MENU SEARCH Home / About Cleveland Clinic / About This Website / Privacy & Security Privacy & Security Official privacy policy, notice of privacy practices and information about how we protect the information entered into this website. Questions 216.444.2200 CONTACT US SHARE Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Privacy Policy Telemedicine Privacy Policy Security Statement Privacy Policy Cleveland Clinic’s mission is, and always will be, “Patients First”. We understand, acknowledge and respect any individual’s right to privacy and the concerns one may have in regard to privacy and security. We recognize the importance of protecting the privacy of information provided by our patients, as well as, general users of our website. IMPORTANT NOTE! The Cleveland Clinic Notice of Privacy Practices is a separate document that governs how medical information about you may be used and disclosed by Cleveland Clinic. MEDICAL DISCLAIMER. IF THIS IS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY, PLEASE IMMEDIATELY CALL EMERGENCY PERSONNEL (911) TO GET PROMPT MEDICAL ATTENTION. DO NOT RELY ON ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS FOR ASSISTANCE IN REGARD TO YOUR IMMEDIATE, URGENT MEDICAL NEEDS. THIS E-MAIL IS NOT DESIGNED TO FACILITATE MEDICAL EMERGENCIES. CLEVELAND CLINIC CANNOT GUARANTEE RESPONSE TIMES IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE THIS E-MAIL IN THE EVENT OF A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. PERSONAL INFORMATION. A visitor can access and browse our entire site at any time without providing any personal information. We do not collect information that would personally identify you unless you choose to provide it. In addition, Cleveland Clinic does not share any personally identifiable information of any individual with any third party unrelated to Cleveland Clinic, except in situations where we must provide information for legal purposes or investigations, or if so directed by the patient through a proper authorization. Forms Our website contains forms through which users may request information or supply feedback to us. In some cases, telephone numbers, email addresses or return addresses are required so that we can supply requested information to you, and in other cases, correct names and addresses are required to process credit card payments. After you fill out a form, we may contact you with follow-up information (unless you have checked an "opt-out" box on the form). We do not provide any information supplied on our web forms to any outside organization for any reason (other than where we may be required to by law, or as necessary to process credit card information). We do not save this personal information for any other reason. Surveys Occasionally, we may survey visitors to our site. The information from these surveys is used in aggregate form to help us understand the needs of our visitors so that we can improve our site. We generally do not ask for information in surveys that would personally identify you. If we do request contact information for follow-up, you may decline to provide it. If survey respondents provide personal information (such as an email address) in a survey, it is shared only with those people who need to see it to respond to the question or request. Email "Phishing" is a scam designed to steal your personal information. If you receive an email that looks like it is from Cleveland Clinic asking you for your personal information, do not respond. We will never request your password, user name, credit card information or other personal information through email. User Name and Password In the event you access any Service requiring a User Name and Password, you are solely responsible for keeping such User Name and Password strictly confidential. NON-PERSONAL INFORMATION Cleveland Clinic collects non-personal information such as website usage, traffic patterns, site performance and related statistics based on our tracking of your visits to the website. IP Addresses The Web server automatically collects the IP (which stands for Internet Protocol) address of the computers that access our site. An IP address is a number that is assigned to your computer when you access the Internet. It is not truly personally identifiable information because many different individuals can access the Internet via the same computer. We use this information in aggregate form to understand how our site is being used and how we can better serve visitors. Please note that although such information is not personally identifiable, we can determine from an IP address a visitor's Internet Service Provider and the geographic location of his or her point of connectivity. First Party Cookies We collect information about visitors to our site using "first party cookies”, which are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your web browser. Cookies are never associated with specific personal identities. First party cookies are distinct from third party cookies that they are created and directly served by the company hosting the website. We use two types of “cookies” on this site: We use persistent cookies to recognize a repeat visitor, enabling us the opportunity to offer the visitor a set of services or information requested in a previous visit. We use session cookies to track a visitor's path through our site during a visit, to help us understand how people use our site. You can