The
Houston Stat Medical Supply & Equipment, Inc. (HSME)
takes seriously the privacy of its web site users
and the security of their personal information. We
have prepared this Website Privacy Policy to help
you understand how we may collect, use and
disseminate your personal information as you take
advantage of the various offerings on our web site.
By using this web site, you agree to the terms of
this policy, as amended from time to time. We ask
you to read this Website Privacy Policy carefully.
This Website Privacy Policy may change periodically,
so please check back from time to time. Any
questions or comments about this Website Privacy
Policy should be directed to the HSME site
coordinator at webmaster@houstonstatmedical.com
This policy describes and explains:
The types of personally identifiable information
collected from you and how the HSME may use such
information;
The parties with whom your personal information may
be shared;
Your ability to access, review, edit and/or delete
your personal information;
Your options regarding the HSME's collection, use
and dissemination of your personal information;
The security measures in place to safeguard your
personal information;
Privacy issues relating to the personal information
of children;
Your acceptance of the terms; and
Contacting us.
The HSME has a separate Privacy Policy that applies
to Personal Health Information that the HSME may
obtain if you are one of our patients.
(1) What information does the HSME collect? How
does the HSME use my information?
The HSME gathers from you a variety of information
as you take advantage of our services.
Personal Information. The HSME collects personal
information in different ways, including, without
limitation, when you register on our site and
whenever you complete online surveys or forms, or
notify the HSME of any problems or complaints. The
information that the HSME collects may include,
without limitation; contact information (name, email
address, birth date, gender, zip code, occupation,
industry and personal interests), country-specific
or other unique identifiers, financial information
(credit card numbers), demographic information (zip
code, age and income levels), and information
regarding your interest in various health topics or
services offered by the HSME. At the HSME, we
endeavor to indicate that your disclosure of certain
information is optional when we do not consider it
mandatory.
Generally, the HSME will use your personal
information as follows:
We use contact information to contact you when
necessary. We also may use this information to send
you information about the HSME, which you may
opt-out of as described below.
We use unique identifiers to verify your identity
and for use in our record system.
We may use demographic and profile data to tailor
your experience at our site. This data allows us to
deliver content that we think may be of interest to
you and to display content according to your
preferences.
The HSME monitors the use of its web site and
collects aggregate information to monitor the use of
the site. No personally identifiable data are
collected in this process. Typically, the number of
visitors to the site, to each web page and the
originating domain name of the visitor’s Internet
service provider are collected. This information is
used to understand the visitor’s use of the web
site. We may perform statistical analyses of the
behaviors and characteristics of our visitors in
order to measure interest in and use of the various
areas of our Web site. We may share with our member
institutions, government sponsors of clinical
trials, advertisers and other companies with which
we do business, this statistical information, as
well as the number of users that have been exposed
to or clicked on various features of the HSME site.
If you do not wish to receive correspondence
relating to the HSME or other related information,
please indicate your preference by opting-out as
described below.
Any personal information that you disclose to us
will be used by the HSME in accordance with this
Website Privacy Policy. If you ask us to not use
this information as a basis for further contact with
you, we will endeavor to respect your request. By
submitting any personal information to the HSME, you
consent to the collection, storing, and processing
of your personal information, including information
about your health, by the HSME. Keep in mind that
while your personal information is displayed on the
screen it is not secure.
Information from your computer. In addition to the
collection of personal information, our Web site
recognizes certain information about your computer,
such as the browser, operating system, IP address
and home server from which you access the Internet.
We keep track of the domains from which people visit
our site. Your IP address is used to help identify
you, gather broad demographic data, identify trends
and statistics, help diagnose problems with our
server and administer our Web site. We will use your
IP address information when compiling and reporting
aggregate information to companies doing business
with us. We normally do not link IP addresses to any
personally identifiable information; however, when
we feel it is appropriate to enforce compliance with
our terms of service or to protect our service,
site, customers, visitors or others, we may use IP
addresses and other such information to identify a
visitor.
Cookies. Our site uses “cookies” to provide us
certain information about you. Cookies are pieces of
data sent from a web site to your browser and then
stored on your hard drive. Cookies track and save
your preferences while you are at our site, and we
may use this information to tailor your experience
and provide you with customized information. Our
site uses cookies to deliver interest-specific
content, track visitor trends and practices, to save
your password so you do not have to enter it every
time you visit our site, to store member names and
passwords, store and retrieve log-in information and
to ensure that you do not see the same advertisement
repeatedly. In addition, cookies allow us to measure
and report aggregate information. Also, cookies help
us determine the popular areas of our site by
tracking hits to those areas. By modifying your
browser preferences, you have the choice to accept
cookies, receive notification when a cookie is sent
or reject cookies.
