Privacy policy

This Privacy Policy is effective November 19th, 2021.

A. GENERAL

This privacy policy (this “Privacy Policy”) describes how Murmur App Inc. (“Murmur App” or “we” or “us”) collects, uses, discloses, handles, or otherwise processes the personal information of the users (“you” or “your”) of Murmur App’s proprietary software application (the “Application”) and website, located at https://murmurmd.com/ (the “Website”), and the features in the Application or Website, including a method for viewing medical cases, a database of cases, techniques, references to supporting data, comments and questions, and mechanisms for users to upload medical cases to the database (collectively, the “Services”).

(i) Acceptance of Terms

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand Murmur App’s policies and practices surrounding the collection, use, storage, handling and processing of your personal information in connection with your use of the Application or Services.

By using the Application or Services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, and you expressly consent to Murmur App’s collection, use, disclosure, handling or processing (including, for certainty, any deletion or removal, storage or alteration) of any personal information (including, to the extent any Personal User Information, User-Provided Case Information and Automatically Collected Information, each as defined below, include your personal information) that you submit or otherwise provide to us through the use of the Application or Services, as more fully described in this Privacy Policy.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ANY OF MURMUR APP’S COLLECTION, USE, DISCLOSURE, HANDLING OR PROCESSING OF YOUR PERSONAL USER INFORMATION, OR ANY OF MURMUR APP’S POLICIES AND PRACTICES REGARDING THE FOREGOING AS DESCRIBED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY, YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY DISCONTINUE AND CEASE TO USE THE APPLICATION AND SERVICES.

(ii) Privacy Complaints or Inquiries

If you have any questions regarding your privacy with respect to your use of the Application or Services or Murmur App’s practices or policies as described under this Privacy Policy, or wish to make a complaint about Murmur App’s collection, disclosure, use, handling or processing of your personal information, please contact Murmur App via email at: contact@murmurmd.com. We will make every effort to investigate and respond to your questions or complaints in a timely way.

Provided that you do so in good faith, asking any privacy questions or lodging any complaints pursuant to this Privacy Policy will not restrict or prohibit your use of the Application or Services. Further, you acknowledge and agree that any complaints that you lodge regarding Murmur App’s compliance with applicable privacy laws, whether or not such complaints are thereafter substantiated by any arbitrator, court, tribunal or governmental authority with competent jurisdiction, will not release you from any duties or obligations that you owe to any third parties (including, if applicable, any of your patients) under any applicable local, national, provincial, state, and federal laws.

(iii) Changes to this Privacy Policy

Murmur App reserves the right to amend this Privacy Policy, in its sole discretion, from time to time for any reason. Each time you use the Application or Services, the most current version of the Privacy Policy will apply. If Murmur App makes any changes to this Privacy Policy, Murmur App will post an updated copy of the Privacy Policy. You agree that your continued use of the Application and Services, after we make any such changes to this Privacy Policy, indicates that you accept and consent to any changes made to Murmur App’s Privacy Policy. We therefore advise you to consult this Privacy Policy regularly for any changes. We will not materially change Murmur App’s policies and practices surrounding your personal information that make them less protective of your privacy without the consent of affected users.

B. INFORMATION WE COLLECT WHEN YOU USE THE APPLICATION AND SERVICES

Murmur App collects the following information from you when you register for a user account to use and when you use the Application and Services, as further described below: (i) Personal User Information; (ii) User-Provided Case Information; (iii) Optional User-Provided Information; and (iv) Automatically Collected Information.

(i) Personal User Information

When you register for a user account through the Application and Services, you will be required to provide your:

• name;
• surname;
• email address;
• username; and
• password.

These informational elements are referred to collectively as your “Personal User Information”.

(ii) User-Provided Case Information

Some of the following Services may be made available to you:

• Create posts to share cases using text, images, files (including PDFs, presentations and other documents), and videos with captions;
• Share cases;
• Comment on cases;
• Answer medical and non-medical questions; and
• Bookmark other users’ posts.

(a) Create cases and captions. We will collect, among other data, your uploaded cases, text, images and videos, case captions, case creation dates, number of times the image tag is used, common variations of image tags (such as misspellings), and information on whether the tag appears in searches among other data points.

