Policies

This is a binding agreement. By using the Internet site located at https://sequencing.com, all subdomains of sequencing.com and all associated mobile web applications (collectively the “Site”), or any services provided in connection with the Site, you agree to abide by this Privacy Policy, as they may be amended by Sequencing.com (“Company”) from time to time in its sole and absolute discretion. Company shall post a notice on the Site any time for which there is a material change or update in this Privacy Policy. It is your responsibility to review this Privacy Policy periodically, and if at any time you find this Privacy Policy unacceptable, you must immediately leave the Site and cease all use of the Service and the Site. YOU AGREE THAT BY USING THE SERVICE YOU REPRESENT THAT YOU ARE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD AND THAT YOU ARE LEGALLY ABLE TO ENTER INTO THIS AGREEMENT.

1. Definitions

1.1. "Company R&D" means research and development activities performed by Company based user data to: improve our Services; create new products or services; perform quality assurance; conduct data analysis and monitor security protocols.

1.2. "Altruist Genetic Data and Phenotypic Information" is Genetic Data and Phenotypic Information that is stripped of any and all individually identifying information. Altruist Data is made available on the Site consistent with this Privacy Policy and the Site’s Terms of Use.

1.3. "Personal Information" is information that can identify you, either alone or in combination with other information. Company collects and stores the following types of Personal Information:

1.3.1. "Genetic Data" consists of your genotype, i.e., the arrangement of adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine in your DNA. Company obtains Genetic Data upon successfully uploading any file that contains your Genetic Data, which shall be uploaded consistent with the Terms of Use for the Site. Genetic Data shall also include Altruist Genetic Data and Phenotypic information.

1.3.2. "Registration Information" is the information you provide about yourself when registering for and/or purchasing our Services (e.g., name, username, email address, password and payment information).

1.3.3. "Phenotypic Information" is all observable and/or measurable information about yourself, such as information about traits, health, fitness, reactions to medications, measurements from sensors in wearable electronic devices and other information that you enter into surveys, forms, or features in your Company account or otherwise connect to your Company account. Phenotypic Information is included in Research only if consent is indicated for Research use on the Site and if you have given consent as required by law or any applicable contractual agreement (the “Consent Agreement”).

1.3.4. "User Content" is all information, data, files, text, software, music, audio, photographs, graphics, video, messages, or other materials generated by users of Company Services and transmitted, whether publicly or privately, to or through Company, but not including Genetic Data or Phenotypic Information.

1.3.5. "Web Behavior Information" is information on how you use the Site (e.g. browser type, domains, page views) collected through log files, cookies, and web beacon technology.

1.4. "Research" means scientific research that a party performs with the intent to publish in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Research activities do not include Company R&D.

1.5. "Service" or "Services" means Company’s products, including its informational genetic services (“Genetic Services”), software, and website (including but not limited to text, graphics, images, and other material and information) as accessed from time to time by the user, regardless if the use is in connection with an account or not.

 

2. Use of Personal Information.  Company collects and uses only that Personal Information necessary to ensure the regular operation and security of your account and/or availability of our Services. These uses include, among other things, providing you with Services; improving our Services; offering you new products or services; informing you about events; inviting you to participate in specific research projects; performing quality assurance; monitoring security protocols. Company may provide your Personal Information to our third-party service providers, which are companies and people that help us provide and improve our Services. For example, we may use service providers to help host our website, run our mobile application, or otherwise help us run or improve our business. In all instances, our service providers act on Company’s behalf and we require by contract that they protect the confidentiality of any information they receive from us. Below we will describe the additional ways in which we use subsets of Personal Information.

2.1. Use of Registration Information. We use your Registration Information to authenticate your website and mobile application visits and usage; to enable your purchase Services; to communicate with you; and to manage and improve our website, mobile application, software, and Services to protect the security of your account.

