Privacy Policy

1.                  Collected Information.

This Privacy Policy describes how HowToBeASurrogateMother.com (“HowToBeASurrogateMother.com,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, protects, and shares information from users of HowToBeASurrogateMother.com’s websites, applications, software, email newsletters, subscriptions, social media, or any of HowToBeASurrogateMother.com’s digital properties (the “Services”).  By using the Services, you consent to our collection, use, disclosure, and retention of your information as described in this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use, which is incorporated herein.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY PART OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY OR THE TERMS OF USE THEN YOU MAY NOT USE ANY OF THE SERVICES.

2.                  Online Privacy Policy Only.

This Privacy Policy applies only to information collected through the Services and not to information collected offline or via email, mail, fax, telephone, or in any other way.

3.                  What information do we collect?

HowToBeASurrogateMother.com may collect certain information about you when you use the Services.  Depending on how you interact with the Services, the information collected may vary, and may include:

• Personal information, such as your name, email address, mailing address, age, and phone number;
• Account information, such as your username or password (or anything else that identifies you) used to access or use the Services;
• Information collected through automated methods, such as, without limitation, geolocation and wifi data, cookies, beacons (“pixels”), or Flash cookies, which identify an individual computer’s browser or other information about a website user when entering a website or using the Services. Cookies compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction and allow the site to track that browser’s movement through the site over several sessions.  Usage of a cookies is in no way linked to any personal information on the Services; and
• Any and all other information that you choose to provide when you interact with or use the Services.

4.                  HowToBeASurrogateMother.com Forum.

Any personal information you reveal or post on our public forums may be collected, shared, and used by us, by other users, and by third parties, for purposes including contacting you.  Information you give out or post on our public forums is disclosed at your own risk.

5.                  Limited Disclosure of Information.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties for monetary or financial consideration, nor have we done so in the preceding 12 months.

We may disclose personal information to third parties in order to perform services requested or functions initiated by you.  In addition, we may disclose personal information in order to identify you in connection with communications sent through the Services and for analytics and marketing purposes.

We also may share information, including personal information, that we collect as needed to enforce our rights; protect our property; protect the rights, property, or safety of others; or as needed to support external auditing, compliance, and corporate governance functions.  We will disclose personal information as we deem necessary to respond to a subpoena, regulation, binding agency order, legal process, governmental request, or other legal or regulatory process.  We may also share personal information as required to pursue available remedies or limit damages we may sustain.

We may also disclose your personal information for various administrative purposes, as allowed by law.

We may transfer information, including your personal information, in connection with a merger, sale, acquisition, or other change of ownership or control by or of us or any affiliated company (in each case whether in whole or in part).

We may release your information, including your personal information, if it is necessary to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others’ rights, property, or safety.  We may provide aggregate data and information to third parties to describe how our customers are using the Services.  We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc., which collects information on users’ activity while using the Services, including how often you access the Services, what pages you access, cookies and other information collected through automated methods such as the URL page that you are visiting, the name of the app you are using (if applicable), and your IP address.  We use the information provided by Google Analytics to improve our Services.

Except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy, as required by law, or pursuant to your consent, we do not transfer to outside parties your personal information.  We sometimes retain the services of third parties to perform functions or services on our behalf, including website visitation and data aggregation; third-party earned and paid media and related promotional services; hosting; data analysis; responding to specific requests; and to send notices, offers, and solicitations that may take the form of U.S. mail, telephone calls, email, and other methods of contact.

6.                  Use of Information.

Any of the information we collect from you may be used for various purposes, including in one or more of the following ways:

• Register new users of the Services;
• Facilitate and process requests made through the Services;
• Operate and improve the Services;
• Provide users with offers for services, including offers based on variables such as stated and anticipated interests, personal characteristics, or location;
• Evaluate eligibility of users for certain services;
• Evaluate the types of offers or services that may be of interest to users;
• Provide customer support, including to our Business Partners;
• Communicate and provide additional information that may be of interest to users about HowToBeASurrogateMother.com and our Business Partners, such as HowToBeASurrogateMother.com news, special offers, announcements, and marketing materials;
• Send reminders, technical notices, updates, security alerts, support and administrative messages service bulletins, or marketing messages;
• Provide advertisements through the Services, email messages, text messages, or other methods of communication;
• Administer surveys, contests, or other promotional activities or events sponsored by us or our Business Partners;
• Manage our everyday business needs such as Website administration, forum management, fulfillment, analytics, fraud prevention, enforcement of our corporate reporting obligations, and Terms of Use;
• Comply with applicable law such as to prevent fraud or monitor against theft, comply with legal obligations and HowToBeASurrogateMother.com policies, establish, exercise, or defend against legal claims, and monitor and report compliance issues; and
• Perform other commercial activities as needed or described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Use.

