EBSCO Publishing Privacy Policy for Health Library
Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to clearly state how EBSCO Publishing operates its Health Library website(s) and how information (if any) is collected from users and used EBSCO Publishing.
The Policy
Introduction
EBSCO Publishing is a leader in setting ethical standards for Internet consumer health websites and our policy is to respect and protect the privacy of our users. We present this policy to give you a clear understanding of how we operate our website and how we collect information from you and how it is used by us.
The information you provide, whether it is when you research a topic of interest or elect to register for certain services, is personal to you. EBSCO Publishing will not disclose your personal health information or the subjects that you search while visiting EBSCO Publishing (or a member of the EBSCO Publishing Network) to third parties without your consent.
Registration
EBSCO Publishing does not require users to register in order to gain access to the Health Library.
There may be some services that EBSCO Publishing does license that require registration.
Aggregate Data
EBSCO Publishing collects data from the Web logs of the servers—the computers that “serve up” Web pages—delivering the EBSCO Publishing -copyright-owned content sources. This includes information about what you view and, along with information gathered from our other users, we create “aggregate data” reports that we may disclose to third parties. The third parties with whom we share aggregate data with may include our “Information Partners,” or the companies, organizations, and professional societies that supply us the medical information that you access, and applicable members of the EBSCO Publishing Network. The EBSCO Publishing Network consists of those hospitals and other websites with which EBSCO Publishing has an agreement to provide content. For example, if you visit us from one of the hospitals to which we supply content, we will aggregate the data about what information you used while on the site with other visitors from that site and supply it to the sponsoring hospital. EBSCO Publishing may also study aggregate data from the entire EBSCO Publishing Network in order to enhance existing services or develop new services. EBSCO Publishing will not disclose any individually identifiable information to a third party without your express prior written authorization.
Medical Information and Minors
EBSCO Publishing does not operate a commercial website or an online service directed to children under 13 years of age. The Company does not collect personal information from children, nor operate a general audience website that collects personal information. To ensure that the Company stays in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), EBSCO Publishing reviews the details of COPPA on an annual basis.
EBSCO Publishing’s content and other services are not written, intended, or designed for children under the age of 13.
Use of IP Addresses
An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web. Many Web servers automatically identify your computer by its IP address.
EBSCO Publishing collects IP addresses from the Web server logs for the purposes of system administration, to report aggregate information to our clients through whose websites you access EBSCO Publishing’s content, and to audit the use of our site. When users request pages from EBSCO Publishing, our servers log the users’ IP addresses. We do not normally link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable, which means that a user’s session will be logged, but the user remains anonymous to us. We can and will use IP addresses to identify a user when we feel it is necessary to enforce compliance with our house rules or terms of service or to protect our service, site, customers, or others.
Use of Cookies
Cookies are used for record keeping and to track your movements when you visit a website. The use of cookies is an industry standard—you’ll find them used at most websites, including health-related ones.
There are two types of cookies: persistent and session. Persistent cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to an individual’s hard drive for record-keeping purposes. EBSCO Publishing’s Health Library platform does not use persistent cookies and, therefore, does not place bits of computer code found with cookies on your computer. EBSCO Publishing does utilize session cookies that enable you to navigate the content that you use during your visit. Session cookies do not give us access to any personally identifiable information about you.
EBSCO Publishing’s Health Library platform uses session cookies with one single purpose in mind: to help you better understand and navigate areas of the EBSCO Publishing service that our users find valuable. While this activity depends on the use of a session cookie, visitors to EBSCO Publishing always have the option of disabling cookies via their browser settings.
We do not control cookies from the other sites that you may link to from EBSCO Publishing.
Links to Other Sites
EBSCO Publishing may provide links to an external website; these links are for information purposes only. When you click on such a link, another window will open, signifying that you are leaving EBSCO Publishing content. The privacy policy of the external website is in effect, not EBSCO Publishing’s. Although EBSCO Publishing endeavors to make sure that the site you are linking to is a source of accurate, relevant, and balanced information, EBSCO Publishing neither controls nor makes an endorsement of any kind regarding the external site.
