Privacy Policy

Masters Spine Center, LLC, doing business as Masters Spine Institute ("we," "us," or "our") operates this website. This Privacy Policy explains what we collect through mastersofspine.com (the "Site"), why we collect it, and the choices you have.

This policy covers information collected through the Site. It is not a substitute for our Notice of Privacy Practices, which governs protected health information created or received in the course of your treatment. Once you become a patient, your medical records are governed by that Notice.

If you are a Washington resident, or your health data is collected while you are in Washington, please also read our Consumer Health Data Privacy Notice, which is linked separately in the footer of every page.

In plain terms

We are a surgical practice, not an advertising business. We do not sell your information. We do not send your health information to advertising platforms. Everything below is the detail behind those three sentences.

Information you give us

Candidacy questionnaire. If you complete the questionnaire, we collect your name, contact details, the state you live in, and your answers about your symptoms, their duration, prior imaging, and prior treatment. We use this for one purpose: to determine whether you are a reasonable candidate for cervical disc replacement and to respond to you. A member of our clinical team reviews it.

Imaging you upload. If we invite you to send an MRI or other study, you upload it through a private, private and expire link. Those files go to encrypted storage that only clinical staff can open. We use them to assess your case and for no other purpose.

Messages. If you use the chat on the Site, request a call, or email us, we keep that correspondence so we can answer you and so our team has continuity.

Appointment requests. If you request a consultation, we collect the details needed to schedule and confirm it.

Information collected automatically

When you visit the Site we receive standard technical information: IP address, browser and device type, pages viewed, referring page, and timestamps. We use this to keep the Site working, to keep it secure, and to understand which pages people find useful.

Cookies and analytics

The Site uses cookies that are necessary for it to function. These cannot be switched off.

We also use measurement tools to understand how people find us and which pages lead to a consultation request. These are off until you consent, and you can decline. If you decline, the Site works exactly the same.

Three commitments on measurement, which we have built into the Site rather than merely promised:

1. No advertising or analytics platform ever receives your name, email, phone number, or any answer you gave us about your health.
2. No advertising or analytics tag runs on the pages where you answer health questions or upload imaging.
3. Measurement stays off entirely until you affirmatively consent.

We do not permit third parties to collect information across the Site for their own advertising purposes.

Artificial intelligence on the Site

The Site includes an assistant that answers questions about cervical disc replacement and helps you find relevant articles and videos.

How it works, precisely. The assistant is given general educational material about the procedure and our practice. It is not given your name, your contact details, the state you live in, or your questionnaire answers. When our team needs help summarizing a case internally, the summary sent for processing is stripped of identifying details first.

The assistant provides general information. It does not diagnose, does not tell you whether you are a candidate, and does not replace a conversation with a physician.

How we use information

• To evaluate whether you may be a candidate and to respond to you
• To schedule and confirm consultations
• To answer your messages
• To operate, secure, and improve the Site
• To measure which marketing channels bring patients to us, using non-identifying data only
• To meet legal, regulatory, and professional obligations

We do not use your health information to target advertising to you.

How we share information

We share information only in these situations:

Service providers. Companies that host the Site, store files, deliver email, and provide the AI assistant. Each is bound by contract to protect the information and to use it only to provide the service to us. Where the information is protected health information, the provider signs a business associate agreement.

Your direction. If you ask us to send records to another physician, we do so.

Legal requirement. If the law, a subpoena, or a court order requires it, or to protect someone's safety.

Business transfer. If the practice is acquired or reorganized, information may transfer as part of that transaction, subject to this policy.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

How we protect information

Information is encrypted in transit and at rest. Imaging and clinical records are restricted to staff whose role requires access, enforced at the database level rather than by policy alone. Staff accounts require individual credentials, and access is logged. Imaging upload links are private and expire and expire.

No system is perfect, and we do not claim otherwise. We do commit to telling you promptly if something happens that affects your information, as the law requires.

How long we keep information

Questionnaire submissions from people who do not become patients are retained while we are in contact and then for a limited period afterward, and are then deleted. Incomplete submissions that are abandoned are deleted automatically. Patient records are retained for the period required by Utah law and professional standards. Site technical logs are kept for a short period for security purposes.

Your choices and rights

You may:

• Ask what information we hold about you
• Ask us to correct it
• Ask us to delete it, subject to our obligation to retain medical records
• Withdraw consent to measurement at any time
• Ask us to stop contacting you

To do any of these, contact us using the details below. We will respond within the time the law allows. We will not treat you differently for exercising a right.

If you are a patient, your rights in your medical record come from HIPAA and Utah law and are described in our Notice of Privacy Practices, which offers more than this policy does.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under your state's privacy law. We honor those rights for residents of every state that grants them, without requiring you to prove residency beyond what is reasonable to verify your identity.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

We honor the Global Privacy Control signal. If your browser sends it, we treat it as a withdrawal of consent to measurement.

Children

The Site is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18 through the Site. If you believe a minor has submitted information, contact us and we will delete it.

Out-of-state and international patients

We treat patients who travel to Park City, Utah for care. If you contact us from outside Utah, your information is processed in the United States. If you contact us from outside the United States, understand that United States law will govern that information.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will say so plainly on the Site rather than relying on you to notice a new date.

Contact us

To request our Notice of Privacy Practices, or to raise a concern about how your information was handled, use the contact details above. If you believe your health information privacy rights have been violated, you may also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights.