What information does Irth collect and how do we collect that information?

Irth collects information in a few different ways.  This section explains what information we collect and where we collect it from.

1. Information that you give us when you create an account.  To use Irth’s services, you need to create an account.  When you create an account, you share with us your first and last name, email address, date of birth, and phone number. This information will not be shared publicly and all usernames are anonymized and randomly generated by our servers.
2. We do not publicize the information you give us when you create an account. Other users cannot see any of the information you give us when creating an account other than your randomly generated username.
3. Information that you give us when you share your experience of care.  You also give us information when you share your experience of care.  When you answer Irth’s survey about your experience of care, Irth receives information about you, including your race or ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, relationship status, household income, and family size.

You also provide us with information about your experience at the place where you received your healthcare service, including the name and location of the healthcare provider, the name of healthcare workers that you interacted with, and your opinions about those places and people.

4. Information you give us when you donate to Irth.  We collect information necessary to process payments when you donate to Irth, such as your name, banking information, billing address and anything required by our payment service provider.
5. Information we collect automatically.  We collect information automatically about how you interact with our Services.
   
   1. Device and session information.  We collect information about the device you use to access our Services and information that your device may automatically send us when using our services.  This type of information includes type of computer or mobile device, browser type and language, IP address, mobile carrier, and unique device identifier.
   2. Activity.  We collect information about how you use our Services, such as date and time that you use our Services, the number of times you use our Services, and the pages you view.   
6. Combining information we collect from different devices.  You might access our Services from more than one device.  For example, you may visit Irth’s website and use Irth’s mobile application.  We may combine and cross-reference information we collect through those different devices and platforms.
7. Cookies.  Irth uses cookies in its web-based Services.  We explain what cookies are and how we use cookies in our Cookie Policy.

How do we use the information that we collect?

This section explains how Irth uses the information about you that we collect.

1. Verifying your identity.  We use the information that you give us when you create an account to verify your identity.  Verifying our users’ identities helps maintain a safe, inclusive space.  It helps ensure that the user reviews that you read on Irth’s platforms come from real people who genuinely want to share their experience.
2. Sharing your experience with the Irth community.  A big part of Irth’s mission is to empower everyone with knowledge of how other people with similar racial identity, gender, religion, or income level were treated by a doctor or hospital.  When you share your experience of care, we make the information you share with us in Irth’s survey about your experience of care available to other Irth users so that they are empowered to make their own informed healthcare decisions.  The only information associated with your review will be your race, ethnicity and gender information.

Similarly, we use your information to allow other users to search for reviews by people like themselves.

3. Responding to your questions and comments.  We love to hear from our community!  We will use your information to respond to any questions or comments that you might have for us.
4. Sending you Irth communications.  When you provide us with your email address and opt in to email communications from Irth, we may email you our Newsletter and other communications from Irth.  You can unsubscribe from Irth emails anytime by updating your preferences or clicking unsubscribe from this list.
5. Helping to improve the services we offer.  We use some of the information that we collect to help us improve Irth and offer new features.  For example, we may use information about how often people log on to Irth and what features they like to use to update and redesign Irth to best service our community.
6. Pushing for accountability and institutional change.  One of our missions at Irth is to use data to push for social change.  We do that by taking the information that you and other Irth users give us to identify patterns of bias in birth care, prenatal care, and infancy care.  For example, we might use your information to help us compare the average experience at medical providers in a particular city.  You can find out more about how we use information to push for accountability in the section called “Does Irth share information?”

Does Irth share information?

Sometimes we share information with third parties.  This section explains who we share information with and why.

Before we explain who we share information with, we think it’s just as important to tell you who we do not share information with.  First, Irth does not sell your information. 

Second, unless we are required by law, Irth never shares information that could identify you with hospitals or other medical facilities. 

We do share some information with third parties. 

Service providers.  Irth uses service providers to help us run our platforms and to make sure that you have the best experience possible using Irth.  We get help from third parties to do things like host our website and servers, process payments, analyze data, keep your information safe and secure, and receive technical support.  For example, we have a service provider securely store the information you give us when you open your account on its servers.

Irth’s service providers may likewise share with Irth information that they collect about you or from you in the course of providing their services.

Other Irth users.  We’ve mentioned this already, but it’s worth repeating.  When you share your experience, we publish that information on our platforms.  That means that other Irth users will be able to see the racial, ethnic and other demographic information you provide in your review.  However, your review will not be associated with the name that you provide us when registering for an account.

