ARTICLE 2: ABOUT THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND USING OUR SITE AND TOOLS
This Privacy Policy applies to the improvity.com website, which also includes
the improvity.com Patient Manager. The improvity.com website contains
links to other sites. Once you enter another website (whether through an
advertisement, service, or content link), be aware that improvity.com 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 website that
you visit through a link or advertisement on improvity.com.
We hope that reading our Privacy Policy gives you a clear idea of how we manage
information about you. Throughout our Privacy Policy, we have underlined
various terms and hot-linked them to our Glossary or to the corresponding
Section within the Privacy Policy to help you better understand their meaning.
While you may use some of the functionality of improvity.com without
registration, many of the specific tools and services on our website require
registration. If you use our website without registering, the only information
we collect will be Non-Personal Information through
the use of Cookies or Web Beacons.
If you choose to register with our website for certain Interactive Tools or
other services, we require you to submit Personally Identifiable
Information. Depending on the tool or service you have selected, we may
also collect Personal Health Information. You are
responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the Personally Identifiable
Information and Personal Health Information you submit to improvity.com.
Inaccurate information will affect the information you receive when using our
site and tools and our ability to contact you as contemplated in this Privacy
Policy. For example, your email address should be kept current because that it
is how we communicate with you.
ARTICLE 3: NON-PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU
Even if you do not register with improvity.com, we collect
Non-Personal Information about your use of our website, special
promotions and newsletters.
A. Cookies
We collect Non-Personal Information about your use of our website and your use
of the websites of selected sponsors and advertisers through the use of
Cookies. Every computer is assigned a different Cookie by
improvity.com. The information collected by Cookies (i) helps us dynamically
generate advertising and content on web pages or in newsletters, (ii) allows us
to statistically monitor how many people are using our website and selected
sponsors' and advertisers' sites, (iii) how many people open our emails, and
(iv) for what purposes these actions are being taken. We may use Cookie
information to target certain advertisements to your browser or to determine
the popularity of certain content or advertisements. Cookies are also used to
facilitate a user's log-in, as navigation aides and as session timers, but not
to retain Personal Health Information about you. Cookies used by
improvity.com Manager are also used to restrict underage use of the tools.
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 Cookies, certain of the functions and
conveniences of our website may not work properly but you do not have to accept
our Cookies in order to productively use our site. We do not link Non-Personal
Information from Cookies to Personally Identifiable Information without your
permission and do not use Cookies to collect or store Personal Health
Information about you.
B. Web Beacons
We also may use Web Beacons to collect Non-Personal
Information about your use of our website and the websites of selected sponsors
and advertisers, and your use of special promotions or newsletters. The
information collected by Web Beacons (i) allows us to statistically monitor how
many people are using our website and selected sponsors' and advertisers'
sites, (ii) how many people open our emails, and (iii) for what purposes these
actions are being taken. Our Web Beacons are not used to track your activity
outside of our websites or those of our sponsors'. We do not link Non-Personal
Information from Web Beacons to Personally Identifiable Information without
your permission and do not use Web Beacons to collect or store Personal Health
Information about you.
ARTICLE 4: PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT
YOU
We collect Personally Identifiable Information that you provide to us when you
register as a member of improvity.com and/or when you update your member
profile. We use the Personally Identifiable Information that you provide to
respond to your questions, provide you the specific services you select, send
you emails about website maintenance and updates, and inform you of significant
changes to this Privacy Policy.
A. Newsletters & Emails to You
At registration and at various times as you use improvity.com, you will be
given the option of receiving recurring informational/promotional newsletters
via email from improvity.com and/or directly from third parties. These
emails will be of a general nature and will not disclose your unique health
characteristics. At the time you sign up for our email newsletters or any time
thereafter, you can choose to Opt-out of receiving
additional promotional emails from improvity.com.
