Privacy Policy

Carris Psychological Services, P.C. and drmelissacarris.com™ Privacy Policy

Modification Date: 12/9/21

Effective Date:  12/9/21

INTRODUCTION

Carris Psychological Services, P.C. and drmelissacarris.com (herein referred to as “Company” and “Website”), owner Dr. Melissa Carris, and all employees and contractors  respect your privacy and will make reasonable efforts to protect your personally identifiable information (herein referred to as “PII”) through compliance with this policy. 

The Privacy Policy and Terms of Use documents refer to the use of this Website (“Website”, “Owner”, “We”, “Our”, “Us”), outline the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the website, and our practices for using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information. This Privacy Policy governs your access and use, so please read it thoroughly before you begin using this Website. This Privacy Policy does not alter our Terms of Use, which binds all who use our Website. 

*BY ACCESSING OR NAVIGATING THIS SITE, YOU AGREE TO THE PRIVACY POLICY AND TERMS OF USE AGREEMENTS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO OUR POLICIES AND PRACTICES, PLEASE DO NOT ACCESS OR USE OUR WEBSITE.

This Privacy Policy does not refer to information we may collect outside the use of our website including, but not limited to, information collected over the phone, from email, mail, or from personal interactions that occur in, for example, any class, course, training, seminar, or retreat (herein after referred to as “Training”) in which you enroll.

NOTE: The information presented in these pages is NOT referring to the way in which Carris Psychological Services, P.C.’s private practice patients’ information is handled.  For our private practice patients who also choose to attend a Training offered through drmelissacarris.com, the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use documents explain how information submitted through the Website – for the purposes of registration, payment, and attendance at a Company / drmelissacarris.com Training – is used. It is NOT referring to patient information, which has its own set of guidelines for privacy and security. The Company’s private practice patients receive and sign separate documents pertaining to applicable privacy and security rules.

I. Collection and Use of Information

A. What Personal Data We Collect and How and Why it is Used

When you use the website or choose to contact us, we may collect PII. The type of information collected may include information that you provide to us on our website through a contact form, your responses to surveys, when you enter a contest or promotion, your search queries on the site, when you contact us directly via our email address, and/or when you sign a contract with us to enroll in a Training. The information collected may include, but is not limited to your name, address, email address, phone number, or any other information you choose to share.  We recommend you only share the information we request to minimize risk. If you email us, please remember that email is not considered a secure form of communication, so please DO NOT send any protected health information, or sensitive personal or financial information via that method. If you choose to submit such information despite this warning against doing so, you are doing it at your own risk.

We keep the information that you choose to supply for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to:

• understanding and analyzing usage trends and preferences, improving the website, and developing new services, features, and functions
• storing information about your preferences and allowing us to customize our website according to your individual interests
• speeding up your searches
• recognizing you when you return to our website
• operating, maintaining, and enhancing all features of the website, providing the services and information you request, responding to comments and questions, and providing user support and notices to you about your account
• communicating with you for administrative purposes including, but not limited to, customer service, updates on policies or terms of use, and changes to the Website and the services offered 
• to fulfill our obligations and enforce our rights related to any contracts between you and us

You may opt out of receiving such communications at any time via a link in emails you receive or by contacting us via a “Contact” form or directly to our email.

When you register for a Training, you will be connected to a secure credit card processing system, whether that be through the third-party teaching platform, PayPal, Stripe, or another reputable service. Credit card processing companies have their own policies regarding their management of your sensitive information related to your purchase, so please consult those websites for more information.

B.  Legal Basis for Collecting your Personal Information

As mentioned above, we collect information about you because of your voluntary choice to submit it to us. The information you provide or request should be for the purpose of asking us questions, registering for a Training, or completing a legal financial transaction (i.e., when you make a purchase). You are welcome to contact us at [email protected] or through the Contact Form on the Website to amend or update your information or request access to the information we have for you. Please note that you may request your personal information be erased, and we will do that within the confines of the law. However, there may be some personal information that we need to keep to record and complete financial transactions, or because it is required by law. 

