Empower Kids Network Privacy Notice
Last updated: September 17, 2026
1. About this Notice
Empower Kids Network (“EKN,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is a coordination and collaboration network intended to help families identify and connect with independent organizations, professionals, programs, and community resources related to pediatric care, therapies and development, education, family support, and community services.
This Notice explains how EKN collects, uses, discloses, and otherwise handles personal information when you visit empowerkidsnetwork.org, submit a Family Support Request, contact EKN, or otherwise communicate with EKN.
If EKN later introduces materially different activities—such as advertising technology, donations or payments, user accounts, clinical-document uploads, or materially different data-sharing practices—EKN will review this Notice before those activities begin.
2. Information We Collect
Family Support Request information
Depending on what you choose to provide, EKN may collect:
- first and last name;
- email address and/or telephone number;
- optional street address, city, Miami-Dade County or Broward County selection, and postal code;
- your relationship to the child or family you are assisting;
- general areas of support you are seeking;
- preferred language;
- preferred contact method;
- general coordination context you choose to provide;
- authorization and communication choices you make on the form; and
- information associated with the submission, such as date, time, and language.
The Family Support Request is intended to collect only information reasonably necessary for initial coordination. EKN's initial public coordination area is Miami-Dade County and Broward County. Both counties are in Florida; EKN may record Florida internally where a connected operational system requires a state field.
Please do not submit medical records, detailed diagnoses, medication lists, health-insurance or member identification numbers, Social Security numbers, financial-account credentials, or other detailed clinical or highly sensitive records through the Family Support form.
If you voluntarily include information of that kind despite this instruction, EKN may receive it as part of your message. EKN will seek to limit its use and disclosure to what is reasonably necessary to respond to the request and may ask you to use a more appropriate process if additional sensitive information is necessary.
Communications
If you email, call, text, or otherwise communicate with EKN, we may retain your contact information, the substance of the communication, date and time information, and limited notes reasonably necessary to document follow-up and coordination.
Family assistant and AI processing
When you use EKN's family assistant and model-backed mode is active, EKN may send recent sanitized conversational text to an AI service provider so the assistant can generate family-navigation responses and low-detail structured classification.
The website is designed to keep structured intake values such as your name, phone or email, city/ZIP, approximate child age, insurance-plan answer, and preferred contact window outside the model conversation. Common contact and sensitive-identifier patterns are also redacted from model-bound text where detected. Do not send medical records, detailed diagnoses, medication lists, Social Security numbers, insurance/member IDs, or other detailed clinical information in the chat.
The AI provider does not receive direct access to EKN's databases, provider administrative systems, or privileged credentials. The raw chat is not the canonical Family Support record. A Family Support Request is sent into EKN's coordination workflow only after the website presents the structured information for explicit review and authorization.
When model-backed mode is unavailable, the assistant may use a limited deterministic guided mode instead. Provider-side processing and retention are subject to the applicable provider/account data controls; EKN does not treat an API setting alone as a promise of zero provider-side retention.
Technical information
When you use the website, EKN and service providers that operate or protect the website may automatically process technical information such as IP address, browser and device information, requested pages and resources, timestamps, network and security events, and diagnostic information reasonably necessary to operate, protect, troubleshoot, and maintain the website.
The website may use limited browser storage or similar mechanisms for functional purposes such as remembering a language preference.
3. How We Use Personal Information
EKN may use personal information to:
- receive, review, and respond to Family Support Requests;
- maintain appropriate contact and coordination records;
- communicate with you about your request;
- understand the type of support you are seeking;
- provide family-navigation responses through the website assistant when you choose to use it;
- identify potentially relevant independent organizations, providers, programs, or resources;
- coordinate introductions, referrals, or follow-up you requested;
- document the status and history of a request;
- organize future follow-up;
- operate, protect, troubleshoot, and maintain the website;
- prevent fraud, spam, abuse, or security incidents;
- protect the rights, safety, or security of EKN, users, or others;
- comply with applicable law, lawful process, or regulatory obligations; and
- send general EKN news or updates only when you separately choose to receive them or where otherwise permitted by law.