delete our cookies at any time. The "help" section, located on the toolbar of most browsers, will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie or how to disable cookies altogether. Since cookies allow you to take full advantage of some of our website's best features, we recommend that you leave them turned on. SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION Please note that our forms are encrypted to protect your privacy. Once the information is sent to our site, it is kept in secure databases where it is not available to users on the Internet. While we sometimes ask for credit card numbers or certain service transactions, and either pass them on to a credit card processing service or process them manually, we do not store credit card numbers online. Cleveland Clinic periodically reviews and modifies, where appropriate, its security policies and procedures. We use reasonable care to protect your personally identifiable and confidential information provided by you to our site. Cleveland Clinic has in place a security program that seeks to mitigate this risk substantially. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY MATERIALS, SERVICES AND OTHER INFORMATION ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” BY CLEVELAND CLINIC FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. CLEVELAND CLINIC MAKES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE, TITLE OR NON INFRINGEMENT. PLEASE NOTE THAT, BY ITS VERY NATURE, A WEBSITE CANNOT BE ABSOLUTELY PROTECTED AGAINST INTENTIONAL OR MALICIOUS INTRUSION ATTEMPTS. FURTHERMORE, CLEVELAND CLINIC DOES NOT CONTROL THE DEVICES OR COMPUTERS OR THE INTERNET OVER WHICH YOU MAY CHOOSE TO SEND CONFIDENTIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION AND CANNOT, THEREFORE, PREVENT SUCH INTERCEPTIONS OF COMPROMISES TO YOUR INFORMATION WHILE IN TRANSIT TO CLEVELAND CLINIC. THEREFORE, CLEVELAND CLINIC HEREBY MAKES NO GUARANTEE AS TO SECURITY, INTEGRITY OR CONFIDENTIALITY OF ANY INFORMATION TRANSMITTED TO OR FROM THIS WEBSITE, OR STORED WITHIN THIS WEBSITE. BEYOND OUR REASONABLE CARE TO SAFEGUARD YOUR INFORMATION WHILE IN TRANSIT, CLEVELAND CLINIC CANNOT AND DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE ABSOLUTE SECURITY OF ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS OR TRANSMISSIONS SINCE ANY TRANSMISSION MADE OVER THE INTERNET BY ANY ORGANIZATION OR ANY INDIVIDUAL RUNS THE RISK OF INTERCEPTION. IN ADDITION, WE HEREBY MAKE NO GUARANTEE AS TO SECURITY, INTEGRITY OR CONFIDENTIALITY OF ANY INFORMATION TRANSMITTED TO OR FROM THIS WEBSITE, OR STORED WITHIN THIS WEBSITE. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY YOU ASSUME THE SOLE RISK OF TRANSMITTING YOUR INFORMATION AS IT RELATES TO THE USE OF THIS WEBSITE, AND FOR ANY DATA CORRUPTIONS, INTENTIONAL INTERCEPTIONS, INTRUSIONS OR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO INFORMATION, OR OF ANY DELAYS, INTERRUPTIONS TO OR FAILURES PREVENTING THE USE THIS WEBSITE. IN NO EVENT SHALL CLEVELAND CLINIC BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR MONETARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING FEES, AND PENALTIES IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF MATERIALS POSTED ON THIS SITE OR CONNECTIVITY TO OR FROM THIS SITE TO ANY OTHER SITE. CLEVELAND CLINIC MAY CHANGE THIS PRIVACY POLICY WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU. Other services provided by Cleveland Clinic on this Website may require you to agree to additional terms. BY USING THIS WEBSITE, YOU ACCEPT THESE TERMS. If you have any questions about our privacy policy or our use of information gathered through our Web site, please contact our Webmaster at webmail@ccf.org. Last updated: 3/18/2009 Telemedicine Privacy Policy Effective Date: September 6, 2018 This Privacy Policy applies to the telemedicine website or mobile application (the “Services”) provided by The Cleveland Clinic Foundation (“Cleveland Clinic,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). IMPORTANT NOTE: This Privacy Policy applies to individually identifiable information that you provide to us for purposes of obtaining medical care (such information is also referred to as “Protected Health Information” or “PHI”), which is subject to our Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Notice of Privacy Practices (the “HIPAA Notice”), and information that is not PHI. The HIPAA Notice describes how we can use and share your PHI and also describes your rights with respect to your PHI. This Privacy Policy supplements the HIPAA Notice for PHI. If there is ever any conflict between this Privacy Policy and the HIPAA Notice, the HIPAA Notice will apply. The HIPAA Notice does not apply to information that is not PHI. I. Collection of Information We may collect the following kinds of information when you use the Services: Information you provide directly to us as part of registration. For certain activities, such as when you register, use our telemedicine services, subscribe to our alerts, or contact us directly, we may collect some or all of the following types of information: Contact information, such as your full name, email address, mobile phone number, and address; Username and password; Payment information, such as your credit card number, expiration date, and credit card security code; Personal health information, including information about your diagnosis, previous treatments, general health, and