesses that advertise or place other content our Sit use cookies on our Site and may place a cookie on your computer. The content posted by these businesses will be identified as coming from a third party. In addition, we use third-party advertising companies to serve ads. These companies: 

a.         use information obtained from your visits to this Site and other sites to serve ads to you and 

b.        place unique third-party cookies on your browser. 

3.        Also, we use Web beacons provided by third-party advertising companies to help optimize our advertising. Web beacons enable us to recognize your browser when a cookie has been placed on your computer. Some but not all third-party advertising companies provide a mechanism to opt-out of their technology. For more information and an identification of advertisers that provide an opt-out mechanism, please click here: http://www.networkadvertising.org/consumer/opt_out.asp. The information collected by third party cookies is subject to the privacy policy of the third party, not AutoimmuneMom' privacy policy.[AP2]  OUR USE AND RETENTION OF YOUR INFORMATION

3.1.   Use of PII.
a.         We use your PII for such purposes as responding to your requests; operating the Site and, AutoimmuneMom programs; processing your submission to contribute to AutoimmuneMom; verifying the accuracy of the information you have submitted to us in the submission process; discussing your qualifications and work history with any references you give to us, providing you with advertising and non-advertising content that we believe would be of interest to you[AP3] ; enforcing our rights and the rights of third parties; and investigating and ensuring compliance with the Terms and any other contract to which you and AutoimmuneMom are party.

b.        If you are accepted as a AutoimmuneMom contributor, we may use your personal and biographical information to promote and market the contributions you submit to us. This promotion and marketing may include the public display of your name and other personal information adjacent to your published materials on the Internet.

c.         We also may use your PII to contact you regarding your submission, such as to inform you that we have an assignment in which you may be interested, or to forward to you comments about the content you have provided us. We may also email newsletters and similar communications about the Site, the Writers Program and the Filmmakers Program.

3.2.   Use of Other Information. We use non-PII for purposes such as measuring the number of visitors to our Site, making the Site more useful and delivering targeted advertising and non-advertising content. We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track a user's movement, and gather broad demographic information for non-personally identifiable use.

3.3.   Retention of Information. We retain information for as long as required, allowed or we believe it useful, but do not undertake retention obligations. We may dispose of information in our discretion without notice, subject to applicable law that specifically requires the handling or retention of information. You must keep your own, separate back-up records.

4.        OUR SHARING OF INFORMATION
We share information with third parties, but only as described in this Section 4.

4.1.   Advertisers and Others. We share non-personally identifiable information with advertisers, service providers, and other persons with whom we conduct business. If you are accepted as an AutoimmuneMom contributor, we may provide your personally identifiable information to our content distribution partners. [AP4] 

4.2.   Service Third Parties. We contract with affiliated and non-affiliated third parties to provide services to us or to you on our behalf. Examples include providing marketing assistance, sending email to you, performing tax reporting duties, and analyzing data. These third parties have access to personal information needed to perform their functions.

4.3.   Business Transfer. As we develop our business, we might sell or buy businesses or their assets, or engage in acquisitions, mergers, restructurings, changes of control, or similar transactions. In such transactions, customer and user information generally is one of the transferred business assets, and your PII is subject to such a transfer. Also, in the unlikely event of a bankruptcy, customer and user information may be transferred to a bankruptcy trustee or debtor in possession and then to a subsequent purchaser.

4.4.   Affiliates. We may share PII, non-PII and other information with our corporate affiliates. Some of our most significant affiliates may be identified on the website of our parent company, Camino Real Ventures, Inc. (www.caminorealventures.com). Corporate affiliates are those entities that we control, are controlled by us, or are under common control with us and any joint venture in which any of the controlled entities may participate from time to time. Any use of your information by our corporate affiliates is subject to this Policy or another policy no less protective of your privacy. Likewise, we may obtain information about you from our corporate affiliates or from your visits to other web sites that we or our corporate affiliates control. We may share information about you with our corporate affiliates and our corporate affiliates may share information with us using cookie or any other available technology.

4.5.   Compliance and Safety. We may release PII when we believe release is appropriate to:

a.         comply with applicable law, and to respond to legal process, including subpoenas, search warrants and court orders, and to respond to or otherwise address written complaints of copyright infringement;

b.        make disclosures under programs intended to prevent potential crimes or investigate persons;

c.         enforce or apply agreements, including the Terms; or

d.        protect the rights, property, or safety of AutoimmuneMom, our users, or others, including exchanging information with other companies for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

4.6.   Promotions, Sweepstakes, and Contests. [AP5] From time to time, we may host a promotion, sweepstake or contest on the Site. You may be asked to provide personal information or permit the transfer to a third party of your personal information in connection with such promotion, sweepstake or contest. It will be disclosed at the point of collection or transfer who is collecting or transferring the information and whose privacy statement applies, and it will be your choice whether or not you wish to permit such transfer to or collection of personal information by a third party.

