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Privacy Policy

Updated and Effective as of September 9, 2026

1. About this policy

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how Aarista LLC and its affiliated entities, including Altea Healthcare (collectively, “Altea Medical,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), collect, use, disclose, and protect information when you visit alteamedical.com (the “Site”) or otherwise interact with us in connection with our primary care services. Altea Medical operates primary care clinics in Bellingham, Washington and Everett, Washington, and this Site is our patient-facing marketing website.

This Policy is designed to comply with the privacy laws of every U.S. state in which we operate or in which our Site is accessible, including the comprehensive consumer privacy statutes of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia, as well as state wiretap and electronic surveillance laws, the Washington My Health My Data Act (“MHMDA”), and federal laws including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), and the CAN-SPAM Act.

This Site is a marketing website, not a place where you receive care. It is designed to help you learn about our clinics, our services, and how to become a patient. The Site does not collect Protected Health Information (“PHI”), and you should not submit health information through it. When you are ready to schedule or manage care, you leave this Site and enter our patient portal, hosted by AdvancedMD on a separate, secure system. The information you provide inside that portal, and any PHI we handle in the course of your care, is governed by HIPAA and by our separate HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices, not by this Policy. We maintain Business Associate Agreements with any vendor that receives PHI on our behalf, including AdvancedMD.

This Policy applies only to information collected through alteamedical.com. It does not apply to information collected through alteahc.com (the site for our facility and provider partners), which is governed by a separate privacy notice, or to PHI governed by HIPAA and our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices.

2. Information we collect

We collect only the information you voluntarily provide to us through forms on the Site, and limited technical information necessary to operate the Site securely. We do not collect health information through this Site.

2.1 Information you provide

When you contact us by email or telephone using the details on our Contact page, we collect the information you choose to provide, which may include your name, email address, telephone number, preferred clinic location, and the substance of your message. Please share only what is needed to route your inquiry, and do not include details about medical conditions, symptoms, diagnoses, or treatment. If you wish to discuss your health, please contact the clinic directly or use the secure patient portal.

2.2 Limited technical information

When you visit the Site, our web server automatically logs your Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type, the date and time of your visit, and the pages you access. We use this information solely to operate the Site, prevent abuse, and diagnose technical issues. We do not associate this information with your identity unless you submit a form.

2.3 Cookies

We use essential cookies necessary for the Site to function and for our cookie-consent banner (provided by WPConsent) to record your preferences. With your consent, we also use analytics cookies set by Google Analytics 4, advertising cookies associated with Google Ads, and, on our general marketing pages only, advertising cookies associated with the Meta Pixel, as described in Sections 2.4, 2.5 and 2.6 below.

2.4 Analytics and tag management

We use Google Analytics 4 (“GA4,” property ID G-EF1QDZ834Q) and Google Tag Manager, both services provided by Google LLC, to measure traffic and usage patterns on the Site. With your consent, these services place cookies on your device (such as _ga and related identifiers) and transmit information about your visit to Google’s servers, including your IP address (which is anonymized before storage), pages viewed, time spent on pages, and referring source. We do not provide Google with any personal information you enter into our contact form.

With your consent, we also record three specific actions you may take on the Site, so that we can understand which pages help people reach us: selecting a link to our online scheduling system, selecting a link to our new patient form, and selecting one of our clinic telephone numbers. For each we record the page you were on and which clinic the action related to. We do not record who you are, we do not record anything you type, and we do not send these events to Meta, Google Ads, or any other advertising platform. They are used only for our own website reporting. Because these actions may indicate that you are looking to become a patient, we treat them as consumer health data under the Washington My Health My Data Act and describe them further in our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy.

We use Google’s Consent Mode v2 framework so that, until you affirmatively accept analytics cookies, Google receives only a cookieless, aggregated measurement signal without identifiers. You may opt out of Google Analytics at any time by declining the statistics category in our consent banner, by clicking the cookie-preferences icon in the lower-left corner of any page on the Site, or by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. For more information about how Google processes data, see https://policies.google.com/privacy and https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245.