In order to subscribe to such newsletters via email, we need your 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 computer. Click the "send" button. You will then be unsubscribed from
that newsletter within two to three business days. You may also unsubscribe or
change any of your email preferences by clicking on the applicable links in
your email newsletter or by changing your profile within the improvity.com
Manager. If you are experiencing difficulties with our automated unsubscribe
service, please use our new
Customer Support Form. improvity.com Customer Service will
unsubscribe you from that newsletter in two to three business days.
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 website of a third
party which, acting on behalf of improvity.com, 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.
B. Emails You Send to improvity.com
This Privacy Policy does not protect you when you send content, business
information, ideas, concepts or inventions to improvity.com by email. If you
want to keep content or business information, ideas, concepts or inventions
private or proprietary, do not send them in an email to improvity.com. We
try to answer every email within 48 business hours, but are not always able to
do so.
C. Message Boards and other Public Forums
D. Website Registration and Interactive Tools on improvity.com
After you have registered as a member of improvity.com, you may choose to use
certain improvity.com interactive content, tools and services that may ask
you to voluntarily provide other types of information about yourself including
Personal Health Information. Some of the tools (like certain quizzes or
calculators) do not retain your Personal Health Information, while others (like
Ovulation Calendar) store your Personal Health Information in accordance with
the authorization you provide at the time you use the tool.
E. Subscription Services
From time to time, improvity.com offers users the opportunity to register for
paid subscription services. Each subscription service has its own Service
Agreement that governs your use of the service and the information we collect
to provide the service, including your credit card information. The Service
Agreement will be disclosed to you at the time of registration for that
subscription service.
F. Children
We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. Neither improvity.com
nor any of its services are designed or intended to attract children under the
age of 13. We do not collect Personally Identifiable Information from any
person we actually know is under the age of 13. A parent or guardian, however,
may use improvity.com Manager to establish a personal health record and a
improvity.com Manager home page for a minor. The parent or guardian is
solely responsible for providing supervision of the minor's use of
improvity.com Manager. The parent or guardian assumes full responsibility
for ensuring that the registration information is kept secure and that the
information submitted is accurate. The parent or guardian also assumes full
responsibility for the interpretation and use of any information or suggestions
provided through improvity.com Manager for the minor.
G. Market Research
From time to time the improvity.com market research department, or its
operations contractors acting on its behalf, conducts online research surveys
in order to gather feedback about our site, our sponsors and opinions on
important healthcare issues, through email invitations, pop-up surveys and
online focus groups.
When participating in a survey, we may ask you to submit Personally
Identifiable Information. This Personally Identifiable Information is
used for research purposes, and is not used for sales solicitations. When a
survey is sponsored by a third party, Aggregate Information
of the survey results is reported to the sponsor. Personally Identifiable
Information collected through market research will only be used by
improvity.com and its operations contractors and will not be given or sold
to a third party without your consent. While this site is not intended for
anyone under the age of 13, for market research surveys we will not knowingly
accept survey responses from or conduct interviews with any person under the
age of 18. Some surveys may provide remuneration to participants such a small
cash fee for your time or an entry into a sweepstakes for a larger prize. Each
survey will disclose whether or not there it is a paid survey.
In addition to collecting survey responses from our members, Cookies
may be used to authenticate respondents or to help you pick up where you left
off in a survey. If you have Cookies disabled you may not be able to
participate in some studies. Cookies may be used to connect survey data with
improvity.com site usage characteristics. You will be notified when we would
like to use Cookies in this way and your consent will be requested for these
Cookies.
ARTICLE 5: improvity.com - REGISTRATION, USE AND TOOLS
improvity.com Manager allows you a secure place to store your Personal Health
Information and provides tools and services in order to better manage your
health and the health of your family. improvity.com Manager requires
additional registration whether you access it through (i) improvity.com,
(ii) your employer's website or (iii) your healthcare sponsor's website.
