Privacy Policy

YOUR LIFE COUNTS! statement of privacy policy & agreement

Your privacy is important to YOUR LIFE COUNTS! . We understand that your health and well being is a very personal, private subject, and we want you to feel as comfortable as possible visiting our Website and using its services. Perhaps you are visiting YOUR LIFE COUNTS! to learn about life issues for yourself, perhaps on behalf of someone else. This Privacy Policy and Agreement (“Privacy Policy”) will tell you what information we collect about you and about your use of our Website. It will explain how we protect that information and what choices you have about how it is used. We urge you to read this Privacy Policy carefully so that you will understand clearly both our commitment to you and your privacy, and how we may collect and use information. By using the YOUR LIFE COUNTS! site, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

As an organization we will inform you of the following in this privacy policy:

• What personally identifiable information of yours is collected;
• What organization is collecting the information;
• How the information is used;
• With whom the information may be shared;
• What choices are available regarding collection, use and distribution of the information;
• What kind of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under our control; and,
• How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

Please remember that any information (including personal and medical information) that you reveal in a YOUR LIFE COUNTS! public forum (such as a bulletin board, Ask Our Expert posting, chat room/event) is not protected by this Privacy Policy. Such postings will be seen by third parties not related to YOUR LIFE COUNTS! . What you’ve written could be used by others in ways we are unable to control or predict, including to contact you for unauthorized purposes. Also, if you access a third party site from a link on YOUR LIFE COUNTS! , any information you reveal on that site is not subject to this Privacy Policy. You should consult the privacy policies of each site you visit.

The following are links to the provisions of our Privacy Policy that describe the information we collect from or about you; ways we disclose, use and protect that information; choices you have, and how you can update your information or contact us with questions. We hope that reading our Privacy Policy gives you a clear idea of how we manage information about you. For immediate access to a particular topic, click on the title of that Article.

INFORMATION COLLECTED ABOUT YOU

1. In General
2. Registration and Member Profile
3. Interactive Tools
4. Cookies
5. Web Beacons
6. E-mails and Newsletters
7. Information Collected by Third Parties Not Acting on YOUR LIFE COUNTS!’s Behalf
8. Children
9. Public Forums
10. Emails to YOUR LIFE COUNTS!

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

A. Disclosure to YOUR LIFE COUNTS! Subsidiaries
B. Disclosure to YOUR LIFE COUNTS! Operations and Maintenance Contractors
C. Disclosure to Website Service and Content Contractors

HOW YOUR LIFE COUNTS HANDLES PRIVACY AND SECURITY INTERNALLY

YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES

UPDATING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND CONTACTING YOUR LIFE COUNTS!

INFORMATION COLLECTED ABOUT YOU

A. Information Collected by YOUR LIFE COUNTS! or on YOUR LIFE COUNTS!’s Behalf

1. In General
Personally Identifiable Information (PII or Personal Information) is information that can be used to identify or contact you. When you visit our Website, YOUR LIFE COUNTS! collects only the Personal Information you provide to us. We collect the Personal Information that you provide to us when you choose to use various YOUR LIFE COUNTS! interactive tools and Services or participate in surveys or send emails to YOUR LIFE COUNTS! . We also may collect non-personal information from you and about your use of our Website, emails, special promotions and newsletters that we send to you, and Websites of selected sponsors and advertisers. For example, YOUR LIFE COUNTS! may use “cookies” or “web beacons” to collect non-personal information about your use of our site, selected sponsors’ sites, or emails we send to you. YOUR LIFE COUNTS! does not store any Personal Information in any cookies on your computer. YOUR LIFE COUNTS! does not use web beacons to collect any Personal Information from or about you or to track your activities across Websites generally. All of these are described in more detail below.

2. Registration and Member Profile
You may use our Website without registering or submitting any Personal Information. In that case, the only information we may collect will be non-personal information collected through the use of cookies or web beacons (see details below). However, in order to have access to certain services and content available on our site, you may be required to complete a registration form. We use the Personal Information that you provide through registration to respond to questions from you and/or inform you of significant changes to this Privacy Policy. We may also use this information to send you emails with special promotions or newsletters with content that we think may be of interest to you. You can always opt-out of receiving such emails or unsubscribe to newsletters at the time you register or at any time – see Article 4 below for more detail about opting-out of receiving emails and newsletters. The information we collect in the Registration form and Member Profile is set forth below. Required information is indicated by an asterisk*. Provision of all other information is optional.

• Registration
• Member Nickname*
• Password*/Hint
• Email Address*
• Zip Code*
• Member Profile
• Name
• Street Address
• Gender
• Age Range (13-15, 16-18, 19-24, 25-34, 34-54, or 55+)
• Topics of Interest

3. Interactive Tools
We may also collect other information, some of which may be Personal Information, that you voluntarily provide to us when you choose to use some of the YOUR LIFE COUNTS! Interactive Tools and Services. We may also collect information you provide voluntarily through responses to surveys, questionnaires and the like.

