The purpose of United Ostomy Associations of America’s (UOAA) website is to provide information, resources, educational and advocacy-related material to those who have had or will have ostomy or continent diversion surgery, as well as to their families and friends; healthcare professionals; and the general public.
What personal data we collect and how we use it
You may browse our website without identifying yourself or providing any personally identifiable information. When you interact with us through your computer, however, we do record certain non-identifying site-usage data, such as your number of visits to our website pages.
If you elect to donate, register for an event, participate in our Advocacy Network, partake in a UOAA generated survey, or sign up to receive our monthly e-newsletter, you may be asked to provide personal information such as your name, address, city, state, zip, phone number, and email address. We may use this information to communicate with you by email, SMS (text) message, or postal mail from time to time.
If you leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also your IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
How we store your personal data
In most cases, personal information that you enter through our website isn’t stored on the website itself, but is kept for UOAA by third-party service providers:
If you make a donation to UOAA or register for one of our events, your information is kept for us by Blackbaud eTapestry, which also processes any accompanying payment. (Note: for all payments to UOAA, whether online or even using a hard-copy form, UOAA doesn’t keep your payment info, such as credit card info, any longer than necessary to process the transaction.)
If you subscribe to our E-Newsletter, or any of our other e-mail lists, your information is kept for us by Constant Contact.
If you participate in our Advocacy Network, your information is kept for us by VoterVoice.
The one case in which your information is actually stored on our website is when you post comments in reply to our blog posts.
More on comments
Comments posted on our website are checked using the Akismet automated spam detection service. Learn how Akismet processes your comment data.
When you post a comment, an anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
Do we share your information?
UOAA keeps your personal information strictly confidential and does not share your personal information.
On use of Cookies
Cookies are text files that websites send to your web browser to be stored on your computer. Cookies generally improve your experience in using websites; for example, they may enable you to customize pages on a website. Among other uses, cookies may keep you logged in on websites that require logging in, or they may keep the contents of your shopping cart when using shopping websites.
Unfortunately, cookies can also have a darker side. In principle, a cookie written by one website is readable by only that same website. In practice, methods have been developed to circumvent the restrictions so, in some cases, cookies may be used to track you as you surf from one website to another.
However, you aren’t completely defenseless. Web browsers’ configuration options provide tools for managing cookies. For example, you can choose to accept all cookies or reject all cookies. Those two options may be too extreme to be practical. For example, rejecting all cookies will break features on many websites. However, recent web browsers provide other options that can enhance privacy without breaking (most) websites:
Many browsers enable you to block “third-party” cookies, meaning cookies from websites different than the site you’re viewing, as cookies of that type are especially likely to be used in tracking you across the web. Some browsers also provide an option to clear cookies after each browsing session. Clearing cookies frequently limits the extent you can be tracked, but keep in mind that whenever you clear cookies, you’ll get logged out of any sites you were logged into. Some browsers provide still more options to block tracking technologies.
We urge you to examine your browser’s configuration options and choose settings to obtain a desired level of privacy while maintaining the functionality of websites you visit. Also note that in addition to the privacy options provided in web browsers, there are also third-party browser extensions which can enhance privacy by limiting tracking. Examples of such extensions include Ghostery, Disconnect, Privacy Badger and Malwarebytes Browser Guard.
Embedded content from other websites
Pages on our site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the same way as if you were visiting the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
The cookies set by embedded content tend to be third-party cookies (i.e., cookies from websites different than the site you’re viewing), so you can block them by configuring your browser to reject third-party cookies. As far as we know, blocking those third-party cookies will not reduce the functionality of the embedded content on our website.
Facebook tracking cookies
Our website includes “Facebook Pixel” code which is linked to UOAA’s Facebook account. This sets both first-party and third-party cookies which enable Facebook to track you across the web and may also help them present you with targeted ads.
If you’d like some control over the ads targeted to you, you may wish to try the consumer choice tools from the Digital Advertising Alliance or the European Digital Advertising Alliance. These tools enable you to opt out from receiving ads from particular advertisers in a network of advertisers. However, in order to use these tools, your browser must be configured to accept third-party cookies which, as noted previously, are the type of cookies especially likely to be used in tracking you across the web. Therefore, if you wish to use one of the above tools, you’ll need to configure your browser to accept third-party cookies while using the tool, but after you finish using the tool, you may wish to change your browser configuration to block third-party cookies.
