Your Privacy Matters to Us; A Letter to Attendees

Prior to addressing our philosophy and approach to attendee privacy, I want to make it abundantly clear that HLTH DOES NOT SELL OR PROVIDE YOUR PERSONAL DATA (INCLUDING EMAIL, PHONE, ADDRESS) TO ANY THIRD PARTIES! If you see an email from a company that pretends to be HLTH or any third parties selling purported attendee lists or discounted hotel rooms, please know these bad actors are NOT AFFILIATED with HLTH and are FRAUD!! 

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Since the launch of HLTH in 2017, we have always placed an emphasis on creating the best possible attendee experience at our annual events. Core to our philosophy as an industry marketplace and community, we strive to create relevant touchpoints that empower attendees to maximize their investment and time throughout the event experience. 

As part of our approach in developing these curated touchpoints, we rely on personal information collected within our own database to distribute pertinent messages and facilitate targeted interactions amongst a significant group of interconnected audiences. While this has brought many benefits to how we deliver value to all event participants, we are also aware of concerns about privacy and data protection as it pertains to collecting attendee information.

Over the last year, we [and the events industry at large] have witnessed an increase in unsolicited communication being sent without our knowledge and certainly without our consent. Outside organizations and individuals are using digital scraping tools and controversial data intelligence software to steal confidential personal information based on persona archetypes. In today’s digital landscape, we understand the responsibility we have to ensure all collected personal information is safeguarded against any unwanted and malicious activities. 

Prior to launching registration for HLTH 2023, we evaluated and enhanced our data protection policies and user information guidelines to mitigate against activities that are contrary to our philosophy.

Here is a comprehensive list of how we are putting your privacy first:

Updated Sponsor and Exhibitor Contract Terms

All sponsor and exhibitor contracts were updated to include explicit terms banning all communication to conference attendees – prior, during, and after the event – without expressed opt-in to the sponsor’s database through previous marketing and sales activities. In other words, if the sponsor already has your email and phone number in their database, HLTH cannot prevent them from reaching out. We will be adding dummy email addresses to our attendee list so that we can monitor and flag sponsors who are SPAMMING attendees.

Violation of the terms will result in suspension from future events.

Opt-Out Checkbox on Registration Form

We have included a checkbox to the registration form that provides all attendee registrants with an option to withhold sharing of their personal information (eg. name, email, phone, address) with sponsoring partners. This previously existed for all California residents and is now applicable to all registrations regardless of geographic location.

Continued Compliance with Federal and International Privacy Regulations

We routinely review our privacy policy, data collection methods, and personal information guidelines to ensure we are continuously in compliance with federal and international regulations and overall privacy best practices. As part of our due diligence, we assess the entire flow of personal information through our technology platforms and publicly document how data is being collected, stored, and used. For more information on how we collect personal information, along with our compliance with both the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), please visit our privacy policy.

Selling Attendee Lists is Prohibited

Any communication mentioning our attendee lists are for sale is FRAUD. We DO NOT and WILL NEVER sell our attendee lists. Many of these activities are spearheaded by bad actors with fake emails and LinkedIn accounts; who reside abroad and in locations that are not easily detectable. As a result, it is extremely hard to identify these culprits – and even if we can – shutting down these shady operations are inherently difficult. 

All instances of fraudulent attendee list sales should be sent to info@hlth.com so that our internal team can investigate the genesis of these unsolicited and nefarious emails or phone calls. 

We Do Not Work with Hotel Brokers

Similar to fraudulent attendee list sales, any communication around discounted hotel block rates, outside of our own HLTH communication, is not related to us and should be considered FRAUD. Please report these to info@hlth.com and do not respond to the sender.

We fundamentally believe user privacy and data protection are integral to establishing trust within our community. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, we will continue to take appropriate proactive measures to assess and update our guidelines in order to place your right to privacy above everything we do.

Thank you for your continued support and confidence in HLTH and we look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas on October 8 - 11 at HLTH 2023.