Privacy Policy
We understand the very personal nature of much of the information exchanged within the CarePlace community, and it is very important to us that community members make informed decisions about how you use the site. Thus, we hope you will take a few minutes to read about how we protect the information you share.
Privacy is at the heart of the CarePlace community. CarePlace's Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand not only how we treat and protect the information you create on the site, but also how the rules of the site are constructed to preserve your privacy. We work hard to uphold your trust in our community, and this policy reflects how seriously we take this responsibility. This is why we require all members and employees of CarePlace to read, agree to, and accept the terms of this Privacy Policy before joining the CarePlace community. Please check this page periodically for any changes. We will usually bring revised policies to your attention; however, we reserve the right to modify or update this Privacy Policy at any time without notice and such revisions will be effective upon posting to this page. Your continued use of the site following the posting of any revisions to this policy will mean that you accept any and all changes.
If you have questions after reading CarePlace's Privacy Policy, please let us know by using the contact information at the end of this policy. If you feel concerned about your privacy or privacy issues within the CarePlace community, please alert us immediately.
Thank you,
The CarePlace Team
Information we collect
When you visit the CarePlace.com website ("CarePlace"), there are two types of information that you provide and that we collect.
The first type of information you create yourself -- your postings, your profile, your journals, etc. We may draw upon this information in order to adapt the services of our community to your needs, to research the effectiveness of our network, and to develop new tools for the community. Information particular to you (your name, age, medical conditions, contact information, social security number, credit card information, etc) will not be shared by CarePlace with other members or with outside parties. For more information on this aspect of the Privacy Policy please read the sections entitled "Sharing of Your Information with Third Parties" and "Sharing of Non-Personal Information with Third Parties" below.
The second type of information is gathered as you and other members navigate the site. As you browse the site, we collect information such as what browser type you use, your screen size, your computer's operating system, your IP address, and where your computer is located. This sort of information is collected by many, many wesbites visited by millions of users, and is not unique to CarePlace. When you sign in, we create a "cookie" on your computer that allows us to associate your session with your account. A cookie is a piece of data stored on a member's computer that is tied to this type of member information. When you sign out or close your web browser, the cookie is removed from your computer. Your browser is probably set to accept cookies, but if it is not then you should reconfigure it to do so. You may decline to provide personal information to us and/or to refuse to accept cookies, although some of our features or services may not function properly as a result. CarePlace is not responsible for cookies placed on your computer by advertisers or third parties. At no time will advertisers or third parties have access to CarePlace cookies.
How we work to secure the site
Your greatest security risk will probably be your password, so we ask that you: 1) choose a password that only you will know, and 2) that you never, under any circumstances, share your CarePlace password with anyone else. We take many precautions to defend your information against unauthorized access and use. Your information is placed behind "firewalls," which are barriers preventing data on one computer from being accessed by another computer. We take other physical, electronic and procedural precautions to safeguard your information as well. The availability of your information to other members of the CarePlace community is regulated by you in your privacy settings. Please remember that if you choose to provide personal or medical information on community message boards, or in community or other on-line discussions, that information is governed by the privacy settings of that particular CarePlace group and may be available to the general CarePlace membership. Individuals reading this information may use or disclose it to other individuals or entities without your knowledge. Therefore, when using community message boards and discussion groups, we urge you to think carefully about including any specific information (medical or otherwise) that might be used to identify you or your family members.
When you invite someone to join the CarePlace community, please be aware that this is one exception when we do disclose your real name (an invitation containing your name will be sent to the email address of the person you wish to invite). This information is necessary to make sure your invitee knows who has contacted them. To build a community based on trust and empathy, we feel this disclosure is necessary.
Apart from the information you choose to share with other members, access to your personal information is restricted to employees of CarePlace, Inc., our contractors and our agents who need to know that information in order to improve the CarePlace community and its services. These people have signed confidentiality agreements and, if they fail to preserve this confidence, they are subject to disciplinary action, including losing their job, and potential criminal prosecution.
Should you ever decide to delete your CarePlace account, you may do so by visiting the My Account page and choosing "delete your account." If you terminate your account, your profile, including any messages in your inbox, will be removed from the site and deleted from CarePlace's servers. Because of the way we maintain CarePlace, such deletion may not be immediate, and residual copies of your profile information or posts may remain on backup media.
Understanding and using your privacy settings is very important
Every member can define their own privacy settings. If you have not done so already, we urge you to go to your privacy settings so as to guarantee that your information is shown only to the members or groups of your choice. Please understand that while your privacy settings apply to other members of the CarePlace community, they do not apply to CarePlace employees, contractors, and agents in their capacity to maintain and improve the website. As described above, these individuals are bound to maintain your privacy by confidentiality agreements.
Once you have registered as a CarePlace member, please note that you are required to observe our Terms of Use, which are designed to enable the community to function to the benefit of all users.