Regardless of how you access the improvity.com Manager the following apply:
A. improvity.com Manager Home Page
Personal Health Information that you enter into one of the improvity.com
Manager tools is used to provide you personalized and clinically relevant
information on your personalized Health Manager home page and throughout the
Health Manager product. improvity.com Manager creates a personal home page
specifically for you. You control and authorize who can gain access to this
page.
B. Concept Unique Identifiers
improvity.com Manager tailors the information you receive on your personal
Health Manager home page to reflect your interests, concerns and personal
health characteristics. We attach a concept unique identifier (CUI) to every
piece of information that you provide us. For example, if you complete the
HealthQuotient and indicate that you have diabetes, that single piece of
information is tagged with a CUI that is specific to diabetes. Every user that
indicates he or she has diabetes receives this CUI tag. Each time you view your
personalized Health Manager pages, this CUI tag is matched to content from
improvity.com about diabetes, and if our automated algorithms determine that
this is likely to be an important topic to you, it will appear on your
personalized pages.
C. Aggregate Data
improvity.com Manager may combine, in a non-identifiable format, the Personal
Health Information you provide with information from other users to create
Aggregate Data that may be disclosed to third parties. Aggregate data
does not contain any information that could be used to contact or identify you.
For example, improvity.com Manager may use information gathered to create a
composite profile of all the users of a particular partner site. Partnering
websites may use this information to understand community needs and to design
appropriate programs and activities on their site. improvity.com Manager
will not disclose your Personal Health Information to any third party without
your prior permission.
D. Secure Message Center
improvity.com Manager has the ability to use Personally Identifiable
Information that you provide to send you personalized emails or secure
electronic messages. During registration for the improvity.com Manager, you
have the option of choosing whether you receive emails pertaining to your
health interests, including news, announcements, reminders and opportunities.
The improvity.com Manager email service requires an "Opt-in" authorization
from you.
Information that improvity.com Manager deems related to your personal health
characteristics, such as illnesses, diseases, medications and health risks,
will be delivered to you through the Secure Message Center on your personal
health home page.
If you decide, that you would prefer not to receive email or secure electronic
messaging from the improvity.com Manager tool, you may "Opt-out" of the
service by clicking on the settings tab on your Health Manager home page and
changing your email preference. If your employer has implemented the
improvity.com Manager on your behalf, you will receive email at your
work-related email address that has been authorized by your employer but to
which you have not specifically Opted-in. These emails will be sent in
accordance with instructions from your employer and you are not be able to
Opt-out of receiving such emails.
E. Interactive Tools on improvity.com Manager
Interactive tools within the improvity.com Manager, gather self-reported
Personal Health Information. In addition, certain of these tools can store
Personal Health Information coming from third party data interchange agreements
between your employer, health plan, pharmacy benefits manager and other third
parties that provide data interchange services. We maintain and limit the use
of that information to the Opt-in permission you have provided at the time you
use the tool.
F. Data Warehouse Analysis
Upon authorization by your health plan, healthcare provider or employer,
improvity.com Health Manager may send your Personal Health Information in a
form that cannot be used to personally identify or contact you to a data
warehouse for analysis of health trends and effectiveness of health programs.
We require these data warehouses to agree that they will not attempt to make
this information personally identifiable, such as by combining it with other
databases.
ARTICLE 6: Information Collected by Third Parties Not Acting on
Improvity Medical's Behalf
Sponsors or advertisers on improvity.com may use their own Cookies or Web
Beacons in the banner advertisements served on improvity.com and in emails,
special promotions or newsletters we send you. Some advertisers use companies
other than improvity.com 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 website 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 improvity.com to show
the ad, or to the advertiser's website); 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 except as may be described in connection with a
particular program. For example, in connection with "Ad Links" furnished by
Google, non-personal information sent by your browser to Google when you click
on an ad link or submit a query may be used by Google as described in its
privacy policy. In addition, Improvity Medical'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 website will
also allow you to review the Ad Server's privacy policies.
