This Privacy Policy governs your use of all services provided by the M3 USA Group. Please read these terms carefully before using any M3 Service.

M3 USA Corporation and its subsidiary companies ("Company", "we", "us" or "our") grant you permission as a user ("User", "you" or "your") to access and use our sites, software, applications, content, products and services ("Services"), which are owned or licensed by us and any other sites we may own or control now or in the future, including, but not limited to, www.mdlinx.com, research.m3.com, www.m3globalresearch.com, www.m3executivesearch.com, www.practicematch.com, www.themedicusfirm.com, www.profilesdatabase.com, www.neprc.com, www.boardexamprep.com, www.medconferencecoverage.com and www.clinicaltrialslocator.com (collectively, the "Sites"). These terms govern your use of the Sites and our provision of the Services on which these terms are posted. PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING ANY M3 SERVICES.

The privacy of our users on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. Since M3 its related network of Sites and Services gather certain types of information about our users, we feel that you should completely understand the conditions and terms surrounding the gathering and use of information about those using our Sites and services. This Privacy Policy Statement divulges what information we gather, how we use it, and how to correct, change, or remove it. The Services made available through M3 may be provided in a variety of media and devices now known or hereinafter developed including mobile applications, and include without limitation news, reference tools, and applications, sponsored programming, personalized content, continuing medical education, communication tools and discussion boards.

I. YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS OF USE

This Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use apply each time you access the Sites or use the Services. When you access the Sites or use the Services, you accept this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use as if you had signed them, and you consent to our collecting and using your information as described in this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use, you may not access the Sites or use the Services.

We may revise or terminate these Terms of Use or our Privacy Policy at any time, without notice to you. You are responsible for reviewing these Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy regularly. Your access of the Sites or use of any of the Services following the posting of changes to these Terms of Use or our Privacy Policy means you agree to abide by those changes. Any questions regarding our Privacy Policy or Terms of Use should be directed to M3 at [email protected].

This Privacy Policy was last revised on March 21st, 2017.

II. INFORMATION WE COLLECT VIA OUR SITES

Information We Collect from Unregistered Visitors

You must register to access our full Services; however, you may be able to access certain limited areas of the Sites without disclosing any personally identifiable information. We will collect non-personally identifiable information, i.e. information that is not traced back to any individual and is not used on its own to identify an individual.

Even if you have not registered, M3 will collect such data including: the referring website, if applicable, the type of browser you use, the time and date that you accessed the Services, the pages you visited and viewed throughout our Sites, and what computers responded to a market research survey. Taken in aggregate, this information enables us to better develop and fund the Services, provide content, and respond to our users' needs. We will explain how this is done in the "Information Collected through Tracking Technology" section of this Privacy Policy.

Information We Collect from Registered Users

Account Registration: You must register to access our full Services. When you register for the Services, you are asked to provide identifying information such as your name, email address, zip code and other professional information, e.g. specialty and profession. Additional information may be requested, which may be required to access some Services. We may collect additional information about registered users from third party sources to assist us in providing the Services. For example, we may use such third party sources to verify and update registration information and confirm licensure status.

Information We Collect through Services We Offer

Electronic Newsletters: The Services may include free electronic newsletters sent to users to provide specific information on the appropriate or selected topics. We must gather the email addresses of users who register for and voluntarily subscribe to said Services. You may remove yourself from a mailing list at any time by following the instructions provided at the end of every newsletter.

Other Promotions: By registering with our Service(s) you agree that we may send you email regarding information specific to such Service(s), surveys, or other opportunities that involve M3 Services. We must gather the email addresses of users to register for said Services. You may remove yourself from a mailing list at any time by terminating the Service.

Market Research: Registered users of the Services may opt-in to receive offers to participate in market research studies offered by M3. From time to time, registered users may also be invited to participate in a sponsored or unsponsored market research study through an email invitation, on-site popup or some other means. In order to participate in any such survey, you will be required to agree to additional terms and conditions as part of the opt-in process.

Furthermore, in addition to providing your responses to the survey questions you may be asked to provide personally identifiable information that may be combined with information that you have already provided at registration or that we have received from a third party source. These studies are intended to give specific anonymous feedback to third parties as described in the "IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT CONSENT" section of this Privacy Policy.