7.                  Protection of Information.

We safeguard your personal information using appropriate administrative, physical, and technical measures typical of those used in our industry.  However, neither we nor anyone else can guarantee the security of information, whether on or off the internet.  To the greatest extent allowed by law, we are not responsible for any security incident involving your data, including the unauthorized actions of our employees, service providers, or unaffiliated persons.  You are responsible for maintaining the security of any password, user ID, or other form of authentication involved in obtaining access to password-protected or secure areas of the Services.  In order to protect you and your data, we may suspend your use of any of the Services, without notice, pending an investigation, if any breach of security is suspected.  Access to and use of password-protected or secure areas of the Services are restricted to authorized users only.  Unauthorized access to such areas is prohibited and may lead to criminal prosecution.

No security system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that the personal information you provide will not be disclosed or intercepted.

8.                  Ads and Third-Party Links.

The Services may include or offer third-party products or services (“Third-Party Services”).  These third parties have separate and independent privacy policies.  We have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of any linked third-party websites.  Ads appearing on our Website may be delivered to users by third parties, who may set cookies.  This Privacy Policy covers information collected by HowToBeASurrogateMother.com and does not cover information collected by any third parties.

A link to any Third-Party Service does not mean that HowToBeASurrogateMother.com endorses it or the quality or accuracy of information presented on it.  If you decide to visit a Third-Party Service, you are subject to its privacy policy and practices and not this Privacy Policy.  We encourage you to carefully review the legal and privacy notices of all digital services that you visit.

9.                  Notice to Residents of Countries Outside the United States of America.

HowToBeASurrogateMother.com is headquartered in the state of Kansas in the United States of America.  Any information we collect may be accessed by us or transferred to us in the United States or to our affiliates, Business Partners, or service providers elsewhere in the world.  By utilizing the Website, you consent to this transfer.  We will protect the privacy and security of Personal Information according to our Privacy Policy, regardless of where it is processed or stored.

10.              Children.

Consistent with the requirements of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, we do not knowingly solicit or collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 without parental consent, unless permitted by law.  If we learn that we have received information directly from a child without parental consent, we will delete information provided by the child in accordance with applicable law and HowToBeASurrogateMother.com’s Terms of Use.

11.              “Do Not Track” signals.

At this time, there is no consistent industry standard concerning what websites should do in response to “Do Not Track” signals.  Thus, we do not currently take any action in response.

12.              California Residents.

If you are a California resident, you can request a notice, free of charge, disclosing the following information collected by HowToBeASurrogateMother.com:

• The categories of personal information HowToBeASurrogateMother.com collects, uses, discloses, and sells about you;
• The categories of sources from and specific pieces of personal information that HowToBeASurrogateMother.com collects and retains about you. This does not include information that is collected for a single, one-time transaction that is not retained by HowToBeASurrogateMother.com or information that is not maintained in a manner that would be considered personal information.
• The categories of your personal information that HowToBeASurrogateMother.com discloses to third parties for a business purpose.

You also have a right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information and a right to request that HowToBeASurrogateMother.com delete personal information collected from you.  Except as otherwise provided by law, HowToBeASurrogateMother.com will delete any of your personal information, and will direct any of its service providers to delete any such information upon your request.

You may submit requests pursuant to California law by dialing (913) 253-8355 or clicking on this link privacy.terms@howtobeasurrogatemother.com.  An authorized agent may make such a request on a consumer’s behalf by dialing (913) 253-8355 or clicking on this link privacy.terms@howtobeasurrogatemother.com.

HowToBeASurrogateMother.com will provide information or comply with your request only upon receipt of a verifiable consumer request.  HowToBeASurrogateMother.com may require that you provide certain information, such as your name, account information, or other information to verify your request.  HowToBeASurrogateMother.com will not provide personal information to a consumer more than twice in a 12-month period.  The disclosure will cover the 12-month period preceding HowToBeASurrogateMother.com’s receipt of the verifiable consumer request.

HowToBeASurrogateMother.com collects the following categories of information via the Services:

• Category of Source: Surrogate Contact
  • Categories of Commercial or Business Purpose:
    • Maintaining or Servicing Accounts
    • Providing Services
    • Providing Advertising Services
    • Provide information to potential surrogates and users of the Services
  • Categories of Information Collected:
    • Identifiers such as name, phone number, email address, address information
    • Customer records information
    • Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law such as ethnicity, age, religion
    • Biometric information such as height, weight
    • Professional or employment related information
    • Education information
    • Criminal and medical history
    • Government medical and economic assistance status and history
• Category of Source: Intended Parent Contact
  • Categories of Commercial or Business Purpose:
    • Maintaining or Servicing Accounts
    • Providing Services
    • Providing Advertising Services
    • Provide information to users to decide if our programs are right for you
  • Categories of Information Collected:
    • Identifiers such as name, phone number, email address, address information
    • Customer records information
    • Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law such as ethnicity, age, religion
    • Biometric information such as height, weight
    • Professional or employment related information
    • Education information
• Category of Source: Account log in page
  • Categories of Commercial or Business Purpose:
    • Maintaining or Servicing Accounts
    • Providing Services
  • Categories of Information Collected:
    • Username
    • Password
• Category of Source: Password Reset Request
  • Category of Commercial or Business Purpose:
    • Maintaining or Servicing Accounts
  • Categories of Information Collected:
    • Username
    • Email address
• Category of Source: Google Analytics, Google Ads
  • Categories of Commercial or Business Purpose:
    • Analytics services and marketing
  • Categories of Information Disclosed:
    • Internet or other electronic network activity information
    • Geolocation data
    • Inferences
    • Identifiers such as number of users and sessions
    • Customer records information
    • Commercial information
    • Session duration
    • Operating systems
    • Device models
    • Number of times pages were viewed
    • How long on average users stayed on web pages
    • Search query performed