ARTICLE 7: DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION
Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy or as specifically agreed to by you,
improvity.com will not disclose any Personally Identifiable or Personal
Health Information it gathers from you on our website. We will only release
Personally Identifiable or Personal Health 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
Personally Identifiable or Personal Health Information to a third party, we
will attempt to notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court
order. In addition, we may disclose Personal Information as described below.
A. Disclosure to improvity.com Operations and Maintenance Contractors
improvity.com operations and maintenance contractors sometimes have limited
access to your Personally Identifiable Information in the course of providing
products or services to improvity.com. 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 improvity.com, 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 Personally Identifiable
Information by these contractors is limited to the information reasonably
necessary for the contractor to perform its limited function for
improvity.com. We also contractually require that our operations and
maintenance contractors 1) protect the privacy of your Personally Identifiable
Information consistent with this Privacy Policy, and 2) not use or disclose
your Personally Identifiable Information for any purpose other than providing
us with products and services.
B. Disclosure to Third Party Contractor Websites
Certain content and services offered to you through our website are served on
websites hosted and operated by a company other than improvity.com ("Third
Party Contractor Websites"). improvity.com does not disclose your Personally
Identifiable 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 websites is not subject to this Privacy Policy.
improvity.com 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 website to understand how that Third Party
Contractor Website collects and uses your Personally Identifiable Information.
improvity.com 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 before you visit the third part
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 improvity.com, then you
are on a website hosted by a company other than improvity.com.
improvity.com also provides links to sites provided by Third Party Contractor
Websites that have business arrangements with improvity.com to pay
commissions based on sales of products or services generated through
improvity.com. An example of this would be Veritas Medicine in our Clinical
Trials channel.
C. Disclosure to or by Co-branded Channel Partners
improvity.com is a contractor and provides co-branded content and services to
websites hosted and operated by companies other than improvity.com
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. The co-branded improvity.com pages that you
may access through a Channel Partner Website have different registration
processes and opportunities for information collection, and Personally
Identifiable Information that you provide on these pages may be shared with the
Channel Partners. improvity.com does not share Personal Health Information
with Channel Partner Websites without your consent. Each of these co-branded
improvity.com websites has its own privacy policy posted on that site, which
explains what information is disclosed by improvity.com to the Channel
Partner and vice versa. If you visit one of these co-branded improvity.com
sites, please read the privacy policy that is posted on that site, as well as
the individual privacy policy of the Channel Partner Website.
D. 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 improvity.com ("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. improvity.com does not disclose your Personal
Information to these Third Party Websites without obtaining your consent.
improvity.com Health 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 website to
understand how that Third Party Website collects and uses your Personally
Identifiable Information.
E. Disclosure of Aggregate Information
improvity.com may provide Aggregate Information to
third parties. For example, we might inform third parties regarding the number
of users of our website 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 require parties with whom we share Aggregate Information to
agree that they will not attempt to make this information personally
identifiable, such as by combining it with other databases.
ARTICLE 8: HOW improvity.com HANDLES PRIVACY AND
SECURITY INTERNALLY
Listed below are some of the security procedures that improvity.com uses to
protect your privacy:
-
Requires both a personal username and a password in order for users to access
their Personally Identifiable Information or Personal Health Information.
-
Uses firewalls to protect information held in our servers.
-
Utilizes Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption in transmitting Personally
Identifiable Information to our servers. In order to take advantage of
encryption technology, you must have an Internet browser which supports 128-bit
encryption.
-
Closely monitors the limited number of improvity.com employees who have
potential access to your Personally Identifiable Information.
-
Requires all improvity.com employees to abide by our Privacy Policy and be
subject to disciplinary action if they violate it.
-
Backs-up our systems to protect the integrity of your Personally Identifiable
and Personal Health Information.
improvity.com Manager provides additional protection for your Personal Health
Information as follows:
-
Maintains Audit Trails so you can know who has accessed your improvity.com
Manager record. This can be viewed by clicking on "Activity" in the Settings
window, which is accessible from your improvity.com Manager home page.
