Miracle-Ear Privacy Policy

As part of engaging with the Service, you may engage with the Service in a manner regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”). This Privacy Notice is not intended for compliance with HIPAA, nor should you take such notice as a reflection of your rights under HIPAA. If you are a patient viewing this Privacy Notice, please contact your provider for information regarding your medical records and/or HIPAA privacy disclosures, or you may review our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices.

This Privacy Notice covers the following topics:

1.     What personal information do we collect about you?

2.     How does Miracle-Ear use personal information?

3.     How do we share your personal information?

4.     Retention of Data

5.     International Data Transfer

6.     Universal Opt-Out Mechanisms

7.     Notice to Nevada Residents

8.     Your State Privacy Rights and Additional Disclosures

9.     Notice to California Residents

10.  Information Storage and Security

11.  External Links

12.  Children’s Privacy

13.  Changes to this Privacy Notice

14.  Contact Information 

Personal information (also commonly known as personally identifiable information (PII) or personal data) is information that can be used to identify you, or any other individual to whom the information may relate.

The personal information that we collect directly from those engaging with the Service includes the following categories:

• Book an Appointment. When you request an appointment, you will provide your name, phone number, email address, desired clinic location, and appointment time and date.
• Find a Clinic. When you search for a location, you will enter your city, zip code or street address.
• Online Hearing Test. When you take an online hearing test, you will provide your age range and answers to the test questions.
• Sending Hearing Test Results. When you send your test results, you will provide your name and email address.
• Submit Testimonial. When you submit a testimonial, you will provide your name and any other information you choose to provide.
• Apply for Miracle-Ear Foundation. When you apply for the Gift of Sound, either for yourself or on behalf of someone else, you will provide the applicant type (adult or child), the applicant’s name, applicant’s date of birth, applicant’s phone number, and
• Contact Us. When you contact us, you will provide your name, email address, phone number, your reason for contacting, and any other information you choose to provide in your message.
• Other information that may be exchanged in the course of engaging with the Service.  You will be aware of any subsequently collected information because it will come directly from you.

Collection of User Generated Content

We may invite you to post content on the Service, including your comments, testimonials, and any other information that you would like to be available on the Service, which may become public (“User Generated Content”). If you post User Generated Content, all of the information that you post will be available to authorized personnel of Miracle-Ear. You expressly acknowledge and agree that we may access in real-time, record and store archives of any User Generated Content on our servers to make use of them in connection with the Service. If you submit a review, recommendation, endorsement, or other User Generated Content through the Service, or through other websites including Facebook, Instagram, Google, Yelp, and other similar channels, we may share that review, recommendation, endorsement, or content publicly on the Service.

What are the sources of personal information collected by Miracle-Ear?

When providing personal information to Miracle-Ear as described in this Privacy Notice, that personal information is primarily collected directly from you. Miracle-Ear can also collect personal information about you from third party social networking services, publicly accessible sources, Miracle-Ear subsidiaries or affiliates, or third-party service providers and other partners. The information provided by you and the information collected from other sources can be combined as your personal information. Finally, As described in our Cookie Notice, Miracle-Ear may automatically collect certain information that is considered personal information. In particular, we may collect personal and non-personal information through own or third-party cookies and similar technologies deployed on our website(s).

Subject to the terms of this Privacy Notice, Miracle-Ear uses the above-described categories of personal information in several ways. Unless otherwise stated specifically, the above information may be used for any of the following purposes:

• to provide information to you about the Service or products;
• to administer the Service to you or provide products;
• to respond to and process your requests;
• to distribute communications relevant to your use of the Service, such as system updates or information about your use of the Service;
• as may be necessary to support the operation of the Service, such as for billing, account maintenance, and record-keeping purposes;
• to notify you about changes to this Privacy Notice;
• to send to you Miracle-Ear solicitations, product announcements, and the like that we feel may be of interest to you (you may “opt out” of receiving these marketing materials);
• to allow you to participate in surveys or provide testimonials;
• to carry out Miracle-Ear’s obligations and enforce rights arising from any contracts between you and Miracle-Ear;
• to investigate and deter fraudulent activity;
• in other manners compatible with the above purposes, after subsequent notice is provided to you, or after your consent is obtained, if necessary.