Pushing for accountability and institutional change: sharing aggregated information.  To push for social change, we use the information that you and other Irth users give us to identify patterns of bias.  We then share those patterns with people who are in the best positions to change them.

Before we do this, we make sure all the information we share is aggregated and anonymized.  Aggregating means combining your information with the information we get from other Irth users.  Anonymizing means removing anything that could identify you, like your name or address.  We then share that aggregate, anonymized information with third parties like hospitals, local or state governments, and others who we think can help eliminate bias in birthing, maternity, and post-natal care.

For example, we might take your rating of the hospital where you gave birth and combine it with ratings from others in the Irth community to generate an average rating.  We would share that average number with the hospital in an effort to push them to do a better job at eliminating bias in healthcare.  But we will not share the names or any other identifying information about the people who submitted the reviews.

Complying with law enforcement and legal requests, and preventing harm.  We work hard to keep your information private.  Even so, there are times when we may use, share, or disclose your information when we believe it is reasonably necessary to comply with laws, regulations, or legal requests.  We may also share your information to address fraud, security, or technical issues, to address malicious or abusive use of our platforms, to protect the safety of Irth users, or to protect our rights or the rights of those who use our services.  Finally, if you submit a complaint about something that someone else has written, we may share the substance of that complaint to give that person an opportunity to respond. In the event of a security breach, we will notify affected individuals, regulatory authorities, and others consistent with our requirements under federal and state law and our contractual obligations.

How we keep your information secure

Irth works hard to protect your information.  We use physical, technological, and procedural safeguards to secure your information when it is being transmitted and stored.

It’s important to remember that even though we have several safeguards in place to protect your information, nothing on the internet is 100% secure.  Choose a strong password (e.g., one that contains random sequences of characters, is long, has variation in capitalization and contains letters, numbers, and symbols) when you create your account and do not share your password with anyone else.

The choices you have with your information

At Irth we believe that you should control what happens to your information.  This section explains what choices you have with the information that we receive from you or about you.  You have three choices when it comes to your information:

1. Not providing us with your information.  You have the choice not to provide us with your information.  However, as we explain above, we need certain pieces of information from you to set up an account which you will need to do to use Irth’s services.
2. Deleting or correcting your information.  If you no longer want us to collect and use your information, you can ask us to delete it.  You can also correct any information about you that you believe is inaccurate.

If you would like to delete information in your account, close your account, or correct information about you, contact privacy@irthapp.com to ask us to delete or correct or access any information we may have about you.  We may need to verify your identity before deleting or correcting your information.

What about information about children?

Irth is not meant for children under the age of 13.  We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 13 without the consent of a parent or legal guardian.  If you believe that we have collected information from children under the age of 13, please contact us at privacy@irthapp.com

How can I find out about updates to Irth’s Privacy Policy?

Sometimes we update this Privacy Policy.  When we do, we will post a notice on our platforms explaining what changed.

At the top of this Privacy Policy, you can see the date of the latest changes.  If you have any questions, you can always reach out to us at privacy@irthapp.com.

Cookie Policy

This Cookie Policy explains what a cookie is and how Irth uses cookies.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small file that interacts with your computer or mobile device when you visit a website, use an online application or open an email.  Cookies can serve a few different purposes.  They help websites work in the ways you expect them to, personalize your experience, and help website operators understand who is using their websites and how often.

Most browsers have settings that allow you to decide whether to accept cookies.  You can also choose which categories of cookies you would like to accept when you first visit our website.  If you decide not to accept cookies, some parts of our Services may not work as designed and other parts may not work at all.

How Irth uses cookies

Irth uses cookies on its website in a few different ways.  Some of our cookies are “session cookies”.  That means the cookie lasts only until you close your browser.  Other times, we use “persistent cookies”.  Persistent cookies are stored on your browser until you or your browser deletes them.  Some of our cookies are third party cookies.  That means we ask a third party to place cookies on our platforms to help us operate Irth.

Here are the reasons that we and our third party service providers use cookies:

Preference cookies.  These cookies help remember your preferences when using our website Services.  For example, we may use cookies to remember that you have decided not to receive notifications from us on your phone.

Performance cookies.  These cookies tell us information about who is using our Services, which parts of our Services they are using, and how frequently.  For example, we might use one of these types of cookies to let us know that you signed up for an Irth account after clicking on one of our advertisements.