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washington privacy notice

PACIFIC DENTAL SERVICES® LLC

 

WASHINGTON CONSUMER PRIVACY POLICY

 

THIS PRIVACY POLICY APPLIES TO OUR SITES, TRUSTED OFFICES, AND APPLICATIONS.

 

MHMDA Privacy Policy for Washington Residents Last Updated and Effective On: September 30, 2023

 

This MHMDA Privacy Policy for Washington Residents (“MHMDA Privacy Policy” or "Policy") supplements the information contained in Pacific Dental Services’ (“PDS,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) online privacy policy and applies solely to consumers who are residents of the State of Washington (“consumers” or “you”).

 

We adopt this notice to comply with the My Health My Data Act of 2023 (“MHMDA”). The MHMDA imposes specific obligations on businesses processing consumer health data of Washington residents. Terms used in this MHMDA Privacy Policy, such as consumer health data, consumers, third party(ies) and processors, have the same meaning as they are defined in the MHMDA.  Pursuant to the MHMDA, Pacific Dental Services is required to provide consumers a notice, used before the requesting of consumer health data, that identifies the categories of consumer health data that may be collected, indicates the purpose of such collection, and provides the consumers rights related to such information.

 

Notice Before Requesting Collection

Before the request of collection, you have a right to receive notices of our practices, including the categories of personal and sensitive personal information to be collected, the purposes for which such information is collected or used, whether such information is sold or shared and how long such information is retained. You can find those details below. Additionally, in order for us to collect the information, you must affirmatively opt-in and consent to the collection of your consumer health data.

 

What is Consumer Health Data?

The MHMDA provides consumer health data rights to Washington residents. The MHMDA defines consumer health data as “personal information that is linked or reasonably linkable to a consumer and that identifies the consumer’s past, present, or future physical or mental health status.” Consumer health data does not include personal information used to engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws and is approved, monitored, and governed by an institutional review board, human subjects research ethics review board, or a similar independent oversight entity that determines that the regulated entity or the small business has implemented reasonable safeguards to mitigate privacy risks associated with research, including any risks associated with reidentification. “Personal information” is defined as information that “identifies or is reasonably capable of being associated or linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular” Washington consumer or household. Personal information does not include publicly available information or consumer information that is deidentified.

 

Categories of Consumer Health Data We Collect About You

We collect or generate consumer health data about you in a number of ways depending on the product or service and the relationship we have with you. For example:

 

  • Your public information, such as comments or reviews that you post on our site. We may also collect requests or questions that you publicly post that, if disclosed by you in connection with such public questions, comments, or reviews, may contain information relating to you physical or mental health status.
  • Your demographic information, such as your postcode, preferences and interests.
  • Other information, such as your location, your IP address, the browser/device/hardware you are using, your GPS location and what pages you visit on our site. Such items are collected when you visit our digital ads.
  • When you communicate with us through the sites, over the phone, via social media or other platforms, we collect the content of the communications, information about the channel in which you contacted us and we may also collect personal information about you indirectly through monitoring or other means, such as recording telephone calls and collecting phone metadata and digital information that may relate to your physical or mental health status.
  • When you interact with the sites or our advertisements, we collect digital information using cookies, web beacons, page tags, pixels or similar tools that we and our processors and other third parties have set.
  • When you interact with the sites via a social media platform, we collect a copy of the posts and other information, such as account ID or username that, if disclosed by you in connection with such social media platforms and sites may contain information relating to you physical or mental health status.

 

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a list of dental offices for relevant referrals. Once you have selected a new dentist, we will share your information with your dentist.

 

For more information, see below for a list of the categories of consumer health data/personal information, along with some descriptions and examples that we may collect through each of the processes described above:

 

  • Device and Online Identifiers and Related Information: This includes online identifiers, Internet Protocol (IP) address, email address, account user name, mobile/wireless number, social medial profile, unique device identifier and serial number, and other device information.
  • Demographic Information: This includes date of birth and household income data.
  • Internet, Application, and Network Activity: This includes text messages or emails sent to us, clickstream/online website tracking information, and data related to user activity (e.g., browser visits and cookies or other similar technologies).
  • Location Data: We may receive information about your location and your mobile device, including a unique identifier for your device; in addition, in some instances, location information can be derived from your IP address or through your wi-fi connection.
  • Sensory Data: This includes audio data, such as a recording of your voice when you call our contact center. Although you don’t have to supply any of the personal information we request, we may not be able to provide products or services to you or you may not be able to interact with our sites if you do not.

 

The Purposes for Which Your Consumer Health Data is Collected or Used

We use your consumer health data and personal information for the following business purposes:

 

  • To keep an internal record for our reporting and analysis purposes.
  • To provide you with relevant content, materials, offers, programs and to administer your participation in our contests or sweepstakes.
  • To respond to your requests or questions that you may provide via our social sites.
  • To improve our sites, products, services and other marketing purposes.
  • To protect our company, other patients and our assets and sites and for other security measures.
  • To remain in communication with you with any products or services you requested.
  • From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone or mail.
  • We may provide your information to our third-party service providers for marketing or promotional purposes.
  • To target ads to you based on your past online activity.
  • Customer information retention is indefinite and is shared with select third-party processors and supported dentists.
  • Supporting our internal business operations, including assessing and managing risk and fulfilling our legal and regulatory requirements.
  • Complying with contractual obligations, relevant industry standards, and our policies.
  • Notifying you about changes to the sites, products and policies.
  • Performing analytics concerning your use of the products and sites, including your responses to our emails and the pages and advertisements you view.
  • Mitigating fraud and enhancing the security of the sites and our online services.
  • Managing institutional risk.
  • Operating, evaluating and improving our business (including developing new products and services; improving existing products and services; and performing accounting, auditing and other internal functions).
  • Authenticating your identity, including when scheduling appointments and financial application processes through the sites as well as afterwards.
  • Quality control and training purposes.