We may provide any of the described categories of personal information to Miracle-Ear employees, consultants, affiliates or other businesses or persons for the purpose of processing such information on our behalf in order to provide the Service to you. In such circumstances, we require that these parties agree to protect the confidentiality of such information consistent with the terms of this Privacy Notice.

We may disclose information to third parties in accordance with this Privacy Notice. The third parties we may disclose your information to include:

• Third parties and service providers (e.g., providing products and services, advertising and marketing, data analysis, enhancing the information collected about you);
• Subsidiaries and affiliates;
• Direct marketing providers;
• Third parties who may provide professional advice (for example, lawyers, bankers, accountants);
• Government agencies or other parties in response to legal process or other requests, where permitted by law;
• With other persons or third parties with whom you have requested that we share information.

We will not share your personal information with other, third-party companies for their commercial or marketing use (except as may be described in this Privacy Notice) without your consent except if the information is to be used as part of a specific program or feature for which you have the ability to opt-in or opt-out.

In addition, we may release personal information: (i) to the extent we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with any applicable law; (ii) to enforce any provision of the Terms of Service , protect ourselves against any liability, defend ourselves against any claims, protect the rights, property and personal safety of any user, or protect the public welfare; (iii) when disclosure is required to maintain the security and integrity of the Service, or to protect any user’s security or the security of other persons, consistent with applicable laws (iv) to respond to a court order, subpoena, search warrant, or other legal process, to the extent permitted and as restricted by law; or (v) in the event that we go through a business transition, such as a merger, divestiture, acquisition, liquidation or sale of all or a portion of our assets.

Miracle-Ear will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice. To determine the appropriate retention period for your personal information, we will consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we use your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Miracle-Ear will also retain usage data for internal analysis purposes. Usage data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of the Service, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer periods.

Your Choices Regarding Your Data

You can make changes to your information, access your information, or delete your information. To do so, please contact the Compliance Department via telephone at (800) 234-9314 or (763) 268-4103 or via email at compliancedept@amplifon.com.

You have the right to opt out of email communications from Miracle-Ear. Each email incudes opt-out instructions that you can use to stop receiving these communications, or you can contact the Compliance Department directly. Requests made through the opt-out instructions may take up to 10 days to process.

Miracle-Ear sends autodialed marketing text messages to devices that have opted into receiving them. Opting into text messages is not a condition of purchase. If you would like stop receiving text messages from Miracle-Ear, you can respond to any of our text messages with ‘STOP’ or contact the Compliance Department directly. Requests to opt out of text messages made through text message are effective immediately upon receipt. Standard message and data rates may apply. 

For individuals located outside the US, in particular in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area (EEA), please note that Miracle-Ear is a US based company. Miracle-Ear does not market to or solicit customers from outside the US, therefore, users of the Service should not expect to avail themselves of the rights provided under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). If you use the Service, all information, including personal information, will be transferred to Miracle-Ear in the US. By using the Service, you unambiguously consent to the transfer of your personal information and other information to the US and elsewhere for the purposes and uses described in this Privacy Notice. Further, you acknowledge that Miracle-Ear is not subject to the GDPR or similar international privacy laws, and, therefore, you will be unable to claim the privacy rights provided in those laws. If you wish to make an inquiry under European Union or another country-specific law, please visit https://www.amplifon.com/international.

The Site recognizes the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”) signal. If you are using a browser setting or plug-in that sends an opt-out preference signal to each website you visit, we will treat that as a valid request to opt out. To download and use a browser supporting the GPC browser signal, click here: https://globalprivacycontrol.org/orgs. If you choose to use the GPC signal, you will need to turn it on for each supported browser or browser extension you use.

