Last Updated: December 25, 2019, effective January 1, 2020
This Privacy Statement describes how we process the information we collect about you when you use the Services. We define “Services” below, but it generally means the products and services that we offer to you.
Please carefully review this Privacy Statement and let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We encourage you to contact us, at any time, using the contact information in Section 15 below.
Depending on how you use the Services, we may ask you to sign an informed consent form that describes certain aspects of the Services and asks for your consent to process your information as part of those Services. To the extent that there is a conflict between this Privacy Statement and an informed consent form that you have signed, the informed consent form will control.
“Aggregate Information” is information about multiple individuals that we have combined so that no specific individual may be identified. Aggregate Information is not Personal Information because it cannot be used to identify you. For example, Aggregate Information may include a statement that “30% of our female users share a particular genetic trait,” without providing any data or testing results specific to any individual user.
“AWAKENS” means Awakens, Inc. We will refer to AWAKENS as “we”, “us” and “our” throughout this Statement.
“Cookie” is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web server. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. To learn more about Cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
“Data Collection Technologies” refer to Cookies, pixel tags, web beacons, and other technologies that we or third parties use on our websites and other digital services to collect information about your use of these services.
“Designated European Countries” means countries the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.
“DNA” stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, which is the molecule that contains your genetic information. Your DNA is what makes you uniquely you.
“Personal Information” is information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with you or your household.
“Raw Data” means information about your genotypes that is generated through the processing of your saliva or blood by us or by Third Party DNA Services. Your Raw Data contains the “letters” (nucleotides A, C, G, T) that comprise DNA.
“Sensitive Information” is a subcategory of Personal Information that includes your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic information, biometric information, and information concerning your health, sex life, or sexual orientation.
“Service” means the GenomelinkTM service, associated websites (http://genomelink.io and http://www.awakens.co) and mobile applications, and other ancillary or related services we offer from time to time.
“Third Party DNA Services” means companies and organizations not related to or operated by us that you may use to obtain DNA testing and results.
“Traits” means the characteristics or attributes that may be influenced by your DNA. Your Traits may include your preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, preferences, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes. The traits we analyze as part of the Service are personal - not medical - in nature.
Depending on how you interact with or use the Service, we may collect the following categories of Personal Information about you:
We may collect your Personal Information directly from you, such as when you register for a Genomelink account, submit your saliva for testing, complete a family history questionnaire, survey or form, contribute to blogs and forums, or contact us with a question.
We may also collect your Personal Information from third party sources, such as Third Party DNA Services, social media platform providers, or your friends and family who refer our Service to you. The Personal Information we collect from these third parties sources typically depends on the privacy settings or permissions that you have communicated with these third parties or otherwise set on their platforms.
Finally, we may collect certain Personal Information automatically through the use of Data Collection Technologies. Please see Section 6 for more details about our use of Cookies and other Data Collection Technologies.
Non-Personal Information. We may also collect information that cannot be used to identify you. This non-Personal Information may include Aggregate Information about our users browser types, device types, and pages clicked. We collect this non-Personal Information through server logs and Data Collection Technologies. We may associate this information with the Personal Information that we collect about you -- if we do, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information.
In addition to the purposes for which we collect your Personal Information listed in Section 2 above, we may use your Personal Information for the following purposes:
If we need to collect Personal Information by law or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide us with the information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have, or are trying to enter into, with you. We will inform you of any Personal Information we require from you and the consequences if you fail to provide it.
Special Categories: We only process Special Categories of Personal Information if you give us your explicit consent (such as through our informed consent), the processing is necessary to meet a legal or regulatory obligation, the processing is in connection with the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, or is otherwise expressly permitted by law. Special Categories of Personal Information includes information about your racial or ethnic origin, genetic data (such as Raw Data), and data concerning health, sex life, and sexual orientation.
Other Uses: Any other purposes for which we wish to use your Personal Information that are not listed above, or any other changes we propose to make to the existing purposes will be notified to you by amending this Statement in accordance with the Section 14.
We may share your Personal Information in the following circumstances:
Sharing Aggregate Information. We may share Aggregate Information with third parties or the general public for our marketing or research purposes. For example, we may provide Aggregate Information in commercial arrangements with our business partners so that they may develop new research or products. We may also provide Aggregate Information to advertisers so they may tailor marketing messages or advertisements to our general user demographics. Disclosures for these purposes will never contain your Personal Information.
You can log into your Genomelink account and view or amend the Personal Information associated with your account at any time. Please note that if you amend the Personal Information in your account information, our servers may retain such information as part of our logs and backups.
This Cookie Policy explains what Cookies are, the different types of Cookies, how we use them, and how you can control them.
We use both session and persistent Cookies on our digital Service to improve your online experience. Session Cookies are stored on your device during a single visit to the website, and they are deleted as soon as you close your browser. Persistent Cookies remain on your device until they expire or you choose to delete them from your browser cache, and they are reactivated each time you visit the website that created them. You can find out more about Cookies, learn about what cookies have been set, and how you can manage and delete them at http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
We use Cookies for the following purposes:
Controlling Cookies: You can manage and block cookies by adjusting the settings in your web browser. You can also set your browser to alert you every time a website sets a Cookie. Each browser works differently, so please refer to your browser’s help menu. Unless you have adjusted your browser settings, our system will issue cookies as soon as you visit our digital Service. If you change your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential ones) you may not be able to access some or all parts of our digital Service.