2.5 Meta Pixel

We advertise our clinics on Facebook and Instagram, and we use the Meta Pixel (provided by Meta Platforms, Inc.) to measure the performance of those advertisements. We apply strict limits to protect your privacy:

  • The Meta Pixel loads on three pages only: our home page, our About page, and our Insights blog index. It does not load anywhere else on this Site. With your consent, it may place advertising cookies and transmit limited information about your visit to Meta.
  • The Meta Pixel does not fire on health-related pages. It is never active on our services page, our clinic-location pages, our contact page, any blog post that discusses a specific medical condition, or any page that leads to the patient portal. This means we do not transmit to Meta any information that could suggest you are seeking care for a particular condition.
  • We use Limited Data Use. We instruct Meta to treat data received from the Site under its Limited Data Use terms with Limited Data Use enabled, which restricts how Meta may use that data and applies automatically in Washington, California, and other states where the restriction is available.
  • We do not place the Meta Pixel until you affirmatively consent through our banner, and we honor universal opt-out signals as described in Section 9.7.

2.6 Google Ads

We advertise our clinics on Google Search. Our advertisements may link to any page on this Site, including our clinic-location pages, because someone searching for a doctor near them should arrive at the page for the nearest clinic.

We do not install Google Ads conversion tracking on this Site. We measure our advertising inside the Google Ads platform itself, principally by counting telephone calls placed directly from an advertisement. With your consent, Google’s tag may set cookies named _gcl_au, _gcl_aw and _gcl_gs recording that your visit followed a click on one of our advertisements. These cookies do not record which services or conditions you viewed.

We do not use Google Ads remarketing, run Display or YouTube advertising, build audiences from visitors to this Site, or upload customer lists to Google.

The page restrictions described in Section 2.5 apply to the Meta Pixel. They do not apply to Google Analytics or to Google’s advertising cookies, which may operate on any page of the Site with your consent.

3. What we do not do

To be clear, and across all U.S. jurisdictions:

  • We do not collect Protected Health Information through this Site, and we do not ask you to submit health information through it.
  • We do not use Google Analytics for advertising, audience targeting, or remarketing, and we do not enable Google signals. We use Google Tag Manager to deploy the measurement and advertising tags described in Sections 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6, and no advertising tag loads until you consent.
  • We do not fire the Meta Pixel on clinical or health-related pages, and we do not send Meta any information that identifies the specific condition, service, or clinic page a visitor viewed.
  • We do not send the interaction events described in Section 2.4 to Meta, Google Ads, or any other advertising platform, and we do not use them to build audiences or target advertising.
  • We do not use product-analytics, session-replay, or heatmap tools such as Mixpanel, Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, FullStory, or similar.
  • We do not sell your personal information for monetary or other valuable consideration.
  • We do not share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising, as those terms are defined under applicable state laws, except to the limited, consent-gated extent described in Sections 2.5 and 2.6.
  • We do not engage in profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you.
  • We do not upload patient lists or any customer list to Meta, Google, or any advertising platform. We do not create Custom Audiences or Lookalike Audiences from patients or from visitors to any page of this Site.
  • We do not knowingly collect information from children under thirteen (13) years of age, and we do not knowingly process the personal data of any individual under the age of sixteen (16) for purposes of targeted advertising or sale.

4. How we use information

We use the personal information you provide solely to:

  • Respond to your inquiry, help you become a patient, or provide the information you have requested;
  • Direct you to the appropriate clinic location and to our secure patient portal for scheduling and care;
  • Communicate with you about a potential or existing relationship with Altea Medical;
  • Maintain records of our communications for legitimate business purposes; and
  • Comply with applicable legal obligations.

We do not use the information you provide through this Site to send unsolicited marketing communications, to build advertising profiles about you, or to train artificial-intelligence systems.

5. How we share information

We disclose personal information only in the following limited circumstances:

  • Service providers and processors. We share information with vendors that host our Site, operate our email and communications systems, and provide website analytics and advertising measurement. These vendors include Google LLC (Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, and Google Ads) and Meta Platforms, Inc. (Meta Pixel, subject to the limits in Section 2.5). All such vendors operate under written contracts or service terms that restrict their use of the information to providing services to us.
  • Patient portal and scheduling. Our online scheduling and patient portal are operated by AdvancedMD on a separate, secure system. AdvancedMD acts as our HIPAA business associate under a Business Associate Agreement. Information you enter in the portal is governed by HIPAA and our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices, not by this Policy.
  • Legal requirements. We may disclose information if we believe in good faith that disclosure is required to comply with a subpoena, court order, or other legal process; to respond to a verified government request; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Altea Medical, our personnel, our patients, or others.
  • Business transfers. If Altea Medical is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to standard confidentiality obligations.

We do not sell personal information. Except for the limited, consent-gated advertising measurement described in Sections 2.5 and 2.6, we do not share personal information with third parties for those third parties’ own marketing purposes or for cross-context behavioral advertising.