-
Provides secure messaging within the improvity.com Manager tool so that
information related to your personal health related characteristics is sent
through a secure, encrypted connection.
-
Provides geographic redundancy of improvity.com Manager servers which
enhances your ability to access your information by storing identical
information at two separate, secure locations. Both sites maintain physical
security through pass code locked door access and pass code authority.
-
Limits access to Personally Identifiable Information to authorized users.
improvity.com Health enables you to have full control over who has access to
your Personal Health Information. For example, you may decide to permit your
physician or other health care professional access to the personal health
information you maintain within our tools. Only the person who creates a record
can grant access to other users.
Despite improvity.com's efforts to protect your Personally Identifiable
Information and Personal Health Information, there is always some risk that an
unauthorized third party may find a way around our security systems or that
transmissions of your information over the Internet will be intercepted.
ARTICLE 9: UPDATING YOUR INFORMATION AND CONTACTING improvity.com
A. Updating Your Personally Identifiable Information
improvity.com tools that collect and store self-reported data allow you to
correct, update or review information you have submitted by going back to the
specific tool, logging-in and making the desired changes.
B. Removing your Personal Information
If you have a complaint or problem, please use our new
Customer Support Form. Our customer service department will forward
your complaint to the appropriate internal improvity.com department for a
response or resolution. We try to answer every email within 48 business hours,
but may not always able to do so. If you want to (1) delete your Personally
Identifiable Information from our systems, (2) update the Personally
Identifiable Information that you have provided to us, or (3) change your
preferences with respect to marketing contacts or other activities, you can
email us at
[email protected].
If you do not receive adequate resolution of a privacy related problem, you may
write to improvity.com's Privacy Help Desk at:
improvity.com
Attn: Office of Privacy
6170 Research Rd.
Frisco, TX 75034
Or call: 866-856-6827
C. Updating Your Personal Health Information in improvity.com Patient
Manager
Self Reported Information - Please log-in to the improvity.com Patient
Manager, access your "settings" tab, and the functions will show you how to
correct, update or review your information. We remove Personal Health
Information only at the request of the authorized user. In order to verify that
it is the authorized user requesting removal of his/her Personal Health
Information, we require you to send a signed statement, including your name,
address, email address and birth date, to the address below authorizing
improvity.com Patient Manager to remove your Personal Health Information
from our active databases and other readily searchable media. Upon receiving
your request, your personal health identifiers stored in active databases and
other readily searchable media will be removed so that you cannot be identified
or associated with any Personal Health Information you previously provided.
Mail your requests to:
improvity.com
Attn: Record Removal
6170 Research Rd.
Frisco, TX 75034
We will notify you after your personal health identifiers have been removed.
Professionally Sourced Health Information - For Personal Health Information at
improvity.com Patient Manager, your ability to correct, update or remove
previously provided Personally Identifiable or Personal Health Information only
covers information within the reasonable control of improvity.com Patient
Manager. We place certain restrictions on your ability to correct, update or
remove professionally sourced health information that you have authorized to be
entered into your improvity.com Patient Manager record. You may potentially
authorize physicians, other health care providers, health plans, hospital
systems, pharmacists or laboratories (or their respective websites) to provide
data into your improvity.com Patient Manager record. While you can remove
this professionally sourced information from your record for the purpose of
controlling the viewing or sharing of that information, improvity.com
Patient Manager will maintain an audit log, a notice of that transaction and a
copy of the information deleted.
D. Limitations on Removing or Changing Information
Upon your request, we will delete your Personally Identifiable or Personal
Health Information from our active databases and where feasible from our
back-up media. You should be aware that it is not technologically possible to
remove each and every record of the information you have provided to
improvity.com from our servers.
E. TRUSTe Watchdog
If you have contacted improvity.com about a privacy related concern and you
do not believe that the problem has been addressed, you may file a complaint
with TRUSTe.
