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Effective Date: 5 March, 2021

GeneOnline (“GeneOnline,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) provides this Privacy Policy to describe how we collect, use, and share the information about individuals who visit our website at https://www.geneonline.com/ (the “Site”).

What this Privacy Statement Covers

This Privacy Statement covers the Site. While you may encounter links on the Site to other websites, such as those relating to our third party sponsors, advertisers, and other partners (e.g., our affiliate network operators), please note that these websites are not covered by this Privacy Statement (unless otherwise noted on such site, which may be the case if, for example, the site is also owned and operated by GeneOnline).

This Privacy Statement does not apply to the activities of GeneOnline’s third party sponsors, advertisers, and other partners (e.g. our affiliate network operators) that may collect your user information while you access or use such third party’s services in connection with your use of our Site (e.g. social media and sharing services). The privacy and information practices of those third parties are not covered by this Privacy Statement. To learn more about such third party policies, we encourage you to read and review the privacy statements of each third party service that you may choose to use. This Privacy Statement applies only to user information collected by us or shared with us in relation to our Site.

As a general reminder, please think carefully before you decide to put anything on the internet. For example, if you voluntarily disclose user information in chat areas or bulletin boards (e.g., comments sections), that information could be seen and used by others, and may result in unsolicited messages from others. We are not responsible for the user information you may choose to submit in these public forums. To request removal of your user information from our blog or community forum, please contact us as provided below. In some cases, for legal retention purposes or technical limitations (e.g., the data may not be searchable), we may not be able to remove user information voluntarily disclosed by you in such forums, in which case, we will notify you.

Information We Collect

Like many websites, GeneOnline collects information about how Site visitors use the Site in order to operate and improve our services. For example, we collect information to gather statistics on how many visitors we our Site receives each month, determine the popularity of pages on the Site, and evaluate where there may be problems in serving certain pages to visitors.

When you visit the Site, we (and/or third-party services that we authorize) collect technical information relating to your device and your interactions with the Site — if it is available — including IP address, cookie identifiers, Internet service provider, domain name and country of origin of your computer, your operating system, device type, date and time of visit, pages visited and other activities on the Site, the type of web browser being used, and other information collected through the use of cookies and similar technologies.

We collect your email address when you sign up for our newsletters. We will also collect your email address and any information that you provide if you choose to contact us, such as if you submit feedback.

How We Use Information

GeneOnline may use the information we collect for any lawful purpose. We primarily use the information we collect to operate and improve the Site, provide our newsletters, and determine overall statistics about our readership. Cumulative figures that provide a picture of visitor traffic to our Site are vital in our efforts to attract advertisers — upon whose support the Site depends — and to monitor how well our web server is keeping up with our readership. Please note, however, that GeneOnline does not attempt to identify its individual visitors about whom GeneOnline has collected only technical information as described above.

We may also use the information we collect to comply with the law and to maintain the security of the Site. Finally, we may use the information we collect with your consent, or as otherwise disclosed at the time information is collected.

How We Share Information

We may share the information we collect with other parties, including the following:

  • With third-party service providers who process data on our behalf, such as email service providers;
  • With advertising and marketing partners (but we do not share names or email addresses with these partners for their own purposes — see below for details);
  • As part of a corporate sale, merger, or acquisition, or other transfer of all or part of our assets, including as part of a bankruptcy proceeding;
  • Pursuant to a subpoena, court order, governmental inquiry, or other legal process or as otherwise required by law, or to protect our rights or the rights of third parties; and
  • With your consent or as otherwise disclosed at the time of data collection or sharing.

We may share information that has been de-identified or aggregated without limitation.

Digital Advertising and Analytics

We may partner with ad networks and other ad serving providers (“Advertising Providers”) that serve advertisements on behalf of us and others on non-affiliated platforms. These Advertising Providers may use information about your visits to this Site and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. Information used by Advertising Providers may include location data, if such information is made available based on settings that allow for the collection of such data in your web browser or mobile device. Some of the advertisements served by Advertising Providers may be personalized, meaning that they are intended to be relevant to you based on information Advertising Providers collect about your use of the Site and other sites or apps over time, including information about relationships among different browsers and devices. This type of advertising is known as interest-based advertising.

You may visit the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Webchoices tool at https://youradchoices.com or the Network Advertising Initiative at https://optout.networkadvertising.org to learn more about this type of advertising and how to opt out of this advertising on websites by companies participating in industry self-regulatory programs. If you delete your cookies or use a different browser or mobile device, you may need to renew your opt-out choices exercised through these tools. Note that electing to opt out will not stop advertising from appearing in your browser or applications. It may make the ads you see less relevant to your interests. Additionally, your browser may offer tools to limit the use of cookies or to delete cookies; however, if you use these tools, the Site may not function as intended.

Finally, GeneOnline works with third parties that collect data about your use of the Site and other sites or apps over time for non-advertising purposes. GeneOnline uses certain third-party services, such as Google Analytics, to improve the performance of the Site and for analytics and marketing purposes. For more information about how Google Analytics collects and uses data when you use the Site, visit How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services – Privacy & Terms, and you can also opt-out of Google Analytics by using a browser plug-in that Google has developed (Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on Download Page).

