Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 12th, 2024

ESCAVO Inc. (“ESCAVO”) is committed to respecting the privacy of its users. This Privacy Policy describes the type of data we collect from users of our website (“Site”) and mobile applications (“Apps”), and how we use this data.

1. Definitions

• Personally Identifiable Information (PII): Information that can be used to directly identify a user including name, email, address, phone number, driver’s license, social security number, etc.
• Linked Personally Identifiable Information (LPII): Information that cannot directly identify a user, but could be used to identify the user through through certain technical or other means. Specifically, in this document this primarily refers to the user’s device IP and MAC addresses. The Internet Protocol (IP) address is an alterable identifier assigned to all devices connected to the Internet (eg, 210.43.92.4 using IPv4), and the Media Access Control (MAC) address is an unalterable hexadecimal identifier (eg, 00:0d:83:b1:c0:8e) built into every networked device that uniquely identifies that device.
• Sensitive Personally Identifiable Information (SPII):  This includes official identification numbers (eg, Social Security number, passport number or similar national identification numbers), bank account information or credit card number, expiration date and security code, professional license numbers, personal health information and other sensitive information that can not only identify a user, but also cause significant harm if compromised and misused.
• Non-Personally Identifiable Information (NPII): Information that cannot be used to identify a user, but may be used used for analytics purposes or to provide certain services. This may include device type, operating system type, browser type, language locale, content accessed, access timestamp and other technical information related to user activity.

2. What information does ESCAVO collect

ESCAVO’s medical reference and clinical decision support Apps do not generally require or collect user names, IDs, emails, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, or other PII or SPII. We do not currently require user registration to access these Apps, however, some functionality, specifically, the ESCAVO Clinical Community, does require registration and PII collection if users opt to use it. In addition, optional surveys we sometimes conduct in these Apps may also collect PII. The collection and handling of PII by ESCAVO in these features is described below.

Additionally, if users contact us for support via email or through our Site Contact Form, or post comments on our Blog, we will collect their email address and any other information users wish to share with us. Comments posted on our Blog will be shared with the public.

Our Site and Apps automatically track and collect certain user LPII and NPII including information regarding user interactions with our Site or Apps (eg, pages viewed, time spent on each page, interaction with displayed ads), device type, operating system type, browser type, language locale, IP address and time of access. We do not collect or store device GPS location coordinates. All location data is approximated based on IP address to country or city level using third party geolocation analytics tools. Some of this information is collected by ESCAVO software and stored on ESCAVO servers, and some is collected by third-party analytics software and stored on third-party servers. ESCAVO uses Google Analytics to track user activity on its Site and mobile Apps – for more information on this service refer to the Analytics section below.

Cookies: Cookies are pieces of data stored by a website in your browser. This data may contain various information that identifies you or your device to allow correct use of certain services and to track your activities through the website. ESCAVO uses cookies installed by the Google Analytics software in your browser to track your activity on our Site. These cookies do not store any PII or SPII as we do not collect such information, but they may store generic LPII and NPII to identify user sessions and track user movements through the site over time. We do not employ cross-site tracking cookies.

Mobile Apps: Our mobile Apps do not use cookies for user tracking, but use internal third-party software from Google Analytics for Firebase to perform similar functions. Information collected includes IP address, device type, mobile operating system type, app opens and closes, page views, ad clicks, and a number of other internal events used to generate aggregate usage reports. Our medical education and clinical decision support Apps do not require user registration and do not collect any PII or SPII and this information is not captured by this tracking software nor sent to Google. However, some features of the these Apps, specifically, the ESCAVO Clinical Community, do require user registration and thus collect some PII, please see below.

ESCAVO Clinical Community: The Clinical Community is a forum that allows ESCAVO users to collaborate and exchange information on medical topics related to our Apps or other medical areas of interest. The Clinical Community feature is available through some of our mobile Apps, specifically, Sepsis Clinical Guide and The Chief Complaint, and requires user registration. Registration for this feature is optional and only affects access to it and not to the Apps through which it is accessed which do not require user registration or login. Some PII such as the user’s email and, optionally, the user’s name is collected during registration to the Clinical Community. All PII is securely stored and not shared with 3rd parties without the users’ explicit consent. 

Surveys: Occasionally, we may run optional surveys in our Apps in which we may ask users for certain PII including name and email address, as well as certain demographic information such as age, gender, profession or general location (eg, city or country). These surveys will never collect SPII. Participation in these surveys and submission of this information is completely optional. We use SurveyMonkey to run our surveys, and survey data is securely stored on SurveyMonkey, we do not store this data on our servers. PII data collected in our surveys is not shared with 3rd parties without explicit user permission. For more information on SurveyMonkey’s Terms of Use, Privacy and Security policies see:

SurveyMonkey Terms of Use,  Privacy and Security Policies

Ad identifiers: We do not currently use Android Advertising Identifiers or Advertising Identifiers for iOS for our mobile ads in our Apps.