4. Cookies
We may also collect anonymous, non-personal information about your use of our site or your use of emails, special promotions or newsletters that we send to you. For example, we may collect non-personal information about your use of our site and your use of the sites of selected sponsors and advertisers through the use of “Cookies”. Cookies are small computer files that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive that allow us to know how often someone visits a site and the activities they conduct while on that site. Every computer is assigned a different cookie by YOUR LIFE COUNTS! . The information collected by cookies helps us dynamically generate advertising and content on web pages or in emails specifically designed for you and also allows us to statistically monitor how many people are using our site and selected sponsors’ and advertisers’ sites, or opening our emails, and for what purposes. We may use cookie information to target certain advertisements to your browser or to determine the popularity of certain content or advertisements.

Your browser software can be set to reject all cookies. Most browsers offer instructions on how to reset the browser to reject cookies in the “Help” section of the toolbar. If you reject our cookie, certain of the functions and conveniences of our site may not work properly but you do not have to accept our cookie in order to productively use our site. While it may be possible to link non-personal cookie information to Personal Information collected in other ways, we want you to know that if you accept our cookie we will not, without your consent, link the cookie information we collect to Personal Information you provide to us on our site.

5. Web Beacons
In limited circumstances we also may use “Web Beacons” to collect anonymous, non-personal information about your use of our web site and the sites of selected sponsors and advertisers, and your use of emails, special promotions or newsletters we send to you. Web beacons are tiny graphic image files imbedded in a web page or email that provide a presence on the web page or email and send back to its home server information from the Users’ browser. The information collected by web beacons allows us to statistically monitor how many people are using our site and selected sponsors’ and advertisers’ sites, or opening our emails, and for what purposes. YOUR LIFE COUNTS! web beacons are not used to track your activity across Websites generally. While it may be possible to link non-personal web beacon information to Personal Information collected in other ways, we want you to know that we will not, without your consent, link the web beacon information we collect to Personal Information you provide to us on our site.

6. E-mails and Newsletters
As noted in the discussions of cookies and web beacons (see above), we may collect anonymous, non-personal information about your use of e-mails and newsletters that we send to you. In some cases, when you click on a link or an advertisement in an e-mail or newsletter, your browser may be momentarily directed to the site of a third party which, acting on YOUR LIFE COUNTS! ‘s behalf (see Disclosure to Website Service and Content Contractors, below), notes or “counts” your response to the e-mail or newsletter before re-directing your browser to its proper destination; this re-direction process will not be apparent to you. When you use YOUR LIFE COUNTS! ‘s “Email a Friend” application, YOUR LIFE COUNTS! emails the article or other content you designate to your friend’s email address and lists your email address as the sender. YOUR LIFE COUNTS! uses the friend’s email address only for the purpose of sending your friend the email you requested and for no other purpose unless otherwise disclosed to you at the time you send the email.

7. Information Collected by Third Parties Not Acting on YOUR LIFE COUNTS!’s Behalf
Sponsors, partners or advertisers on the YOUR LIFE COUNTS! site or in emails, special promotions or newsletters we send you may also use their own cookies or web beacons when you click on their advertisement or link to their site or service, or even if the advertisement simply appears on a page or in an e-mail that you are viewing. Some advertisers use companies other than YOUR LIFE COUNTS! to serve their ads and to monitor users’ responses to ads, and these companies (“Ad Servers”) may also collect non-personal information through the use of cookies or web beacons on our Website. In certain situations, information collection may be facilitated by momentarily directing your browser to the site of an Ad Server or other third party acting on behalf of the sponsor, partner, or advertiser before re-directing your browser to its proper destination (e.g., back to YOUR LIFE COUNTS! to show the ad, or to the advertiser’s Web site); this re-direction process will not be apparent to you.

We do not control these third parties’ use of cookies or web beacons, or how they manage the non-personal information they gather through them. However, we do require sponsors, advertisers and Ad Servers who collect cookie or web beacon information through our Website to agree that they will not collect any Personal Information from our site without your consent. They have promised us they will not link any non-personal cookie or web beacon information collected by them on our site to Personal Information they or others collect in other ways or from other sites. You should review the privacy policy of other sites you visit or link to from our site to understand how these other sites use cookies and how they use the information they collect through the use of cookies or web beacons on their own sites. Certain Ad Servers allow you to prevent them from collecting data through the use of cookies. In order to do so, you must opt-out of such data collection with each individual site. Currently, you can opt-out of cookies for several Ad Servers by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative gateway opt-out site. This site will also allow you to review the Ad Server’s privacy policies.

