WebMD is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, nonprofit organization whose goal is to build users' trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. As required of TRUSTe licensees, we will inform you of the following in this privacy policy:
The following are links to the provisions of our Privacy Policy that describe the information we collect from or about you; ways we disclose, use and protect that information; choices you have, and how you can update your information or contact us with questions. We hope that reading our Privacy Policy gives you a clear idea of how we manage information about you. For immediate access to a particular topic, click on the title of that Article.
1. In General
Personally Identifiable Information (PII or Personal Information) is information that can be used to identify or contact you. When you visit our Website, WebMD collects only the Personal Information you provide to us. We collect the Personal Information that you provide to us in two general and distinct ways: (1) When you register as a Member and/or when you update your Member Profile, and (2) When you choose to use various WebMD Interactive Tools and Services or participate in surveys or send emails to WebMD. We also collect non-personal information from you and about your use of our Website, emails, special promotions and newsletters that we send to you, and Websites of selected sponsors and advertisers. For example, WebMD may use "cookies" or "web beacons" to collect non-personal information about your use of our site, selected sponsors' sites, or emails we send to you. WebMD does not store any Personal Information in any cookies on your computer. WebMD does not use web beacons to collect any Personal Information from or about you or to track your activities across Websites generally. All of these are described in more detail below.
2. Registration and Member Profile
You may use our Website without registering or submitting any Personal Information. In that case, the only information we collect will be non-personal information collected through the use of cookies or web beacons (see details below). However, in order to have access to certain services and content available on our site (e.g., MyHealthRecord), you are required to complete a registration form. We use the Personal Information that you provide through registration to respond to questions from you and/or inform you of significant changes to this Privacy Policy. We may also use this information to send you emails with special promotions or newsletters with content that we think may be of interest to you. You can always opt-out of receiving such emails or unsubscribe to newsletters at the time you register or at any time - see Article 4 below for more detail about opting-out of receiving emails and newsletters. The information we collect in the Registration form and Member Profile is set forth below. Required information is indicated by an asterisk*. Provision of all other information is optional.
3. Interactive Tools
We also collect other information, some of which may be Personal Information, that you voluntarily provide to us when you choose to use some of the WebMD Interactive Tools and Services, such as MyHealthRecord or Ask Our Experts. We also collect information you provide voluntarily through responses to surveys, questionnaires and the like. Some of the free Interactive Tools on our site ask you for health-related Personal Information.
For example, MyHealthRecord is a special Interactive Service that allows you to record limited amounts of health-related Personal Information on a voluntary basis on secure servers maintained by WebMD or by a third party on WebMD's behalf. Please see the description of MyHealthRecord below in Article 2, and please read the Security and Confidentiality Statement posted on the MyHealthRecord pages for more information regarding what information is collected when you use this service.
4. Cookies
We also collect anonymous, non-personal information about your use of our site or your use of emails, special promotions or newsletters that we send to you. For example, we collect non-personal information about your use of our site and your use of the sites of selected sponsors and advertisers through the use of "Cookies". Cookies are small computer files that we transfer to your computer's hard drive that allow us to know how often someone visits a site and the activities they conduct while on that site (such as the chatrooms you visited, whether you submitted orders for products, etc.). Every computer is assigned a different cookie by WebMD. The information collected by cookies helps us dynamically generate advertising and content on web pages or in emails specifically designed for you and also allows us to statistically monitor how many people are using our site and selected sponsors' and advertisers' sites, or opening our emails, and for what purposes. We may use cookie information to target certain advertisements to your browser or to determine the popularity of certain content or advertisements.
Your browser software can be set to reject all cookies. Most browsers offer instructions on how to reset the browser to reject cookies in the "Help" section of the toolbar. If you reject our cookie, certain of the functions and conveniences of our site may not work properly but you do not have to accept our cookie in order to productively use our site. While it may be possible to link non-personal cookie information to Personal Information collected in other ways, we want you to know that if you accept our cookie we will not, without your consent, link the cookie information we collect to Personal Information you provide to us on our site.
5. Web Beacons
In limited circumstances we also may use "Web Beacons" to collect anonymous, non-personal information about your use of our web site and the sites of selected sponsors and advertisers, and your use of emails, special promotions or newsletters we send to you. Web beacons are tiny graphic image files imbedded in a web page or email that provide a presence on the web page or email and send back to its home server information from the Users' browser. The information collected by web beacons allows us to statistically monitor how many people are using our site and selected sponsors' and advertisers' sites, or opening our emails, and for what purposes. WebMD web beacons are not used to track your activity across Websites generally. While it may be possible to link non-personal web beacon information to Personal Information collected in other ways, we want you to know that we will not, without your consent, link the web beacon information we collect to Personal Information you provide to us on our site.