Third-Party Links and Tools

The Site may provide links to third-party websites or apps. We do not control the privacy practices of those websites or apps, and they are not covered by this Privacy Policy. You should review the privacy policies of other websites or apps that you use to learn about their data practices.

The Site also includes integrated email newsletter tools and integrated social media tools or “plug-ins” that are offered by third parties. If you use these tools to share personal information or you otherwise interact with these features on the Site, those companies may collect information about you and may use and share such information in accordance with your account settings, including by sharing such information with the general public. Your interactions with third-party companies and your use of their features are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide those features. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policies of any accounts you create and use.

European Visitors

This section applies to those that visit the Site from the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom.
GeneOnline is the controller of your personal data collected through the Site, and our legal basis for collecting and using information described in this Privacy Policy depends on the information we collect and the specific context in which we collect it. We may process personal information for the following reasons:

  • You have given us permission to do so;
  • To fulfill a contract or where required by law;
  • The processing is in our legitimate interests, such as to respond to your inquiries, and our interests are not overridden by your data protection rights.

Please be aware that the personal information we collect may be transferred to and maintained on servers or databases in the United States or other jurisdictions where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your location.
You have the following rights:

  • The right to access, update, or to delete the information we hold about you;
  • The right to have personal information about you rectified if the information is inaccurate or incomplete;
  • The right to object to our processing of personal information about you;
  • The right to request restriction of the processing of personal information about you;
  • Under certain circumstances, the right to be provided with a portable copy of personal information about you in a structured, machine-readable, and commonly used format; and
  • The right to withdraw your consent where we previously relied on your consent to process your personal information.

Please be aware that we may be unable to afford these rights to you under certain circumstances, such as if we are legally prevented from doing so.

To exercise these rights, please email [email protected]. In addition, you have the right to complain to the Data Protection Authority in your country of residence about our personal information processing.

Information Retention

We will process and store information only for the period necessary to achieve the purpose of the storage, or as permitted by law. The criteria used to determine the period of storage of information is set forth by our internal data retention processes or is the applicable statutory retention period. After expiration of that period, the corresponding information is routinely deleted.

California Privacy Notice

This section contains disclosures required by the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) and applies only to “personal information” that is subject to the CCPA.

Personal Information We Collect. In the preceding 12 months, we collected the following categories of personal information about California consumers:

  • Internet or other electronic network activity information (such as interactions with a website, email, application, or advertisement); and
  • Personal and online identifiers (such as first and last name, email address, or unique online identifiers).

Categories of Personal Information We Sell. Under the CCPA’s definition of a “sale,” we treat certain disclosures of online identifiers and/or Internet or other electronic network activity information to third-party advertising, marketing, and analytics providers as “sales.” We do not sell names or email addresses we collect to third parties for their own purposes. Finally, we do not have actual knowledge that we sell information about minors under 16 years of age.

Categories of Personal Information We Disclose for a Business Purpose. We disclose each category of personal information we collect to our service providers and to government agencies (as described above).
Categories of Sources. We collect personal information from the following categories of sources:

  • Consumers like you;
  • Data analytics providers; and
  • Service providers, such as those providing web feed management services.

Why We Collect, Use, and Share California Information. We use and disclose the personal information we collect for our commercial and business purposes, as further described in this Privacy Policy. These commercial and business purposes include, without limitation:

  • Our commercial purposes, including marketing and advertising.
  • Our business purposes as identified in the CCPA, which can include:
    • Auditing related to our interactions with you;
    • Legal compliance;
    • Detecting and protecting against security incidents, fraud, and illegal activity;
    • Debugging;
    • Performing services (for us or our service provider) such as analytics;
    • Internal research for technological improvement;
    • Internal operations;
    • Activities to maintain and improve our services; and
    • Other one-time uses.

Your Rights Regarding Personal Information. California residents have certain rights with respect to the personal information collected by businesses. If you are a California resident, you may exercise the following rights regarding your personal information, subject to certain exceptions and limitations:

  • The right to know the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, use, disclose, and sell about you; the categories of sources from which we collected personal information about you; our purposes for collecting or selling personal information about you; the categories of personal information about you that we have either sold or disclosed for a business purpose; and the categories of third parties with which we have shared personal information.
  • The right to request that we delete the personal information we have collected from you.
  • The right to opt out of our sale(s) of your personal information. Please note that if you opt out of certain types of sales, we will be unable to provide you with the services that rely on such sales.
  • The right not to receive discriminatory treatment for the exercise of the privacy rights conferred by the CCPA.

You can exercise the above rights as follows:

Verification Process and Required Information. Note that we may need to request additional information from you to verify your identity or understand the scope of your request. We will require you to provide, at a minimum, your full name, email address, and state of residence to verify your identity.

Authorized Agent. You may designate an authorized agent to make a CCPA request on your behalf by providing written authorization to the agent and verifying your identity with GeneOnline.

Your Choices

To opt out of receiving our newsletters, you can use the link provided at the bottom of each message. For choices with respect to third-party interest-based advertising activities, please see the “Digital Advertising & Analytics” section above.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

If our information practices change materially, we will post an updated privacy policy on the Site. We encourage you to visit the Site periodically to learn of any updates.

Contact Us

Address: 177 E COLORADO BLVD STE 200, PASADENA, CA 91105, USA
Email: [email protected]
Phone number: +1 415-425-3889

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