6. Data retention

We retain personal information collected through the Site for as long as necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected, to maintain an active or potential relationship, to comply with our legal obligations, and to resolve disputes or enforce our agreements. We retain inquiry-form submissions until you request deletion in accordance with Section 9 of this Policy, at which point we will delete your information within the timeframes required by applicable law, except where we are required or permitted to retain it for legal, regulatory, or security reasons.

Medical and treatment records are not collected through this Site. Those records are maintained inside our patient-record systems and are retained in accordance with Washington State and federal medical-record retention requirements, which generally require retention for ten (10) years or longer. That retention is governed by HIPAA and our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices.

7. Information security

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. No method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is one hundred percent secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Where health information is involved in the course of your care, we maintain safeguards consistent with the HIPAA Security Rule and with Washington’s My Health My Data Act, and we require our business associates to do the same.

8. Your choices and communications preferences

8.1 Cookie choices

When you first visit the Site, our consent banner gives you the option to accept or decline non-essential cookies. We do not place analytics or advertising cookies until you affirmatively consent, and the Meta Pixel is limited to the marketing pages described in Section 2.5. You may revoke or update your cookie preferences at any time by clicking the cookie-preferences button displayed in the lower-left corner of every page on the Site, which reopens the consent settings panel.

8.2 Email communications (CAN-SPAM)

If you receive a marketing email from us and no longer wish to be contacted, you may reply with “Unsubscribe” or use the unsubscribe link contained in the email. We honor unsubscribe requests within ten (10) business days, as required by the CAN-SPAM Act.

8.3 Telephone communications (TCPA)

By providing your telephone number when you contact us, you consent to receive calls and text messages from Altea Medical for the purpose of responding to your inquiry and helping you become or remain a patient. We do not use automated dialing systems or pre-recorded messages for marketing without separate prior express written consent as required by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. You may opt out of further telephone communications at any time by replying “STOP” to a text message or by emailing info@alteahealthcare.com.

9. U.S. state privacy rights

If you are a resident of a U.S. state with a comprehensive consumer privacy law, you have specific rights regarding your personal information. This Section 9 describes the rights that are common across these laws and identifies state-specific provisions where they apply.

9.1 Rights common to all applicable state laws

Subject to certain exceptions and verification requirements, residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia generally have the right to:

  • Right to know or access: request confirmation of whether we process your personal information, and to access the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
  • Right to delete: request that we delete personal information we have collected from you.
  • Right to correct: request that we correct inaccurate personal information we maintain about you (available in all listed states except Utah and Iowa).
  • Right to portability: obtain a copy of your personal information in a portable, readily usable format.
  • Right to opt out of sale: opt out of the sale of personal information. We do not sell personal information.
  • Right to opt out of targeted advertising or cross-context behavioral advertising: opt out of the use of personal information for targeted advertising. Our advertising activity is the consent-gated measurement described in Sections 2.5 and 2.6, and you may opt out of it at any time.
  • Right to opt out of profiling: opt out of profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects. We do not engage in such profiling.
  • Right to limit the use of Sensitive Personal Information: where applicable. We do not collect Sensitive Personal Information through this Site.
  • Right to non-discrimination: we will not deny goods or services, charge different prices, or provide a different level of quality because you exercised your privacy rights.

9.2 How to submit a request

To exercise any right under your state’s privacy law, email us at info@alteahealthcare.com with the subject line “Privacy Rights Request” and identify the state of your residence and the right you wish to exercise. We will verify your identity by matching the information you provide against records we already maintain.

We will respond within forty-five (45) days, or such shorter period as required by your state’s law. We may extend the response period by an additional forty-five (45) days (or, in Utah, ninety (90) days) where reasonably necessary, and we will notify you of any extension. You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf by providing written authorization that we can verify.

9.3 Right to appeal

If we decline to take action on your request, you have the right to appeal our decision in any state whose law provides for such an appeal, including Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. To appeal, reply to our denial within thirty (30) days with the subject line “Privacy Rights Appeal.” We will respond to the appeal within sixty (60) days, or such shorter period as required by your state’s law. If your appeal is denied, you may contact your state’s Attorney General to submit a complaint.

