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Thorne Vet has a longstanding commitment to safeguard the privacy of the information entrusted to us from health-care practitioners, patients, and customers who use our websites. The privacy principles and procedures set forth in this Website Privacy Policy are intended to tell users how this information is collected, used, and distributed via our websites.

Types and Uses of Personal Information

When a user visits one of our websites, information that personally identifies the user can be collected and processed by Thorne Vet employees. Usually, the only information that will be collected is the user’s name, business address, mailing address, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address, and professional licensing information when this information is knowingly provided to us. In addition, this information can be collected as a result of the services or the products a user requests information about or purchases from us. Finally, Thorne Vet can collect or process personally identifiable information, such as a user’s Internet domain or IP address, as part of the normal operation of our websites, or during the normal course of a user’s activities on or use of our websites. In nearly all cases this data is collected or processed by, or transferred to, Thorne Vet’s corporate headquarters. When a user visits our websites, the user is consenting to the collection, processing, transfer, or use of this information. If a user chooses not to consent to the collection, processing, transfer, or use of this information in this manner, then the user should not visit, or should discontinue visiting, our websites.

Personal Information Shared with Third Parties

Without obtaining a user’s express consent, Thorne Vet will not sell, trade, or disclose a user’s personally identifiable information to any third party who might attempt to market products or services to the user. However, Thorne Vet can disclose information to a third party who is used to assist carrying out a transaction for a user or providing a service to a user (for example, packaging, sending, or delivering a purchase or information to the user or clearing a credit card transaction).

Thorne Vet might be required to disclose information about the users of our websites as a result of a subpoena, a search warrant, or some other legal process authorized by a court of law. In addition, Thorne Vet might disclose information about the users of our websites to a third party who is assisting us in conducting an investigation about unauthorized activity that constitutes a violation of the policies for using our websites, or when circumstances dictate the need to protect or defend our rights or property.

Security Measures

Thorne Vet regularly implements industry-recommended technological and operational security measures for the purpose of protecting personally identifiable information from unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or unintentional destruction. Although no security measure can absolutely guarantee against unauthorized uses, Thorne Vet regularly reviews and updates our website security measures for the purpose of providing appropriate security measures for personally identifiable information.

Access and Accuracy

Because Thorne Vet only wants to maintain accurate information about the users of our websites, any user can request to be provided the individual information that has been gathered about the user. Any user can contact Thorne Vet (see the Contact Information section below), and, upon receiving proper identification information, Thorne Vet will provide the user with the personally identifiable information that Thorne Research maintains about the user. If a user finds a factual inaccuracy, then the user can notify Thorne Vet and the inaccuracy will be corrected.

Data Retention

Thorne Vet will not retain a user’s personally identifiable information longer than is necessary for the purpose it was collected.

Children’s Privacy

Thorne Vet’s policy is that children under the age of 18 should not provide any personally identifiable information to a Thorne Vet website without a parent’s or guardian’s consent. Thorne Vet encourages parents and guardians to instruct children about the safe and responsible use of personally identifiable information on the Internet. Thorne Vet will not knowingly collect, use, or disclose to any third party any personally identifiable information collected from children under the age of 18.

Linked Websites

Thorne Vet can provide links from our websites to third-party websites not owned by Thorne Vet. However, because Thorne Vet does not control these third-party websites, a user should always review the privacy policy of these linked third-party websites. Thorne Vet is not responsible for the privacy policy or practices of linked third-party websites or for services controlled by other companies or organizations.

Use of Cookies and Pixel Tags

When a user browses this website, one or more temporary cookies can be placed on the user’s computer to help Thorne Vet collect information to better understand the user’s interests and to better serve the user. Cookies are used on most major websites. What are “cookies”? Cookies are small bits of information stored by the user’s web browser’s software on the user’s computer’s hard drive or temporarily in the computer’s memory. Using cookies is an industry standard. Cookies enhance a user’s experience and access to information on a website. Cookies enable Thorne Vet to recognize a user and personalize the user’s experience on the Thorne Vet website.

Thorne Vet can use cookies for a variety of purposes including, but not limited to: e-commerce functions, to recognize user access or log-on privileges, to track usage and traffic patterns, to provide information and advertisements for goods or services that might interest a user based on the user’s use of a Thorne website, and to track the number of users who visit and use Thorne websites.

Although most web browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, a user can decline the placement of cookies on the user’s hard drive by using the appropriate feature of the web browser’s software (if available) to delete cookies. A user can also refuse cookies as part of the web browser’s settings, but doing so might inhibit the ability to utilize many of the features on Thorne Vet websites and other websites visited.

In addition to using cookies, Thorne Vet websites can employ “pixel tracking,” a common process used in connection with advertisements and/or internal tracking. Pixel tracking involves the use of pixel tags – an invisible tag that is placed on various pages of a website that tracks a user’s activity. Pixel tags are not visible to users and consist of a few lines of computer code. Pixel tracking measures the effectiveness of advertisements by compiling aggregate and specific usage statistics. Thorne Vet can access pixel tags to identify the activities and interests that better enable us to match products, services, and offers to the user’s interests and needs. For example, if a user visits a Thorne Vet website as a result of an advertisement on a third-party website, then the pixel tag will allow the advertiser to track that its advertisement brought the user to a website operated by Thorne Vet. If a user visits a website or other online system operated by Thorne Vet, and the user is linked to another website, then Thorne Vet also is able to determine that the user was sent to and/or interacted with a third-party website. This data is collected for use in marketing and research.

If a user wishes to opt-out of Google Analytics entirely when visiting a Thorne Vet website or any other website that utilizes this service, or interest-based advertising, then visit the Network Advertising Initiative at: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices. Or if a user wishes to specifically choose not to send information to Google Analytics about the user’s visit to a Thorne Vet website, then the user can do so by going to: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Contact Information

Users can direct comments, complaints, or questions regarding this Website Privacy Policy to Thorne Research’s Information Technology Department at: info@thorne.com

Modifications to Policy

Thorne Vet reserves the right to modify or update this Website Privacy Policy at any time with or without notice, and to make the modified or updated policy effective immediately for information we already have about users, as well as future information that we might obtain about users.

Thorne Vet always indicates below the date of the current Website Privacy Policy so users will know when it was last updated. To make this policy easy to find, the most current copy will be accessible from clicking the Privacy Policy link on the home page.

Last updated: 18 January 2018