Submitting a Family Support Request is not consent to unrelated marketing.
4. Sensitive Support Information
Some information you provide—such as the type of support you are seeking or the context you include—may reveal or suggest information about health, development, disability, therapy, education, family circumstances, or other personal needs.
EKN treats this information as sensitive and seeks to limit its collection, use, and disclosure to the purposes described in this Notice.
Where applicable law provides additional rights or restrictions concerning health-related or other sensitive information, EKN will apply those requirements when they apply to EKN and the information involved.
EKN does not sell Family Support information or consumer health data.
5. Sharing Information to Provide the Coordination You Request
The purpose of the Family Support workflow is to help a family identify and connect with resources that may be able to help.
When you authorize EKN to provide that coordination, EKN may share only the information reasonably necessary to pursue the help you requested with independent organizations or providers that may be relevant to your request. Depending on the circumstances, that may include your name, contact information, location, preferred language, the general area of support requested, and limited coordination context reasonably needed to explore or facilitate a connection.
EKN does not treat your Family Support authorization as permission to sell your information, share it for unrelated advertising, disclose it to data brokers, authorize unrelated marketing by another organization, or use it for an unrelated purpose merely because EKN has access to it.
EKN may disclose information outside the requested coordination purpose when you separately direct or authorize the disclosure, disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect safety, security, or legal rights, or disclosure is required or permitted by applicable law.
Independent organizations are responsible for their own services, privacy practices, professional obligations, eligibility decisions, and regulatory requirements. Information you later provide directly to an independent organization is governed by that organization’s own practices.
6. Categories of Service Providers and Other Recipients
EKN may use third parties that support the operation of the website and coordination workflow, including categories such as:
- hosting, infrastructure, and website-security providers;
- information-management, coordination, database, and storage providers;
- AI/model service providers used to generate family-navigation responses from sanitized conversational text;
- email, telephone, messaging, and other communications providers;
- technical-support and information-technology providers;
- legal, accounting, insurance, compliance, or other professional advisers when reasonably necessary;
- independent organizations or providers contacted to help fulfill a Family Support Request;
- government agencies, regulators, courts, law-enforcement authorities, or other persons when disclosure is required or permitted by law; and
- a lawful successor or transferee in connection with a merger, reorganization, transfer, dissolution, or similar organizational event, subject to applicable law and applicable privacy obligations.
EKN seeks to limit disclosures to what is reasonably necessary for the applicable purpose.
A change from one service provider to another performing substantially the same disclosed function does not, by itself, change the purposes described in this Notice. A materially new purpose, type of information, or category of recipient should trigger a privacy review before the change is implemented.
7. Sale, Advertising, and General Marketing
EKN does not currently sell personal information.
EKN does not currently use Family Support Request information for targeted or cross-context behavioral advertising.
EKN does not treat participation in Family Support coordination as consent to receive unrelated promotional communications.
If these practices materially change, EKN will review this Notice and provide any notices, choices, or consent required by applicable law before beginning the new practice.
8. Optional General EKN Updates
Family Support coordination and general EKN updates are separate purposes.
If you separately opt in to general updates, EKN may use your email address to send occasional information about EKN resources, programs, events, community information, or organizational news.
You may opt out of those general updates at any time. Opting out does not prevent EKN from communicating with you about a Family Support Request you asked EKN to handle.
A Family Support authorization should not be treated as a substitute for any separate consent that may be required for promotional SMS, WhatsApp marketing, or similar communications.
9. Children’s Privacy
The public Family Support Request is intended for parents, legal guardians, caregivers, family members, or other adults responsibly assisting a family. It is not designed for children to submit information directly.
EKN does not knowingly request personal information directly from children under 13 through the Family Support Request.