In order to participate in certain group discussions, you may be required to provide more contact information to the other members of a particular group than your privacy settings allow. There is usually a good reason for this: for example, the group may wish to block anonymous or semi-anonymous submissions for the purpose of creating an open community dialogue. In this case, you may choose not to change your privacy settings and therefore you will not be able to participate in the group; or you may choose to alter your settings to allow this group to see more of your information than the average CarePlace member. You will be prompted to do this when you try to join the group.
Your privacy settings are very adaptable and they can be adjusted by many different criteria, both in terms of who can see your information (your supporters, for example) and what information you reveal (specific journals or specific groups). As you navigate the CarePlace community you should choose settings that promote both the usefulness of the site and your own well-being. We are continually adapting these settings to the needs of our members, so please check the privacy settings page often.
How we deal with links placed on the site
The CarePlace community contains many links to outside sources, both ones we have added ourselves and ones that members have submitted. While we make every effort to provide links only to those sites that share our respect for your privacy, we cannot take responsibility for the content or privacy policies of those sites, nor are we responsible for those links submitted by members. We encourage our members to review carefully the privacy policies of the web sites they visit.
We do ask that you report obscene or faulty links and we will respond as quickly as we can.
We cannot tolerate misrepresentation
Because we respect the privacy and well being of all our users, we cannot tolerate users who misrepresent themselves or circulate blatantly false information. There is a serious difference between a member operating in discrete anonymity and another operating through intentional deception. The CarePlace community belongs in great part to the former, and it rejects the latter.
We ask you to be a thoughtful member of our community and report suspected misrepresentation. Once individuals guilty of harmful misrepresentation are brought to our attention, all the information they have submitted, including their member profile, will be retained for our records and deleted from the community.
How we protect minors
We do not allow people under the age of 13 to be members in the CarePlace community, and we strongly recommend that those under the age of 18 receive permission from their parents before posting any information about themselves in the community, or anywhere else on the internet for that matter. Given the nature of some groups on CarePlace and the need to discuss and disclose information related to health matters that may be deemed inappropriate for minors, we also ask that parents regulate the use of the site by minors to make sure that the information they see is appropriate.
How we protect your personal information from third parties
Your personal or posted information is never shared with outside parties except if we are required to do so by law or if we have a good-faith belief that the use or disclosure of the information is necessary to (a) protect your rights and safety, those of other members, or those of the CarePlace community; (b) guarantee compliance with our Terms of Use, or to investigate their potential violation; or (c) identify, isolate or prevent security breaches or fraud.
Non-personal information, such as the number of members on the site, may be shared with third parties
We may collect certain aggregate, non-personal, statistical information about our users and share this non-personal information with outside parties (for example, the number of members who searched for information about a particular disease; how many members clicked on a particular advertisement; number of users aged 35 or older). Such information will never identify you individually.
How we deal with third party advertisers
The advertisements you see in the CarePlace community are designed and delivered by our corporate partners. We take great care in monitoring advertisements that are shown to the community. However, due to constant updates we cannot take responsibility for everything that is shown. If you find one of the advertisements in our community to be offensive, please make a marketing complaint.
It is very important that you understand the way in which our targeted advertising works. We do display targeted advertising based on personal information, but this information is never given to the actual advertiser. Instead, they ask us to provide services to members that fit their description -- we handle the rest. An example of an advertiser's request would be to show their service to men aged over 35 years living near the Great Lakes. We do not have control of the cookies placed on your computer by advertisers on their sites. However, even though we never disclose your information, you, by interacting with or viewing an ad, are consenting to the possibility that the advertiser will make the assumption that you meet the targeting criteria used to display the ad. Basically, by clicking on one of these ads your actions will define you as fitting the advertiser's request even though CarePlace has not and will not disclose any personal information to advertisers or other third parties.
How we deal with policy changes
As with every aspect of our community, we are constantly making changes and improvements to the CarePlace Privacy Policy. Be sure to check back from time to time because this policy is subject to change without notice. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by placing a prominent notice on our site, by posting to company blogs, or by messaging you through the CarePlace private messaging system.
In the case that CarePlace becomes acquired by or merged with another company, CarePlace will notify you before information about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
Extra information
CarePlace regularly and studiously reviews its compliance with this policy.
CarePlace is not a healthcare provider, insurer, or clearinghouse and is therefore not subject to the privacy and security regulations issued under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA"). HIPAA, however, serves as a model for the importance with which CarePlace regards your privacy, and the fact that we are not bound by HIPAA does not reflect how seriously we take our responsibility. As the services CarePlace offers expand and we work with business partners who are subject to HIPAA, we will take steps to ensure that our website and operations comply with all applicable HIPAA privacy and security requirements. For more information about HIPAA or our compliance, see the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website.
The CarePlace community also adheres to the privacy principles of United States-European Union Safe Harbor Accord of 2000. For more information about the Safe Harbor framework or our registration, see the Department of Commerce's website.
Further information about the CarePlace community and CarePlace, Inc. is available here.
If you have additional questions or suggestions, please contact us by email at any time, or write to us at:
Privacy Matters
c/o CarePlace, Inc.
1166 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138 (USA)
March 6, 2006