2.2. Use of User Content. Company uses your User Content to provide our Services and improve the overall user experience. By submitting, posting, or displaying User Content in any section of the Site that is accessible by other users, you authorize Company a non-exclusive license to use any User Content that you submit, post, or display on or through the Services, as further described in Section 7.1 of the Terms of Use. Company may make such User Content available to other companies, organizations, or individuals with whom Company has relationships, and to use such User Content in connection with the provision of those services.

2.3. Use of Web Behavior Information. Web Behavior Information is collected through log files, cookies, and web beacon technology during a visit to the Site. Web Behavior Information is used to improve our Services and the overall user experience. We may use your Web Behavior Information for Company R&D purposes as described above, which may include disclosure of De-Identified Web Behavior Information to third-party non-profit and/or commercial research partners. The Site may also use Invisible reCAPTCHA that collects information about Site users for security reasons. Information collected by Invisible reCAPTCHA is held in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy. Here is some further information regarding log files, cookies, and web beacon technology:

2.3.1. Log Files. When users visit our website or use our mobile application, Company gathers certain information automatically and stores it in log files. This information includes Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider, referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data (i.e. a list of pages or URLs visited). This information may be linked to a particular user’s profile ID or order number. We use this information to analyze trends, administer the Site, track users' use of the Site, identify and resolve issues, gather demographic information about our user base as a whole, and protect and enforce security protocols of the Site to protect User’s Genetic Data.

2.3.2. Cookies. The Company website also uses cookies. Cookies do lots of different jobs, like helping us understand how the Site is being used, letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving your browsing experience. We use both session cookies and persistent cookies to improve the security of your Personal Information, enhance the functionality of certain features, and improve performance of our Site. You can use the browser that you are viewing this Site with to enable, disable or delete cookies. To do this, follow the instructions provided by your browser (usually located within the “Help”, “Tools” or “Edit” settings). Please note that if you set your browser to disable cookies, you may not be able to access secure areas of the Site and other parts of the Site may also not work properly. Company complies with the regulations of the European Union (“EU”) regarding the use cookies, and accordingly affords Users accessing the Site from the EU the opportunity to opt out of the use of cookies during their initial visit to the Site.

2.3.3. User Experience Information. We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to improve and optimize the Site and our services. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behavior and their devices (in particular device's IP address (captured and stored only in anonymized form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), preferred language used to display our website). Hotjar stores this information in a private pseudonymized user profile. Neither Hotjar nor we will ever use this information to identify individual users or to match it with further data on an individual user. For further details, please see Hotjar’s privacy policy by clicking on this link. You can opt-out to User Experience monitoring, which includes Hotjar’s storing of data about your usage of our site, by following this opt-out link. 

2.3.4. Use of Site Analytics. Company uses various site analytic devices and software in connection with the Site, including, but not limited to, web beacons and cookies (“Site Analytics”). A web beacon is a clear graphic image that is loaded by your web browser when it accesses a website and that records a user's visit to a particular web page. We, or third parties that work for us, may place cookies and web beacons on our website, in our emails, and in our promotional materials that appear on other websites or in emails sent by others. The purpose of our Site Analytics is to support operation and security of our Site. For example, we may use Site Analytics to determine when someone views our Site, count how many individuals visit our website after clicking promotional materials placed on other websites, and to support the Site’s security protocols. Third parties only collect anonymous Web Behavior Information through the use of web beacons, allowing statistical analysis relating to the performance of our advertising. If you wish to disable web beacons, it is possible to prevent your browser from loading them, although there is not currently a standard method for doing so.

 

3. Disclosure of Personal Information

3.1. Company Operations Disclosures. Partners or service providers (e.g. credit card processors) process and/or store the information in order to help us provide, understand or improve Company's Services.

