Privacy Policy

HRS values your privacy and recognizes the sensitivity of your personal information. We have carefully crafted our privacy policy to assure you that your personal information, if provided to us, will be treated carefully and appropriately.

HRS Privacy Policy

Information Collection and Use

The Heart Rhythm Society ("HRS", "we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting the privacy and security of the information of our website visitors ("you"). We want you to understand how we collect and use information from all websites owned and operated by HRS, including any affiliated subdomains (the "Sites"), our chatbots (each a "Chatbot") and our related services, (together with the Sites and the Chatbots, the "Services"). By using the Sites, you accept and agree to the practices this Privacy Policy describes. If you do not agree to any of the terms in this Privacy Policy, you should not use the Sites. Our Services are not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

What Information Do We Collect?

When you use our Services, we may collect, store, and process various kinds of data, including Personal Information about you. "Personal Information" refers to information about you that can be used to identify you, such as your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, credit card information, or transaction information. Specifically, we may collect, store, or process information when you:

Contact us on the Services
Interact with a Chatbot
Submit a form on the Services
Contact us with inquiries, including via email
Purchase access to content or webinars
Sign up for conferences or other events
Subscribe or otherwise sign up to receive communications
Respond to a survey or other questionnaire; or
Voluntarily provide information.

We may also collect details of your visits to the Sites and the pages you access, including, without limitation, traffic data, location data, weblogs, and other communication data, such as your IP address, browser type, and the date and time you accessed or left the Site, and which pages you viewed. Some parts of our Sites use cookies and other technologies to collect this information about your general internet usage. See the section below called "How We Use Tracking Technologies" to learn more.

Why We Collect Information

We use your information for the following purposes:

To improve our Sites
To provide you with a personalized experience
To present our Services to you
To provide you with information, including customer service or troubleshooting that you request from us
To administer our conferences or other events
To process payment
To fulfill any purpose for which you provide it
To allow you to participate in any interactive features on our Services, including interacting with a Chatbot
To perform analytics to learn about the behavior of our Services' users; and
To send periodic emails to you.

We will not ask your permission to collect or use aggregate information about website visitors or users of our products or services, since aggregate information does not identify you as a specific individual. We are entitled to use your personal information for the purposes set out in this privacy policy because (i) in most cases you provide us with your consent to do so when submitting your personal information , (ii) we have legal, regulatory and compliance obligations that we have to discharge or (iii) the use of your personal information as described may be necessary for our legitimate interests, such as allowing us to effectively and efficiently administer and manage the operation of our activities, maintaining compliance with internal policies and procedures or informing you about our activities. In addition to these general provisions, we collect and use personal information in the following ways:

Disclosures of Relationships and Competing Interests with Industry

As part of the Society's commitment to transparency and accountability, and to attain the highest standards of excellence, HRS maintains independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all its activities. HRS requires Volunteers, Session Participants, and Authors, all as defined in Section 4.1 of the Code of Ethics, to disclose and manage relationships between personal, professional, financial, or business interests when engaged in HRS activities. Interests include relationships with for-profit companies, nonprofit organizations, and governmental agencies with interests or activities related to those of the Society and apply as well to the immediate family or household members with such relationships. While not all relationships are prohibited or harmful, full disclosure of such relationships is required and mechanisms are in place to identify and resolve potential or perceived conflicts of interest. Any relationship from the previous 12-month period that could influence objectivity related to HRS activities needs to be disclosed and should be updated as circumstances change, and at least annually. All volunteer and session participant disclosure forms are publicly available on HRS's website. Disclosure information is included in every educational presentation and Society-initiated document.

Recipients of Fellowships and Grants

We may disclose award recipients' personal information, including funding and project summary information, for the purpose of publicizing Heart Rhythm Society awards and/or assessing the subsequent success of HRS's award recipients. When you submit an application for a fellowship, travel, or other grant to HRS, you grant us your permission to share your personal information for this purpose.

Donors

If you make a donation to the HRS or the Heart Rhythm Advocates, your personal information, including your name, beneficiaries, amount of your donation and information about your estate, will be kept strictly confidential, unless you give us permission to release such information. We will honor your request for anonymity, except to the extent that HRS is legally required to disclose the identity of donors.