8. Children
We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. This Website is not designed or intended to attract children under the age of 13. We do not collect Personal Information from any person we actually know is under the age of 13.

9. Public Forums
This Privacy Policy does not protect you when you use YOUR LIFE COUNTS!public forums. As a service to our users, YOUR LIFE COUNTS! features chat rooms and bulletin boards where users with similar interests can share information and support one another or where users can post questions for experts to answer. In addition, we offer online discussions on a variety of topics moderated by experts. You should be aware that any information shared in a chat room, bulletin board, Ask Our Expert posting or online discussion is public information and may be seen, disclosed to or collected by third parties that do not adhere to our Privacy Policy. You should think carefully before disclosing any personal information in any public forum.

10. Emails to YOUR LIFE COUNTS!
This Privacy Policy does not protect you when you send business information, ideas, concepts or inventions to YOUR LIFE COUNTS! by email to the various YOUR LIFE COUNTS! offices listed on the “Contact Us” link on our Website or elsewhere. If you want to keep business information, ideas, concepts or inventions private or proprietary, do not send them in an email to YOUR LIFE COUNTS! . We try to answer every email in a timely manner, but are not always able to do so.

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION
Except as set forth in this Article or as specifically agreed to by you, YOUR LIFE COUNTS! will not disclose any Personal Information it gathers from you on our Website. We may release Personal Information to third parties: (1) to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order; or (2) in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others. In the event that we are legally compelled to disclose your Personal Information to a third party, we will notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court order

We do not share any information about you with any person or organization outside YOUR LIFE COUNTS!, with the following exceptions:

If you have really serious problems we may wish to help refer you to a specialist agency or organization in your community that can help you get the help that you need.

In certain situations we are under a ‘duty of care’ – these situations occasionally arise when you tell us:

that your life has been threatened or someone is hurting or abusing you
that you are seriously thinking about hurting yourself
that you have hurt or are seriously thinking about physically harming someone else
In these rare situations we as an agency may need to seek the help of another specialized agency to help us to help you and to help others. The YOUR LIFE COUNTS! facilitator will let you know that he/she is concerned and will work with you to ensure your safety and the safety of others. This may mean that the YOUR LIFE COUNTS! facilitator will ask for your contact details as a safety precaution.

YOUR LIFE COUNTS! , it’s employees, representatives, chapter organizations, ambassadors, friends and advisors give advice and opinions in good faith and each and all cannot be held responsible for the consequences of imparting such to any individual or a body corporate howsoever arising whether in Canada or elsewhere in the world.

It must be expressly understood that the individual remains personally and solely responsible for the choices he/she makes and the actions that he/she takes in his/her life.

The information contained within yourlifecounts.com or any email responses initiated by YOUR LIFE COUNTS! and or its agents/representatives should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or STD. YOUR LIFE COUNTS! is not a replacement for consulting doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, specialists, pharmacists, nurses or other healthcare professionals. YOUR LIFE COUNTS! is not a replacement for social agencies or other community interest groups. YOUR LIFE COUNTS! seeks to work towards a better world in which poverty and suffering may be eradicated and people may live in peace, health and harmony together.

If you need particular help you should see your doctor or other healthcare, community or business professional.

A. Disclosure to YOUR LIFE COUNTS! Subsidiaries
YOUR LIFE COUNTS! may disclose Personal Information to its chapter organizations. Any Personal Information provided to subsidiaries of YOUR LIFE COUNTS! will be treated by those subsidiaries in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy.

B. Disclosure to YOUR LIFE COUNTS! Operations and Maintenance Contractors
YOUR LIFE COUNTS! operations and maintenance contractors sometimes have limited access to your Personal Information in the course of providing products or services to YOUR LIFE COUNTS! . These contractors include vendors and suppliers that provide us with technology, services, and/or content related to better operation and maintenance of our Website. Unless you have opted out of receiving emails and newsletters from YOUR LIFE COUNTS! , these contractors also may have access to your email address to send newsletters or special promotions to you on our behalf or to send emails to you for purposes such as conducting market research on our behalf. Access to your Personal Information by these contractors is limited to the information reasonably necessary in order for the contractor to perform its limited function for YOUR LIFE COUNTS! . We also contractually require that our operations and maintenance contractors 1) protect the privacy of your Personal Information consistent with this Privacy Policy, and 2) not use or disclose your Personal Information for any purpose other than providing us with products and services.