(b) Share and Comment on cases. We will collect your shares and the usernames to which you share cases, comments, the dates of comments, and the username connected to the comments.

(c) “Bookmark” cases. We will collect the cases you have “bookmarked,” as well as the date they were saved and the username connected to those cases.

(d) Flag cases and comments provided by other users (i.e., to indicate that identifiable information may have been improperly included in a case, caption, or comment). Until or unless the case or comment is deleted, we will collect and store the cases and comments that you flag, the subcategory of the flagged case, the date flagged, and the username referenced to the flagged case or comment.

The information provided by performing any of the tasks listed above is referred to collectively as “User-Provided Case Information”.

All User-Provided Case Information that you generate through the use of the Application or Services must comply with local, national, provincial, state, and federal privacy legislation and best practices. You must remove any identifying information prior to uploading any cases through the use of the Application or Services, and you agree that you shall not include any identifying information in any captions or comments. 

(iii) Optional User-Provided Information

You have the option to do any of the following:

• Upload a photograph of your hospital badge or similar identification showing your credentials.
• Invite colleagues to join the Application so that they can use the Application and/or Services. If you choose to do this, Murmur App may request an email address or telephone number for your colleague or require access to the address book on your mobile device or computer to enable you to choose which of your colleagues you would like to invite to the Application and/or Services.
• Expand your user profile, by adding additional and optional information to your profile on the Application. You may add any information to your user “bio”, such as: real name, state, country, institution, areas of interest, medical specialty, graduation date, medical school, years of experience, and interests, among others. You may include a short biography or any other biographical information and upload a profile picture. You are responsible for the accuracy of all of the information you provide.
• Enter into private chats with other users of the Application. We will collect and store all private messages between users as well as any other images, videos, PDFs, or any other data sent between users.
• Create groups of users to facilitate communication or sharing of cases or information. These groups will be managed by moderators who are not employees of Murmur App, but who have authority to, among other things, delete unwanted posts within their groups. Murmur App shall not be responsible for the actions of any group moderator. We will collect and store all messages, cases, images, videos, PDFs or any other data sent within groups.  We are not responsible for data that is deleted by moderators.
• Create and respond to polls. Users may initiate and respond to polls.  We will collect and store all poll questions, responses and metadata.

The information provided by performing any of the optional actions listed above is referred to collectively as “Optional User-Provided Information”. If you perform any of the activities listed above, we may collect your Optional User-Provided Information from you.

(iv) Automatically Collected Information

In order to improve the Application and delivery of the Services, Murmur App may collect certain information from you automatically when accessing or using any of the foregoing.

When you access or use the Application or Services, we may automatically collect information about you, including:

• Creation Date. We store the date your account was created.
• Post Creation Date. We store the date you create any posts.
• Interactions with Posts. We store which posts you have seen, “liked,” or “bookmarked.”
• Following Information. We store which other users you follow as well as which other users follow you.
• Notification Information. We store which notifications you have seen.
• Polling Information. We store how you have voted on any polls.
• Group Information. We store which groups you are subscribed to.
• Log Information. We log information about your use of the Services, including  your access times and pages viewed.
• Device Information. We collect information about the device you use to access the Services including the hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information.

The information listed above is referred to collectively as “Automatically Collected Information”.

(v) Information Not Collected

The Application and Services do not collect your IP address or precise information about the location of your mobile device.

(vi) Managing Your Information

You may update, correct or delete information about you at any time by logging into your user profile. Further information related to this topic can be found in the section titled Data Retention Policy.

(vii) How to Opt Out of Information Collection

You may stop all collection of information by the Application by uninstalling the Application. To do this, you may use the standard application uninstall processes of your mobile device or via the mobile application marketplace or network. Once you complete the uninstallation process, no further information will be collected from you by the Application. However, any information collected by Murmur App prior to uninstalling the Application may be retained for certain purposes – for further detail, please see the section titled Data Retention Policy.

You may also delete your account by sending an email to contact@murmurmd.com. If you request deletion, your profile information will be deleted from Murmur App’s server and your stored information will be dealt with in the manner described in the section titled Data Retention Policy.