Reporting Compensation and Tax Information: If you participate in a survey that pays compensation, M3 may have an obligation to report such payments. By participating in a market research survey, you are permitting us to disclose your earned compensation as appropriate to comply with all laws and other reporting requirements. In addition, IRS regulations prevent us from paying individuals in excess of $600 in any given tax year without valid tax information. If tax information is not provided within 12 months after completing a survey, compensation above $600 in any tax year is forfeited.

Industry Sponsored Programs: From time to time, registered users may be invited to participate in industry-sponsored programs and other industry-supported events and offers. Registered users who participate agree that their name, specialty, profession, and the content they participate in along with their answers to any questions to which they choose to respond, can be shared with the industry sponsor. Registered users may cease participating in these programs at any time.

We do not control the practices of the advertisers on their sites. When you click on links and/or ad banners that take you away from our Sites to third-party websites, you will be subject to that party's privacy policies. We encourage you to read the posted privacy policy statement whenever interacting with any website. If you have questions about how one of our advertisers uses information about you when you click their ad, visit their site and view their content, please contact them directly.

Discussion Lists: Discussion lists may be available through the Services. Use of discussion lists requires separate opt-in and additional registration and agreement to the terms and conditions for this Service. Subscribing to any other Service does not also subscribe users to affiliated discussion lists. You may remove yourself from a discussion list at any time by following the instructions provided.

Category 2 CME Recorder: This tool may be available through the Services. It collects your usage of select Category 2 CME-appropriate content, such as the date and time you read an article summary or took a quiz, and the length of time you spent on a quiz. These data are used to create a customized report that is available to you upon your request.

Additional Forms and Emails: We may also ask you to provide additional information after you register if you want to obtain additional services or information, or to resolve complaints or concerns.

III. INFORMATION COLLECTED THROUGH TRACKING TECHNOLOGY

M3 collects information about your activity on the Sites and through our advertisements using technologies such as cookies, including third-party cookies, web beacons and server log files.

Usage Tracking
M3 uses traffic analysis software on our servers to track user traffic patterns throughout the Services. M3 uses this data to break down overall usage statistics according to IP address, domain name, browser type, and MIME type by reading this information from the data automatically sent by the browser whenever a web page is requested. Additionally, solely in connection with your voluntary participation in a market research study or screening, your computer may (i) be tracked by digital fingerprinting or watermarking to help ensure unique responders to a survey, and (ii) accessed to assess browser compatibility and/or video cam usability.

Cookies
A cookie is a small text file placed in your computer's browser to store your preferences. A cookie can be accessed only by the server that originally created the cookie. A cookie cannot store or send back any information to us that you have not specifically and voluntarily provided while on a Site, or that is not among the information mentioned above that is contained in every user's browser (e.g., domain name, browser type). Cookies do not contain personally identifiable information; however, once you choose to furnish a Site with personally identifiable information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.

M3 uses cookies to monitor and manage Service development and delivery, and potentially to permit greater personalization of the Service based on your preferences and specifications. We may assign cookies to devices that access our Services to help us dynamically generate advertising and content to users of the Services. Our Sites may also contain third-party cookies from advertising partners who help serve ads for M3 and other third parties on the Sites and elsewhere on the web.

Web Beacons
M3 and our third party business partners may also use "web beacons" or clear .gifs, or similar technologies, which are small pieces of code placed on a web page, to monitor the behavior and collect data about the visitors viewing a web page. For example, web beacons may be used to count the users who visit a web page or to deliver a cookie to the browser of a visitor viewing that page.

We and our third party business partners use the information automatically generated by cookies and web beacons, as well as other information that we or they have, to provide you with an optimal website experience. This includes measuring the effectiveness of our ads and your interactions them, and tailoring offers and advertisements to you for products or services you may find helpful on the Sites and third-party sites.

At this time, the Sites do not recognize automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include "do not track" instructions. However, you can change your privacy preferences regarding the use of cookies and similar technologies through your browser. You may set your browser to accept all cookies, block certain cookies, require your consent before a cookie is placed in your browser, or block all cookies. If your browser is set to block cookies, websites that are cookie-enabled will not recognize you when you return to the website, and some website functionality may be lost. The Help section of your browser will tell you about your options for managing your cookies.

