Is Your Privacy Getting Pick-Pocketed

By The Wellnicity Team - May 17, 2019

We are living in an age with a complete disregard for privacy. Have you noticed that after you take advantage of a good deal, “free” apps, “free” search engines, or coupon codes that you then receive an influx of spam emails?

Our founder, Pam, recently commented that she had a conversation with her mother about a certain item…and then she started seeing ads popping up on her computer screen for that item! Talk about disconcerting! After signing up my son for an online drivers’ education program, my inbox was flooded with emails and I began receiving robocalls hawking “low insurance rates”. We all are impacted by privacy, or the lack of privacy, and we all want more of it.

Why Should You Care?

It turns out when you make a purchase, you (and your personal data) are often the most valuable product involved in the transaction. The reason being that data has become monetized, and it is becoming increasingly common for companies to sell your information.

It’s one thing when we elect to share information on social media platforms (facebook, insta, twitter, snap chat, tumblr, youtube channels), apps and/or personal lifestyle blogs. It’s quite another for our emails, purchasing habits, and search trends to be shared or sold to other companies. Data about you and your spending habits is very valuable, so take care with what you share and who you share it with.

But what about the information you didn’t know you were sharing?

There are different categories of personal data, and some of it is regulated by government entities to ensure it stays as private as possible. Think about breaches of data that you may have heard or read about in the news in recent years: credit card data for millions of people, social security information of thousands of military veterans, and email addresses for billions of Yahoo users.

At Wellnicity, your privacy is always a priority! From the moment you set up an account with us, your information is safe and treated with care. We will not rent or sell your information to third parties outside Wellnicity without your consent, except as noted in our Privacy Policy. We may not share your User Content with any third party except in anonymous, aggregated form or as otherwise provided herein.

HIPAA also known as The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was enacted in 1996 to safeguard your information for data privacy. It provides individuals with certain rights concerning their health information, sets boundaries on how the information is used, establishes formal safeguards, and holds violators accountable.

All staff at Wellnicity have completed HIPAA Security and Privacy Training and are regularly trained on proper security procedures. To ensure your health and other private, personal information is protected Wellnicity does the following.  

We do not!

• Email test results and reports  
• Ask for more than we need
• Access client information without reason
• Release protected health information to anyone who does not have a right to know that information
• Sell email addresses or any information, for that matter

We do!

• Keep all the information about any client confidential unless requested otherwise with written consent
• Require a medical conset and release form signed by the client that states who they would like their information to be shared with (e.g. partner, physician, parent).
• Encrypt data (health questionnaires, credit card information and all other personal data
• All written personal health and other private information is shredded and disposed through a secure paper shredding and destruction service

At Wellnicity we share solutions, not information. The data gathered from your neurotransmitter test is meant for one purpose - to enhance your health and wellness. Our clients should be focused on things like their gut health and hormonal imbalances, they don’t have time to worry about whether their information is getting sold or not.

We want people to rejoice over the fact that you can get vitamins delivered to your door. Not worry about whether or not they are going to receive a barrage of direct-mail from giving out their home address.

So when you register with Wellnicity, neurotransmitter testing, rest assured, your privacy and data is in safe hands.  

Wellnicity’s Privacy Policy

From the website:

We may share User Content and your information (including but not limited to, information from cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data, and usage data) with businesses that are legally part of the same group of companies that Wellnicity is part of, or that become part of that group (" Affiliates"). Affiliates may use this information to help provide, understand, and improve the Service (including by providing analytics) and Affiliates' own services (including by providing you with better and more relevant experiences).

We also may share your information as well as information from tools like cookies, log files, and device identifiers and location data, with third-party organizations that help us provide the Service to you (" Service Providers"). Our Service Providers will be given access to your information as is reasonably necessary to provide the Service under reasonable confidentiality terms.

We may remove parts of data that can identify you and share anonymized data with other parties. We may also combine your information with other information in a way that it is no longer associated with you and share that aggregated information.

Parties with whom you may choose to share your User Content:

We may not share your User Content with any third party except in anonymous, aggregated form or as otherwise provided herein.

What happens in the event of a change of control:

If we sell or otherwise transfer part or the whole of Wellnicity or our assets to another organization (e.g., in the course of a transaction like a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, liquidation), your information such as name and email address, User Content, and any other information collected through the Service may be among the items sold or transferred. You will continue to own your User Content. The buyer or transferee will have to honor the commitments we have made in this Privacy Policy.

Responding to legal requests and preventing harm:

We may access, preserve and share your information in response to a legal request (like a search warrant, court order or subpoena) if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so. This may include responding to legal requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law in that jurisdiction, affects users in that jurisdiction, and is consistent with internationally recognized standards. We may also access, preserve and share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to: detect, prevent and address fraud and other illegal activity; to protect ourselves, you and others, including as part of investigations; and to prevent death or imminent bodily harm. Information we receive about you may be accessed, processed, and retained for an extended period of time when it is the subject of a legal request or obligation, governmental investigation, or investigations concerning possible violations of our terms or policies, or otherwise to prevent harm.

HOW WE STORE YOUR INFORMATION

Storage and Processing:

Your information collected through the Service may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Wellnicity, its Affiliates, or Service Providers maintain facilities.

Wellnicity, its Affiliates, or Service Providers may transfer information that we collect about you, including personal information, across borders and from your country or jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions around the world. If you are located in the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that we may transfer information, including personal information, to a country and jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction.

By registering for and using the Service you consent to the transfer of information to the U.S. or to any other country in which Wellnicity, its Affiliates, or Service Providers maintain facilities and the use and disclosure of information about you as described in this Privacy Policy.

We use commercially reasonable safeguards to help keep the information collected through the Service secure and take reasonable steps (such as requesting a unique password) to verify your identity before granting you access to your account. However, Wellnicity cannot ensure the security of any information you transmit to Wellnicity or guarantee that information on the Service may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed.

Please do your part to help us. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information, and for controlling access to emails between you and Wellnicity, at all times. We are not responsible for the functionality, privacy, or security measures of any other organization.

YOUR CHOICES ABOUT YOUR INFORMATION

Your account information and profile/privacy settings:

Update your account at any time by logging in and changing your profile settings.

Unsubscribe from email communications from us by clicking on the "unsubscribe link" provided in such communications. As noted above, you may opt out of some Service-related communications from (e.g., daily reminders or refill reminders).

To review or modify your account information, go to the Wellnicity site and choose My Health Login in the top right navigation bar.