Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice for Agents USA, LLC ("we," "us," or "our") describes how and why we might access, collect, store, use, and/or share ("process") your information when you use PeptideJournal at peptidejournal.org (the "Site").

PeptideJournal is a free, ad-supported educational publication. It does not offer user accounts, does not sell products, and does not ask you to submit personal information in order to read anything on it. As a result, the information we handle is limited almost entirely to the technical and usage data that any website receives automatically, plus the data collected by our analytics and advertising providers.

Questions or concerns? Reading this Privacy Notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use the Site. If you still have questions, contact us at support@zavus.ai.

Summary of key points

• We do not ask you for personal information. There is no sign-up, no login, no newsletter form, and no checkout. The only personal information you give us directly is whatever you choose to include if you email us.
• We do collect technical information automatically, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, referring URLs, and which pages you view.
• We use cookies and similar technologies for analytics and advertising. Google Analytics and Mediavine set cookies and identifiers on this Site, and our advertising partners may use them to show you personalized ads. See Cookies, analytics, and advertising for how to opt out.
• We do not knowingly collect sensitive personal information, and we do not ask you about your health. Please note, however, that the pages you read on a health-related site can imply health interests, and that advertising cookies may be used to infer interests from your browsing. See A note on health-related content.
• We do not sell your personal information for money. Our use of advertising and analytics cookies may nevertheless be treated as a "sale" or "sharing" under some US state privacy laws, and you can opt out.

1. What information do we collect?

Information you provide to us

In short: only if you email us.

The Site has no registration, no accounts, no newsletter signup, no comments, and no payment processing. We do not collect names, email addresses, postal addresses, or payment data through the Site. If you contact us by email, we receive your email address and whatever you choose to write to us, and we use it only to respond to you.

Information collected automatically

In short: some information — such as your IP address and browser or device characteristics — is collected automatically when you visit the Site.

This information does not directly reveal your identity, but may include:

• Log and usage data. Service-related, diagnostic, usage, and performance information recorded automatically, which may include your IP address, browser type and settings, referring and exit pages, date and time stamps, pages and articles viewed, searches, scroll depth, and error reports.
• Device data. Information about the computer, phone, or tablet you use to access the Site, such as IP address (or proxy server), device and browser identifiers, hardware model, operating system, language preferences, screen size, and internet service provider or mobile carrier.
• Approximate location data. A coarse location — typically country, region, or city — derived by our analytics and advertising providers from your IP address. We do not collect precise GPS location, and the Site never requests access to your device location.

2. How do we process your information?

In short: to operate and improve the Site, to serve advertising that funds it, and to comply with law.

• To deliver and maintain the Site, including serving pages, images, and assets, and keeping the Site secure and functioning.
• To understand how the Site is used, in aggregate — which articles are read, how readers arrive, and where content should be improved or updated.
• To display advertising. PeptideJournal is supported by advertising. Our advertising partners may use cookies and identifiers to select and measure the ads you see, including personalized ads where permitted.
• To diagnose problems and prevent abuse, such as investigating errors, bot traffic, scraping, and other misuse.
• To respond to you if you contact us.
• To comply with legal obligations and to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

3. When and with whom do we share your information?

In short: with the service providers that host, measure, and monetize the Site.

We do not sell your personal information for money, and we do not share it with data brokers. We share information with third-party vendors and service providers who perform services for us or on our behalf. The categories of third parties involved are:

• Website hosting and content delivery providers
• Data analytics services (Google Analytics)
• Ad networks and advertising technology providers (Mediavine and its demand partners)
• Performance monitoring and error-reporting tools

We may also disclose information in the following situations:

• Legal compliance. Where required to do so by law, or where we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to comply with legal process, protect our rights, investigate potential violations, or protect the safety of any person.
• Business transfers. In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business.
• Affiliates. PeptideJournal is operated by Agents USA, LLC, which also operates other properties including Zavus (zavus.ai). We may share information with our affiliates, who are required to honor this Privacy Notice.