Web server logs: The activities that you perform on our Site are also recorded in our web server logs. The data recorded may include the link you clicked on, information about your browser and operating system type, referring site information, your IP address, timestamp and other technical LPII and NPII. 

Analytics: For more information on Google Analytics for websites, Google Analytics for Firebase for mobile apps, and how Google uses the collected data, please refer to the Google Terms (“Google Terms”) specified at the links below. These Google Terms are incorporated into this Privacy Policy.
Google Analytics Terms of Service

Google Analytics for Firebase Terms of Service

How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps

3. How does ESCAVO use collected information

We use the information we collect to operate and improve our service and track usage of our Site and mobile Apps for statistical purposes. Specifically, contact information obtained via email or through our Contact Form is used to answer customer inquiries and provide customer service. We do not send unsolicited emails to our customers. Demographic information collected in our mobile App surveys is used to gain insights into our audience and to generate survey reports that we use to improve the content of our Apps and post in our Blog and App news feed for the educational benefit of our users. 

User emails collected during registration to the Clinical Community are used to authenticate users for access to this feature and send users limited messages related to their activity in the Clinical Community (eg, password resets, notices of breach of Community Terms of Use or post removals, etc). We do not use PII of users registered in the Clinical Community for marketing purposes nor share it with other parties without the users’ explicit consent. 

Automatically collected LPII and NPII is used to track aggregate usage and user behavior on our Site and mobile Apps. We use this information to assess traffic volume, page views, user device and operating system type, browser type, referrer information, IP address, ad interaction, approximate location (city or country), and access time. This information may be supplemented with data collected from other publicly available or commercial sources to build out user profiles for improved targeting. Some of this data is analyzed by our internal software and some by Google Analytics and Google Analytics for Firebase services.  

4. Who do we share your information with?

ESCAVO does not share PII or SPII user data with 3rd parties except as required to maintain normal operation of its products and services, for example, using such services to securely collect, process and store this data. In addition, ESCAVO collects LPII and NPII data for the purpose of generating aggregate analytics reports on use of its services, and this data is also shared with 3rd parties for processing. Such data may include information on the total number of Apps downloaded in a given time period, number of times a given App was accessed, number of users who accessed an App, total number of pages viewed, number of times a specific page was viewed, number of ad clicks, approximate user location (to country or city level) based on IP address, device type, operating system type and time of access. 

In general, we may share user information as follows:

• PII or SPII data is not shared with 3rd parties except as required for the purpose of normal operation of ESCAVO products and services. This data is secured and held in strict privacy by these 3rd party services. We do not share user contact information or other PII or SPII with 3rd parties for marketing purposes without explicit user consent.
• LPII and NPII may be shared with third party vendors, consultants, agents, and other service providers with whom we contract to help us provide or improve our services. These may include companies that host and maintain our data, website or mobile application properties, analyze our data or provide marketing assistance.
• LPII and NPII may be shared with our partners and companies advertising their products in our mobile Apps, or their advertising agencies, or with prospective partners and advertisers.
• Any data including PPI, SPII, LPII and NPII may be shared to (i) comply with laws or to respond to lawful requests and legal process, (ii) to protect the rights and property of our agents, customers, and others including to enforce our agreements, policies and terms of use or (iii) in an emergency to protect the safety of ESCAVO, its customers, or any person, and in certain situations, we may be required to disclose information in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including meeting national security or law enforcement requirements.
• Any data including PPI, SPII, LPII and NPII may be shared in connection with or during negotiation of any merger, financing, acquisition or bankruptcy transaction or proceeding involving sale or transfer of all or a portion of our business or assets to another company.

5. Can users opt out of sharing their data?

User submission of PII for registration to the ESCAVO Clinical Community or participation in surveys where this information is collected is optional and at the discretion of the users. Users are therefore opted out of these features by default and have to opt in if they wish to use them.  ESCAVO does not collect SPII in any of its products or services and does not track individual user activities in our products. 

Users cannot, however, opt out of sharing LPII and NPII for the purpose of user tracking and analytics as described in the preceding sections. Our Site does not support the “Do Not Track” option, however, our tracking is limited to our Site and we do not employ cross-site user tracking. There is also no method for deactivating LPII and NPII user tracking in our mobile Apps.

By using our Site and mobile Apps, you consent to sharing your LPII or NPII for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. 

6. Deleting user data

Users wishing to delete their data from our systems including their ESCAVO Community account, survey responses containing PII that we may have collected from them, or other information containing PII including blog posts should contact ESCAVO as described in the Contact section. 

7. Privacy policy changes

This Privacy Policy will periodically be revised to reflect changes in our technology and privacy practices. We will attempt to notify our users of such changes by posting a message on our Site or through our mobile Apps. However, we encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices. 

8. Contact

If you have any questions about our products or privacy policy, please contact us on our contact form at ecavo.com/contact or by email at [email protected].