3.2. Disclosures Required by Law. Under certain circumstances Personal Information may be subject to disclosure pursuant to judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants, or orders, or in coordination with regulatory authorities. You acknowledge and agree that Company is free to preserve and disclose any and all Personal Information to law enforcement agencies or others if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal or regulatory process (such as a judicial proceeding, court order, or government inquiry) or obligations that Company may owe pursuant to ethical and other professional rules, laws, and regulations; (b) enforce the Company Terms of Use; (c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third parties; or (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Company, its employees, its users, its clients, and the public. In the event we are required by law to make a disclosure, we will notify you through the contact information you have provided to us in advance, unless doing so would violate the law or a court order.

 

4. Privacy of Minors.  Company is committed to protecting the privacy of minors as well as adults. Neither Company nor any of its Services are designed or intended to attract children under the age of 18 without the express written consent of a parent or guardian. A parent or guardian may update Genetic Data as set forth in Section 1.3.1 above and provide Phenotypic Information on behalf of his or her minor. The parent or guardian assumes full responsibility for ensuring that the information that he/she provides to Company about his or her minor is kept secure and that the information submitted is accurate.

 

5. Effect of Company Transactions on Personal Information.  In the event that Company goes through a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your Personal Information will likely be among the assets transferred. In such a case, your information would remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Policy, Company’s Terms of Use, and any applicable Consent Agreement.

 

6. HIPAA and GINA.  Notwithstanding anything set forth above to the contrary, Company shall comply to the extent applicable with the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the 2008 Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

 

7. Application Programming Interface.  Company’s application programming interface (“API”) allows software application developers (“App Developers”) to access the Site to utilize Company’s software application technology to develop their own software applications (“Apps”). All such access is secure and requires App Developers to specifically register with Company prior to their accessing the API and to comply with Company’s stringent security standards and protocols.

7.1. Real-Time Personalization® Technology API. Through this API, App Developers may utilize Company technology, such as Company’s Real-Time Personalization^® Technology, to develop their own mobile and web-based applications. These mobile and web-based Apps will not have access to your Personal Information, unless you specifically and affirmatively authorize Company to provide App Developers with such access to your Personal Information. This authorization may be in the form of a Request to Access, which will require you to affirmatively authorize access by clicking “Accept” or “Authorize” or “Yes” on the Request to Access interface provided by Site or App. Upon providing an affirmative response to a Request for Access, Company will provide only that portion of your Personal Information necessary for the App’s purposes. Company does not, and will not, provide your entire genome to any App or App Developers. Company cannot control any Personal Information sent to App’s hosted outside of the Site. You agree to allow such access at your own risk.

7.2. App Market API. Through this API, App Developers may utilize Company technology, such as Company's App marketplace, to make their applications available to you for use. When you use an App in Company's App marketplace that was created by App Developers, you authorize Company to provide the App Developers with access to some of your Personal Information. Company will provide only that portion of your Personal Information necessary for the App’s purposes. Company does not, and will not, provide your entire genome to any App or App Developers. Company cannot control any Personal Information sent to App’s hosted outside of the Site. You agree to allow such access at your own risk.

 

8. European Union Residents, Switzerland Residents, and United Kingdom Residents.  Compliance with European Union Privacy Shield, Swiss Privacy Shield and United Kingdom Data Privacy.  We believe in protecting your privacy. The Company adheres to the Privacy Shield Agreement concerning the transfer of personal data from the European Union (“EU”), United Kingdom ("UK") and/or Switzerland ("Swiss") to the United States of America. When we collect personal information from you on the Site, we comply with the U.S.-EU Privacy Shield Framework and U.S.-Swiss Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use and retention of personal data transferred from the European Union, United Kingdom and/or Switzerland. We have certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that we adhere to the Privacy Shield Principles with respect to such information. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the Privacy Shield Principles, the Privacy Shield Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Privacy Shield program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov.