DNT signals: Some web browsers incorporate a “Do Not Track” (“DNT”) or similar feature that signals to websites that a user does not want to have his or her online activity and behavior tracked. Although we do our best to honor your privacy preferences,, we do not respond to DNT signals from your browser at this time due to the lack of an established industry standard.
Online behavioral advertising. We may use Cookies to deliver content and advertisements specific to your interests and online behavior. These advertisements may appear on our digital Service or elsewhere on the Internet. We may also allow third-party advertisers that are presenting advertisements for us to set and access their cookies, pixels, tags, and scripts on your computer. The advertisers' use of cookies and these other technologies is subject to their own privacy policies. For information about online behavioral advertising and a tool that you can use to opt out of such tracking, please visit the Network Advertising Initiative website at http://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising or the Digital Advertising Alliance website at http://www.aboutads.info.
Social Media Plug-Ins. If you use buttons or plug-ins to share online content with your friends via social networks like Twitter and Facebook, these companies may set a Cookie on your computer or other device (laptop, tablet or mobile phone). To find out more about the Cookies that these social media platforms, set, please visit that social media platform’s privacy policy.
We maintain reasonable and appropriate safeguards designed to protect your Personally Information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration or destruction. For example, we limit our collection and use of your Personal Information to the extent necessary to provide you with the Service. However, we cannot guarantee the security of our systems or your Personal Information, and we encourage you to take reasonable precautions to safeguard your Personal Data.
We will keep your Personal Information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including any legal, professional, accounting or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of Personal Information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your Personal Information, the purposes for which we process your Personal Information, whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and all applicable legal requirements.
We are committed to complying with this Statement and the data protection laws, including those outside of the United States, that apply to our collection and use of your Personal Information. We are located in the U.S. and may use facilities in the United States and other countries. When you provide us with your Personal Information or use the Service, we will process and store your Personal Information in the United States and such other countries where we have facilities. We recognize that the laws in the United States and such other countries may be different and, in some cases, not as protective as the laws where you are located. By providing us with your Personal Information or using the Service, you acknowledge that your Personal Information will be transferred to and processed where we operate.
If you are a resident of California, you may be entitled to the following privacy rights:
You may exercise your right to know and your right to deletion twice a year free of charge. To exercise your right to know or your right to deletion, email us at info@genomelink.io and indicate “California Rights” in the subject line.
We will take steps to verify your identity before processing your request to know or request to delete. We will not fulfill your request unless you have provided sufficient information for us to reasonably verify you are the individual about whom we collected Personal Information. If you have an account with us, we will use our existing account authentication practices to verify your identity. If you do not have an account with us, we may request additional information about you to verify your identity. We will only use the Personal Information provided in the verification process to verify your identity or authority to make a request and to track and document request responses, unless you initially provided the information for another purpose.
You may use an authorized agent to submit a request to know or a request to delete. When we verify your agent’s request, we may verify both your and your agent’s identity and request a signed document from you that authorizes your agent to make the request on your behalf. To protect your Personal Information, we reserve the right to deny a request from an agent that does not submit proof that they have been authorized by you to act on their behalf.
Shine the Light – Third Party Marketing. California law permits individual California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of certain categories of Personal Information to third parties for those third parties’ direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us using the information in Section 15. This request may be made no more than once per calendar year, and we reserve our right not to respond to requests submitted other than to the email or mailing addresses specified below.
If you are located in the European Economic Area and we maintain your Personal Information, you have the following additional rights (under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) with regard to your Personal Information:
Please note that if you decide to exercise some of your rights, we may be unable to provide you with certain services, or you may not be able to use or take full advantage of the services we offer. We may charge you a reasonable fee if you request additional copies of your Personal Information or make other requests that are manifestly unfounded or excessive. If we are unable to honor your request, or before we charge a fee, we will let you know why.
Our services are not directed to or intended for use by children. If we learn that we have received Personal Information directly from a child without his or her parent or legal guardian’s verified consent (where required by law), we will use that Personal Information only to respond directly to that child (or his or her parent or legal guardian) to inform the child that he or she cannot use our services. Subsequently, we will delete such Personal Information.
When interacting with us, you may come across links or references to third party websites and services that we do not operate or control. If you provide your Personal Information to that third party through its websites or services, you will be subject to that third party’s privacy practices and policies and terms of use. This Statement does not apply to any Personal Information that you provide to a third party website or service. We recommend that you read the privacy policy that applies to that third party website or service. A link or reference to a third party website or service does not mean that we endorse that third party or the quality or accuracy of the information presented on its website or service.
The last updated and effective date of this Statement is posted at the top of this page. We may update this Statement from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, our industry, or applicable laws. When we make material changes to this Statement, we will give you advance notice by posting an alert through the Service or by sending you an email to the email address we have on file. The amended Statement will apply on a go-forward basis to the Personal Information we already collected about you, as well as any Personal Information we may collect in the future. If you disagree with any changes, please let us know by contacting us using the information in Section 15.
If you have any questions or comments about this Statement or our information practices, please contact us using the following information:
AWAKENS, Inc. (Genomelink)
Attn.: Privacy
2150 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
info@genomelink.io
