Oculiance Terms of Use

These Terms of Use (“Agreement”) govern your use of the Oculiance website, and its related services, applications, data processing, data storage, and other features (together the “Website” or “Oculiance”). You must agree to these Terms of Use in order to use the Website. If you do not agree to these Terms of Use, you may not use the Website. These Terms of Use constitute a legal agreement between you and Tardigrade LLC, a Connecticut company that owns the Oculiance website. Use of the site constitutes your signature and acceptance to these Terms of Use.

These Terms of Use may be updated from time to time with or without notice to you. The most current Terms of Use are available by following hyperlinks from the www.oculiance.com index page. You are responsible for reviewing them prior to each use of the website. If you do not agree to the most current version of the Terms of Use, you may not use the website.

By agreeing to these Terms of Use, you warrant that you are of legal age as an adult, and competent to agree to these terms. If you are acting on behalf of an organization, you warrant that you are a member or other officer of that organization, duly authorized to bind that organization to agreement with these Terms of Use.

Individual applications, pages, sections, and other parts of the website may contain other terms, including rules, codes of conduct, instructions, Notice of Privacy Practices and similar restrictions on your use of the Website. These other terms are included into these Terms of Use by reference, and extend these Terms of Use. Where these other terms conflict with these Terms of Use, these Terms of Use govern and have priority.

Note that these Terms of Use contain an arbitration clause that limits your rights to settle disputes in court. All disputes regarding these Terms of Use and your use of the Website must be settled in arbitration or small claims court, and limit your rights to a trial by jury.

Privacy

The Oculiance Notice of Privacy Practices is available by following the hyperlinks from the www.oculiance.com index page. You must agree to this agreement prior to using the Oculiance website.

Registration

Only members of Oculiance may use the Website. In order to use the Website, you must register using a registration page that collects certain information, including your name, email address, professional role, and other information relating to you personally. If you register a medical practice or other organization, you must register using a similar registration page and provide information about your organization. By registering yourself or your organization, you warrant that the information you provide is accurate and correct, including that the name you provide is your true name, and that you will not attempt to impersonate another person or organization, or attempt to hide your identity.

Registration as a member of Oculiance is limited to members of the eye care community, including:

• ophthalmologists, optometrists, and opticians,

• clinical and surgical eye technicians,

• executives and administrators working in the eye care industry, including those working in surgery centers, eye care practices, or hospitals,

• industry representatives serving the eye care industry, whether directly (such as in equipment sales or the pharmaceutical industry), or indirectly (such as accountants, lawyers, or even travel consultants providing services to eye care professionals),

• others having a reasonable claim to working with the eye care industry.

Individuals or organizations not having a reasonable claim to working with the eye care industry may not use the Website.

Security

The Website uses commercially reasonable measures to maintain security on its website and to prevent disclosure of private information to unauthorized parties. By using the Website, you agree:

• that security of information on the website is a shared effort between Tardigrade LLC and users,

• to always use strong passwords,

• to never disclose your password to anyone,

• to change your password frequently,

• to keep your account information updated,

• to report any unauthorized use of your account,

• to log out of your account when you leave a device that is logged into your account,

• to never permit another user to use your account, and that your are responsible for that user's actions on the account if you do,

• to report any disclosure of your password or other security breach,

• to never reveal HIPAA Protected Health Information (PHI) in an unauthorized area of the Website, and

• to report PHI disclosures by yourself or others in unauthorized areas of the Website.

Tardigrade LLC does not guaranty or warranty that the site will be free of unwanted intrusion or hacking.

Prohibited Uses

By using the Website, you agree to use it for only the legitimate purposes for which it was intended. You agree to refrain from:

• any illegal use,
• introducing data that creates civil liability,
• ad hominem written or verbal attacks on other users,
• introducing data that is pornographic, slanderous, hateful, or discriminatory,
racist, homophobic, unprofessional, libelous, obscene, threatening, unlawful, defamatory, or otherwise offensive,
• infringing the intellectual property rights of others,
• creating spam, bulk, or duplicate postings,
• collection of data from the site to create mailing lists or other contact lists,
• soliciting products or services, except as explicitly permitted in specific areas of the Website designed for this purpose, such as the Classified Advertising area,
• proselytizing others using the site,
• uploading large files or amounts of data that interfere with the functioning of the Oculiance website,
• web scraping to collect data from the site,
• attempting to deceive other users or Oculiance site administrators regarding your identity,
• engaging in any fraudulent activity, including, but not limited to deceptive trade practices,
• interfering with the function of the Website,
• uploading, posting, or otherwise transmitting Protected Health Information (as defined by the health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, the Privacy Rule of the Secretary of HHS, and any associated laws and regulations) to the site, except where a valid Business Associate Agreement has been executed by both Tardigrade LLC and the user or the user's organization, and only in areas of the website where PHI is explicitly permitted,
• transmit any malware, worms, computer viruses, or other malicious code.