6. E-mails and Newsletters
As noted in the discussions of cookies and web beacons (see above), we collect anonymous, non-personal information about your use of e-mails and newsletters that we send to you. In some cases, when you click on a link or an advertisement in an e-mail or newsletter, your browser may be momentarily directed to the site of a third party which, acting on WebMD's behalf (see Disclosure to Website Service and Content Contractors, below), notes or "counts" your response to the e-mail or newsletter before re-directing your browser to its proper destination; this re-direction process will not be apparent to you. When you use WebMD's "Email a Friend" application, WebMD emails the article or other content you designate to your friend's email address and lists your email address as the sender. WebMD uses the friend's email address only for the purpose of sending your friend the email you requested and for no other purpose unless otherwise disclosed to you at the time you send the email.
B. Information Collected by Third Parties Not Acting on WebMD's Behalf
Sponsors, partners or advertisers on the WebMD site or in emails, special promotions or newsletters we send you may also use their own cookies or web beacons when you click on their advertisement or link to their site or service, or even if the advertisement simply appears on a page or in an e-mail that you are viewing. Some advertisers use companies other than WebMD to serve their ads and to monitor users' responses to ads, and these companies ("Ad Servers") may also collect non-personal information through the use of cookies or web beacons on our Website. In certain situations, information collection may be facilitated by momentarily directing your browser to the site of an Ad Server or other third party acting on behalf of the sponsor, partner, or advertiser before re-directing your browser to its proper destination (e.g., back to WebMD to show the ad, or to the advertiser's Web site); this re-direction process will not be apparent to you.
We do not control these third parties' use of cookies or web beacons, or how they manage the non-personal information they gather through them. However, we do require sponsors, advertisers and Ad Servers who collect cookie or web beacon information through our Website to agree that they will not collect any Personal Information from our site without your consent. They have promised us they will not link any non-personal cookie or web beacon information collected by them on our site to Personal Information they or others collect in other ways or from other sites. In addition, WebMD's Advertising Policy is posted on our Website and will provide additional detail about our relationship with advertisers and the companies that serve ads. You should review the privacy policy of other sites you visit or link to from our site to understand how these other sites use cookies and how they use the information they collect through the use of cookies or web beacons on their own sites. Certain Ad Servers allow you to prevent them from collecting data through the use of cookies. In order to do so, you must opt-out of such data collection with each individual site. Currently, you can opt-out of cookies for several Ad Servers by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative gateway opt-out site. This site will also allow you to review the Ad Server's privacy policies.
C. Children
We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. This Website is not designed or intended to attract children under the age of 13. We do not collect Personal Information from any person we actually know is under the age of 13.
D. Public Forums
This Privacy Policy does not protect you when you use WebMD public forums. As a service to our users, WebMD features chat rooms and bulletin boards where users with similar medical conditions can share information and support one another or where users can post questions for experts to answer. In addition, we offer online discussions on a variety of topics moderated by medical experts. You should be aware that any information shared in a chat room, bulletin board, Ask Our Expert posting or online discussion is public information and may be seen, disclosed to or collected by third parties that do not adhere to our Privacy Policy. You should think carefully before disclosing any personal information in any public forum.
E. Emails to WebMD
This Privacy Policy does not protect you when you send business information, ideas, concepts or inventions to WebMD by email to the various WebMD departments listed on the "Contact Us" link on our Website. If you want to keep business information, ideas, concepts or inventions private or proprietary, do not send them in an email to WebMD. We try to answer every email in a timely manner, but are not always able to do so.
ARTICLE 2
DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION
Except as set forth in this Article or as specifically agreed to by you, WebMD will not disclose any Personal Information it gathers from you on our Website. We may release Personal Information to third parties: (1) to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order; or (2) in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others. In the event that we are legally compelled to disclose your Personal Information to a third party, we will notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court order
A. Disclosure to WebMD Subsidiaries
WebMD may disclose Personal Information to its corporate subsidiaries. Any Personal Information provided to subsidiaries of WebMD will be treated by those subsidiaries in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy.
B. Disclosure to WebMD Operations and Maintenance Contractors
WebMD operations and maintenance contractors sometimes have limited access to your Personal Information in the course of providing products or services to WebMD. These contractors include vendors and suppliers that provide us with technology, services, and/or content related to better operation and maintenance of our Website. Unless you have opted out of receiving emails and newsletters from WebMD, these contractors also may have access to your email address to send newsletters or special promotions to you on our behalf or to send emails to you for purposes such as conducting market research on our behalf. Access to your Personal Information by these contractors is limited to the information reasonably necessary in order for the contractor to perform its limited function for WebMD. We also contractually require that our operations and maintenance contractors 1) protect the privacy of your Personal Information consistent with this Privacy Policy, and 2) not use or disclose your Personal Information for any purpose other than providing us with products and services.