IV. HOW WE USE INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We retain and use the information we collect about you as follows:
  • To provide our Services to you, to communicate with you about your use of our Services, to respond to your inquiries, and for other customer services purposes.
  • To tailor the content and information that we may send or display to you, to offer location customization, and personalized help and instructions, and to otherwise personalize your experience while using the Site or Services.
  • To understand how users access and use our Site and Services, both on an aggregated and individualized basis, in order to improve our Site and the Services and respond to desires and preferences.
  • To personalize content and recommendations and to send marketing and other promotional information about jobs and other products and services in which we think you might be interested.
  • As necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements (including this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use), to protect or defend our rights, to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, and situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person.
  • We may also use aggregate or de-identified information about users for other marketing, research and other purposes as further described in the "INFORMATION SHARING AND DISCLOSURES" section of this Privacy Policy.
V. INFORMATION SHARING AND DISCLOSURES

Except as described in this Privacy Policy or as specifically agreed to by you, we will not disclose to any third party personally identifiable information we gather from you through the Sites.

"No-Spam" Policy
Your email address will not be sold to a third party if you sign up to be included on our email distribution list. Our periodic email distributions include emails announcing job openings, email newsletters, discussion lists, market research programs, quiz programs, and information about other Services. You may opt out or unsubscribe at any time.

Aggregate Data
We aggregate data from registered and unregistered users for use in Service funding, analysis, development and delivery. Aggregate usage information provided to third parties or used to deliver services (e.g., advertising) to third parties allows us to keep our services free to users. Aggregated information is pooled from many individual records and stripped of any data that could be used to identify an individual. Information collected in the registration process is never shared with third parties in a personally identifiable way, except, as identified in this Privacy Policy, when you elect to participate in industry-sponsored programs.

Marketing and Advertising
M3 may target Services, advertising, and marketing (e.g. email and website communications) based on information that you provide when you register for the Services, information that M3 receives from third party sources, and on your history of usage of the Services or other personal information that you provide to M3. For example, a user that registers with oncology as his/her specialty, or frequently uses oncology-related Services, or informs M3 that oncology is a significant component of his/her practice may be served oncology-related advertisements and invitations to participate in oncology-related sponsored programs, on both M3 and third party Services.

Third Parties
In addition to aggregate information, we may share some kinds of personally identifiable information with third parties as described below.

Your Credit Card Information: If you purchase a subscription offered through one of our Services, you will have to provide financial information such as your credit/debit card number, expiration date, CVV2 code, payee name, and billing address. This information is used for billing purposes and to fulfill your order. To properly process your credit/debit card information, we must share your personal and financial information with the merchant bank for authorization and approval. We do not share your personal and financial information with any third parties, except those specified in this policy.

Advertisers: When you are exposed to an advertisement through the Services (whether on the Sites or in an email, mobile ad or another Service), M3 may provide your personal information (such as name, specialty, NPI number, and country of residence) and information about your engagement with the Services (e.g., whether you viewed, interacted with or requested information about promotional content) to advertisers and/or such advertisers' agents as well as to potential advertisers and their agents. Additionally, when you become a registered user of the Services, we may provide your personal information to potential advertisers and their agents.

We will NEVER provide these Advertisers with your personal contact information such as email, phone number or mailing address without your consent.

We are not responsible for how these third parties use your information and manage your privacy. We do not control the practices of the advertisers on their sites. When you click on links and/or ad banners that take you away from our Site to third-party websites, you will be subject to that party's privacy policies. We encourage you to read the posted privacy policy statement whenever interacting with any website. If you have questions about how one of our advertisers uses information about you when you click their ad, visit their site and view their content, please contact them directly.

Market Research Studies: From time to time, we may invite you via e-mail to participate in sponsored or unsponsored market research studies. When you agree to participate in a study, you agree to share with M3 personally identifiable information, such as your name, email address, zip code and professional information. Generally, these studies provide specific feedback using aggregated, de-identified data to third parties used to analyze trends and statistics for medical marketing, research, and development purposes, and neither your identity nor your specific feedback is shared with third parties. However, under the following circumstances, your identity may be shared with third parties and/or associated with specific feedback: (i) when we have your consent, (ii) when we match user information with such third party's data, and (iii) when we believe in good faith that the law requires it. In all circumstances, the privacy of our panel members is protected, and if such sharing is permitted or required, your answers and identity will remain confidential. Please review the "IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT CONSENT" section of this Privacy Policy for additional information.

In participating with our studies, you have the option to provide us with information that you report about yourself through our surveys ("Self-Reported Information"). For example, you may provide us with information about your ethnicity, disease conditions (e.g. Type 2 Diabetes), other health-related information related to the objective of the study.

