bellybrief bridges communities and individuals with ideas, parenting tips, hacks, advice and information. Our mission is to help people discover places where they can be their true selves, and empower our community to flourish.

To achieve this mission, bellybrief makes services available through our website, www.bellybrief.com (the “Site”) to enable those planning to or on the journey of motherhood find people and resources that can help or they can help, learn about relevant products and services, participate in market research, and create, share and distribute information in collaboration with one another (“Services”). By joining bellybrief, you voluntarily and willingly provide certain information, including Personally Identifiable Information, which we collect in order to provide the Services.

If you have any hesitation about providing information to us and/or having your Personally Identifiable Information displayed on the bellybrief Site or otherwise used in any manner permitted in this Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions, you should not become a member of the bellybrief network; and, if you are already a member, you should close your account. You can close your account by sending an email to hello@bellybrief.com

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time for any reason; each version will apply to information collected while it was in place. We have no obligation to inform you of any such updates and you are advised to consult this Privacy Policy regularly for any updates. Your continued membership with the Site is your consent to any such future updates.

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or our use of your Personally Identifiable Information, please contact us at hello@bellybrief.com.

We collect your personal information in the following ways:

Registration

In order to become a member, you may choose to provide bellybrief with the following information to create an account: user name, email address, country, zip code, topic(s) of interest, role and password. Like other passwords, you should choose one that is known only by you.

ALL REGISTRATION INFORMATION EXCEPT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND PASSWORD WILL BECOME PART OF YOUR PUBLIC PROFILE (the “Registration Information”). IF YOU WISH TO BE ANONYMOUS WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND USING A USER NAME THAT DOES NOT IDENTIFY YOU.

Member Information

Once you become a member, you may submit a variety of personal information including but not limited to the following types of data to the Site to share with the network:

  • Biographical information, including photo, bio, gender, age, location (city, state & country), and general notes
  • This information together with your name Registration Information (above) is referred to as your “Personally Identifiable Information.”
  • Members may enter as much or as little information as they like and should not enter any information they feel uncomfortable sharing.
  • Members are encouraged to share information, but should consider that the more information that is entered, and the more specific Personally Identifiable Information is, the more likely it is that a member could be located or identified by third parties accessing the Site.
  • bellybrief is a public forum and you acknowledge and accept that any information, including Personally Identifiable Information, you post to the site (with the exception of your email address and password) can be viewed publicly.
  • If you are a caregiver, then any information you provide must be information pertaining only to you and not to any other person; YOU ARE EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED IN PROVIDING ANY INFORMATION ON THIS SITE REGARDING ANY OTHER PERSON’S PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION.
  • Any Personally Identifiable Information may be used by bellybrief as described in the Terms and Conditions and this Privacy Policy, including for the purpose of serving advertisements through the Service. If you decide not to share certain information, you may not receive the full benefit of being a bellybrief Member.

Clickstream

bellybrief may also collect “clickstream” data, which tracks the use of the features of our Site. This allows bellybrief to monitor the performance of the Site and Service and learn how different aspects of the Site and Service are used. It is possible to combine this information with the Personal Identifiable Information that you provide to us.

Log files, IP addresses and Information About Your Computer

When you visit the Site, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website (“Log Data”). This Log Data may include information such as your IP address, browser type or the domain from which you are visiting, the web-pages you visit, the search terms you use, and any advertisements on which you click. For most users accessing the Internet from an Internet service provider the IP address will be different every time you log on. We use Log Data to monitor the use of the Site and of our Service, and for the Site’s technical administration. We do not associate your IP address with any other Personally Identifiable Information to identify you personally, except in case of violation of this Privacy Policy or Terms and Conditions.

