Privacy Policy

Effective Date: March 15, 2023

1. Introduction

1.1 Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine is a U.S.-based association dedicated to the improvement of diagnosis and eliminating harm from diagnostic error. We are incorporated in the State of New York and operate our headquarters at 3000 Old Alabama Road, Ste 119-478, Alpharetta, GA 30022-5860.

1.2 We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of those who provide us with their personal information and complying with all applicable laws and regulations. This policy explains how we collect, use, share, protect and maintain personal information in connection with our website and mobile applications, and your participation in the Society, as a member of or donor to the Society, as a visitor to our sites, or an attendee at our conferences. It also describes your data protection rights and how to contact us to exercise them.

1.2 In this policy, "we", "us", “SIDM”, “Society” and "our" refer to Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine.

2. Updates to this Privacy Policy

2.1 We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.

2.2 Your continued use of our website shall be construed as your consent to the policy then in effect.

3. How we use your personal data

3.1 In this Section 3 we describe:

(a) the general categories of personal data that we may process; and

(b) the purposes for which we may use your personal data.

3.2 We may process data about how you use our website and services ("usage data"). The usage data may include your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, length of visit, and page view history. This usage data may be processed for the purposes of analysis and improvement of our services.

3.3 We may also process information included in your member profile on our website or in connection with your membership, donation, registration for a conference or other SIDM event. The information may include your user ID, name, title, date of birth, and gender (“identity data”), address, telephone number, email address (“contact data”), profile pictures, gender, educational details and professional details, including employer or other professional qualifications (“profile data”). The identity data, contact data, and profile data may be processed for the purposes of enabling and monitoring your use of our website and services, ensuring the security of our website and services, maintaining back-ups of our database, processing your membership requests or donations, registering you for conferences or other events, fulfilling requests you may make of us from time to time, and communicating with you about SIDM and on topics that we think may interest you.

3.4 We may occasionally allow members to post certain information or content on our sites, including but not limited to material in connection with conferences or other SIDM events ("publication data"). The publication data may be used for the purposes of enabling such publication and administering our website and services.

3.5 We may process information relating to transactions, including purchases of goods and services, paying SIDM member dues, registration fees for conferences, or donations to the Society, that you enter into with us and/or through our website ("transaction data") and related information such as payment card details and relate tax forms (“financial data”). The transaction data may include your contact and transaction details,. The transaction data and financial data may be processed for the purpose of supplying the purchased goods and services, processing dues, fees or donations, and keeping proper records of those transactions.

3.6 We may process information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to any of our publications, newsletters or other information about SIDM activity ("notification data"). The notification data may be processed for the purposes of sending you the relevant publications. Many of the communications you receive from us may be directly related to your requests, such as processing your conference registration or membership status. We also send you information about the latest news and information on SIDM activities. You can unsubscribe from these communications at any time by following the instructions at the bottom of our emails.

3.7 We may process photographs, video recordings, and audio recordings in which you are identifiable (“photograph and recordings data”). The photograph and recordings data may be processed to promote our organization, including our purpose and events and activities, to maintain a historical record of our events and activities, to record content for future distribution, and to enable us to use and publish the content you provide us.

3.8 We may process information regarding dietary and accessibility accommodations (“health data”). The health data may be processed for purposes including to assess accommodations you request based on your health or disability, and to comply with legal requirements.

3.9 We may disclose your personal data to our suppliers or subcontractors as reasonably necessary to provide services to us or you, such as our service providers who support our payment processing transactions.

3.10 In addition to the specific disclosures of personal data set out in this Section 3, we may process or disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person. We may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure. We may also share personal data as necessary to protect the rights, property or interests of Society, or in the event of a merger, restructuring or other reorganization of the Society.

4. International transfers of your personal data

4.1 Our website may be accessible from multiple countries across the world. As we are located in the USA, any information you provide to us will be transferred and stored in the USA. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with applicable law and this privacy policy. If you are located or reside in the European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA), your personal data may be processed in the following countries which the European Commission determined either do or do not have adequate data privacy safeguards. The Society takes appropriate safeguards in line with article 46 GDPR by adopting Standard Contractual Clauses where appropriate.

Country Adequate Data Privacy Safeguards
USA No

4.2 We do not control the hosting facilities of all personal data collected through our website. You acknowledge that personal data that you submit to us may be available, via the internet, around the world. No information security can be guaranteed, and you acknowledge that we provide no representations or warranties about the potential for interception or misuse of such personal data by others.

5. Retaining and deleting personal data

5.1 Personal data that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.

5.2 Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section 5, we may retain your personal data where such retention is necessary for compliance with applicable law, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

6. Your EU and UK Privacy Rights

6.1 In this Section 7, we have summarized the rights that you may have as a resident of the European Union or United Kingdom under EU and UK data protection laws.