9.4 California-specific provisions

In addition to the rights described in Section 9.1, California residents are entitled to the following disclosures under the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (collectively, the “CCPA”). In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have collected the following categories of personal information from California consumers through the Site:

  • Identifiers: first name, last name, email address, telephone number, IP address.
  • Commercial information: preferred clinic location and the substance of inquiries you submit.
  • Internet or other electronic network activity: information about your visit such as pages viewed, date and time of visit, browser type, and whether you selected a scheduling link, a new patient form link, or a clinic telephone number.

As described in Sections 2.4, 2.5 and 2.6, our use of Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, and, on marketing pages only, the Meta Pixel may result in the collection of additional Internet or other electronic network activity information by Google LLC and Meta Platforms, Inc. on our behalf, subject to your consent.

We have not collected any category of “Sensitive Personal Information” as defined by the CCPA through this Site. We have disclosed personal information to the following categories of recipients for the business purposes described in this Policy in the preceding twelve (12) months: website hosting and security providers, email and communications providers, Google LLC as a service provider for aggregate website analytics, and Meta Platforms, Inc. for consent-gated advertising measurement on marketing pages only. We have not sold personal information in the preceding twelve (12) months. With your consent, we share Internet or other electronic network activity information with Meta Platforms, Inc. and Google LLC for cross-context behavioral advertising, as that term is defined under the CCPA. You may withdraw this at any time using the cookie-preferences control on any page, and we honor the Global Privacy Control signal automatically.

9.5 Washington My Health My Data Act

Because our clinics are located in Washington and we serve Washington residents, we give particular attention to the Washington My Health My Data Act (“MHMDA”). Washington residents, and others whose consumer health data is collected in Washington, have specific rights under the MHMDA with respect to “consumer health data,” which the law defines broadly to include any personal information linked or reasonably linkable to a consumer that identifies past, present, or future physical or mental health status.

This Site is a marketing website. We separate it into pages that discuss care and pages that do not, and the Meta Pixel does not load on the pages that discuss care. We do not ask you to disclose conditions, symptoms, diagnoses, or treatments, and we specifically structure our advertising technology so that no information suggesting you are seeking care for a particular condition is transmitted to any advertising platform. As described in Section 2.5, the Meta Pixel loads only on our home page, our About page, and our Insights blog index. It never loads on our services page, our clinic-location pages, our contact page, any condition-specific blog post, or any page leading to the patient portal. Separately from advertising, and only with your consent, our own analytics records when a visitor selects a scheduling link, a new patient form link, or a clinic telephone number, as described in Section 2.4. We treat those events as consumer health data, we do not disclose them to any advertising platform, and you may withdraw consent at any time using the cookie-preferences control.

If you nevertheless submit information that may constitute consumer health data, we will treat it consistent with the MHMDA, including by limiting collection to what is necessary to respond to your inquiry, obtaining your consent before any collection or sharing that the MHMDA requires consent for, restricting sharing to processors under written contract, and never selling it. Under the MHMDA you have the right to confirm whether we collect, share, or sell your consumer health data, to access it, to withdraw consent, and to have it deleted. To exercise these rights, email info@alteahealthcare.com with the subject line “Washington Health Data Request.” The MHMDA provides Washington consumers a private right of action, and nothing in this Policy limits that right.

9.6 Other state-specific disclosures

  • Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Oregon, Montana, Delaware, New Jersey, Minnesota, Maryland, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire: we honor universal opt-out preference signals (including the Global Privacy Control signal described in Section 9.7) as required by your state’s law.
  • Virginia (VCDPA), Colorado (CPA), Connecticut (CTDPA), Utah (UCPA), Texas (TDPSA), Oregon (OCPA), Montana (MCDPA), Iowa (ICDPA), Delaware (DPDPA), New Hampshire (NHPA), Nebraska (NDPA), New Jersey (NJDPA), Tennessee (TIPA), Minnesota (MCDPA), Maryland (MODPA), Indiana (ICDPA), Kentucky (KCDPA), and Rhode Island (RIDTPPA): the rights described in Section 9.1 apply to residents of these states. State-specific procedures and timelines are observed in accordance with each state’s law.
  • Nevada SB 370 and Connecticut SB 3 (consumer health data amendments): the protections described in Section 9.5 with respect to consumer health data also extend to residents of Nevada and Connecticut to the extent required by those laws.

9.7 Universal opt-out preference signals

Our Site recognizes and honors the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”) browser signal and any other universal opt-out preference signal recognized under applicable state law as a valid request to opt out of the sale and sharing of personal information and the use of personal information for targeted advertising. When the GPC signal is detected on your browser, we treat it as a denial of consent for analytics and advertising cookies, so Google Analytics operates only in cookieless, denied-consent mode and the Meta Pixel does not fire, for the duration of your session, even if you later click Accept.