Links to external websites are selected based on an individual author’s assessment of: (1) source, (2) accuracy, (3) relevance, and (4) balance. The Clinical Editor has final discretion as to whether an embedded link meets these criteria. All content links undergo editorial review for content and functionality on the same schedule as the content in which they are embedded.
EBSCO Publishing’s policy does not extend to anything that is inherent in the operation of the Internet, and therefore beyond EBSCO Publishing’s control, and is not to be applied in any manner contrary to applicable law or governmental regulation.
Email Addresses
When you send emails to "Support", we reasonably expect to receive the emails. However, due to the volume of questions we receive, we are unable to answer them all. The senders' email addresses sent are not stored any longer than 30 days and we do not use identifying personal information for any other purpose although it may be included in anonymous, aggregated statistical information. (See Aggregate Data section of Privacy Policy.)
When you click on "Send to a friend" at the top of some of our pages, we will ask for your email address and the address of the person receiving the page URL and you also may add personal comments. The email address of the receiver of the page URL will not be used for any other purpose than to send the page URL and any personal comments you added. EBSCO Publishing does not store either your email address or the address of the person receiving the page URL.
Security
The importance of security for all personally identifiable information associated with our users is of utmost concern to us. The level of security is established by the member of the EBSCO Publishing Network. You can determine the security status of the site by looking at the url: urls that start with “https: “ are secure sites.
EBSCO Publishing cannot completely ensure the privacy of email communications to and from our site because they are not encrypted and, therefore, not secure. These communications, like most Internet email, could be intercepted without your knowledge and permission, while in transit to or from our site. This includes email you send to us through our various mailboxes, and URL information emailed from our site to others using the "Send to a friend" feature. If you are concerned about your privacy, we suggest that you do not use email to communicate information to us that you consider sensitive.
Once we have information that we may have obtained while you have visited a site on the EBSCO Publishing Network, we store this information on database servers at the EBSCO Publishing facilities, that are housed in Ipswich, Massachusetts. EBSCO Publishing maintains a security presence, pass code locked doors access, and pass code authority.
Although EBSCO Publishing will make every effort to safeguard your personal information, you should know that no site could warrant that it is 100% secure from “hackers” who might learn how to evade security systems or intercept transmissions over the Internet.
Effect of Legal Obligations Upon EBSCO Publishing's Privacy Policy
EBSCO Publishing may disclose user information in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) EBSCO Publishing’s rights or property, other EBSCO Publishing users, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities. EBSCO Publishing may disclose user information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it. In the event that we are compelled to disclose personal and/or health-related personal information, we will notify affected users, if the law allows, before making the required disclosure.
Changes in EBSCO Publishing’s Privacy Policy
EBSCO Publishing will only use the information we learn about you in the manner described in the Privacy Policy in effect when the information was collected from you. However, we reserve the right to change the terms of this Privacy Policy at any time by posting revisions to our site. If, at any time, we wish to use personal information about you in a manner drastically different than what we’ve described here, we will make every effort to contact you if you have given us your email address or to make sufficient public announcements that, in our sole discretion, give you ample opportunity to ask that we delete any personal information we have about you in our files. We encourage you to visit our site occasionally to learn about any changes in our Privacy Policy.
Removal of Information
You may request that we delete any personal information we may have collected about you (such as email address) from our computers by contacting us directly using any of the following:
1. Email your request to: information@epnet.com
2. Call 800-653-2726 or 978-356-6500 and ask for Health Library Customer Support
3. Send regular mail to:
EBSCO Publishing
Attn: Customer Support
10 Estes St.
Ipswich, MA 01938
Due to our regular schedule for creating back-ups for our active databases and the need to retain accurate business records, it is impossible for us to remove each and every occurrence of any information that you have provided to us or that we may have learned about your searching habits. However, we will remove such information from our active files immediately upon receipt from you of any such request.
Last reviewed March 2010 by EBSCO Publishing Consumer Health Editorial Staff
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