health insurance; Doctor reviews; and Any other information you provide to us. We may combine such information with information we already have about you. Information we collect automatically. We may collect certain information automatically when you use our Services, such as your computer’s Internet protocol (IP) address, device and advertising identifiers, browser type, operating system, Internet service provider, pages that you visit before and after using the Services, the date and time of your visit, information about the links you click and pages you view within the Services, and other standard server log information. We may also collect certain location information when you use our Services, such as your mobile device’s GPS signal, or information about nearby WiFi access points and cell towers. We may use cookies, pixel tags, Local Shared Objects, and similar technologies to automatically collect this information. Cookies are small bits of information that are stored by your computer’s web browser. Pixel tags are very small images or small pieces of data embedded in images, also known as “web beacons” or “clear GIFs,” that can recognize cookies, the time and date a page is viewed, a description of the page where the pixel tag is placed, and similar information from your computer or device. Local Shared Objects (sometimes referred to as “Flash Cookies”) are similar to standard cookies except that they can be larger and are downloaded to a computer or mobile device by the Adobe Flash media player. By using the Services, you consent to our use of cookies and similar technologies. We may also collect technical data to address and fix technical problems and improve our Services. Your device or browser settings may permit you to control the collection of this technical data. By using the Services, you are consenting to us or any party acting on our behalf collecting this technical data. Information from Third-Party Services. If you access the Services from an advertisement on a third-party website, application, or other service (a “Third-Party Service”) we may receive information from the owner of the Third-Party Service related to you or that advertisement. Information we obtain from your health care providers and other sources. In connection with your treatment, we may collect medical records from your past, current, and future health care providers. This may include information about your diagnosis, previous treatments, general health, laboratory and pathology test results and reports, social histories, any family history of illness, and records about phone calls and emails related to your illness. We may also receive information about you from other sources, including through third-party services and organizations. We may combine our first-party data, such as your email address or name, with third-party data from other sources and use this to contact you (e.g. through direct mail). For example, if you access third-party services, such as Facebook, Google, or Twitter, through the Services to login to the Services or to share information about your experience on the Services with others, we may collect information from these third-party services. II. Use of Information We generally use the information we collect online to: Provide and improve the Services; Contact you; Fulfill your requests for products, services, and information; Send you information about additional clinical services or general wellness from us or on behalf of our affiliates; Analyze the use of the Services and user data to understand and improve the Services; Conduct research using your information, which may be subject to your separate written authorization; Prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities and otherwise in accordance with our Terms of Use; and For any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect your information or pursuant to your consent. III. Sharing of Information We are committed to maintaining your trust, and we want you to understand when and with whom we may share the information we collect. Authorized third-party vendors and service providers. We may share your information with third-party vendors and service-providers that help us with specialized services, including providing medical advice, management and hosting of telemedicine services, billing, payment processing, customer service, email deployment, business analytics, marketing (including but not limited to advertising, attribution, deep-linking, direct mail, mobile marketing, optimization and retargeting) advertising, performance monitoring, hosting, and data processing. These third-party vendors and service providers may not use your information for purposes other than those related to the services they are providing to us. No information provided by patients during medical consultations is ever used for marketing purposes. Corporate affiliates. We may share your information with our affiliates. Legal purposes. We may disclose information to respond to subpoenas, court orders, legal process, law enforcement requests, legal claims or government inquiries, and to protect and defend the rights, interests, health, safety, and security of Cleveland Clinic, our affiliates, patients, users, or the public. If we are legally compelled to disclose information about you to a third party, we will attempt to notify you by sending an email to the email address in our records unless