Order Fulfillment

We may ask you for certain information, such as credit card information, when you order products or services, or when you register for an educational activity such as Scientific Sessions. We use this information to process your request and may share this information with credit card processing companies, merchants, and other third parties that may need the information for your request to be processed. These organizations have their own privacy and data collection practices, and we are not responsible for their independent policies. We only use your credit card information to complete the requested transaction and it is retained only as necessary for administrative purposes.

Surveys

From time to time, we request information from members and other constituents via surveys. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary. Information requested may include demographic information, such as name, address, age, membership category or professional affiliation. We use survey information to improve our programs, products and services, support our strategic planning efforts and gauge the satisfaction of our stakeholders.

Email Messages

If you opt in, HRS will send you information about our programs, products and services via e-mail and/or SMS messages. If you no longer wish to receive our e-mail newsletters or promotional messages, you may opt-out of receiving these communications by following the "unsubscribe" or opt-out instructions in our e-mail or SMS messages. Unsubscribing will remove you from all but transaction-based messages from the HRS such as membership dues invoices, receipts, registration confirmations, etc., while opt-outs provide you the opportunity to select specific types of information that you do not wish to receive.

Interaction with a Chatbot

Our sites may use a generative AI Chatbot to provide general information and support. It is not a doctor and should not be used for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please do not share any personal information or protected health information with a Chatbot. We may retain transcripts of chats to analyze usage, improve a Chatbot's performance, and monitor engagement. We may share aggregate, de-identified information about how a Chatbot is used for research purposes or with a Chatbot's funder. By using a Chatbot, you agree to these practices.

Tracking Technologies

We use cookies (small text files stored in your browser) and other techniques such as web beacons (small, clear picture files used to follow your online activities) (together, "Tracking Technologies"). Tracking Technologies collect information about how you use our Site, web-related products, and Services. The use of Tracking Technologies does not give us access to the rest of your computer. This helps us make our Services more relevant to your interests and needs. See our Cookie Policy to learn more. We use a number of different Tracking Technologies, including functional, performance, advertising, and social media or content cookies. Most browsers accept cookies automatically. You may be able to set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent. For instructions, check your browser's technical information. If you disable or refuse cookies, some parts of the Services may be inaccessible or may not function properly. You can still place orders over the telephone or by contacting customer service. Please note that cookie-based opt-outs must be performed on each device and browser that you wish to have opted out. We may use Google Analytics to improve our Service's functions. You can choose not to be included in this type of analytic data, you can choose "Deny" in the consent banner or manually opt out of the Statistics & Marketing options in the consent banner and save your changes. You can also visit the Cookie Declaration page and change your consent settings at any time.

How We Disclose Your Personal Information

We may disclose your Personal Information as follows:

With affiliates, contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business and/or our Services
With our research partners and funders
With our event sponsors when you register for a conference or event
To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it
For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information
With social media companies, as explained below
With affiliates if you opt in to receiving communications from affiliates
To enforce any agreement, including any applicable terms of service
To establish or exercise our rights or defend against legal claims; to law enforcement and other government authorities such as legislatures, courts, agencies, and litigants if we reasonably believe that such action is necessary to: (a) comply with the law and reasonable requests of governmental authorities; (b) comply with legal process; (c) respond to requests from public or government authorities, including public or government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) protect the security or integrity of the Services' information systems; and/or (e) exercise or protect our rights, privacy, or safety or those of our affiliates, clients, you, or others; and/or
If we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of HRS or others.

Links

Our Sites may contain links to other sites, including third-party vendors and advertisers of products and services and social media platforms. These vendors and advertisers may use cookie technology to measure the effectiveness of their ads or may otherwise collect personally identifiable information from you when you leave our Sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of such sites, and we are not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, services or other materials offered by them. Transactions that occur between you and the third party are strictly between you and them and are not our responsibility. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of every website that collects personally identifying information.

Security of Your Information

We take every precaution to protect your personal information. However, no data protection procedures are entirely infallible. Your transmission of your information to our Services is done entirely at your own risk.

Retention of Personal Information

We retain personal information provided by you for as long as such information is considered to be relevant for the legitimate purposes of the Heart Rhythm Society, to respond to your requests or until you instruct us to remove such information by contacting us in the manner described below.