 

Any information collected is disclosed to you here and is used as permitted or required by law. We also abide by the set of rules prescribed to us by Google AdWords: https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/143465.

 

We may also use your consumer health data and personal information for any other purpose that we disclose at the time you provide, or when we collect, your information and other purposes permitted by applicable law. We may also use data that we collect on an aggregate or anonymous basis for various business purposes, where permissible under applicable laws and regulations.

 

We are required to identify the categories of personal information we share with third parties for operational purposes. We disclose the following categories of personal information for operational purposes: personal identifiers; device and online identifiers and related information; demographic information; internet, application, and network activity; location data; sensory (audio data).

 

The Source of The Consumer Health Data We Collect About You

  • When you sign up for things automatically like a contest or a promotion or when you register to any of our sites.
  • Through tracking tools, such as cookies, tags and other technologies.
  • Our partners, such as Smile Generational Financial, My Smile Dental Plan™, and our trusted dental offices will provide us with information that you voluntarily give them. We may also use information associated with your social media account, e.g., your name, username, email address, gender, profile picture, etc. We may also collect information about your friends or family if you share any of our social content using web tools.
  • Any information that you provide to a third party with whom we have a contractual relationship, e.g., social medica, digital display media (banner ads), and any other advertising partners.

 

Sharing of Your Consumer Health Data

We share consumer health data as set forth below:

 

  • Our third-party processors, including Google, show our ads on sites across the internet.
  • Please be aware that third-parties may use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to collect or receive information from our website and use that information to provide measurement services and target ads.
  • Additionally, please be aware that Facebook may also use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to collect or receive information from our website and use that information to provide measurement services and target ads.

 

Selling of Your Consumer Health Data

We cannot sell your consumer health data without a valid authorization from you. Under the MHMDA this valid authorization must be retained for six (6) years. Such authorization must include the following:

 

  • Your specific Consumer Health Data to be sold.
  • Our contact information.
  • The contact information of the purchaser.
  • The purpose of the sale, including how your consumer health data will be gathered and how your consumer health data will be used by the purchaser.
  • Statements indicating that the provision of goods or services may not be conditioned on authorization, that you have the right to revoke authorization at any time and how you may submit a revocation, and a statement notifying you that the data sold may be subject to redisclosure and may no longer be protected by the MHMDA.
  • The Date of signing
  • The expiration data that is one year from date of signing.
  • Your signature.

 

Amount of Time Your Consumer Health Data is Retained

We retain consumer health data for various periods depending on the nature of the health data, the purposes for its collection and use, and based on our legal and ethical obligations. Generally, we retain data only for so long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it. To determine the appropriate retention period for consumer health data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the consumer health data; the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your consumer health data; the purposes for which we process your consumer health data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means; and the applicable legal requirements.

 

Rights to Your Consumer Health Data

You have a number of legal rights when it comes to your Consumer Health Data under the MHMDA. Without being discriminated against for exercising these rights, you have the right to request that we disclose what consumer health data we collect from you, the purposes for which we disclose your consumer health data, the right to request that we delete that information, and the right to not allow the sale or sharing of your consumer health data, subject to certain restrictions, by not opting-in.

 

Right to Confirm

You have the right to confirm what categories of your consumer health data we collect, use, or sell and the purposes for which the data is disclose. You may request access to the specific pieces of consumer health data that we collect from you. (“Right to Confirm”)

 

Right to Obtain

You have the right to obtain a list of all third parties and affiliates with whom we have shared or sold consumer health data. You also have the right to obtain an active email address or another online mechanism used to contact each third party. (“Right to Obtain”)

 

Right to Withdraw Consent

You have the right to withdraw your consent to our collection of your consumer health data. (“Right to Withdraw Consent”)

 

Right to Delete

You have the right to request that we delete your consumer health data. (“Right to Delete”)

 

How to Exercise Your Rights

To exercise any of your rights under the MHMDA above, please submit a MHMDA request form or call 888-508-2033.

 

How Will You Verify My Identity If I Make a MHMDA Request?

In order to verify your identity, we will collect your:

 

  • Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Email
  • Telephone Number
  • Address

 

We will use this information to verify your identity using reasonable methods in order to process your rights request. These methods may include matching information you provided to us with information already maintained by us or through the use of a third party identity verification service.

 

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with consumer health data if we are not able to verify your identity or authority to make the request or confirm the consumer health data relates to you.

 

You are not required to have an account with us to make a verifiable request.

 

Contact, Questions or Complaints

We take your privacy seriously and invite you to contact us at the email address below also with any further questions or concerns you may have regarding your privacy or our collection, storage and use of your Consumer Health Data:

 

Email: privacy@pacden.com