C. Information Collected Automatically on our Website (Cookies and other methods)

When you use the website, we may automatically record certain information from your device by using various types of technology, including cookies. Cookies are small text files that websites place on your device as you are browsing. They are processed and stored by your web browser. This is done by Websites to gather information about how you use their Website so that they can tailor it to your interests, identify how you are accessing their Website (via your phone, computer, etc.), identify you by name, or remember what you had in your shopping cart the last time you visited. “Strictly necessary” cookies are essential for you to browse the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the site. Cookies that allow web shops to hold your items in your cart while you are shopping online are an example of strictly necessary cookies. These cookies will generally be first-party session cookies and do not require consent. 

Cookies may either be “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies. A persistent cookie is stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiration date, unless deleted by you prior to the expiration date. A session cookie will expire at the end of your use of the website when the web browser is closed. At this time, we agree to only use session cookies. We may also use cookies to monitor aggregate site usage metrics such as number of visitors and pages viewed. We will not use third-party or marketing cookies.

You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting, you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our site. Company will document and store consent received from you. You may withdraw your consent for cookies at any time. 

On drmelissacarris.com, we may suggest products or services and link to them through an affiliate link. If you click on an affiliate link that takes you to a third party Website (e.g., Amazon), it is important to be aware:  1) they have provided drmelissacarris.com with a customized affiliate link and will use cookies to track the referrals from our Website to their Website, to assign commissions on sales that occur when you click on a link to their site and make a purchase (this does not affect your purchase price), and 2) they may use cookies for other purposes.  It is always your responsibility to read third party Websites’ Policies thoroughly, so that you are informed of their use of Cookies.

D. Information from Other Sources

Although unlikely, we may obtain PII from third parties and sources other than the website. If information from other sources is combined or associated with PII collected through this website, the information will be treated as PII in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

 E. Disclosure of Your Information to Third Parties

We will not intentionally disclose your PII to third parties without your explicit consent. We will not sell your data. We will share your data only to process your information for the purposes of a sale you have authorized; the primary examples of this would be through a credit card processor or bank use for in-person purchases, or a shopping cart for online purchases. 

We may disclose information to third parties with your consent, as well as in the following circumstances:

Unrestricted Information. Content generated by you and posted to the website, or any of our associated social media sites, is your sole and exclusive responsibility and we have no responsibility or liability for such content. Any information you voluntarily display to the public on the website will be available to any individual who has access to that content. We cannot and will not guarantee the safety or security of your user generated content. 

Service Providers. In some situations, we may work with service providers who provide website application development, hosting maintenance, and other services to support and promote our business. These third parties may have access to, or process, PII as part of providing such services. We limit the information provided to that which his reasonably necessary for them to perform their functions. 

Non-personally identifiable information. We may make certain automatically collected, aggregated, or otherwise non-personally identifiable information available to third parties for various purposes, including: i) compliance with reporting obligations, and ii) business or marketing purposes.

Disclosure by Law. You agree that we may disclose information you provide if required  by law, at the request of a third party, or if we, in our sole discretion, believe disclosure is reasonable to (1) comply with the law, requests, or orders from law enforcement, or any legal process (whether or not such disclosure is required by applicable law); (2) protect or defend Owner’s, or a third party’s, rights or property; or (3) protect someone’s health or safety, such as when harm or violence against any person (including you) is threatened.

Disclosure to Protect Abuse Victims. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Policy or our Terms of Use, we reserve the right, but have no obligation, to disclose any information that you submit to the Website if, in our sole opinion, we suspect or have reason to suspect that the information involves a party who may be the victim of abuse in any form. Abuse may include, without limitation, elder abuse, child abuse, spousal abuse, neglect, or domestic violence.  Information may be disclosed to authorities that we, in our sole discretion, deem appropriate to handle such disclosure.  Appropriate authorities may include, without limitation, law enforcement agencies, child protection agencies, or court officials. You agree we may make such disclosure and release us from any liability for doing so. 