Industry Sponsored Programs: Registered users may be asked to engage in industry-sponsored information programs from time to time in accordance with the Terms of Use and additional terms and conditions (if any). Examples of Sponsored Programs include custom-developed emails or web-based information resources featuring branded or unbranded commercial content, or interactive programs that provide information about medical conditions, treatments and products. Other types of Sponsored Programs may be made available to you through the Services via emails and website communications.

Members who participate agree that their name, specialty, profession, the questions they read, and the answers they provide can be shared with the industry sponsor. When you choose to engage in a Sponsored Program, you may be asked to provide personally identifiable information which may be used to supplement information about you that we have already received during member registration. In addition, we may collect information in connection with a transaction that you have requested (e.g. requests for information, sales rep visit, etc.) or responses to Sponsored Program questions, which, along with your identity, will be provided to the program's sponsor. Even if you do not provide us with personally identifiable information, we collect non-personally identifiable information about your use of Sponsored Programs through cookies, as described in the "INFORMATION COLLECTED THROUGH TRACKING TECHNOLOGY" section of this Privacy Policy.

The personally identifiable information that you provide when you engage in a Sponsored Program will be used to provide the services you have requested or authorized, respond to your questions, provide you the specific services you select and to send you emails about new programs and selected information from our sponsors as it relates to your specialty or area of clinical practice. You may also receive invitations to engage in other Sponsored Programs from the same sponsor or other sponsor. If you engage in a Sponsored Program, we may identify you by name to the sponsor of the Sponsored Program and/or its agent(s) on the sponsor's behalf. We may also provide the sponsor with your specialty and country where you reside, based on your registration profile. You should read the privacy policy of the applicable sponsor and familiarize yourself with how such sponsor will treat your information. We are not responsible for how the sponsor and its agents use your information and manage your privacy. Further, we may use non-personally identifiable information for research purposes, and we may provide this information in aggregate to third parties. For example, we might inform third parties regarding the number of users of a Sponsored Program and the activities they conduct while engaged in the Program.

Career Center:

For Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners and other jobseekers:

By electing to use the Career Center, you are able to search for jobs in your area, register to receive emails about future job postings, and/or to permit employers and recruiters to contact you directly regarding job offerings. You may search job postings without being a registered user, but in order to apply for a job, receive email communications, participate in the interactive areas to be found at the Career Center or be contacted by an employer or recruiter interested in you for employment, you must be a registered member.

If you elect to use the "Post My CV" service and/or the "M3 Career Consult" service, we may collect the following personally identifiable information:

  • Email address
  • Password
  • Name
  • Address
  • City
  • State
  • ZIP code
  • Phone number
  • Profession
  • Specialty(ies)
  • Board Status
  • Years in practice
  • Citizenship status
  • Licensure information
  • Education
  • Job preferences
  • Work experience
  • Other personal information, including, but not limited to, hobbies and geographic preferences.

Your personally identifiable information allows us to share your job preferences and work experiences with prospective employers and recruiters, and communicate with you about potential employment opportunities.

Posting your CV on the Sites exposes you to thousands of potential employers and recruiters each day. We know that job seekers have varying levels of comfort when it comes to publishing their CV online. To accommodate the needs of all users, we offer two levels of CV privacy from which you can choose. Please note that these privacy settings only apply to whether or not your CV can be viewed by third parties. M3 will still collect, use or disclose anonymous, aggregated information about you and your visits to our website in the manner described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy.

Standard Posting
Posting your profile in the PracticeMatch Physician Career Center or selecting the standard posting option to post your CV on MDLinx Career Center exposes you to thousands of potential employers each day. This option gives you the most visibility to the broadest employer and recruiter audience possible by making your profile and CV searchable in our databases. If you select one of these options, any registered employer or recruiter who purchases access to the database can view your profile or CV and contact details (to the extent you include them in your profile or CV).

Private Posting for Apply Online Only
This option allows you to post your CV on the Sites without having it searchable by or viewable to employers and recruiters. The benefit is that you can quickly and easily apply for jobs without retyping your information, and you provide your CV only to those employers you are specifically interested in.