Links

The Oculiance website may contain links to third party websites or other online resources. If you choose to follow these links, you agree that:

• you use the third party website or other online resource you access at your sole risk,

• you agree to abide by the terms of use of that website or online resource,

• Tardigrade LLC makes no representation or warranty, and is not responsible for the merchantability, reliability, security, or other qualities of that website or online resource.

Ownership and Intellectual Property

The Oculiance website is solely owned by Tardigrade LLC. Tardigrade LLC reserves all right to the structure, code, design, database, settings, environment, content, agreements, content, copyright, trademarks, and other intellectual property created by it for the Website and any associated services and products.

Users may contribute suggestions, ideas, data, information, materials, documents, and other content to Oculiance and associated services. In doing so, you, the user, grant Tardigrade LLC an unrestricted, worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free license to use, modify, publicly display, reproduce, sublicense, and distribute your content on, or in connection with the Oculiance website, or for other of its products. You agree that you own or have rights to the content you post, that you are responsible for that content, and that you will indemnify and hold Tardigrade LLC harmless from any and all losses arising out of your posting of that content.

Oculiance is a registered trademark of Tardigrade LLC.

Term and Termination

The term for these Terms of Use lasts from your registration of a user account on the Oculiance website until you or we terminate your use of Oculiance. All representations, warranties, indemnifications, and limitations of liability shall survive the termination of this Agreement. Tardigrade LLC reserves the right to terminate, suspend, or restrict your use of Oculiance and any associated services for any reason, with or without notice.

No Warranties

Tardigrade LLC makes no warranties regarding the Website. It is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, and “with all faults.” It offers no warranty of any kind, either express or implied, except as required by law. The Website and its associated services may have interruptions in service, omissions, inaccuracies, errors, viruses, malware, or other problems that arise. Tardigrade LLC makes no representation that the Website or any associated services are merchantable, or meet any of your requirements.

Limitations of Liability

In no event shall Tardigrade LLC, or its predecessors, successors, assigns, owners, directors, employees, parents, agents, contractors, or other affiliates be responsible for damages arising out of your use the Oculiance website or any associated services, including, but not limited to damages arising out of interruptions in service, consequential damages, business losses, lost data, or loss of business opportunities, regardless of any legal theory, regardless of whether such damages were foreseeable, and regardless of whether any party advised of the possibility of such damages.

Resolution of Disputes

In the event of a dispute between the parties, both parties shall work in good faith for a minimum of 60 days to resolve the dispute. In the event that the dispute remains unresolved after 60 days, either party may attempt to resolve the dispute in either small claims court in the City of Norwich, Connecticut, if the dispute falls within the jurisdiction and amount suitable for it, or through arbitration, as governed by the rules of the American Arbitration Association. A single arbitrator shall resolve the dispute, and shall enter his findings in a court of competent jurisdiction if necessary for the purposes of enforcing the award.

Waiver of Class Actions

You hereby waive all right and claim for any dispute to be arbitrated or litigated on a class action, collective, joint, or consolidated basis.

Waiver of Jury Trial

You hereby waive any right to trial by jury, regardless of whether any dispute is resolved by arbitration or in court.

Venue

This Agreement shall be construed and governed by the laws of the State of Connecticut, without regard to its conflict of laws provisions.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Tardigrade LLC, or its predecessors, successors, assigns, owners, directors, employees, parents, agents, contractors, or other affiliates from any and all damages, claims, losses, expenses, and costs (including actual or reasonable attorney fees) resulting from actions arising out of your use of the Oculiance website or any associated services.

Severability

In the event that any provision hereof is found invalid or unenforceable pursuant to judicial decree or decision, the remainder of this Agreement shall remain valid and enforceable according to its terms.

Third Party Rights

The covenants, undertakings and agreements set forth in this Agreement are solely for the benefit of, and are enforceable only by, the parties hereto and their respective successors and permitted assigns. No person or entity, except the parties shall be beneficiaries of any kind of the terms to this Agreement.

Entire Agreement

This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement of the parties concerning the subject matter hereof and supersedes all previous representations, understandings and agreements of the parties, whether oral or written, concerning the same.

Oculiance.com Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy sets forth the current privacy policies of the Oculiance.com website and associated web applications. Its purpose is to notify you of how we use your personal and other data, our data protection procedures, and other details that affect your privacy in using the Oculiance.com site.

The effective date of this Privacy Policy is November 10, 2023. These Privacy Practices may be changed without notice. You, the user of the Oculiance.com site and its associated web applications, are responsible for reviewing and accepting the current version of these policies prior to using the site. If they are not acceptable to you, please do not use Oculiance.com. The current version of these Privacy Policies is available at https://www.oculiance.com/nopp.php, or by navigating from https://www.oculiance.com to the relevant web page by following the navigation links.

What is Oculiance.com?