Information Transferred as a Result of Sale of Business. As we develop our business, we may buy or sell assets and, depending on the transaction, your personally identifying information may be one of the transferred assets. If another company acquires us, your personally identifying information may be part of the assets transferred to the acquiring party. If this occurs, we will notify you if there are any material changes to the way we use or collect your personally identifying information.

F. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

We do not presently serve clients that reside in the EU. That may change in the future. For individuals who live in the European Union (EU) and access our site, if applicable, we will comply with the applicable requirements of the GDPR. Please refer to specific sections of this document to see details  for each type of data we may collect. If you believe the GDPR applies and you want us to fix or remove any data, you must promptly notify us by email sent to [email protected].

 II. Age Restrictions

This Website assumes that all people using it are over the age of 18. Anyone under 18 years old should only use this site with the involvement of their parent or guardian. We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 18, but if we learn that we have collected or received information from someone under the age of 18 without verification of parental consent, we will use our best efforts to remove that information from our database. If a parent or guardian believes we have information for someone under 18, please contact us at:  [email protected]. 

III.  Security

We have reasonable security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information we store. We will exercise reasonable care in providing secure transmission of information between your computer and our servers but given that no information transmitted over the Internet can be guaranteed 100% secure, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information transmitted to us over the Internet and hence accept no liability for any unintentional disclosure. We disclaim all warranties to the fullest extent the law allows. You assume all associated risk.

Related to a breach of your personal information sent via an email, we will take reasonable steps to investigate the situation and, where appropriate, notify those whose information may have been breached. We will take all steps that are in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. 

When you provide us with your credit card information for a financial transaction, you are agreeing that the legal responsibility for managing that sensitive information is with the credit card processor alone, and that any breach of their company’s data is theirs to manage.  

IV. Links to Third Party Websites

Our website, drmelissacarris.com, may contain links to other websites for informational or educational purposes. Some of the links to third party websites may be affiliate links. This means that when you click on that link and are taken to another website, Company and drmelissacarris.com may receive a commission on any products you purchase through that site during that visit. We only provide links to products that we believe may be of benefit to you and it does not affect your cost but helps keep this Website free of ads. The site drmelissacarris.com will not have access to your sensitive financial information when you purchase something through a third-party website.

Please read all third-party websites’ Privacy Policy and Terms of Use / Terms and Conditions because we have no control over, or responsibility for, their content, quality, functioning, operation, and policies. We are also not responsible for the content of any Third-Party advertising. By choosing to click on any link on our website that takes you to a third-party website, you are agreeing to abide by their Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, which may differ substantially from the one provided here. You understand that, by visiting any third-party website through a link on this Website, you are expressly consenting to share your information with them, either through their use of cookies, purchases you may make with them, or other contact you have with them. It is your responsibility to review their Privacy Policy and Terms of Use / Terms and Conditions before performing any transactions or providing them with personal data. You visit all links at your own risk.

Company cannot guarantee the quality, packaging, or shipping of the products you purchase through a third-party website. Whether or not you agree with the benefit of a particular product is a matter of personal preference. Any problems that you have with a specific product purchased through a link on drmelissacarris.com should be directed to the company from whom you purchased it. 

V. Contact Information for drmelissacarris.com and Carris Psychological Services, P.C

Please email us at [email protected] if:

* you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy 

* you would like general information about this site or any services that we offer 

* you would like to unsubscribe to any email opt-in list OR to have us no longer send you emails on upcoming Trainings, etc. you once requested

VI. Policy Changes and Acceptance of Policy

We reserve the right to change or update our Privacy Policy at any time, and we will post any changes we make on this page. Please see the “Modification Date” at the top of this page reflecting the most recent date that any changes were made. It is your responsibility to check the Privacy Policy for modifications or updates anytime you access the site. Your continued use of drmelissacarris.com indicates that you are explicitly consenting to the modified or updated Privacy Policy in place at that time.

All contents of this Website are the Copyright © of Carris Psychological Services, P.C. and Melissa Carris, Ph.D.