We attempt to limit access to our searchable databases to legitimate users such as paying employers, recruiters, hiring managers, headhunters and human resource professionals ("Hiring Organizations"), but cannot guarantee that other parties will not gain access to the databases. We do not verify the credentials of Hiring Organizations and cannot control the use of profiles and CVs by third parties who access such profiles and CVs while they are in our searchable databases. It is your responsibility to evaluate all Hiring Organizations and any offers made by Hiring Organizations. You may remove your profile or CV from our searchable databases at any time. However, employers, recruiters and others who have paid for access to that database, as well as parties who have otherwise gained access to the database may have retained a copy of your profile or CV in their own files or databases. We cannot control the retention, use or privacy of CVs or profiles that have been downloaded by third parties. Accordingly, you should not put information you would not want made public in your profile or CV.

For Hiring Organizations:

Hiring Organizations may post job opportunities on the Sites which are not kept private and are searchable and viewable by all users, registered or not. We do not verify the credentials or availability of applicants and cannot control the use of profile information by third parties who access such information. It is your responsibility to evaluate all applicants. You may remove your job opportunities from our searchable database at any time. However, parties who have gained access to the database may have retained a copy of your profile in their own files or databases. We cannot control the retention, use or privacy of profiles that have been downloaded by third parties. Accordingly, you should not put information you do not want made public in your profile.

Job Opportunities Embedding: Hiring Organizations may list their job opportunities on their own websites as well as the PracticeMatch Career Center. When you visit the website of a Hiring Organization and view a job opportunity that has been embedded by "Powered by PracticeMatch", the privacy policy of the Hiring Organization shall apply with respect to information they collect from unregistered users, information they collect from services they provide and information they collect automatically. However, upon activating the "APPLY" button, the terms set forth in this Privacy Policy shall govern to all information you provide, except as follows: (i) your application will be shared with the Hiring Organization only, and (ii) your profile will not be included in the PM service.

Affiliated Companies: M3 and its wholly-owned subsidiaries are part of the M3, Inc. group of companies that provide Internet services for physicians and other healthcare professionals around the world (collectively, "Affiliates"). M3 may share your personal information with Affiliates, which may use your personal information to send you emails about services they provide, new programs and selected information from their sponsors as it relates to your specialty or area of clinical practice.

Companies Who Work with Us: From time to time, we contract with third parties to help us provide or improve our services. For example, we may hire consultants who help us prevent fraud and violation of our terms of service, analyze data, provide marketing assistance, or provide customer service or fulfillment services. In order to provide these services, these third parties may have limited access to some of the personally identifiable information we maintain about users of our Services. We require all such parties to comply with the terms of this Privacy Policy, to limit their access to any personal information to the minimum necessary to perform their obligations, and not to use the information they may access for purposes other than fulfilling their responsibilities to us.

Reviews: In some instances, we may select and post user reviews on a Site which may contain Personal Information such as the user's name. We will obtain your consent to use your name prior to posting the review. If posted, such review will be available to other users of the Site and may become public.

Quiz Games: If you participate in our Quiz Games Services and rank highly, your name or registered pseudonym may appear on the live leaderboards and in certain communications to our members. Your answers to the quiz questions are not shared.

VI. IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON CONSENT

Consent to the Use of Sensitive Information
Certain Services may request personal and sensitive information, such as information about your health and self-reported information such as racial, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, and current medical conditions. If you elect to provide such information, you consent to it being used by us to:

  1. Analyze and provide you with our Services;
  2. Determine whether you would be suitable to take part in surveys, polls or questionnaires that we are conducting;
  3. Perform research activities for the surveys in which you participate in;
  4. Monitor and improve existing products or services that we offer or to develop new products and services.

We will not use your sensitive information without your consent unless: (i) the information has been anonymized or aggregated so that you cannot reasonably be identified as an individual; or (ii) a legal obligation requires us to use it in some way (e.g. a court order requires us to disclose the information).

Consent to the Transfer of your Personal Information
  1. By using the Sites, you consent to the storing and processing of your personal information, including sensitive information (if applicable), in the USA and countries outside of the country you live in. We use a range of measures to safeguard information but these countries may have laws that are different from those of your country of residence. You also consent to your personal information, including sensitive information (if applicable), being transferred in the event of a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or other transaction or proceeding. In such a case, your information would be used as set out in any pre-existing Privacy Statement.
  2. We will not disclose or sell your individual-level information (i.e., information about a single individual's diseases or other medical information) to any third-party or to a third-party for research purposes without your explicit consent.
  3. We may share anonymized and aggregate information with third-parties; anonymized and aggregate information is any information that has been stripped of your name and contact information and aggregated with information of others or anonymized so that you cannot reasonably be identified as an individual.
  4. We will use your information and share it with third-parties for scientific research purposes only if you indicate your consent on the "Consent Checkbox" on your account setup page. Note that we will disclose your individual-level information only if we obtain additional explicit consent from you.
  5. If you have any questions about our privacy practices, please email us at [email protected] or send a letter to the address provided in the "Contact Information" section located at the bottom of this Privacy Policy.