Cookies

Like most websites, we use cookies and web log files to track Site usage and trends, to improve the quality of our service, to customize your experience on bellybrief, as well as to deliver third-party advertising to users both on and off the Belly Brief site. A cookie is a tiny data file that resides on your computer, mobile phone, or other device, and allows us to recognize you as a user when you return to the bellybrief website using the same computer and web browser. You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases this may impact your ability to fully utilize use bellybrief site. One type of cookie, known as a “persistent” cookie, is set once you’ve logged in to your bellybrief account. The next time you visit the bellybrief website, the persistent cookie will allow us to recognize you as an existing user so you will not need to log in before using the Services. In order to access or change any of your Personally Identifiable Information or email address or password, or to send a message to another user, however, you must log in securely again with your password even if your computer contains your persistent cookie. Another type of cookie, called a “session” cookie, is used to identify a particular visit to the bellybrief website. Session cookies expire after a short time or when you close your web browser.

In the course of optimizing the Services to our users, we may allow authorized third parties to place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. Any information provided to third parties through cookies may not be personally identifiable but may provide general segment information (e.g., your diagnosis, stage of treatment, health care experiences, geography) for greater customization of your user experience. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. bellybrief does not store unencrypted Personally Identifiable Information in the cookies.

Rights to Access, Correct and Eliminate Information About You

You have a right to access, modify, correct and eliminate the data you supplied to bellybrief. If you update any of your information, we may keep a copy of the information that you originally provided to us in our archives for uses documented in this policy. You may request deletion of your information at any time by emailing hello@bellybrief.com. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

We may use your personal information in the following ways:

Consent to bellybrief Processing Information About You

The information you provide to the Site may reveal, and/or allow others to identify, your nationality, ethnic origin, religion, gender, age, geography, or other Personal Identifiable Information. By providing information to the Site for the purposes of creating your user account or adding any additional details to your bellybrief profile, you are expressly and voluntarily accepting the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and Belly Brief’s Terms and Conditions that allow bellybrief to process information about you. Supplying information to bellybrief, including any information deemed “sensitive” by applicable law, is entirely voluntary on your part. You have the right to withdraw your consent to bellybrief’s collection and processing of your information at any time, in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions, by closing your account, but please note that your withdrawal of consent will not be retroactive and any information you provided prior to terminating your account will continue to be available on the Site unless you request to delete the same as provided in this Privacy Policy.

bellybrief Communications

As described in the Terms and Conditions, we will communicate with you through email and notices posted on the bellybrief website, or through other means available through the service. We may send you a series of emails that help inform new users about the features of the Services, and we will also send you service messages relating to the functioning of the Services.

If you contact us by email through the Site, we may keep a record of your contact information and correspondence, and may use your email address, and any information that you provide to us in your message, to respond to you.

Sharing Information with Third Parties

bellybrief takes the privacy of our members very seriously, and we do not sell, rent, or otherwise provide your Personally Identifiable Information as well as your email address and password to third parties, except as described in this Privacy Policy. bellybrief may offer features that allow users to publish portions of their bellybrief profile to the public Internet. This public profile will be crawled by and displayed through search engines when someone searches for your name. Content distributed through bellybrief’s sharing features and third party integrations may result in displaying some of your Personally Identifiable Information outside of the Site. If you have bound your bellybrief account to your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or other account, you can easily share content into both bellybrief as well as to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or other account. We may provide aggregated anonymous data about the usage of the Services to third parties for purposes that we deem, in our sole discretion, to be appropriate, including to prospective advertisers on bellybrief.

Service Providers

We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to us, including, without limitation, hosting and maintenance, customer relationship, database storage and management, and direct marketing campaigns. We will share your Personally Identifiable Information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these functions and provide such services.

Compliance with Laws and Law Enforcement

bellybrief cooperates with government and law enforcement officials or private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We may disclose any information, including Personally Identifiable Information, about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims, legal process (including subpoenas), to protect the property and rights of bellybrief or a third party, the safety of the public or any person, to prevent or stop any illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity, or to comply with the law.

Otherwise, we do not share, sell, or otherwise disclose Personal Identifiable Information (including your e-mail address or your personal information) to any other company that we do not control without your prior consent, except as required by law (see Legal Process, below) or otherwise stated in this Privacy Policy. For example, we do not rent our member list to other companies. We may, however, provide other companies with aggregated data about our members that does not contain contact or other Personally Identifiable Information. Thus, for example, we may inform a health association of the number of members we have on this Service, or the number of members registered for our Service in a particular geographical region.