Other Information Practices. We reserve the right to
use or disclose information, as we deem appropriate
to help us provide our services, to maintain and
operate our web site, or to protect our web site,
our systems, or our visitors. Further, in addition
to the situations described above, we may disclose
visitor information in special instances when we
have reason to believe disclosure is appropriate to
identify, contact or bring legal action against
someone who may be causing injury to or interfering
with the HSME's rights or property, other HSME users
or anyone else. We may disclose user information
when subpoenaed for government investigations and
when we otherwise believe in good faith that the law
requires such disclosure.
(2) To whom will my
information be disclosed?
The HSME reserves the right to disclose information
collected from you to the HSME’s personnel and
appropriate personnel at HSME’s member institutions,
clinical trial sponsors, as well as our affiliates.
This is a mandatory term of this Privacy Policy that
you cannot opt-out of. By using our web site, you
indicate your acceptance of this term and
acknowledge that your personal information may be
shared with such institutions and affiliates, and
any entity directly or indirectly acquiring all or a
majority of the HSME’s assets.
The HSME may, from time to time, share information
received from you or your computer with other
persons or entities. Such other companies may
include those which provide services to us, such as
consultants, web server and email hosting services,
and the like. We reserve the right to distribute
your information to third parties at any time,
unless you opt out by asking us to remove your
information from our databases and discontinue
providing you with information about our products or
services (except with respect to disclosures in
accordance with the previous paragraph).
The HSME site contains links to other web sites.
Links to other web sites are provided as a free
service to visitors. This Privacy Policy does not
apply to those sites. The HSME does not endorse,
sponsor or recommend these sites and does not take
responsibility for the data policies or procedures
or the content of such linked sites. We are not
responsible for the privacy practices or the content
of these other sites. You should check the privacy
policies of these other web sites when providing
personally identifiable information.
(3) How can I delete my information?
You may, at any time, request the removal from our
database any information we maintain on you by
contacting our web site by email at webmaster@houstonstatmedical.com.
We will endeavor to comply with any request to
remove your information.
(4) What are my options regarding the HSME’s
collection, use and dissemination of my information?
If you are at least 14 years of age, information you
provide to us may be used as described above and for
other educational, research, or other purposes by
the HSME and/or companies doing business with us. If
you want to opt out of any of these services or any
other future communications, you can do so by
sending an email with your request to webmaster@houstonstatmedical.com.
(5) What security measures are in place with
respect to my information?
The HSME cannot and does not ensure or warrant the
security of any information we receive from you. You
transmit information to us at your own risk. Once we
receive your transmission, we try to ensure its
security on our systems. The HSME’s policy is to
store personal data on a secure server which is
password protected and shielded from the outside
world by a firewall.
You are solely responsible for protecting the
security of your password. We recommend that you not
disclose your password to anyone else, and that you
take all reasonable steps to protect the integrity
of your password, such as logging off when you are
away from your computer.
(6) What about the privacy rights of children?
We are committed to protecting the privacy interests
of children. Therefore, we do not knowingly collect
any personally identifiable information from
children under 14 years of age. If a child under 14
years of age wants to participate on our web site,
we encourage the child's parents to participate in
his or her experience on our site.
(7) How do I accept the terms of this Privacy
Policy?
By using our web site, you agree to the terms of
this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this
Privacy Policy or any of its terms, please do not
use our site. The HSME reserves the right to amend
this policy at any time. Your use of our web site
following the posting of changes or amendments to
this Privacy Policy constitutes acceptance of such
changes and amendments.
(8) How can I contact the HSME?
The HSME welcomes feedback and questions on its web
site and this Website Privacy Policy. If for any
reason you wish to contact us, or have any questions
about this Website Privacy Policy or this site,
please do so by sending an email with your request
to webmaster@houstonstatmedical.com.
(9) How can I obtain or correct my information?
With few exceptions, you are entitled upon request
to be informed about the information that the HSME
has collected about you. Under Sections 552.021 and
552.023 of the Texas Government Code, you are
entitled to receive and review such information.
Under Section 559.004 of the Texas Government Code,
you are entitled to have the HSME correct
information about you that is incorrect. The HSME
will endeavor to keep and retain your information
for at least as long as any applicable Texas law
requires for such records. |