Also note that opting out from receiving ads from some advertisers won’t do anything to stop Facebook from tracking you across the web. To limit Facebook’s tracking, you can try the anti-tracking options provided in some web browsers or the third-party browser extensions cited previously. Also, for greater privacy, it’s best to avoid being logged on to Facebook while visiting websites that may include a Facebook Pixel or other Facebook plugin. In this connection, if you use Facebook, you may wish to try the Facebook Container browser extension (available only for Firefox), which isolates your use of Facebook from your other web surfing.
Analytics
We use the Google Analytics service to statistically analyze the use of our website; for example, to determine how often different pages of our site are viewed. When you visit our site, some of your access data is sent to Google for inclusion in this analysis. However, your IP address is anonymized to ensure that Google’s statistical reports will not include any personally identifiable information.
If you simply don’t want your browsing data going into Google Analytics (even knowing that it won’t include anything personally identifiable), then click here to prevent our site from including your data in Google Analytics.
If you don’t want Google Analytics to track you on any websites you visit, you can install a Google browser extension to opt out of Google Analytics data collection. The anti-tracking options in some web browsers and third-party browser extensions can also keep your data out of Google Analytics.
Additional information
What rights you have over your data
You may ask to see any personal information that UOAA has on file for you, and you may ask to have it corrected, updated or deleted entirely. This does not, however, apply to data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
If you’ve posted a comment on our website but change your mind and wish to have it removed, please contact us and we will remove it from the website.
To contact us for any of these purposes, you may email us at info@ostomy.org or call us at 1-800-826-0826.
If you’re on a UOAA email list and do not wish to be on the list, you may simply click an Unsubscribe link in one of the emails from the list, and the list software will remove you.
Disclaimer on information provided on UOAA’s website
All articles and blog posts written by individuals and digital sponsors that appear in our website are provided for general information purposes only. They do not represent individual medical advice, counsel concerning individual treatments or medical care, referrals to healthcare professionals, or any other recommendations. You should not rely on any information on these pages to replace consultations with your doctor and other qualified healthcare professionals regarding your individual health needs. Statements or opinions expressed by physicians and other independent authors reflect the views of each such individual and do not necessarily reflect the views or any official policy of UOAA.
UOAA makes every effort to provide accurate and up-to-date information. However, the organization expressly disclaims all responsibility and liability arising from your use of or reliance on this website or for the information contained herein as a reference source, and for any advice or other guidance or information provided by any healthcare provider contributing to this site.
Except where otherwise noted, all information on UOAA’s website, including its design and organization, is copyrighted by United Ostomy Associations of America. This material is for personal use only. Permission to otherwise reprint or electronically reproduce any document in whole or in part is expressly prohibited, unless prior written consent is obtained from United Ostomy Associations of America. The organization’s website also contains information copyrighted and owned by entities and individuals other than UOAA. This information is for personal use only. Permission to otherwise reprint or electronically reproduce any document in whole or in part is expressly prohibited, unless prior written consent is obtained from the owner.
UOAA’s website also contains third party information. Whenever possible, such information is marked with the name of the source and does not necessarily represent the opinion of the organization. We do not take any responsibility whatsoever for such third party information.
UOAA’s website also contains links to other Internet sites. The organization does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in the Internet sites to which it provides links, nor is the organization responsible for the information they contain. The content of these linked sites are the sole responsibility of such sites and their contributing authors. UOAA does not intend links to other sites to be referrals or endorsements of the linked entities, but rather provides such links for convenience only.
Updates to this privacy policy
UOAA maintains the right to modify this privacy policy at any time by electronic notice posted on our website. Your continued use of our website after the date that such notice is posted will be deemed to be your agreement to the changed terms.
Last Modified: January 12, 2020
Contact Us
United Ostomy Associations of America
P.O. Box 2293
Biddeford, ME 04005-2293
Call us toll-free at: 1-800-826-0826.
Our Information Line hours are Monday-Friday, 9am to 3pm EST. If you have an emergency, please dial 911 or contact your local medical professional.
Please understand that UOAA is a private, nonprofit, advocacy and informational organization. We are not a medical facility and we do not have medical or legal professionals on staff. Therefore, UOAA does not provide Medical, Mental Health, Insurance or Legal Advice. Visit UOAA Virtual Ostomy Clinic provided by The Wound Company for non-emergency, virtual ostomy support.
Get Involved
UOAA is the leading organization proactively advocating on behalf of the ostomy community. Recognizing that we are always stronger together, we encourage everyone to get involved by joining our Advocacy Network. We’ve also created several Advocacy Tools and Resources to help you successfully advocate on behalf of the ostomy community to ensure every ostomate receives quality care.
UOAA does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.