Oculiance.com is an online, internet based service that offers information, data processing, web services, communications, and other services to professionals in the eye care industry in the United States of America. It is owned by Tardigrade LLC, a limited liability company based in Norwich, Connecticut.

Oculiance.com supports itself through revenue from several sources. These include sales to users and third-parties of advertising, and subscriptions for certain digital services.

What personal data does Oculiance.com collect?

To become a member and use Oculiance.com, you provide us with your name, email address, professional role, zip code, and other information. We collect information on your use of the site, such as login and logout times, pages visited, advertisements clicked on, and other user activity.

What financial data does Oculiance.com collect?

Oculiance.com collects information on transactions made on the site, such as when the transaction occurred, what happened for the transaction, the monetary amount of the transaction, the user who made the transaction, and other information. This information is generally available for users to view, in order to reconcile their purchases. Oculiance.com does not collect credit card data, and is not a credit card processor. We use third-party processors for credit card transactions, such as Stripe. Privacy practices for those third-parties are available on their respective websites. You must agree to their privacy practices and terms of use before using their services.

How does Oculiance.com use personal and financial data?

We use personal and financial data to:

• Conduct our business operations

• Comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations

• Provide users with records of their purchases

• Provide generic or targeted advertisements to users

• Aggregate data to analyze site performance

• Provide reports to advertisers of ad performance

• Show the origin of posts on forums and on classified ads

What protections are in place for my personal data?

We use standard web service protections for your data. Data are housed on a HIPAA-compliant server with regular off-site backups. The server is housed in a secure data facility that is monitored by third-party companies that implement digital and physical security protections. Data transmission uses TLS/https encrypted communications. Passwords are hashed using secure hashes designed for this purpose. Users should understand that while we work hard to implement data security, no entity can guarantee complete security. Users should ensure they use strong passwords to secure their account, never re-use passwords, change their passwords frequently, and never reveal their passwords to others.

With what third parties does Oculiance.com share my data?

We share user data with:

• Governmental authorities in order to comply with laws and regulations

• Other users

• Industry representatives

• Advertisers

Can I limit sharing of my data?

No. At this time we have not implemented functionality to allow users to limit sharing of their data.

What emails will I receive from Oculiance.com?

We will send you emails regarding administrative issues with your account, such as for password resets. Any advertising we send you through email is normally on an “opt-in” basis, such as when you elect for us to send you information on upcoming online conferences and talks, or notifications of forum posts. We normally do not allow third-party advertisers to send you advertising information by email. Third party advertising that you may see is normally shown exclusively when you are logged into the Oculiance.com website.

What are Oculiance.com policies with regard to Protected Health Information (PHI)?

Protected Health Information consists generally of patient data, and is defined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Public posting of PHI on Oculiance.com would make patient data visible to unauthorized parties, and is forbidden. If we offer web services that allow the retention, storage, transmission, or viewing of PHI, you or an authorized representative of your organization must sign a Business Associate Agreement with Tardigrade LLC, and restrict your use of PHI to areas of Oculiance.com where PHI is permitted and protected.

We are all responsible for keeping PHI private. If you encounter PHI that you believe is inappropriately posted in a public place on the site, you must report it. We have some built in functionality for this, but if you are unable to report it through this functionality, you can report it by contacting support@oculiance.com.

Tardigrade LLC endeavors to maintain strict compliance with all HIPAA rules, and other government laws and regulations, regarding physical and digital safeguards for PHI.

Does Oculiance.com comply with privacy laws and regulations outside of the United States?

No. Use of Oculiance.com is currently limited to users in the United States of America and its territories. The site is not compliant with European or other countries’ privacy standards at this time.

Does Oculiance.com collect the personal information of children?

No. Use of Oculiance.com is limited to persons 18 years or older. Use of Oculiance.com is not permitted for children.

If I inactivate my account, what personal information does Oculiance.com retain?

You may inactivate your account with Oculiance.com if you no longer wish to use it. However, we will generally not delete your user data, as doing so may disrupt forums and other parts of the Oculiance.com website in which your have participated. Similarly, if you have belonged to an organization in Oculiance, that organization may be required to maintain your data to comply with govermnent laws and regulations.

Does Oculiance.com use cookies?

Because Oculiance.com is a members-only site, we do not usually need to use cookies to track user activity. User activity is normally tracked with session variables, which are set by logging into the website. In selected circumstances, we may use cookies, such as saving configuration data for a particular computer to display a video eye chart. We will not normally notify you when we use cookies. By using the site, you consent to the use of cookies.

Do I need to use my real name on Oculiance.com?

Yes. By using Oculiance.com, you must agree to use your real name. Oculiance.com is a community of eye care professional in practice and in industry. Trust between users is essential to maintaining this community and to providing useful information and services to all users. If you do not feel comfortable providing your real name, you must not use the site.

How can I contact Oculiance.com if I have questions about my privacy?

We will attempt to answer questions about privacy on the Oculiance.com if you email us at support@oculiance.com.