ARTICLE 10: CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
Personally Identifiable Information - We will inform you if a material change to
the Privacy Policy is made that involves the use of your Personally
Identifiable Information. Your continued use of the improvity.com Web site
will indicate acceptance of the changes. You may of course choose to Opt-out of
continuing to use the improvity.com Web site. Please exit the site
immediately if you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy or any
revised policy.
Personal Health Information - We will inform you if a material change in the
Privacy Policy is made that involves the use of your Personal Health
Information, and your express Opt-in authorization will be requested. If you
choose to not accept the new privacy policy, then the current privacy policy
conditions will remain in effect, so long as improvity.com Patient Manager
continues to make the functionality available. improvity.com reserves the
right to discontinue or limit functionality in all its products including
improvity.com and improvity.com Patient Manager.
Non-Significant Changes – improvity.com may make non-significant changes to
the Privacy Policy that do no affect Personally Identifiable Information or
Personal Health Information. For these instances, improvity.com may not
notify the user of such non-significant changes.
ARTICLE 11: GLOSSARY
Aggregate Information or Data: As a
website gathers individual pieces of Non-Personal Information (see definition
below) from its users, it may combine similar data from many or all the users
of the website into one big "batch". For example, the site may add up the total number
of people in Peoria, Illinois, (but not their names) who are seeking
information about weight loss and compare that to the number of people in
Petaluma, California seeking the same information.
This sort of statistical information is called aggregate data because it
reflects the habits and characteristics of a large group of anonymous people.
Websites may use aggregate data or share it with their business partners so
that the information and services they provide best meet the needs of the
users. Aggregate data also helps advertisers and sponsors on the Web know how
effectively they are reaching and meeting the needs of their target audience.
browser: Short for web browser, a browser is software
application used to locate and display web (Internet) pages. The three most
popular browsers are AOL, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Netscape Navigator.
In addition, most modern browsers can present multimedia information, including
sound and video, though they require plug-ins for some formats.
cache (also called cache memory): Once your web browser
accesses a web page, it references that page and the graphics on it within your
computer's "cache" (or more simply, your computer takes a "snapshot" of every
page you visit and stores it in the "cache".) The next time you visit that same
page, your download time will be quicker as the images and much of the page is
already available on your computer for your browser to reference instantly
instead of waiting for the page and images to download again. improvity.com
Patient Manager does not cache pages.
Channel Partner Website: A third party website to whom
improvity.com Health provides content and services for that website's health
channel. Current Channel Partner Websites include AOL, MSN and Lycos.
Click Stream Information: A record of all the pages you have
visited during your visit to a particular website or the services you accessed
from the site or from an email. Click Stream Information is associated with
your browser and not with you personally. It records the archives of your
browser.
Cookie: A small data file that is stored
on the hard drive of the computer you use to view a website. Cookies are placed
by that site or by a third party with a presence on the site, such as an
advertiser using a Web Beacon (see definition below) and are accessible only by
the party or site that placed the Cookie (i.e. a Cookie placed on your computer
by improvity.com isn't accessed by any other site you visit but a Cookie
placed on your computer by an advertiser may be accessed by any site on which
that same advertiser has a presence). Cookies can contain pieces of Personally
Identifiable Information (PII). improvity.com encrypts any PII it
stores in its Cookies. These Cookies often are used to make the site easier to
use. For example, if you check a box to ask that we store your user name on
your computer so that you don't have to enter it each time you visit the site,
it's stored in a Cookie on your computer.
encryption: The translation of data into a secret code.
Encryption is the most effective way to achieve data security. To read an
encrypted file, you must have access to a secret key or password that enables
you to decrypt it. This is typically done by secure computer systems.
firewall: A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to
or from a public or private network. Firewalls can be implemented in both
hardware and software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used
to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private portions of
public networks. All messages entering or leaving the network pass through the
firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the
specified security criteria.