C. Disclosure to Website Service and Content Contractors
Certain content and services offered to you through our Website are served on Websites hosted and operated by a company other than WebMD ("Third Party Contractor Websites"). One example of this is Find A Physician, which is hosted and served by Health Pages, LLC. Similarly, if you purchase an item through one of WebMD's co-branded stores (e.g., from the Sports and Fitness Store, from SimplyHealth or from CVS/pharmacy), you will be purchasing it from the Third Party Contractor Website (i.e., Global Sports, SimplyHealth or CVS) and not WebMD. WebMD does not disclose your Personal Information to these Third Party Contractor Websites without your consent, but you should be aware that any information you disclose once you access these other sites is not subject to this Privacy Policy. WebMD does not endorse and is not responsible for the privacy practices of these Third Party Contractor Websites. You should review the privacy policy posted on the other site to understand how that Third Party Contractor Website collects and uses your Personal Information. WebMD makes an effort to make it obvious to you when you leave our Website and enter a Third Party Contractor Website, either by requiring you to click on a link or by notifying you on the site. In addition, if you see a phrase such as "Powered by" or "in association with" followed by the name of a company other than WebMD, then you are on a Website hosted by a company other than WebMD.
D. Disclosure to or by Co-branded Channel Partners
WebMD is a contractor and provides co-branded content and services to Websites hosted and operated by companies other than WebMD ("Channel Partner Websites"). You can only access these co-branded content and services through the Channel Partner Website, and usually from the health section of these other Websites. Our current Channel Partners include: AOL, Lycos, and MSN. The co-branded WebMD pages that you may access through a Channel Partner Website have different registration processes and opportunities for information collection, and Personal Information that you provide on these pages may be shared with the Channel Partners. Each of these co-branded WebMD sites has its own privacy policy posted on that site, which explains what information is disclosed by WebMD to the Channel Partner and vice versa. If you visit one of these co-branded WebMD sites, please read the privacy policy that is posted on that site, as well as the individual privacy policy of the Channel Partner Website.
E. Disclosure to Linked Sites
In addition to the Third Party Contractor Websites that you may access as described above, for your convenience there are links to Websites operated by companies other than WebMD ("Third Party Websites") that are not contractors who provide content or services through our Website. These links may be found in advertisements, referenced within content, or placed beside the names or logos of sponsors. WebMD does not disclose your Personal Information to these Third Party Websites without obtaining your consent. WebMD does not endorse and is not responsible for the privacy practices of these sites. If you choose to link to one of these Third party Websites, you should review the privacy policy posted on this other site to understand how that Third Party Website collects and uses your Personal Information.
F. Disclosure of Aggregate Information
WebMD may provide to third parties non-personal information about you that does not allow you to be identified or contacted and that is combined with the non-personal information of other users ("Aggregate Information"). For example, we might inform third parties regarding the number of users of our site and the activities they conduct while on our site. We might also inform a pharmaceutical company (that may or may not be an advertiser on our site) that "30% of our users live east of the Mississippi" or that "25% of our users have tried alternative medicine." Depending on the circumstances, we may or may not charge third parties for this Aggregate Information. We also may not limit the third parties' use of the Aggregate Information, except that we do require third parties to whom we disclose Aggregate Information to agree that they will not attempt to make this information personally identifiable by combining it with other databases or otherwise.
G. MyHealthRecord
All information that is received, used, or disclosed in connection with MyHealthRecord is encrypted.
WebMD collects the Personal Information you voluntarily store in MyHealthRecord. The information MyHealthRecord currently is designed to store includes the following categories: (1) Patient Contact Information; (2) Health Plan Information; (3) Emergency Contact Information; (4) Medications; (5) Allergy; (6) Condition or Illness Information; (7) Procedure/Surgical History; (8) Doctor or Health Professional Information; (9) Clinic and Hospital; (10) Immunization History; (11) Location Information; (12) Any other information you voluntarily store. For more information on what types of information are collected in each category, please review the MyHealthRecord Security and Confidentiality Statement.
WebMD does not use the Personal Information stored in MyHealthRecord for any purpose except to provide members with a readily accessible, easy-to-update means of collecting and storing family health/medical history. The only entities that will have access to MyHealthRecord Personal Information are WebMD itself and any third parties hired by WebMD to assist us in operating, maintaining, and improving the site. These third parties are required by us to hold your information in the strictest of confidence and may not use or disclose it except to fulfill the service we hired them to perform. WebMD will not share any of the Personal Information that is stored in MyHealthRecord with any other third parties without your express permission.