5.        INFORMATION SECURITY

5.1.   Your Obligations. You must protect against unauthorized access to your computer. Please sign off when finished using a shared computer. Your emails to us are not necessarily secure against interception so be careful about including sensitive information in them. YOU MUST DO WHAT YOU REASONABLY CAN TO ENSURE THE SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.

5.2.   Our Security Measures. We have physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to help safeguard, prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use your information. HOWEVER, WE DO NOT GUARANTEE SECURITY. Neither people nor security systems are foolproof, including encryption systems. In addition, people can commit intentional crimes, make mistakes or fail to follow policies. If applicable law imposes any non-disclaimable duty (if any), you agree that the standard used to measure our compliance with that duty will be one of intentional misconduct.

6.        LINKS

The Site contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our Site and to read the privacy statements of every web site that collects your personally identifiable information. This Policy applies only to information collected by the Site.

7.        CHOICE

We reserve the right to send you customary business communications such as acceptance/rejection notices regarding content submissions, general system and administrative messages, address confirmations, and transactional information about the Site, and we may not offer you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving such communications. However, we provide you with the opportunity to elect not to receive other types of communications, such as newsletters. If you want to stop receiving these communications, we will provide you with an opt-out mechanism such as an "unsubscribe" tab on emails we send you.

8.        CONDITIONS OF USE, NOTICES, AND REVISIONS

8.1.   Privacy Concerns. Your use of the Site and any dispute over privacy is subject to the Terms. If you have any concern about privacy at AutoimmuneMom, please send us a thorough description to info@autoimmunemom.com, and we will try to resolve it. If you think we are in default of the Terms, you may contact us at Our Legal Notices Address in Section 10 below.

8.2.   Notice Required by Law. In those jurisdictions that permit email notice, if we are required to disclose or provide notice of invasion of certain security systems, we will do so by email to the most current email address provided by you to us. It is critical that you keep your email contact information correct and updated with us at all times.

8.3.   Identity Theft. If you believe that you are a victim of identity theft entitled by law to request information from us, write us at our Legal Notice address (see Section 10 of this Policy) and we will let you know what additional information you must provide to us. After we have received that information, we will supply without charge the information legally required to be disclosed that we then have, subject to applicable law and reserving all of our rights and defenses.

9.        TRANSFERS OVERSEAS

9.1.   This Section 9 applies to users of the Site who are UK residents.

9.2.   Your PII may be transferred outside of the European Economic Area to us for processing.

9.3.   Because protecting your privacy is important to us, we adhere to the Safe Harbor Agreement concerning the transfer of personal data from the European Union ("EU") to the United States of America. Accordingly, we follow the Safe Harbor Principles published by the U.S. Department of Commerce ("Principles") with respect to all PII that we receive from the UK. If there is any conflict between this Privacy Policy and the Principles, the Principles will govern with respect to PII from the UK. This Privacy Policy outlines our practices for implementing the Principles, including the types of information we receive, how we use it, and the choices users of our Site from the UK have regarding our use of, and their ability to correct, that information. This privacy statement applies to all PII we receive from the UK (except as noted below). For purposes of this privacy statement, PII includes information that:

a.         is transferred from the EU to the United States;

b.        is recorded in any form;

c.         is about, or pertains to, a specific individual; and

d.        can be linked to that individual.

9.4.   It does not include information that pertains to a specific individual, but from which that individual could not reasonably be identified. We utilize the self-assessment approach to assure our compliance with this Privacy Policy. We periodically verify that the Privacy Policy is accurate, comprehensive for the information intended to be covered, prominently displayed, completely implemented, and in conformity with the Principles. We encourage interested persons to raise any concerns with us using the contact information below. We will investigate and attempt to resolve complaints and disputes regarding use and disclosure of personal information in accordance with the Principles.

10.     CONTACT INFORMATION AND INFORMATION ABOUT ENFORCEMENT OF OUR POLICY

Contacting Us & Our Address for Legal Notices; Notices to You. For customer service matters (including questions relating to this Policy), please email AutoimmuneMom Help Desk: info@autoimmunemom.com. To send us a legal notice, mail it by certified mail (return receipt requested) to: AutoimmuneMom.com, a division of Camino Real Ventures, Inc., Legal Department, 3112 Windsor Rd., Box 203, Austin, TX 78703. 

When we need to contact you, including when we give a legal notice, we may do so to an email address that we have on file for you, or we may post notice on the Site. You must keep your email address information accurate. If we make a material change to this Policy, we will notify you via email or by posting notice to the Site for at least 30 days and, if you have provided us with your email address as part of the contributor application process, sending you an email to the email address that we have on record for you.

AutoimmuneMom and AutoimmuneMom.com are trademarks or registered trademark of Camino Real Ventures, Inc. in the United States and other countries.