Business Transfers

bellybrief may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of its assets, including your Personally Identifiable Information, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy.

Miscellaneous:

Changing or Deleting Information

If you are a registered user of the Site, you may access and update or correct the information you provided to us by e-mailing us at Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, or other account.

Security

bellybrief is very concerned about safeguarding the confidentiality of your Personally Identifiable Information. We employ administrative, physical and electronic measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access. We will make any legally-required disclosures of any breach of the security, confidentiality, or integrity of your unencrypted electronically stored personal data to you via email or conspicuous posting on this Site in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, consistent with (i) the legitimate needs of law enforcement or (ii) any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system.

Other Security Issues

Belly Brief cannot guarantee the identity of any other users with whom you may interact in the course of using the Site or who may have access (based on the privacy level you have selected) to information you have posted in the User Area. Additionally, we cannot guarantee the authenticity of any data that users may provide about themselves. Finally, you should know that Belly Brief takes commercially reasonable technical precautions to help keep your data secure.

Links to Other Websites

Our Site contains links to other websites. The fact that we link to a website is not an endorsement, authorization or representation of our affiliation with that third party. We do not exercise control over third party websites. These other websites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit Personally Identifiable Information or such other personal information from you. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit that affect your Personally Identifiable Information.

Risks and Benefits

While our goal is to help improve health outcomes, there are no certain benefits to using this Site.

There are also no known risks to using this Site, but there is a possibility that users may feel uncomfortable sharing information online. It is possible that employers, insurance companies or others may discriminate based on health information. You are free to stop using this Site at any time. You are also free to skip any questions or data fields that make you feel uncomfortable.

Our Policy Towards Children

The Site is not directed to persons under 18. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with personally identifiable information without their consent, he or she should contact us at hello@bellybrief.com and request that we review, delete, or stop the collection of Personally Identifiable Information relating to their child. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 18. If we become aware that a child under 18 has provided us with Personal Identifiable Information, we will delete such information from our files.

HIPAA and Your Personally Identifiable Information on the Site

Your Personally Identifiable Information on this Site is NOT protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”). You are cautioned to h3ly consider the personal information, including your Personally Identifiable Information, you provide to the Site, as any personal information you provide, including any medical information will be publicly available. If you do not want your personal medical information publicly available on the Site, then do not place any personal medical information on the Site that you do not want shared publicly.

Blogging Content

Blogger is self-expression and freedom of speech. We believe Blogger increases the availability of information, encourages healthy debate, and makes possible new connections between people. We respect our users’ ownership of and responsibility for the content they choose to share. It is our belief that censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression. In order to uphold these values, we need to curb abuses that threaten our ability to provide the Service and the freedom of expression it encourages. As a result, there are some boundaries on the type of content that can be blogged on this Site. The boundaries we’ve defined are those that both comply with legal requirements and that serve to enhance the service as a whole.

Content Boundaries

  • Adult Content: We do allow adult content on the Site, including images or videos that contain nudity or sexual activity.
  • Child safety: We have a zero tolerance policy towards content that exploits children. Some examples of this include:
  • Child pornography: We will terminate the accounts of any user we find publishing or distributing child pornography. We will also report that user to law enforcement.
  • Pedophilia: We do not allow content that encourages or promotes sexual attraction towards children. For example, do not create blogs with galleries of images of children where the collection of images or text accompanying the images is sexually suggestive.
  • Crude Content: Don’t post content just to be shocking or graphic. For example, collections of close-up images without additional context or commentary would violate this policy.
  • Violence: Don’t use the Site to threaten other people.
  • Copyright: It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. Please don’t provide links to sites where other users can illegally download other people’s content.
  • Personal and confidential information: It’s not ok to publish another person’s personal and confidential information and we ask that you do not. If you do, we reserve the right to delete any such publication, remit the same to the appropriate authorities, and cooperate in any legal proceeding against you.
  • Illegal activities: Don’t use the Site to engage in illegal activities or to promote dangerous and illegal activities.
  • Malware and viruses: Do not create blogs or content that transmit viruses, cause pop-ups, attempt to install software without the user’s consent, or otherwise impact users with malicious code. This is strictly forbidden.