4. Cookies, analytics, and advertising

In short: we use cookies and similar technologies to measure traffic and to serve ads, and you can opt out of the advertising ones.

We and our providers use cookies and similar tracking technologies (including web beacons, pixels, and local storage) to gather information when you interact with the Site. Some are necessary for basic functionality, such as remembering your light or dark theme preference. Others support analytics and advertising.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how readers find and use the Site. Google Analytics sets cookies and collects information such as your IP address (which Google truncates or otherwise anonymizes before storage), pages viewed, session duration, and approximate location. We use this data only in aggregate. You can prevent Google Analytics from collecting your data by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. Google's handling of this data is described in How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Advertising

PeptideJournal is funded by advertising. All advertising on the Site is served through Mediavine, which manages our ad inventory on our behalf. Mediavine works with a range of demand partners and advertising exchanges, including Google, and those partners may set their own cookies and identifiers. These vendors use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this Site or other websites.

• You can read how Mediavine handles data in the Mediavine Privacy Policy.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this Site and/or other sites on the internet.
• You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
• You may opt out of personalized advertising from many other participating vendors at aboutads.info (Digital Advertising Alliance), optout.networkadvertising.org (Network Advertising Initiative), or youronlinechoices.eu (Europe).
• Third-party ad networks other than Google may also place cookies on this Site. We do not control those cookies, and their use is governed by the relevant vendor's own privacy policy.

Managing cookies in your browser

Most web browsers accept cookies by default. You can usually set your browser to remove or reject cookies, or to notify you when one is set. Doing so may affect certain features of the Site. Browser settings are device- and browser-specific, so you will need to repeat the change on each browser you use.

To the extent these tracking technologies are deemed to be a "sale" or "sharing" (which includes targeted advertising, as defined under applicable laws) under US state privacy laws, you can opt out using the mechanisms described above, by enabling Global Privacy Control in a supporting browser, or by contacting us at support@zavus.ai.

5. A note on health-related content

In short: we do not ask about your health, but reading a health site can itself be revealing.

PeptideJournal publishes educational material about peptides, clinical research, and related health topics. We do not ask you about your health, we do not collect health records, and we do not knowingly collect information that is treated as "sensitive personal information" under applicable privacy laws.

You should be aware, however, that the specific articles you read on any health-related website can imply an interest in a health topic, and that advertising and analytics cookies record page-level browsing. If this concerns you, you can read the Site with cookies blocked, use a private browsing window, or use the advertising opt-outs listed above. None of the Site's content requires cookies to read.

Nothing on PeptideJournal is medical advice, and reading it does not create a patient relationship of any kind. See our About page for our editorial standards and full disclaimer.

6. How long do we keep your information?

In short: only as long as necessary for the purposes described here.

Analytics data is retained according to the retention period configured in Google Analytics, after which it is deleted or aggregated by Google. Server and security logs are retained for a short period for diagnostic and abuse-prevention purposes. Email correspondence is retained for as long as needed to handle your inquiry and to keep a record of it. Advertising cookies expire according to the schedule set by the relevant ad provider.

7. How do we keep your information safe?

In short: we use reasonable technical and organizational safeguards, but no system is perfectly secure.

The Site is served over HTTPS, and we have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the information we process. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly access or modify information.

8. Do we collect information from minors?

In short: no, and the Site is intended for adults.

The Site is intended for an adult audience. We do not knowingly collect, solicit data from, or market to children under 13 years of age, and we do not knowingly sell such information. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take reasonable measures to promptly delete it from our records. If you believe we may have collected information from a child under 13, please contact us at support@zavus.ai.

9. What are your privacy rights?

In short: depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, or delete information about you, and to opt out of targeted advertising.

Because we do not maintain accounts and do not collect names or contact details through the Site, in most cases we hold no information that can identify you personally. The most direct way to exercise control over what is collected is to use the cookie and advertising opt-outs described in section 4. You may also contact us at support@zavus.ai with any privacy request, and we will act on it in accordance with applicable law.