Some internet browsers incorporate a “Do Not Track” feature that signals to websites you visit that you do not want to have your online activity tracked. Given that there is not a uniform way that browsers communicate the “Do Not Track” signal, the Site[s] do/does not currently interpret, respond to or alter their/its practices when they receive/it receives “Do Not Track” signals. 

Nevada law allows Nevada residents to opt out of the sale of certain types of personal information. Subject to several exceptions, Nevada law defines “sale” to mean the exchange of certain types of personal information for monetary consideration to another person. We do not currently sell personal information as defined in the Nevada law. However, if you are a Nevada resident, you still may submit a verified request to opt out of sales and we will record your instructions and incorporate them in the future if our policy changes. You may send opt-out requests to compliancedept@amplifon.com.

Depending on the state in which you reside, you may have certain privacy rights regarding your personal data. If you are a California resident, please see our “Notice to California Residents” section below. For other state residents, your privacy rights may include (if applicable):

·        The right to confirm whether or not we are processing your personal data and to access such personal data and the categories of personal data we are processing or have processed;

·        The right to obtain a copy of your personal data that we collected from and/or about you in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format that allows you to transmit the information to another controller without hindrance, where the processing is carried out by automated means;

·        The right, at our option, to obtain a list of specific third parties, other than natural persons, to which we have disclosed your personal data or any personal data;

·        The right to obtain a list of categories of third parties to which we have disclosed your personal data;

·        The right to delete personal data that we collected from and/or about you, subject to certain exceptions;

·        The right to correct inaccurate personal data that we maintain about you, subject to certain exceptions;

·        The right, if applicable, to opt out of the processing of your personal data for purposes of (1) targeted advertising; (2) the “sale” of your personal data (as that term is defined by applicable law); and (3) profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning you;

·        If we are required by applicable law to obtain your consent to process sensitive personal data, the right to withdraw your consent; and

·        The right not to receive discriminatory treatment by us for the exercise of your privacy rights.

Depending on how the applicable privacy law defines a “sale,” we may sell personal data to third parties. For instance, if you are a resident of Colorado or Connecticut, our use of cookies and tracking technologies constitutes a sale of personal data to third-party advertisers. We also use cookies and other tracking technologies to display advertisements about our products to you on nonaffiliated websites, applications, and online services. This is “targeted advertising” under applicable privacy laws. We do not use personal data for profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning individuals.

To exercise your rights, please submit a request by emailing compliancedept@amplifon.com or by submitting a request through our interactive webform available here. If legally required, we will comply with your request upon verification of your identity and, to the extent applicable, the identity of the individual on whose behalf you are making such request. To do so, we will ask you to verify data points based on information we have in our records. If you are submitting a request on behalf of another individual, please use the same contact methods described above. If we refuse to take action regarding your request, you may appeal our decision by replying to the email you received from us in response to your request. 

The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CCPA”), requires that we provide California residents with a privacy policy that contains a comprehensive description of our online and offline practices regarding the collection, use, disclosure, sale, sharing, and retention of personal information and of the rights of California residents regarding their personal information. This section of the Privacy Notice is intended solely for, and is applicable only as to, California residents. If you are not a California resident, this section does not apply to you, and you should not rely on it.

The CCPA defines “personal information” to mean information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular California resident or household. Personal information does not include publicly available, deidentified or aggregated information for lawfully obtained, truthful information that is a matter of public concern. For purposes of this “Notice to California Residents” section we will refer to this information as “Personal Information.”

Notice at Collection of Personal Information

We currently collect and, in the 12 months prior to the Last Updated Date of this Privacy Policy, have collected the categories of personal information listed earlier in this Notice. We collect personal information directly from California residents and from the sources listed above. We do not collect all categories of personal information from each source.