C. Disclosure to Website Service and Content Contractors
Certain content and services offered to you through our Website are served on Websites hosted and operated by a company other than YOUR LIFE COUNTS! (“Third Party Contractor Websites”). YOUR LIFE COUNTS! does not disclose your Personal Information to these Third Party Contractor Websites without your consent, but you should be aware that any information you disclose once you access these other sites is not subject to this Privacy Policy. YOUR LIFE COUNTS! does not endorse and is not responsible for the privacy practices of these Third Party Contractor Websites. You should review the privacy policy posted on the other site to understand how that Third Party Contractor Website collects and uses your Personal Information. YOUR LIFE COUNTS! makes an effort to make it obvious to you when you leave our Website and enter a Third Party Contractor Website, either by requiring you to click on a link or by notifying you on the site. In addition, if you see a phrase such as “Powered by” or “in association with” followed by the name of a company other than YOUR LIFE COUNTS! , then you are on a Website hosted by a company other than YOUR LIFE COUNTS! .

HOW YOUR LIFE COUNTS! HANDLES PRIVACY AND SECURITY INTERNALLY
YOUR LIFE COUNTS! wants your Personal Information to remain as secure as possible. All YOUR LIFE COUNTS! employees must abide by our Privacy Policy and those who violate our Privacy Policy are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination. Although we will make every reasonable effort to protect your Personal Information from loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk involved in transmitting information over the Internet. There is also some risk that thieves could find a way to thwart our security systems.

YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES
From time to time and at different locations on the YOUR LIFE COUNTS! Website, you will be given the option of receiving recurring informational/promotional newsletters via email from YOUR LIFE COUNTS! and/or directly from third parties.

If you wish to subscribe to such newsletters via email, we ask for contact information, such as name and email address. You can unsubscribe from the newsletters by simply clicking on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any email newsletter. An email to our automated unsubscribe service will be created on your machine. Click the “send” button. You will then be unsubscribed from that newsletter within two to three business days. If you are experiencing difficulties with our automated unsubscribe service, you can email us at YOUR LIFE COUNTS! . We will unsubscribe you from that newsletter in two to three business days.

At Registration and at various times as you use the site, you may have the option of receiving emails or newsletters directly from third parties, participating in research or marketing surveys and participating in other activities. You may exercise these options by placing a check mark beside a statement that expresses a preference for receiving these communications or participating in these activities. You may change your decision at any time by changing your preferences within your Member Profile or by following other directions provided in association with the individual communication or activity.

This privacy statement applies only to the YOUR LIFE COUNTS! Website. The YOUR LIFE COUNTS! site does contain links to other sites. Once you enter another Website (whether through an advertisement, service, or content link), be aware that YOUR LIFE COUNTS! is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage you to look for and review the privacy statements of each and every web site that you visit through a link or advertisement on YOUR LIFE COUNTS!’s site or any site that collects Personal Information from you.

UPDATING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND CONTACTING YOUR LIFE COUNTS!
You can always contact us in order to (1) delete your Personal Information from our systems, (2) update the Personal Information that you have provided to us, and (3) change your preferences with respect to marketing contacts or other activities, by emailing us at privacy@yourlifecounts.org

Such changes will not have any effect on other information that YOUR LIFE COUNTS! maintains. If you have a complaint or problem you may email us at help@yourlifecounts.org

and we will forward your complaint to the appropriate internal YOUR LIFE COUNTS! department for a response or resolution. We try to answer every email in a timely manner but are not always able to do so. If you do not receive adequate resolution of a privacy-related problem, you may write to YOUR LIFE COUNTS!’s Privacy Help Desk at:

YOUR LIFE COUNTS! Office of Privacy
YOUR LIFE COUNTS! Inc (Canada)
SUITE GG5B, 800 NIAGARA STREET N, WELLAND, ON L2C 5Z4

Or call 1.866.665.5YLC (592) Eastern Standard Time

You should be aware that it is not technologically possible to remove each and every record of the information you have provided to YOUR LIFE COUNTS! from our servers. The need to back-up our systems to protect information from inadvertent loss means that a copy of your Personal Information may exist in a non-erasable form that will be difficult or impossible for us to locate. Nevertheless, we promise that upon receiving your request, all Personal Information stored in the databases we actively use for research and daily business activities, and other readily searchable media, will be deleted.

Privacy, as it applies to the Internet, is a dynamic, rapidly developing area. In the future, we may make significant changes to our privacy policy affecting the use of the Personal Information we collect. We will notify you by email of any significant changes concerning our use of your Personal Information and obtain your “opt-in” consent to any significant new uses of your Personal Information if it was collected from you prior to a significant change in this policy. We may also make non-significant changes to our Privacy Policy that generally will not affect our use of your Personal Information and we generally will not notify you of these non-significant changes. You should check this posted Privacy Policy for any non-significant changes. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy or any revised policy, please exit the site immediately.

Thank you.

Who can I ask if I have additional questions?

Please feel free to contact us at any time and we’ll answer any questions you may have. Our email address is privacy@yourlifecounts.org.