If EKN learns that personal information was submitted directly by a child under 13 in circumstances requiring parental consent or another action, EKN may delete the information or take other appropriate steps.
A parent or guardian who believes a child submitted personal information directly to EKN may contact us using the information below.
10. Health Information and HIPAA
The EKN website may discuss health-related resources, but the public Family Support Request is not designed to function as a medical record, patient portal, clinical intake, or health-insurance transaction system.
EKN does not represent through this website that the Family Support workflow is a HIPAA-covered clinical system merely because a family may be seeking health-related resources.
Whether HIPAA applies to a particular organization or activity depends on the organization’s legal role and the activity involved.
If EKN later begins handling protected health information on behalf of a HIPAA-covered entity or business associate, that workflow must be separately evaluated and any required agreements, safeguards, policies, and notices implemented before that activity begins.
11. Security
EKN uses administrative, organizational, and technical measures intended to reduce the risk of unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure of personal information.
Measures may include limiting access according to operational need, using institutional accounts for organizational systems, restricting credentials and sensitive configuration, limiting sensitive information in technical logs, reducing unnecessary collection of highly sensitive information, and maintaining reasonable security and incident-response practices.
No Internet transmission, service, or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
If you believe information you provided to EKN may have been compromised, contact us promptly.
12. Retention
EKN retains personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for purposes such as responding to and coordinating requests, maintaining continuity where a family later returns, maintaining appropriate operational records, resolving complaints or disputes, meeting applicable legal or regulatory obligations, and protecting EKN systems, users, and legal rights.
Retention may vary based on the type and sensitivity of the information, the purpose for which it is maintained, whether the request remains active, operational and security needs, legal obligations, and whether the information is reasonably needed to establish, exercise, or defend legal rights.
EKN may adopt more specific internal retention periods over time. This Notice does not promise a fixed deletion period unless EKN has actually adopted and can reliably implement that period.
13. Your Choices and Privacy Requests
Depending on applicable law and the circumstances, you may contact EKN to ask whether EKN maintains personal information about you, request access to or a copy of information EKN can reasonably provide, request correction of inaccurate information, request deletion of information EKN is not required or reasonably justified to retain, update your preferred language or contact method, stop receiving optional general EKN updates, withdraw authorization for future coordination disclosures to independent organizations, request that EKN stop future processing based on your consent where applicable, or exercise another privacy right provided by applicable law.
Withdrawing authorization for future coordination disclosures does not reverse disclosures already made in reliance on a prior request or authorization, and it may limit EKN’s ability to continue coordinating a referral or connection.
EKN may take reasonable steps to verify the identity or authority of a person making a privacy request. EKN will not unlawfully discriminate against a person for exercising an applicable privacy right.
To make a privacy request, email info@empowerkidsnetwork.org. Suggested subject line: Privacy Request.
14. Third-Party Websites and Services
The EKN website may link to websites, organizations, services, or resources operated independently from EKN.
A link or referral does not mean EKN controls the third party’s website, privacy practices, service quality, eligibility rules, availability, pricing, billing, licensing, or professional decisions.
Review an independent organization’s practices before providing information directly to it.
15. Changes to this Notice
EKN may update this Notice when its services, legal structure, technology, information practices, or legal obligations materially change.
The published Notice will display an effective date or last-updated date.
A materially new category of information, purpose of use, category of recipient, advertising practice, sale practice, or sensitive-data activity should trigger a privacy review before implementation.
Where applicable law requires affirmative consent for a new purpose or practice, EKN will seek that consent before beginning the activity.
16. Contact
Empower Kids Network
Email: info@empowerkidsnetwork.org Website: empowerkidsnetwork.org
The English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole versions of this Notice are intended to communicate the same privacy practices. If a translation discrepancy is discovered, EKN should correct it promptly rather than use the discrepancy to reduce an individual’s applicable privacy rights.