10. State wiretap and electronic surveillance notice

Several U.S. states require all parties to a communication to consent before the contents of that communication may be intercepted, recorded, or shared with a third party. These laws include but are not limited to the California Invasion of Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code §§ 630 et seq.), the Florida Security of Communications Act (Fla. Stat. §§ 934.01 et seq.), the Massachusetts Wiretap Statute (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272 § 99), the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act (18 Pa. Cons. Stat. §§ 5701 et seq.), the Washington Privacy Act (Wash. Rev. Code §§ 9.73 et seq.), the Maryland Wiretap and Electronic Surveillance Act (Md. Code Ann., Cts. & Jud. Proc. §§ 10-401 et seq.), the Illinois Eavesdropping Statute (720 ILCS 5/14), the Connecticut wiretap statute (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-570d), the Michigan eavesdropping statute (Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.539a et seq.), the New Hampshire wiretap statute (N.H. Rev. Stat. § 570-A), the Nevada wiretap statute (Nev. Rev. Stat. § 200.620), and the Delaware wiretap statute (Del. Code tit. 11, § 2402).

We do not record, intercept, or share the contents of your communications with the Site. We do not use session-replay scripts or any technology that captures the contents of what you type or view. The analytics and advertising technologies we do use are limited as described in Sections 2.4, 2.5, and 2.6, are placed only after you consent, and do not receive the contents of your communications with us. In particular, the Meta Pixel is confined to general marketing pages, never operates on health-related pages, and never transmits the contents of the contact form. The contact form is the only mechanism through which we collect information you type, and information you submit through it is transmitted only to Altea Medical and the limited service providers described in Section 5.

11. HIPAA and Protected Health Information

Altea Medical provides primary care and is a HIPAA-covered entity. The information you submit through this marketing Site is not Protected Health Information (“PHI”), because the Site is not where care is provided and is not intended for the exchange of health information. PHI is created and maintained inside our clinical and patient-portal systems, and its use and disclosure are governed by HIPAA, the HIPAA Privacy Rule, the HIPAA Security Rule, and our separate HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices (“NPP”). Our NPP describes your rights with respect to your health information and how we may use and disclose it for treatment, payment, and healthcare operations. You may request a copy of our NPP at any clinic location or by contacting our Privacy Officer at info@alteahealthcare.com. We maintain Business Associate Agreements with vendors that handle PHI on our behalf, including AdvancedMD, which operates our online scheduling and patient portal.

12. Children's privacy

The Site is not directed to children under the age of thirteen (13), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under thirteen in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). Several states, including California (CCPA) and Connecticut (CTDPA), additionally restrict the processing of personal information of individuals under sixteen (16) for purposes of sale or targeted advertising, and we do not engage in such processing. If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child has provided personal information to us through the Site, please contact us at info@alteahealthcare.com and we will delete it. Health information about minor patients is handled separately under HIPAA and applicable Washington law.

We direct our advertising only to adults aged eighteen (18) and over. Although our clinics care for patients from age six, all of our advertising is targeted to adults, who are the decision-makers for a household’s care.

13. Third-party links

The Site contains links to third-party websites and services that we do not operate or control, including our LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook pages and our online scheduling and patient portal operated by AdvancedMD. When you click “Become a patient” or a similar link to schedule or manage care, you leave alteamedical.com and enter the AdvancedMD portal, which operates under its own privacy and security practices as our HIPAA business associate. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any third-party website, and we encourage you to review the privacy policy of any site you visit.

Our Site displays the logos of insurance plans we accept for your convenience. Displaying these logos does not collect any information about your specific insurance coverage, and we do not gather visitor-specific insurance data through this Site.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in applicable law. When we do, we will revise the “Updated and Effective” date at the top of the Policy and, for material changes, provide additional notice, for example by posting a notice on the Site or by email where appropriate. Your continued use of the Site after the effective date of any updated Policy constitutes your acknowledgment of the updated Policy.

15. Contact us

If you have questions about this Policy or our privacy practices, or wish to exercise any right described in this Policy, please contact:

Aarista LLC (Altea Medical)

Attn: Privacy

Email: info@alteahealthcare.com

For questions concerning Protected Health Information or to request a copy of our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices, please contact our Privacy Officer at the address above or ask at any clinic location.