In addition to the purposes stated above in the section “How We Use Your Personal Data” we currently collect and have collected the above categories of Personal Information for the following business or commercial purposes:

• Auditing related to counting ad impressions to unique visitors, verifying positioning and quality of ad impressions, and auditing compliance with this specification and other standards;
• Helping to ensure security and integrity to the extent the use of your Personal Information is reasonably necessary and proportionate for these purposes;
• Debugging to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;
• Short-term, transient use, including, but not limited to, nonpersonalized advertising shown as part of your current interaction with us, provided that your Personal Information is not disclosed to another third party and is not used to build a profile about you or otherwise alter your experience outside the current interaction with us;
• Performing services, including maintaining or servicing accounts, providing customer service, processing or fulfilling orders and transactions, verifying customer information, processing payments, providing financing, providing analytic services, providing storage, or providing similar services;
• Providing advertising and marketing services, except for cross-context behavioral advertising, to you provided that, for the purpose of advertising and marketing, our service providers and/or contractors shall not combine the Personal Information of opted-out consumers that the service provider or contractor receives from us, or on our behalf with Personal Information that the service provider or contractor receives from, or on behalf of, another person or persons or collects from its own interaction with you
• Undertaking internal research for technological development and demonstration. 

The CCPA defines “sale” as the transfer of Personal Information for monetary or other valuable consideration. Although we do not “sell” Personal Information as that term may be commonly interpreted, we engage in online activities that may constitute a sale or a share of Personal Information under California law. This may include showing you advertisements on other websites.

The following lists identify the categories of Personal Information that we sold or shared to third parties in the 12 months preceding the Last Updated Date of this Privacy Notice and, for each category, the categories of third parties to whom we sold or shared Personal Information:

We sold or shared Personal Information to third parties for the following business or commercial purposes:

• Performing services, including maintaining or servicing accounts, providing customer service, processing or fulfilling orders and transactions, verifying customer information, processing payments, providing financing, providing analytic services, providing storage, or providing similar services.
• Providing advertising and marketing services.
• Undertaking internal research for technological development and demonstration.

The following list identifies the categories of Personal Information that we disclosed for a business purpose in the 12 months preceding the Last Updated Date of this Privacy Notice and, for each category, the categories of recipients to whom we disclosed Personal Information:  

Category of Personal Information

• Name and contact information

Categories of Recipients

It is likely that this category of personal information is shared with all recipients filling these categories:

• Subsidiaries and affiliates;
• Third parties and service providers (e.g., providing products and services, advertising and marketing, data analysis, enhancing the information collected about you);
• Direct marketing providers;
• Third parties who may provide professional advice (for example, lawyers, bankers, accountants);
• Government agencies or other parties in response to legal process or other requests, where permitted by law;

With other persons or third parties with whom you have requested that we share information.

We disclosed Personal Information for the following business or commercial purposes:

• to administer the Service to you or provide products;
• to respond to and process your requests;
• to distribute communications relevant to your use of the Service;
• as may be necessary to support the operation of the Service;
• to market to you;
• to allow you to participate in surveys or provide testimonials.

We do not knowingly collect or sell or share the Personal Information of consumers under 16 years of age. We do not collect or process sensitive Personal Information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about individuals and, consequently, do not use sensitive Personal Information for purposes other than those allowed by the CCPA and its regulations.

Your Rights

If you are a California resident, you have the following rights with respect to your Personal Information:

• The right to know what Personal Information we have collected about you, including the categories of Personal Information, the categories of sources from which we collected Personal Information, the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling or sharing Personal Information (if applicable), the categories of third parties to whom we disclose Personal Information (if applicable), and the specific pieces of Personal Information we collected about you;
• The right to delete Personal Information that we collected from you, subject to certain exceptions;
• The right to correct inaccurate Personal Information that we maintain about you;
• If we sell or share Personal Information, the right to opt out of the sale or sharing;
• If we use or disclose sensitive Personal Information for purposes other than those allowed by the CCPA and its regulations, the right to limit our use or disclosure; and
• The right not to receive discriminatory treatment by us for the exercise of privacy rights the CCPA confers.

