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