Using information with your consent
You have the choice to participate in M3 market research by providing your consent. M3 market research may be sponsored by, conducted on behalf of, or in collaboration with third-parties, such as non-profit foundations, academic institutions or pharmaceutical companies. M3 market research may study a specific group or population, identify potential areas or targets to conduct or support the development of drugs, diagnostics or devices to diagnose, predict or treat medical or other health conditions, work with public, private and/or non-profit entities on research initiatives, or otherwise create, commercialize, and apply this new knowledge to improve health care. M3 uses your aggregate Self-Reported Information as specified in this Privacy Policy.

Consent process for research
Your Self-Reported Information may be used for market research only if you have consented by checking the consent checkbox during your registration. If you've signified consent by checking this checkbox on the application page, M3 USA may use all Self-Reported Information for research purposes. When your Self-Reported Information is being used for market research purposes, it will not be linked to your personal identifiable information (Account Registration Information).

Withdrawing your Consent
You may withdraw your consent to participate in market research at any time by changing your consent status on your Account Settings page, or by sending a request to the Privacy Administrator at [email protected]. M3 will not include your Self-Reported Information in new market research occurring after 30 days from the receipt of your request. Any market research involving your data that has already been performed prior to our receipt of your request will not be reversed, undone, or withdrawn. You may also discontinue your participation in market research by closing your account. If you withdraw your consent for market research your Self-Reported Information may still be used by us and shared with our third-party service providers to provide and improve our Services and shared as Aggregate Information that does not identify you as an individual.

VII. ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

Accessing and Modifying your Account Information
If your Registration Information changes, you may access, correct or update most of it from your Account Settings page. You may also modify and delete certain of your information, or update your consent status. You may be able to view your self-reported information entered into a survey, form, or feature from your account on the surveys page. Please note that you may not be able to delete certain user content that has been shared with others through the Service and that you may not be able to delete information that has been shared with third-parties, though we can work with you to prohibit your data from being shared with third-parties in the future. We will respond to your request to access within 30 days.

Upon request M3 will provide you with information about whether we hold, or process on behalf of a third party, any of your personal information; or, for assistance on correcting or updating or receiving a copy of your data please send a request this information please contact us at [email protected].

Account Closure and Erasure
If you no longer wish to participate in our Services or no longer wish to have your personal information be used, you may close your account by sending a request to the Privacy Team at [email protected]. When closing an account, we remove all Personal Information within your account (or profile) within thirty (30) days of our receipt of your request. Information and/or Self-Reported Information that you have previously provided and for which you have given consent to use in M3 USA Research cannot be removed from ongoing or completed studies that use the information. In addition, we retain limited Registration Information related to your order history (e.g., name, contact, and transaction data) as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, as well as for accounting, audit and compliance purposes.

Information Processing Preferences
If, at any point, you decide to change or limit the extent of processing of your personal information, you can contact our Privacy team; refer to Contact Information below for contact details. We will respond to your request to access within thirty (30) days.

Notification of Preference Changes
Upon modification or erasure of your personal data, we will communicate the changes with each recipient to whom your personal data have been disclosed. We will inform you about those recipients if requested.

Data Portability
You always have the option to review your personal information you've shared with us on your account profile page including past surveys, survey statuses, and compensation information. In addition, you may ask to receive a copy of this personal information; you may also request to have this data transmitted to another company. Please note, to protect the confidentiality of our users, we may verify your identify prior to transmitting this data.

Right to Object
As a user of our Services, you have the right to object at any time to the processing of your personal information and any direct marketing that you receive based on your personal data.

Opt Out
M3 engages with users who register on our Sites and elect for e-mail communication. For example, we may use your email address to send newsletters or discussion group updates, to send you notice of payments, to send you information about changes to our products and services, and to send notices and other disclosures as required by law.

