MRI Upload
This Privacy Policy explains how Prostate Laser Center, PLLC (“Prostate Laser Center,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, and shares information when you visit www.prostatelasercenter.com (the “Site”) or contact us through it. It is part of our Terms of Use.
You must be at least eighteen (18) years old to use the Site. The Site is not directed to, and we do not knowingly collect information from, anyone under eighteen.
Our approach, in brief
- Your consultation request stays private. The consultation request form runs in its own secure frame, hosted by Zoho, our HIPAA business associate. No analytics or advertising tools run inside it, so nothing you type into the form is shared with Google or any other advertising company.
- You choose about analytics and advertising cookies. We use Google Analytics and Google Ads cookies to understand how the Site is used and to measure our advertising. If you appear to be in California or Washington, they stay off unless you choose “Accept.” Everywhere else, including when we can’t tell where you are, you can turn them off at any time with the “Privacy choices” link at the bottom of every page, and we treat a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser as a request to turn them off. The same choice decides whether we may tell Google Ads that your ad click led to a consultation request.
- We do not sell your personal information.
1. Information we collect
Information you give us
When you request a consultation, upload imaging, call, or e-mail us, you may give us your name, phone numbers, e-mail address, mailing address, the contents of your message, files you choose to attach, and how you heard about us. Because we are a medical practice, what you send may include health information about you or a person you are asking for. Please share only what we need to respond.
Information collected automatically
- When any page loads, our web host receives the standard information every browser sends, such as your IP address, browser type, and the page requested, so it can deliver the Site and keep it secure. Our pages also load a font from Adobe Fonts, which receives your IP address and the address of the page (Adobe uses it to count page views for font licensing).
- To decide which privacy choices apply, the Site asks our web host which U.S. state your internet connection appears to be in. The answer is kept in your browser for that visit only. If it can’t tell, you get the same choices as visitors outside California and Washington.
- To know how you found us, if you arrive from an ad or a campaign link, the Site keeps the ad-click identifier (such as Google’s “gclid”), the campaign tags, the first page you visited, and the site that referred you, in first-party cookies and your browser’s storage for 90 days. They are sent with your consultation request so we know how you found us. The ad-click identifier goes with it only when advertising cookies are on for you (Section 2); otherwise it is left out, including from the address of the first page you visited.
- When analytics and advertising cookies are on (see Section 2), Google receives the pages you view and their titles, including words you type into the Site’s search box (they appear in the page address); how you arrived, such as the referring site, ad-click identifiers, and campaign tags; clicks on phone numbers and links; scrolling; your device and browser type; and your IP address, which Google uses to estimate your general location.
2. Analytics and advertising cookies, and your choices
We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the Site, and Google Ads measurement to see how well our ads work. Both are managed through Google Tag Manager. When they are on, Google sets cookies (such as _ga and _gcl_au) and receives the information described in Section 1, which it handles under its own policies; see How Google uses information from sites that use its services.
- In California and Washington (judged by where your internet connection appears to be), these cookies, and the tags that set them, stay off unless you choose “Accept” on the banner.
- Everywhere else, and whenever the Site can’t tell where you are, they are on unless you turn them off. Choose “Turn off” on the banner, or use the Privacy choices link at the bottom of any page.
- Global Privacy Control: if your browser sends this signal, we treat it as a request to turn them off, wherever you are, unless you turn them on yourself.
- When you turn them off, the Site stops loading Google Tag Manager and deletes the Google Analytics and Google Ads cookies it set in your browser. Your choice is kept in a cookie for 12 months; if you clear your cookies, we will ask again.
- Ad conversion reports. If advertising cookies are on for you and you came to us from a Google ad, the ad-click identifier goes with your consultation request, and we may later tell Google Ads that your click led to a consultation request or an appointment. Each report contains only the click identifier, the kind of result, and its date and time: never your name, your contact details, or anything you wrote. When the cookies are off, the click identifier is not sent with your request, so we can’t report it.
- You can also use Google’s Google Analytics opt-out add-on and manage ad personalization in My Ad Center.
Some content comes from other services when you use it. Our Location page shows a Google Map, which loads from Google when you open that page. Our videos play from YouTube in its privacy-enhanced mode, and only after you press play. The consultation form uses Cloudflare Turnstile to keep out spam. Our Cookie Policy lists the cookies the Site uses.
3. How we use information
We use information to respond to your questions and consultation requests and to schedule and provide care; to run, secure, and improve the Site; to understand which pages and ads are useful, using the analytics and advertising information in Section 2 (never what you write in the consultation form); and to comply with the law and enforce our terms.
4. How we share information
We share information with companies that help us run the Site and our practice: our web host (Vercel); Zoho, which runs the consultation request form and our records system under a HIPAA business associate agreement; Medicai, the imaging upload service you use when you send us MRI images; and Cloudflare, for the form’s spam check. Google receives analytics and advertising information, including the ad conversion reports described in Section 2, only when those cookies are on, and uses it under its own policies.
We may also disclose information when the law requires it; to protect the rights, safety, or property of our patients, our practice, or others; or as part of a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of our practice. We do not sell personal information. Under some state laws, letting Google Ads cookies run may count as “sharing” for advertising; you can turn them off at any time (Section 2).
5. Health information and HIPAA
Health information we create or receive in caring for you is protected by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and described in our Notice of Privacy Practices. Consultation requests go straight into our records system through our HIPAA business associate. Submitting a form does not by itself create a physician–patient relationship.
6. Data retention
We keep personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes in this Privacy Policy, to meet our legal, regulatory, tax, and record-keeping obligations, and to resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.
7. Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect the information we collect. No method of transmission over the Internet or of electronic storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
8. Your privacy rights
You can ask us what information we have about you from the Site, and ask us to correct it or to delete it, unless we must keep it (for example, as part of a medical record). Residents of Texas, California, and other states with privacy laws may have additional rights, and we will respond as those laws require. We will not treat you differently for making a request. To make a request, contact us (Section 12). If we decline your request, you may appeal by contacting us again and identifying your request as an appeal.
9. Third-party sites
The Site links to websites and services we do not control. This Privacy Policy does not apply to them, and we encourage you to read their privacy policies.
10. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Browsers’ “Do Not Track” setting has no common standard, so the Site does not change what it does based on it. The Site does honor Global Privacy Control, as described in Section 2.
11. Changes to this Privacy Policy
If we change this Privacy Policy, we will post the new version here with a new “Last updated” date. If a change materially affects how we handle your information, we will also note it prominently on the Site.
12. Contact us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or want to make a privacy request, contact us at:
Prostate Laser Center, PLLC
3330 Richmond Ave., Suite 101
Houston, TX 77098
Telephone: (713) 904-4014