6.2   Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws. Your principal data protection and privacy rights are:

(a) the right to access;

(b) the right to rectification;

(c) the right to erasure;

(d) the right to restrict processing;

(e) the right to object to processing;

(f) the right to data portability;

(g) the right to complain to a supervisory authority; and

(h) the right to withdraw consent.

6.3 You have the right to confirmation as to whether or not we process your personal data and, where we do, access to the personal data, and details of the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned and the recipients of the personal data. Provided the rights and freedoms of others are not affected, we will supply to you a copy of your personal data. The first copy will be provided free of charge, but additional copies may be subject to a reasonable fee.

6.4 You have the right to have any inaccurate personal data about you rectified and, taking into account the purposes of the processing, to have any incomplete personal data about you completed.

6.5 In some circumstances you have the right to the erasure of your personal data without undue delay. Those circumstances include: the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed; you withdraw consent to consent-based processing; you object to the processing under certain rules of applicable data protection law; the processing is for direct marketing purposes; and the personal data have been unlawfully processed. However, there are exclusions of the right to erasure.

6.6 In some circumstances you have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data. Those circumstances are: you contest the accuracy of the personal data; processing is unlawful but you oppose erasure; we no longer need the personal data for the purposes of our processing, but you require personal data for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims; and you have objected to processing, pending the verification of that objection. Where processing has been restricted on this basis, we may continue to store your personal data. However, we will only otherwise process it: with your consent; for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims; for the protection of the rights of another natural or legal person; or for reasons of important public interest.

6.7 You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data on grounds relating to your particular situation, but only to the extent that the legal basis for our processing is that the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of any official authority vested in us; or the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party. If you make such an objection, we will cease to process the personal information unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

6.8 You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes. If you make such an objection, we will cease to process your personal data for this purpose.

6.9 You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes on grounds relating to your particular situation, unless the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out for reasons of public interest. Despite the foregoing, we may anonymize your personal data (so it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes; in which case, we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

6.10 To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal data is:

(a) consent; or

(b) that the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract,

and such processing is carried out by automated means, you have the right to receive your personal data from us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. However, this right does not apply where it would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.

If you consider that our processing of your personal information infringes data protection laws, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority responsible for data protection. You may do so in the country of your residence, your place or work or the place of the alleged infringement.

6.11 To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal information is consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.

7. Cookies and Tracking Policy

7.1 A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

7.2 Cookies may be either "persistent" cookies or "session" cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

7.3 Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

7.4 If cookies are not strictly necessary for the provision of our services, we will ask you to consent to our use of cookies when you first visit our website.

7.5 Online tracking is the process of collecting personal information about users over time as they move across different websites. SIDM may track user information as they move from site to site. SIDM may also permit third parties to track site visitor activity and is not responsible for the privacy practices of any third parties linked to or tracking on its site. Your choices with respect to cookies and other tracking technologies remain as described in this Privacy Policy, and this Cookies Policy. SIDM’s sites and online applications do not respond to browser Do-Not-Track settings. Please note that if you disable cookies, certain site functionality may be limited.

8. Cookies that we use

8.1 We may use cookies for the following purposes:

(a) authentication - we may use cookies to identify you when you visit our website and as you navigate our website;

(b) status - we may use cookies to help us to determine if you are logged into our website;

(c) personalization - we may use cookies to store information about your preferences and to personalize the website for you;

(d) security - we may use cookies as an element of the security measures used to protect user accounts, including preventing fraudulent use of login credentials, and to protect our website and services generally;

(e) advertising - we may use cookies to help us to display advertisements that will be relevant to you;

(f) analysis - we may use cookies to help us to analyze the use and performance of our website and services; and

(g) cookie consent - we may use cookies to store your preferences in relation to the use of cookies more generally.

9. Cookies used by our service providers

9.1 Our service providers may use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit our website.

9.2 We may use Google Analytics to analyze the use of our website. Google Analytics gathers information about website use by means of cookies. The information gathered relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website. Google's privacy policy is available at: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy.

10. How You Can Manage Cookies

10.1 Your web browser may allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version.

10.2 If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.

11. How we Secure Information We Collect

11.1 We use a variety of physical, technical, and administrative security measures that help to safeguard your information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, destruction or theft. It is important to keep in mind, however, that no security measures are absolutely effective, particularly when information is transmitted through the Internet.

11.2 When you create an account on our site, you are responsible for maintaining the security and confidentiality of your account credentials. If you have any reason to believe that your account information has been compromised, please change your password and alert us at info@improvediagnosis.org,

12. Children’s Information

12.1 Our site is not intended for use by children. We do not intentionally gather personal data about children, as defined by local law, except with parental consent. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child without parental consent, we will make reasonable efforts to delete such data from our records.

13. Contact Information

13.1 This website is owned and operated by Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine.

13.2 You may exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data or contact our data protection officer by email to info@improvediagnosis.org