HowToBeASurrogateMother.com collects the following information by other methods:

• Category of Source: Surrogate’s Social/Medical History
  • Categories of Commercial or Business Purpose:
    • Providing Services
  • Categories of Information Collected:
    • Identifiers such as name, phone number, email address, address information, social security number, place of birth
    • Customer records information
    • Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law such as race, ethnicity, age, religion, date of birth
    • Biometric information such as height, weight, dietary information, personality information
    • Professional or employment related information
    • Education information
    • Geographic information such as travel outside United States within last year
    • Native American Heritage Information
    • Criminal history
    • Medical information and pregnancy history
    • Medication and drug history
• Category of Source: Surrogacy Planning Questionnaire (SPQ)
  • Categories of Commercial or Business Purpose:
    • Providing Services
  • Categories of Information Collected:
    • Identifiers such as name, address, phone number, email address
    • Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law such as citizenship, race, religion
    • Professional or employment related information
    • Education information
    • Current child information: name, date of birth, gender, adoption status, Assisted Reproduction Technology use and information, surrogate information
    • Medical information
    • Attorney name and contact information
    • Biometric information

HowToBeASurrogateMother.com discloses the following categories of information:

• Third Parties: Google Analytics, Google Ads
  • Categories of Commercial or Business Purpose:
    • Analytics services and marketing
  • Categories of Information Disclosed:
    • Internet or other electronic network activity information
    • Geolocation data
    • Inferences
    • Identifiers such as number of users and sessions
    • Customer records information
    • Commercial information
    • Session duration
    • Operating systems
    • Device models
    • Number of times pages were viewed
    • How long on average users stayed on web pages
    • Search query performed
• Third Party: Mouseflow
  • Categories of Commercial or Business Purpose:
    • Analytics services and marketing
  • Categories of Information Disclosed:
    • Internet or other electronic network activity information for a user’s session
    • Geolocation data
    • Session duration
    • URLs of pages visited in a session
    • Operating systems
    • Device models
    • Web browsers
    • Scroll behavior
    • Links and page elements clicked
• Third Party: Zuko
  • Categories of Commercial or Business Purpose:
    • Analytics services
  • Categories of Information Disclosed:
    • Web form analytics
      • Number of completions and abandonments for form fields
      • Time it takes to complete each form field
• Third Party: American Family Media
  • Categories of Commercial or Business Purpose:
    • Marketing
  • Categories of Information Disclosed:
    • All collected information
• Third Parties: HowToBeASurrogateMother.com may share your information with surrogacy, legal, healthcare, and other professionals involved with the surrogacy process with your consent.
  • Categories of Commercial or Business Purpose:
    • To provide surrogacy services
  • Categories of Information Disclosed:
    • All categories of collected information

Except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy, HowToBeASurrogateMother.com does not disclose your personal information for any business purpose nor has it done so in the preceding 12 months.  HowToBeASurrogateMother.com does not have actual knowledge that it sells the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.

HowToBeASurrogateMother.com will not discriminate against a consumer because the consumer exercised any rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, including but not limited to: denying goods or services to the consumer, charging different prices or rates for goods or services, providing a different level or quality of goods or services to the consumer, or suggesting that the consumer will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

13.              Nevada Residents.

As stated in this Privacy Policy, HowToBeASurrogateMother.com does not sell your personal information.   Nevertheless, Nevada residents may send a request to opt out of the sale of personal information to the address under the “Contacting Us” section, below or by calling this number: 913-253-8355.  HowToBeASurrogateMother.com may ask you to verify your identity after receiving such a request.

14.              Terms and Conditions.

Please also visit our “Terms of Use” establishing the terms and conditions of your agreement in order to use the Services as well as disclaimers, mandatory arbitration, class waiver, and limitations of liability governing the use of our website.  The Terms of Use are incorporated into this Privacy Policy.

15.              Your Consent.

By using our site, you consent to this Privacy Policy and HowToBeASurrogateMother.com’s Terms of Use.

16.              Changes to Our Privacy Policy.

HowToBeASurrogateMother.com may change its Privacy Policy from time to time and in HowToBeASurrogateMother.com’ sole discretion.  We encourage visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to our Privacy Policy.  If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will post those changes on this page.  Any changes to our Privacy Policy will be effective upon the revised Privacy Policy being publicly available for viewing at the Services; the date the Privacy Policy was last revised is posted at the end of this Privacy Policy.

17.              Contacting Us.

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments about the Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy, or the practices of this Website, you can contact us at: privacy.terms@howtobeasurrogatemother.com or by phone at (913) 253-8355.

You may also contact us by mail at:

7500 W. 110th Street

Suite 510

Overland Park, KS 66210

Revised: November 30, 2020