We provide you the opportunity to exercise an opt-out choice if you do not want to receive other types of communication from us, such as emails or updates from us regarding new services and products offered on the Sites or if you do not want us to share your personally identifiable information with third parties.

Users always have the opportunity to "opt–out" or change preferences via a link in the footer of all non–transactional email messages or by accessing the "My Account" page on the registered site. These options are made available in email messages delivered from our company. Alternatively, you may request to have your personal information modified or removed from our databases by sending a request via email at [email protected] or by fax to 202-293-1690, including your first and last names and email address with which you originally registered.

Please note that you may not opt-out of receiving non-promotional messages regarding your account, such as technical notices, purchase confirmations, or Service-related emails.

VIII. IMPORTANT SECURITY INFORMATION

Legal Requirements
We may release account and other personally identifiable information when we believe release (1) is required to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order; or (2) is reasonably necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person, violations of our Terms and Conditions or this Privacy Policy, or as evidence in litigation in which we are involved. In the event that we are legally compelled to disclose your personally identifiable information to a third party, we will attempt to notify you unless doing so would violate the law, court order or government instruction.

Joint Data Controller
For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, M3 USA Corporation is considered a joint data controller with M3 (EU) Ltd. Contact information can be found below.

Business Transactions
In the event of a change in control resulting from, for example, a sale to, or merger with, another entity, or in the event of a sale or assets or a bankruptcy, M3 shall have the right to transfer all personal information collected through the Services to the acquiring party. In the event of such change, your personal information will continue to be treated in accordance with this Privacy Polity until such time as any changes to the Privacy Policy are set forth herein.

Security of Information
M3 USA takes information security seriously. To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, to maintain data accuracy, and to ensure the appropriate use of information, M3 uses a range of physical, technical, and administrative measures to safeguard your Personal Information. In particular, all connections to and from our website and mobile application are encrypted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology.

Please recognize that protecting your Personal Information is also your responsibility. We ask you to be responsible for safeguarding your password authentication information you use to access our Services. You should not disclose your authentication information to any third-party and should immediately notify M3 of any unauthorized use of your password. M3 cannot secure Personal Information that you release on your own or that you request us to release.

Your information collected through the Service may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which M3 or its subsidiaries, affiliates or service providers maintain facilities and, therefore, your information may be subject to the laws of those other jurisdictions which may be different from the laws of your country of residence.

Children's privacy
M3 USA is committed to protecting the privacy of children as well as adults. Neither M3 nor any of its Services are designed for, intended to attract, or directed toward children under the age of 18.

Data Retention
We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you with our services. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services, contact us at [email protected]. In addition, we will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

IX. PRIVACY SHIELD COMPLIANCE

M3 complies with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information transferred from the European Union and Switzerland to the United States. M3 has certified to the Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the Privacy Shield Principles, the Privacy Shield Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Privacy Shield program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/.

M3 is responsible for the processing of personal data it receives, under the Privacy Shield Framework, and subsequently transfers to a third party acting as an agent on its behalf. M3 complies with the Privacy Shield Principles for all onward transfers of personal data from the EU and Switzerland, including the onward transfer liability provisions.

M3 submits to being subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the FTC, the Department of Transportation, or any other U.S. authorized statutory body with regards to our self-certification and implementation of the Principles, and acknowledges the right of the EU or Swiss individual, under certain conditions, to invoke binding arbitration, at no cost to the individual, in filing a complaint disputing M3's adherence to these practices.

Independent Dispute Resolution Mechanism
In compliance with the Privacy Shield Principles, M3 commits to resolve complaints about our collection or use of your personal information. Individuals in the European Union and Switzerland with inquiries or complaints regarding our Private Shield policy should first contact M3, refer to our Contact Information section below.

If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily, please contact our U.S.-based third party dispute resolution provider (free of charge) at https://feedback-form.truste.com/watchdog/request.

X. CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have questions about this Privacy Statement, please email M3's Privacy Administrator at [email protected], or send a letter to:

Privacy Administrator
M3 USA Corporation
501 W. Office Center Drive; Suite 410
Fort Washington, PA 19034
(202) 293-2288

M3 EU Contact information can be located here https://eu.m3.com/Contact/

Please refer to our Privacy Shield profile on the Privacy Shield Website for specific details regarding our direct contact details at M3 USA's Privacy Shield profile

For all other questions regarding your account, preference changes, or our services, please e-mail [email protected]