Privacy & Security Policy

The Gut Microbiome Foundation is a registered nonprofit education and research organization (“GMF”, “us” “we”, or “our”) operates the SIBOawareness.org website (the “Site”). This Privacy & Security Policy (this “Policy”) informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal data when you use the Site, and the choices you have associated with your data.

Acceptance of this Policy

As described in this Policy, we use your data to provide and improve the Site. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. If you do not accept the terms of this Policy, please stop using the Site.

Information You Provide Through the Site

While using the Site, personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to your (a) email address; (b) first name and last name; (c) phone number; (d) address, state, province, zip/postal code, and city; and (e) cookies and usage data.

We may also invite you to share information with us when you register or join, such as on the “Contact Us” webpage of the Site. This is at your option and not required to use the Site. Information gathered is for the purpose of helping us identify topics that are most relevant for our visitors, and to help clinicians, regulators, investigators, and manufacturers as they determine directions for research and treatment development by reviewing information we post to the Site. For any information that you choose to submit to the Site, we retain the right to modify the content for editorial purposes. Should you object to any modification, your sole remedy will be for us to promptly remove the content from the Site.

We may also collect information on how the Site is accessed and used, also referenced to as usage data. This usage data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser version, the pages of our Site that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data. We also use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our Site and we hold certain information. Cookies are files with a small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Other tracking technologies are also used such as beacons, tags and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our Site. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Site.

We use your information only for its intended business purpose. We do not sell or trade your information to other organizations or individuals. If you choose to send us email, we may retain the contents of your email message, our reply and your email address as part of our ongoing customer service efforts. We reserve the right to contact you after you have contacted us and may send future email and/or surveys to you about GMF, SIBOawareeness.org and our Partners. You may notify us via email if you wish to discontinue electronic communication.

We keep your personal information as accurate, complete, and up to date as is required to fulfill the purpose(s) for which you provided us with your personal information. Upon written request we will remove your personal information from our databases, except where legislation or regulation requires our retention of it (for example, charitable giving history tied to income tax receipts). You may request a copy of your information, request to delete your information, or request to remove yourself from our databases by communicating with us via the contact information listed at the very end of this policy.

GMF’s Use of Data

GMF uses the collected data for various purposes, including: (a) to provide and maintain the Site; (b) to notify you about changes to our Site; (c) to allow you to participate in interactive features of our Site when you choose to do so; (d) to provide customer care and support; (e) to provide analysis or valuable information so that we can improve the Site; (f) to monitor the usage of the Site; (g) to detect, prevent and address technical issues.

Transfers and Disclosure of Your Data

Your information may be transferred to, and maintained on, computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction. If you are located outside the United States and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer the data, including personal data, to the United States and process it there. Your consent to this Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to the transfer of that information. GMF will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Policy and no transfer of your personal data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place, including the security of your data and other personal information.

GMF may disclose your personal data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) to comply with a legal obligation; (b) to protect and defend the rights or property of GMF; (c) to prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Site; (d) to protect the personal safety of users of the Site or the public; or (e) to protect against legal liability.

Security of Data

The security of your data is important to us but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

GMF will work within 72 hours of a data breach to gather all related information, conduct a thorough investigation, inform regulators and impacted individuals of the breach, identify what personal data has been impacted and how; and draft a comprehensive containment plan, reporting data breaches to the relevant regulator. If we are unable to provide a notification within the 72-hour window, we will provide reasonable justification for the delay; which may be caused by potentially adding additional disruption to regular business operations and exasperating administrative hassle.

Service Providers 

We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Site (“Service Providers”), to provide services on our behalf or to assist us in analyzing how our Site is used. These third parties have access to your personal data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose. Our Site may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the privacy policy of every site you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Marketing Communications

We provide marketing communications that promote the use of or offer participation in GMF products, services, programs, research events or provide other information that may be of interest to you, such as information on certain health conditions. We will use your personal data to send you marketing communications and to determine the types of marketing communications to send. You can opt-out of marketing communications at any time. Marketing communication opt-out instructions are included in each marketing communication you receive.

Business and research partners

We may partner with other companies and public and private organizations to provide you with products, content, or services on a joint or “co-branded” basis. You should be aware that this Privacy Notice and the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data described herein apply in such co-branded cases. For example, we may use and disclose your personal data as part of a joint or co-branded service or program for purposes described in this Privacy Notice, such as sharing with advertising partners for the benefit of the joint or co-branded service. In addition to this Privacy Notice, the relevant partner’s privacy notice may also apply, and, in limited cases, there may be a shared privacy notice.

In addition, we may disclose personal data to our external auditors, attorneys, accountants, and similar professionals based on our legitimate interest in the operation of our business and our obligations to comply with applicable laws and regulations.

Affiliates and vendors

We have relationships with various vendors, including our affiliated companies, that help us operate our business and for whom it may be required to have access to your personal data while providing services to the GMF. We require them to handle your personal data collected through the GMF in accordance with appropriate contractual privacy and security provisions.

Targeted advertising

We may provide you with online advertisements for GMF products and services on our own websites or third-party websites and mobile services that are tailored to you, which may be based on the personal data that you provide to us, your purchases or use of our products and services, or based on cookies and similar tracking and data collection technologies.

Third-party analytics and measurement

We may share your personal data with our third-party analytics and measurement partners, such as to Google, in order to track and measure performance on our own website and digital properties, including metrics like session duration, session count, and page activity. We may also share your personal data in order to track and measure the performance of our advertisements across other websites and digital properties, such as ad impressions, clicks, and on-site activity.

Third-party targeted advertising

We may provide you with online advertisements for GMF products and services on third-party websites and mobile services that are tailored to you, which may be based on the personal data that you provide to us or to a third-party website that you are visiting, or on your browsing activity, purchases, or interests. We may share some of your device information with our advertising partners that we have obtained from cookies and other data-collection and tracking technologies based on your GMF relationships. We may also serve you advertisements for GMF products or services that you have previously viewed on GMF digital properties. Our third-party advertising partners may also serve you advertisements based on your location information, such as if you are near a particular health conference.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new privacy policy on this page, along with an update to the “Last Updated” at the top of this Policy. You are advised to review this Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact us:

• By emailing us at hello@siboawareness.org

• By mail:  137 Montague Street, Suite 381, Brooklyn, NY 11201