(viii) Data Retention Policy

Murmur App will retain Personal User Information for as long as you use the Application or Services, and will delete it on your request, which can be done by contacting us via contact@murmurmd.com. Your cases and comments will be anonymized and attributed to “Account Deleted.” You may request to have all images and comments associated with your account deleted. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to recall and delete images and comments that have been provided to third parties, such as medical journals or medical education websites. Please note that we may retain certain information as required by law or for legitimate business purposes.

When we delete any information, it will be deleted from the active database, but may remain in Murmur App’s archives. We may also retain your information for fraud detection or similar purposes. All provisions of this Privacy Policy which by their nature should survive termination, shall survive termination, including without limitation, ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.

If you contact Murmur App to delete your account, the change will be processed within seven (7) calendar days.

C. HOW YOUR COLLECTED INFORMATION MAY BE USED

Your Personal User Information, User Provided Case Information, Optional User-Provided Information and any other information or materials you voluntarily provide may be used by Murmur App for enhancing the Services. Murmur App hereby reserves the right to and may alter, decompile, dissemble, and create derivative works of any and all such materials. You expressly consent to Murmur App’s use of the foregoing content in this manner and understand that such information may be cross-marketed and shared with other users and third parties who may have an interest in your use of the Application and Services.

(i) Personal User Information

Murmur App collects your Personal User Information for the purpose of administering your use of the Application and Services. Murmur App may use your name, surname and medical specialty for the purpose of publicizing your identity on the Application. 

Other than where Murmur App shares Personal User Information with third parties in accordance with this Privacy Policy, you are solely responsible for (1) maintaining the strict confidentiality of your Personal User Information, (2) not allowing another person to use your Personal User Information to access the Services, and (3) any and all damages or losses that may be incurred or suffered as a result of any activities that occur under your Personal User Information.

You may opt out of receiving certain but not all content announcements and messages. However, the Application will not allow you to opt out of any announcements and messages related to (a) the implementation of this Privacy Policy and your obligations hereunder, (b) transactional emails (such as for resetting your password), (c) communications necessary for legitimate interests, and (d) sponsored group messages in your feed.  As such, should your uploaded cases, case captions, or comments contain identifying information about a patient (as described in the Terms of Service), you may receive messages from Murmur App notifying you of a potential privacy violation associated with this content.

You agree to immediately notify Murmur App in writing by email to contact@murmurmd.com of any unauthorized use of your Personal User Information or any other breach of security. Murmur App is not and shall not be liable for any harm arising from or relating to the theft of your Personal User Information, your disclosure of your Personal User Information, or the use of your Personal User Information by another person or entity. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, if we share any Personal User Information with any third party in compliance with the terms of this Privacy Policy, the third party’s use of that shared Personal User Information will not constitute unauthorized use.

(ii) User-Provided Case Information

In order to improve the Application or Services; personalize the content; and make recommendations to you, we may use and analyze the User-Provided Case Information. We may conduct surveys and research, test features in development, and analyze the User-Provided Case Information to improve Murmur App’s products and services, develop new features, and conduct audits and quality assurance. We may also use portions of the User-Provided Case Information for marketing and promotional purposes.

Murmur App is concerned about safeguarding the confidentiality of your User-Provided Case Information. We have implemented safeguards in our Application and Services to protect information we process and maintain.

We use reasonable efforts to limit access to your User-Provided Case Information to authorized employees and contractors who need to know such information in order to operate, develop, or improve the Application or Services. Please be aware that, although we will take reasonable steps to safeguard and maintain security of User-Provided Case Information that we process and maintain, no security system can prevent all potential security breaches. Please refer to the Terms of Service for more details about Murmur App’s and your obligations with respect to the proper use of the Application and notification obligations thereunder.

(iii) Optional User-Provided Information

If you perform any of the activities that results in Murmur App’s collection of Optional User-Provided Information, such Optional User-Provided Information may be handled in a different way, including as follows:

• Invite colleagues to join the Application so that they can use the Application and/or Services. To do so, we may access your address book.
• Expand your user profile with additional information. This information is public and can be seen by other users of the Application or Services – for further detail, please see the section titled How Your Collected Information May Be Used – Access by Other Users of the Application.
• Respond to polls. If you respond to any poll, any information that you provide thereunder may be used to learn more about healthcare, to help improve your experience on the Application or Services, and for other purposes of Murmur App

(iv) Automatically Collected Information

In order to improve the Application and Services; to personalize the content; and to make recommendations to you, we use and analyze the Automatically Collected Information.