Withdrawing consent. Where we rely on your consent to process information, you may withdraw it at any time by adjusting your cookie settings or by contacting us. This will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

10. Controls for Do-Not-Track features

Most browsers and some mobile operating systems include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature you can activate to signal your preference not to have your online browsing activity monitored. No uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized, and we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals. California law requires us to disclose this. If a standard is adopted that we must follow, we will describe that practice in a revised version of this Privacy Notice.

The Site does not currently detect Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals automatically. If you wish to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information as those terms are defined under US state privacy laws, please use the advertising opt-outs in section 4 or email us at support@zavus.ai.

11. Do United States residents have specific privacy rights?

In short: yes, if you live in a state with a comprehensive privacy law.

If you are a resident of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, or Virginia, you may have the right to request access to and details about the personal information we maintain about you, to correct inaccuracies, to obtain a copy of it, or to have it deleted. These rights may be limited in some circumstances by applicable law.

Categories of personal information we collect

The table below shows the categories of personal information we have collected in the past twelve (12) months.

We may also collect other personal information outside of these categories if you contact us directly by email.

Sale, sharing, and targeted advertising

We have not sold personal information for monetary consideration in the preceding twelve (12) months. We have disclosed Category A (identifiers), Category F (internet activity), and Category G (approximate geolocation) information to ad networks, advertising technology providers, and analytics providers. Under California, Colorado, Connecticut, and similar state laws, this disclosure for advertising purposes may be treated as "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising or as a "sale." You can opt out at any time using the mechanisms described in section 4.

We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.

Your rights

Your rights under US state privacy laws are not absolute, and in certain cases we may decline a request as permitted by law. These rights include:

• The right to know whether we are processing your personal data
• The right to access your personal data
• The right to correct inaccuracies in your personal data
• The right to request deletion of your personal data
• The right to obtain a copy of the personal data you previously shared with us
• The right to non-discrimination for exercising your rights
• The right to opt out of processing your personal data for targeted advertising, the sale of personal data, or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects
• Depending on your state, the right to obtain a list of the categories of third parties or the specific third parties to which we have disclosed personal data
• Depending on your state, the right to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal data

How to exercise your rights

Email us at support@zavus.ai with the subject line "Privacy Request." You can opt out of targeted advertising directly by using the opt-out links in section 4 or by disabling cookies in your browser.

Request verification. Because we do not maintain accounts, we generally cannot connect a request to a specific individual in our records. If you make a request, we may ask for additional information to verify your identity, and we will use that information only for verification and fraud prevention.

Authorized agents. Under certain US state laws, you may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. We may deny a request from an agent who does not provide proof of valid authorization.

Appeals. If we decline to act on your request, you may appeal by emailing support@zavus.ai with the subject line "Privacy Appeal." We will inform you in writing of any action taken or not taken, including our reasons. If your appeal is denied, you may submit a complaint to your state attorney general.

California "Shine the Light" law. California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request information about categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. We do not disclose personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, contact us at support@zavus.ai.

12. International visitors

The Site is operated from the United States and is intended for a United States audience. If you access the Site from outside the United States, please be aware that information collected through the Site may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States and other countries where our service providers operate, which may have data protection rules that differ from those in your country. If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with comparable privacy legislation, you may have additional rights regarding your personal data, including rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection. Contact us at support@zavus.ai to exercise them.

13. Do we make updates to this notice?

In short: yes, as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by a revised "Last updated" date at the top of this page. If we make material changes, we may notify you by prominently posting a notice of the change. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice periodically.

14. How can you contact us about this notice?

If you have questions or comments about this notice, or if you wish to review, update, or delete information we hold about you, email us at support@zavus.ai or write to us at:

Agents USA, LLC
8080 Westpark Dr
STE 42806
Houston, TX 77063
United States