8.1. Scope. Term 8 of this Privacy Policy is applicable to legal residents of a European Union member country, legal residents of the United Kingdom and/or legal residents of Switzerland when Personal Information (1) is transferred from the EU, UK or Swiss to the United States; (2) is recorded in any form; (3) is about, or pertains to a specific individual; and (4) can be linked to that individual. Coverage of Personal Information extends to Registered Users of the Site and includes email, password, name, username, IP address, genetic data and phenotypic data.  All terms of the Terms of Use, including but not limited to Limitation of Liability and Indemnity, apply to this Privacy Policy Term 8. Except as required by law, personal Information of the Registered User of the Site is not disclosed to third parties without first receiving written authorization from the Registered User of the Site that such disclosure is allowed.

8.2. Notice. When we collect your personal information, we’ll give you timely and appropriate notice describing what personal information we’re collecting, how we’ll use it, and the types of third parties with whom we may share it.

8.3. Choice. We’ll give you choices about the ways we use and share your personal information, and we’ll respect the choices you make. 

8.4. Relevance. We’ll collect only as much personal information as we need for specific, identified purposes, and we won’t use it for other purposes without obtaining your consent.

8.5. Retention. We’ll keep your personal information only as long as we need it for the purposes for which we collected it, or as permitted by law.

8.6. Accuracy. We’ll take appropriate steps to make sure the personal information in our records is accurate.

8.7. Access. We’ll provide ways for you to access your personal information, as required by law, so you can correct inaccuracies. The Registered User of the Site can access his or her Personal Information at any time by logging into his or her account at https://sequencing.com/user/login. 

8.8. Security. We’ll take appropriate physical, technical, and organizational measures to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration, and destruction.

8.9. Sharing. Except as described in this Privacy Policy, we won’t share your Personal Information with third parties without your consent. Third parties who may be interested in contacting Registered Users include researchers, scientists, non-profits and pharmaceutical companies. These third parties may be interested in providing incentives to Registered Users to ask the Registered Users questions (such as in the form of surveys), access the Registered Users phenotypic data and/or access the Registered Users genetic data. To obtain your consent, we will first email you with the name of the third party, the reason why the third party wants to contact you and what Personal Information will be provided to the third party if you provide consent. If you refuse to provide consent or if you do not respond to our request, then no Personal Information will be provided to the third party. If you do provide consent then only the Personal Information you consent to be shared with that third party will be shared, your Personal Information will only be processed for the limited and specified purposes as stated in the Consent Request and that the third-party recipient will provide the same level of protection as provided by the Privacy Shield Principles. If you do provide consent for specific Personal Information to be shared with a third party, we shall remain liable if the third party processes such personal information in a manner inconsistent with the Principles except we will not remain liable if we are not responsible for the event giving rise to the damage. If you are a Registered User and do not want us to email you with requests asking for you to provide consent to share your Personal Information with a third party then you can opt-out at any time by going to https://sequencing.com/altruist/my-altruism and clicking the 'Additional Offers' toggle switch to "Off."

8.10. International Transfer. If we transfer your personal information to another country, we’ll take appropriate measures to protect your privacy and the personal information we transfer.

8.11. Authority. Company is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

8.12. Enforcement. In compliance with the Privacy Shield Principles, we commit to resolve complaints about our collection or use of your personal information.  Individuals in the European Union, United Kingdom and/or Switzerland with inquiries or complaints regarding our Private Shield policy should first contact Sequencing.com by submitting a Support Request or by emailing [email protected]. If your inquiry is not satisfactorily addressed, contact JAMS Dispute Resolution Process https://www.jamsadr.com/eu-us-privacy-shield. JAMS is our independent recourse mechanism for Privacy Shield complaints. JAMS will serve as a liaison with the Company to resolve your concerns. JAMS will resolve complaints regarding Privacy Shield by using mediation as the alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Under certain conditions, you may invoke binding arbitration as stipulated in the Privacy Shield Framework Annex I.

 

9. California Residents.  Pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, California residents may be entitled to the following privacy rights.