doing so would violate the law or unless you have not provided your email address to us. Business Transfers. HIPAA permits organizations to transfer PHI in certain circumstances. We can transfer your information as part of a transfer of the assets of the organization, merger, or consolidation or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy, if such transfer is permissible under HIPAA and the HIPAA Notice. Protected Health Information. We may transfer your PHI as described in the HIPAA Notice and permitted under HIPAA. With your consent or at your direction. We may share information for any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect the information or pursuant to your consent or direction. If you choose to engage in public activities on the third party sites that we link to, you should be aware that any information you share there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these sites and forums. You should use caution in disclosing personal information while participating in these areas. We are not responsible for the information you choose to submit in public areas. IV. Security We use measures to protect Protected Health Information from loss, theft, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction in accordance with HIPAA. We use measures designed to protect other information from loss, theft, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. You should understand that no data storage system or transmission of data over the Internet or any other public network can be guaranteed to be 100 percent secure. V. Your Choices You may also request that we delete your personal information by sending us an email at privacy@ccf.org. We will delete such information unless we are required to maintain information in accordance with applicable law. You may be able to refuse or disable cookies by adjusting your web browser settings. Because each web browser is different, please consult the instructions provided by your web browser (typically in the “help” section). Please note that you may need to take additional steps to refuse or disable Local Shared Objects and similar technologies. For example, Local Shared Objects can be controlled through the instructions on Adobe’s Setting Manager page. If you choose to refuse, disable, or delete these technologies, some of the functionality of the Services may no longer be available to you. We do not share personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes. VI. Third-party Links and Content Some of the Services may contain links to content maintained by third parties that we do not control. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties, and the information practices of these third parties are not covered by this Privacy Policy. VII. Limiting Data Collection and Do Not Track Opt-Out. To opt out of interest-based advertising across browsers and devices from companies that participate in the Digital Advertising Alliance or Network Advertising Initiative opt-out programs, please visit their respective websites. You may also be able to opt out of interest-based advertising through the settings within the mobile app or your mobile device, but your opt-out choice may apply only to the browser or device you are using when you opt out, so you should opt out on each of your browsers and devices if you want to disable interest-based advertising for those browsers and devices. If you opt out, you will still receive ads but they may not be as relevant to you and your interests, and your experience on our Services may be degraded. Do-Not-Track Signals and Similar Mechanisms. Some web browsers transmit “do-not-track” signals to websites. Because of differences in how web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them. We currently do not take action in response to these signals. VIII. International Users We maintain information in the United States of America and in accordance with the laws of the United States, which may not provide the same level of protection as the laws in your jurisdiction. By using the Services and providing us with information, you understand and agree that your information may be transferred to and stored on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction and, to the extent you are a resident of a country other than the United States, that you consent to the transfer of such data to the United States for processing by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy. IX. Children We do not knowingly allow individuals under the age of 18 to create accounts that allow access to our Services. X. Changes to the Privacy Policy We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we update the Privacy Policy, we will revise the “Effective Date” date above and post the new Privacy Policy. We recommend that you review the Privacy Policy each time you visit the Services to stay informed of our privacy practices. XI. Questions? If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our practices, please email us at privacy@ccf.org. Security Statement Cleveland Clinic values your privacy and security. Your data is protected through Secure Socket Layer (SSL) 128-bit encryption, ensuring your confidential information is protected using both server authentication and data encryption technology. For more information, please review our Website Terms of Use and Website Privacy Policy. 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