How to Submit a Request to Know, Delete, and/or Correct

You may submit a request to know, delete, and/or correct by emailing us at compliancedept@amplifon.com or by submitting a request through our webform available here. If you are submitting a request on behalf of a California resident, please submit the request through one of the designated methods discussed above. After submitting the request, and if the request is not subject to an exemption or exception, we will require additional information to verify your authority to act on behalf of the California resident.

Our Process for Verifying a Request to Know, Delete, and/or Correct

Only you, or a person authorized by you to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may only make a verifiable consumer request for Right to Know or Data Portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative and describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it. We may deny your request if we are unable to verify your identity or have reason to believe that the request is fraudulent.

If we determine that your request is subject to an exemption or exception, we will notify you of our determination. If we determine that your request is not subject to an exemption or exception, we will comply with your request upon verification of your identity and, to the extent applicable, the identity of the California resident on whose behalf you are making such request. We will verify your identity either to a “reasonable degree of certainty” or a “reasonably high degree of certainty” depending on the sensitivity of the Personal Information and the risk of harm to you by unauthorized disclosure, deletion, or correction as applicable. To do so, we will ask you to verify data points based on information we have in our records concerning you.

If you maintain a password-protected account, we may verify your identity through existing authentication practices available through your account. Prior to disclosing or deleting the personal information, we will ask you to re-authenticate yourself with respect to that account.

If you do not maintain a password-protected account, or if you are an account-holder but we suspect fraudulent or malicious activity with your account, We will verify your identity either to a “reasonable degree of certainty” or a “reasonably high degree of certainty” depending on the sensitivity of the personal information and the risk of harm to you by unauthorized disclosure, deletion, or correction as applicable. To do so, we will ask you to verify data points based on information we have in our records concerning you.

Right to Opt Out of Sale or Sharing of Personal Information

If you are a California resident, you have the right to direct us to stop selling or sharing your Personal Information. You may update your preferences for personal information collected through cookies and other tracking technologies by adjusting your settings on our cookie management platform available here. You may also submit a request through our interactive webform available here or by emailing compliancedept@amplifon.com.

Shine the Light Law

We do not disclose personal information obtained through our Site or Services to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Accordingly, we have no obligations under California Civil Code § 1798.83.

We employ industry-standard security measures designed to protect the security of all information submitted through the Service. However, the security of information transmitted through the internet or via a mobile device can never be guaranteed. We are not responsible for any interception or interruption of any communications through the internet or for changes to or losses of data.

Users of the Service are responsible for maintaining the security of any password, user ID or other form of authentication involved in obtaining access to password protected or secure areas of the Service. In order to protect you and your information, we may suspend your use of any of the Service, without notice, pending an investigation, if any breach of security is suspected.

The Service may contain links to other websites maintained by third parties. Please be aware that we exercise no control over linked sites and Miracle-Ear is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such sites. Each linked site maintains its own independent privacy and data collection policies and procedures, and you are encouraged to view the privacy policies of these other sites before providing any personal information.

You hereby acknowledge and agree that Miracle-Ear is not responsible for the privacy practices, data collection policies and procedures, or the content of such third-party sites, and you hereby release Miracle-Ear from any and all claims arising out of or related to the privacy practices, data collection policies and procedures, and/or the content of such third-party sites.

The Service is not intended for children under the age of 13, and Miracle-Ear does not knowingly collect the personal information of children under the age of 13. 

Miracle-Ear reserves the right to modify this Privacy Notice from time to time in order to ensure that it accurately reflects the regulatory environment and our data collection principles. When material changes are made to this Privacy Notice, Miracle-Ear will post the revised Privacy Notice on our website. This Privacy Notice was last modified as of May 20, 2024.

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Notice or the Service provided by Miracle-Ear, please contact us at:

Miracle-Ear, Inc.

Attn: Compliance Officer

150 South 5^th Street, Suite 2300

Minneapolis, MN 55402

Email: compliancedept@amplifon.com

Telephone: 800-234-9314 or 763-268-4103