9.1. The right to know. You have the right to request: (i) the specific pieces of Personal Information we have about you; (ii) the categories of Personal Information we have collected about you in the last 12 months; (iii) the categories of sources from which that Personal Information was collected; (iv) the categories of your Personal Information that we sold or disclosed in the last 12 months; (v) the categories of third parties to whom your Personal Information was sold or disclosed in the last 12 months; and (vi) the purpose for collecting and selling Personal Information. Generally:

• Within the preceding 12 months, Company has collected the categories of personal detailed in Section 2 “Use of Personal Information” above.
• We do not sell your Personal Information.
• If you have used third-party Apps available in Company's App Market, we may have disclosed the following categories of Personal Information to the developers of the third-party apps within the preceding 12 months: email address, genetic data, any non-genetic information you provided when you used the app.

9.2. The right to deletion. You have the right to request that we delete the Personal Information that we have collected or maintain about you. We may deny your request under certain circumstances, such as if we need to comply with our legal obligations or complete a transaction for which your Personal Information was collected. If we deny your request for deletion, we will let you know the reason why.

As a California resident, you may exercise your right to know and your right to deletion twice a year free of charge. To exercise your right to know or your right to deletion, email us at [email protected] and indicate “California Rights” in the subject line.

We will take steps to verify your identity before processing your request to know or request to delete. We will not fulfill your request unless you have provided sufficient information for us to reasonably verify you are the individual about whom we collected Personal Information. If you have an account with us, we will use our existing account authentication practices to verify your identity. If you do not have an account with us, we may request additional information about you to verify your identity. We will only use the Personal Information provided in the verification process to verify your identity or authority to make a request and to track and document request responses unless you initially provided the information for another purpose.

You may use an authorized agent to submit a request to know or a request to delete. When we verify your agent’s request, we may verify both your and your agent’s identity and request a signed document from you that authorizes your agent to make the request on your behalf. To protect your Personal Information, we reserve the right to deny a request from an agent that does not submit proof that they have been authorized by you to act on their behalf.

9.3. The right to opt-out of the sale of your Personal Information. You have the right to opt-out of the sale of your Personal Information. We do not sell your Personal Information. If we change our business practices, we will update this Privacy Statement, notify you, and honor your right to opt-out of the sale of your Personal Information.

9.4. The right to equal service. If you choose to exercise any of these rights, we will not discriminate against you in any way. If you exercise certain rights, understand that you may be unable to use or access certain features of our Services.

9.5. Shine the Light – Third Party Marketing. California law permits individual California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of certain categories of Personal Information to third parties for those third parties’ direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us using the information in Section 13. This request may be made no more than once per calendar year, and we reserve our right not to respond to requests submitted other than to the email or mailing addresses specified below.

 

10. Nevada Residents.  Pursuant to Nevada law, you may direct a business that operates an internet website not to sell certain Personal Information a business has collected or will collect about you. We do not sell your Personal Information pursuant to Nevada law. For more information about how we handle and share your Personal Information or your rights under Nevada law, contact us at [email protected].

 

11. Closure of Account.  If you no longer wish to participate in our Services, you may close your account by sending a request to Company’s dedicated customer service email account for account closures: [email protected]. When closing an account, we remove all Genetic Data within your account (or profile) within thirty (30) days of our receipt of your request. Any data which you chose to make Altruist Genetic Data and Phenotypic Information will also be removed. As stated in the applicable Consent Agreement, however, Genetic Data and/or Phenotypic Information that you have previously provided and for which you have given consent to use in Research may not be removed from ongoing or completed studies that use the information. In addition, we retain limited Registration Information related to your order history (e.g., name, contact, and transaction data) for accounting and compliance purposes.

 

12. Changes to Privacy Policy.  This Privacy Policy was last updated on December 31, 2019. Whenever this Privacy Policy is changed in a material way, a notice may be posted as part of this Privacy Policy and on our registered users' account login pages for 30 days. After 30 days the changes will become effective.

 

13. Contact.

If you have any questions or comments, please email [email protected] or contact us using the following information:

Sequencing.com
Attn: Privacy
401 E. 8th St. #214-900 
Sioux Falls, SD 57103 USA

 

Rev. Dec 2019