ARTICLE 3
HOW WebMD HANDLES PRIVACY AND SECURITY INTERNALLY
WebMD wants your Personal Information to remain as secure as possible. That is why we have a two-tier security system at WebMD that combines leading technical safeguards and a code of conduct for those employees who are permitted to access our customers' Personal Information. On the technical side, WebMD uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology in transmitting your Personal Information to our servers to help ensure the integrity and privacy of the Personal Information you provide to us via the Internet. Encryption involves systematically scrambling numbers and letters, so that even if someone managed to intercept the information, they would not be able to make sense of it. In order to take advantage of this encryption technology, you need to have an Internet browser that will support 128-bit encryption, such as Netscape or Microsoft Explorer. As an additional security measure, your Personal Information is also kept physically separate on a separate server where your password is encrypted and stored on a database. On the employee side, only a limited number of WebMD employees are authorized to access your Personal Information. All WebMD employees must abide by our Privacy Policy and those who violate our Privacy Policy are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination. Access by authorized personnel is controlled by two-factor authentication (i.e., a token and a thumbprint). Although we will make every reasonable effort to protect your Personal Information from loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk involved in transmitting information over the Internet. There is also some risk that thieves could find a way to thwart our security systems.
ARTICLE 4
YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES
From time to time and at different locations on the WebMD Website, you will be given the option of receiving recurring informational/promotional newsletters via email from WebMD and/or directly from third parties.
If you wish to subscribe to such newsletters via email, we ask for contact information, such as name and email address. You can unsubscribe from the newsletters by simply clicking on the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any email newsletter. An email to our automated unsubscribe service will be created on your machine. Click the "send" button. You will then be unsubscribed from that newsletter within two to three business days. If you are experiencing difficulties with our automated unsubscribe service, you can email us at WebMD Customer Service. WebMD Customer Service will unsubscribe you from that newsletter in two to three business days.
At Registration and at various times as you use the site, you may have the option of receiving emails or newsletters directly from third parties, participating in research or marketing surveys and participating in other activities. You may exercise these options by placing a check mark beside a statement that expresses a preference for receiving these communications or participating in these activities. You may change your decision at any time by changing your preferences within your Member Profile or by following other directions provided in association with the individual communication or activity.
This privacy statement applies only to the WebMD Website. The WebMD site does contain links to other sites. Once you enter another Website (whether through an advertisement, service, or content link), be aware that WebMD is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage you to look for and review the privacy statements of each and every web site that you visit through a link or advertisement on WebMD's site or any site that collects Personal Information from you.
ARTICLE 5
UPDATING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND CONTACTING WebMD
You can always contact us in order to (1) delete your Personal Information from our systems, (2) update the Personal Information that you have provided to us, and (3) change your preferences with respect to marketing contacts or other activities, by emailing us at privacy@WebMD.net. Such changes will not have any effect on other information that WebMD maintains. If you have a complaint or problem you may email us at diet@WebMD.net and the customer service department will forward your complaint to the appropriate internal WebMD department for a response or resolution. We try to answer every email in a timely manner but are not always able to do so. If you do not receive adequate resolution of a privacy related problem, you may write to WebMD's Privacy Help Desk at:
WebMD, Inc.
P.O. Box 167
Atlanta, Georgia 30361
Attn: Office of Privacy
Or call 404.541.2023
If you have contacted WebMD about a privacy related concern and you do not believe that the problem has been addressed, you may file a complaint with TRUSTe.
You should be aware that it is not technologically possible to remove each and every record of the information you have provided to WebMD from our servers. The need to back-up our systems to protect information from inadvertent loss means that a copy of your Personal Information may exist in a non-erasable form that will be difficult or impossible for us to locate. Nevertheless, we promise that upon receiving your request, all Personal Information stored in the databases we actively use for research and daily business activities, and other readily searchable media, will be deleted.
Privacy as it applies to the Internet is a dynamic, rapidly developing area. In the future, we may make significant changes to our privacy policy affecting the use of the Personal Information we collect. We will notify you by email of any significant changes concerning our use of your Personal Information and obtain your "opt-in" consent to any significant new uses of your Personal Information if it was collected from you prior to a significant change in this policy. We may also make non-significant changes to our Privacy Policy that generally will not affect our use of your Personal Information and we generally will not notify you of these non-significant changes. You should check this posted Privacy Policy for any non-significant changes. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy or any revised policy, please exit the site immediately.
Revised June, 2004
© Copyright 2004 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