Murmur App may use your Automatically Collected Information to contact you from time to time to provide you with important information, push notifications, and marketing promotions. You may opt-out of the foregoing by updating your preferences in your user account.

(v) Personalization of Experience

Murmur App may use your Personal User Information for marketing and advertising purposes, to improve the Services, and to personalize and improve your user experience in connection with your use of the Services, including its content and to generally enhance and tailor your experience with the Services. For example, we tailor your Application profile’s focus on content relevant to your practice, specialty and inferred interests based on your profile and how you engage with the Services.

(vi) Verification

Murmur App may use your information in conjunction with information from third parties to recognize you as a registered user of the Application when you use the Services and to verify your identity and/or professional credentials. We may require you to provide proof of your identity, including that you are a healthcare professional, and if you are unable to do so to Murmur App’s reasonable satisfaction, we reserve the right to deny you access to the Services. While we take steps to verify that Murmur App’s members who identify as healthcare professionals are actually healthcare professionals, we make no guarantee as to their identity, professional credentials or licensure status.

(vii) Access by Other Users of the Application

Anything you do, post, and/or share through your use of the Services may be seen by other users of the website and Application. Therefore, you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy when using such features of the Services. Certain portions of the Services are designed to allow you to share information, cases and comments with other users of the Application.

D. SHARING YOUR INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES

Information about your use of the Application or Services, including any of your Personal User Information, User-Provided Case Information, Optional User-Provided Information and/or Automatically Collected Information (collectively, the “Collected Information”), may be shared with third parties or otherwise disclosed, within or outside your jurisdiction, in any of the circumstances described below.

(i) Service Providers

Murmur App works with third party service providers to help us provide the Services and to otherwise assist us in the operation of the Application. These service providers assist us in areas such as email management and deployment, analytics, marketing, advertising, identity and professional credential validation, content distribution, customer service, payment fulfillment, event logistics, website maintenance and data storage and security. We may provide these service providers with Collected Information so that they can properly provide their services to us. However, we do require that they agree to limit their use of Collected Information to the fulfillment of these responsibilities.

(ii) User Profiles

Subject to applicable law, Murmur App may provide Personal User Information and other information related to users of the Application (or portions thereof) to third parties, including Murmur App’s advertising customers, which these third parties may use for their business purposes including marketing.

(iii) Aggregated and Anonymized Information

Subject to applicable law, Murmur App may provide aggregated and/or anonymized information about users of Murmur App’s Services to third parties as we deem appropriate in Murmur App’s sole discretion. For example, we may tell a customer what percentage of registered users of the Application reside in a particular geographical area or specialize in a particular clinical area, or what percentage of participants in a market research survey selected a particular response to a survey question.

(iv) Adverse Event Reporting

If you provide us information about an adverse event regarding a pharmaceutical product or medical device, Murmur App may be required to report such information, along with your contact information, to the manufacturer in order to fulfill its reporting obligations to the applicable regulatory authority. If you do not want this information reported to the applicable manufacturer and regulatory authority, then do not provide us with adverse event information.

(v) Business Transfers and Affiliates

Murmur App may share Collected Information with any member of Murmur App’s subsidiaries for their use for the purposes set forth in this Privacy Policy, including to market to you through a variety of channels as described herein, subject to applicable law. In connection with a corporate change in control resulting from, for example, a sale to, or merger with, another entity, or in the event of a sale of assets or a bankruptcy, we reserve the right to transfer your Collected Information to the new purchaser entity or to a prospective purchaser in connection with the discussions or negotiations of an agreement concerning any of the foregoing. In the event of such a change, your Collected Information will continue to be treated in compliance with this Privacy Policy.

(vi) Legal Requirements

Murmur App may release Collected Information when we believe, in our sole discretion, that such release (i) is required to comply with valid legal requirements under law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order or to meet national security or law enforcement requirements; or (ii) is reasonable in response to a physical threat to you or others, to protect property or defend or assert legal rights of us or others.

(vii) Consent

Murmur App may disclose your Collected Information to a third party in a manner not addressed by this Privacy Policy subject to your consent at such time.