Website Postings by Users

Information posted on our website by individual users, whether via sponsored blogs or other applicable fora, are the responsibility of the individual(s) posting such information. Such information does not necessarily reflect the views of the Society, and in no event shall the Society assume or have any responsibility or liability for any such information posted, or for any claims, damages or losses resulting from the use and/or appearance of such information. The Society shall have no obligation to monitor or control postings made by individuals, but reserves the right to do so, and to remove postings that it deems inappropriate or inaccurate. Further, the Society reserves the right to terminate the access of content providers or forum participants who, in the reasonable judgment of the Society are posting inappropriate or inaccurate information, or who appear to be violating the copyrights or other proprietary rights of others. To the extent individual users post information or content to the website, they grant to the Society a perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide license to use, transmit, copy and display such information or content in any and all media, and further represent that they have all necessary rights to make such postings.

Do Not Track

The Heart Rhythm Society does not track its users across third party websites and therefore does not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals. However, some third-party plug-ins may keep track of your browsing activities when they serve you content, to enable them to tailor your experience. Third parties that have content embedded on the Heart Rhythm Society's websites such as a social feature or a streaming video may set cookies on a user's browser and/or obtain information about the fact that a web browser visited a specific Heart Rhythm Society website from a certain IP address.

Your Rights

Depending on your state or country of residency, you may have certain privacy rights, subject to certain exceptions, as follows:

Right to Access. You may have the right to request that we disclose what personal information we collect, use, disclose, and sell about you.
Right to Correction. You may have the right to request correction of personal information that we maintain about you if you find that the personal information is inaccurate.
Right to Deletion.You may have the right to request that we delete personal information that we have collected from you.
Data Portability.You may have the right to request a copy of your personal information in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format.
Right to Withdraw Consent. You may have the right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal information.
Right to Limit Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information. You may have the right to limit the processing of your sensitive personal information.
Right to Opt-Out. You may have the right to opt-out of certain uses of your personal information such as for (i) targeted advertising, (ii) "sale" or "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising, or (iii) profiling or automated decision-making activities that result in a legal or similarly significant effect on you. However, we do not engage in (i), (ii), or (iii).
Right to Information on Profiling. Should your personal information be processed for the purposes of profiling in furtherance of any automated decision that produced any legal or similarly significant effect concerning you, and if feasible, you may have the right to (i) question the result of such profiling, (ii) be informed of the reason that such profiling resulted in such decision, (iii) review your personal information that was processed for the purposes of such profiling, and (iv) if the profiling decision concerned housing, taking into account the nature of the personal information and the purposes for which such personal information was processed, you may be allowed to correct any incorrect personal information that was processed for such profiling and have the profiling decision reevaluated based on the corrected personal information. However, we do not engage in the use of personal information for profiling or automated decision-making activities.
Right to Information on Third Parties. Should your personal information be sold to third parties, you may have the right to obtain a list of the third parties to which your personal information was sold.
Right to Appeal. In some circumstances, we may deny your request to exercise one of your privacy rights described in this Privacy Policy (e.g., if we cannot verify your identity). In such a case, we will communicate this to you in writing and explain the reasons for the denial. You may appeal our decision by responding to our denial email or submitting a request to [email protected]. We will notify you of our decision regarding your appeal in writing via an email from [email protected] within 45 days of receipt. If we deny your appeal, you may have the right to contact your state Attorney General to file a complaint.

You can exercise your rights by contacting us using the details set out in the "How to contact us" section below.

Visitors from Outside the United States of America

Our Services are hosted and operated in the United States. By using the Services, you are consenting to the transfer of your Personal Information to the United States. If you are accessing our Services from outside the United States, please be advised that U.S. law may not offer the same privacy protections as the law of your jurisdiction.

California Visitors

California's "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code Section 1798.83) permits users of our Services who are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to [email protected]..

Changes in our Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, so please review it regularly. If we update our Privacy Policy, we will update the date on the top so that you are always aware of the information we collect, the ways we use it, and any circumstances under which we disclose it. We may also contact you by e-mail to inform you of significant changes. Your continued use of our Services will be deemed your agreement that your information may be used in accordance with the new policy. If you do not agree with the changes, then you should stop using the Services and notify us that you do not want your information used in accordance with the changes.

How to Contact Us

We invite your comments, requests and questions about our website, your experience with our site and services, and our Privacy Policy. E-mail [email protected] or call +1-202-464-3400.