Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 21, 2026

Bruce G. Jones Dentistry (“the practice”, “we”, “us”) respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect through our website at brucegjonesdds.com (the “Site”), how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It applies to the Site only. Information about how we handle your health records as a patient is covered by our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices, which controls if the two documents ever differ.

1. Who We Are

Bruce G. Jones Dentistry, 30 W Norton Ave, Muskegon, MI 49444. Phone (231) 780-5158 or (231) 733-4174. Email [email protected]. The practice is the controller of the personal information collected through the Site.

2. Information You Give Us

• Appointment and contact forms. Name, phone number, email address, preferred appointment day and time, whether you are a new or existing patient, insurance carrier, and anything you type in a message field.
• New patient paperwork. The online intake form collects the information our office needs before your first visit, which may include date of birth, address, insurance member details, dental and medical history, medications, emergency contact, and your electronic signature. Once received, this information becomes part of your patient record and is protected under HIPAA.
• Email and phone. If you call, email or text us, we keep the message and your contact details so we can respond.

Please do not include urgent medical information in a website form. Call the office instead.

3. Information Collected Automatically

When you visit the Site, our hosting provider, our security plugin and our analytics tools record technical data: IP address, approximate location derived from it, browser and device type, operating system, referring website, pages viewed, links clicked, and the date and time of each visit. We use cookies and similar technologies for this; see our Cookie Policy for the full list and how to manage them.

4. How We Use Information

• To respond to your appointment requests and questions and to schedule and confirm visits.
• To prepare for your care and maintain your patient record.
• To send appointment reminders and practice updates by phone, text or email where you have asked for them. Message and data rates may apply to texts; reply STOP to opt out.
• To operate, secure and improve the Site, including blocking spam and abuse.
• To measure how the Site is used and how patients find us, including through Google Analytics and Google Ads conversion tracking.
• To comply with legal, insurance and regulatory obligations.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use website form data for marketing to people who have not asked to hear from us.

5. How We Share Information

We share personal information only with:

• Service providers that help us run the Site and the practice under contracts that limit their use of the data: website hosting (10Web), form processing and email delivery, appointment and practice management software, dental insurance clearinghouses, and our website agency, Nation Media Design.
• Google, for analytics and advertising measurement, as described in the Cookie Policy. Google processes this data under its own privacy policy.
• Insurers and payers when you ask us to bill your dental plan.
• Legal and safety recipients when required by law, subpoena or court order, or to protect the rights, property or safety of our patients, staff or others.
• A successor practice if the practice is sold or merged, subject to the same protections.

6. Protected Health Information

Information about your dental care is protected health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Michigan law. We use and disclose it only as permitted by our Notice of Privacy Practices. Website analytics tools are configured not to receive the contents of your forms, and we do not place advertising pixels on pages that collect health information.

7. Cookies and Analytics

The Site uses cookies for security, analytics and advertising measurement. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings and opt out of Google Analytics and personalized ads as described in the Cookie Policy.

8. Your Choices and Rights

• You may ask to see, correct or delete the personal information we hold about you from website forms by contacting the office. Requests about your dental record are handled under HIPAA, which gives you additional rights described in the Notice of Privacy Practices.
• You may opt out of marketing emails using the unsubscribe link, out of texts by replying STOP, and out of analytics cookies through the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
• If you are a resident of a state with a consumer privacy law (for example California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut or Texas), you may have rights to access, correct, delete and port your data and to opt out of targeted advertising. We honor those requests regardless of where you live. We do not discriminate against anyone who exercises privacy rights.

To make a request, call (231) 780-5158, email [email protected], or write to the address above. We may ask for information to verify your identity before acting on a request.

9. Security

The Site is served over HTTPS, protected by a web application firewall and malware scanning, and backed up daily. Form submissions are stored in our website database and in our practice systems with access limited to staff who need them. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we will notify you as required by law if a breach affects your information.

10. Data Retention

Website form submissions are kept for up to 24 months unless they become part of your patient record, in which case they are retained according to Michigan dental record retention rules and our Notice of Privacy Practices. Analytics data is retained by Google for 14 months. Server logs are kept for 30 days.

11. Children

The Site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children online. Parents and legal guardians provide information for pediatric patients and may contact us to review or delete it.

12. Third-Party Links and Embedded Content

The Site links to outside resources such as the American Dental Association, Delta Dental and Google Maps, and embeds YouTube videos. Those services have their own privacy practices, and this policy does not cover them.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as the Site or the law changes. The effective date at the top shows the latest version. Continued use of the Site after a change means you accept the updated policy.

14. Contact Us

Bruce G. Jones Dentistry, Attn: Privacy, 30 W Norton Ave, Muskegon, MI 49444. Phone (231) 780-5158. Email [email protected].