Non-Personal Information: Information
that is not traceable back to any individual and cannot be used to identify an
individual. For example, Click Stream Information is Non-Personal Information,
as is information such as gender, age, city and state when not linked with
other Personally Identifiable Information.
Opt-In: Means you are actively indicating your preference to
participate in a program, email, feature, tool, or enhancement on a website.
Typically, if you "Opt-in" you must provide certain information, usually
Personally Identifiable Information, to the website or otherwise actively
indicate your choice or preference to participate in the website program. For
example, if you wish to receive an appointment reminder by email from
improvity.com, you must enter your email address and choose the reminder
duration by checking a box next to a statement such as: "Yes, I'd like to
receive appointment reminders."
Opt-Out: Means that if you do not take some
action you are indicating your preference to participate in a program, email,
feature, tool or enhancement on a website. Typically, if you "Opt-out" you must
uncheck a box next to a stated preference or otherwise take some indicate
action to indicate your preference not to participate in a program. For
example, if you do not wish to receive promotional emails from improvity.com
or its sponsors, you must uncheck the box in your email preference center that
states: "Please send me special offers and communications from improvity.com
and/or its partners that would interest me."
password: A secret series of characters, typically alphanumeric
(meaning it consists of both letters and numbers) that enables a user to access
a file, computer, or program. The user must enter his or her password before
the computer or system will respond to commands. The password helps ensure that
unauthorized users do not access the system. In addition, data files and
programs may require a password.
Ideally, the password should be something that nobody could guess. In practice,
many people choose a password that is easy to remember, such as their name or
their initials. This is one reason it is relatively easy to break into many
computer systems.
Personal Health Information (PHI): When your
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is combined with known health
characteristics. For example, if you indicated that you have a certain disease
or condition, when that information is combined with your PII, it becomes
Personal Health Information.
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) (also called
Personal Information): Information that can be traced back to an
individual (contrast with Non-Personal Information and Aggregate Information).
Examples of PII include your name, home address, telephone number, email
address, and Social Security number.
If other pieces of information are linked to PII, they also become PII. For
example, if you use a nickname to chat online and give out your real name while
chatting, your nickname becomes PII when linked with other PII.
server: A computer that provides services to other computers. A
"web server" stores web site files and "serves" them to people who request
them.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer): A security protocol developed by
Netscape for transmitting private information via the Internet. SSL works by
using a private key to encrypt data that's transferred over the SSL connection.
Both Microsoft Internet Explorer
(http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/Internet_Explorer.htm) and Netscape Navigator
(http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/Navigator.htm) support SSL, and many Web sites
use the protocol to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card
numbers. By convention, URLs that utilize an SSL connection start with https:
instead of http.
username: A name used to gain access to a computer system or
program. Usernames, and often passwords, are required in shared systems, such
as the Internet. In most such systems, users can choose their own usernames and
passwords.
Usernames are also required to access some bulletin board and online services
such as improvity.com Patient Manager.
virus: A program or piece of code that is loaded onto your
computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also
"replicate" themselves by copying their code to other computers. All computer
viruses are manmade. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and
over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous
because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a
halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting
itself across networks and bypassing security systems. There are numerous virus
protection programs available. See the "How You Can Protect Yourself" section.
Web Beacons (also often referenced as
"clear GIFs", "web bugs", "1-by-1 GIFs", "Single-Pixal GIFs", "1 x 1 Pixals",
or "clear Pixals"): Tiny graphic image files, imbedded in a web page in GIF,
jpeg or HTML format, that provide a presence on the web page and send back to
its home server (which can belong to the host site, a network advertiser or
some other third party) information from the Users' browser, such as the IP
address, the URL of the page on which the beacon is located, the type browser
that is accessing the site and the ID number of any Cookies on the Users'
computer previously placed by that server. Web Beacons can also be used to
place a Cookie on the Users' browser.