Privacy Policy

The Central Texas Health Data Collaborative ("CTHDC") recognizes that its visitors, registered users, and others who use www.centexhealthdata.org (the "CTHDC Site" or the "Site") (collectively or individually "Users") value their privacy. This Privacy Notice details important information regarding the use and disclosure of User information collected on the CTHDC Site. CTHDC provides this Privacy Notice to help you make an informed decision about whether to use or continue using the CTHDC Site.

This Privacy Notice is incorporated into and is subject to the CTHDC Terms of Use. Your use of the CTHDC Sites and any personal information you provide on the CTHDC Sites remains subject to the terms of this Privacy Notice and our Terms of Use.

Please note that any data, document, information, link, or other content posted at the direction of Users onto the CTHDC Sites becomes published content and is not considered personally identifiable information subject to this Privacy Notice.

The Information CTHDC Collects

• User Provided Information: You provide certain personally identifiable information (such as your name, organization and email address) to CTHDC when choosing to participate in various activities on the CTHDC Site such as submitting links, uploading documents, and emailing report information to others.
• Cookies Information: When you visit the CTHDC Sites, we may send one or more cookies - a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters - to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. CTHDC uses both session cookies and persistent cookies. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser. Persistent cookies may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the site. Persistent cookies can be removed by following your web browser help file directions. A session cookie is temporary and disappears after you close your browser. You can reset your web browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some features of the CTHDC Sites may not function properly if the ability to accept cookies is disabled.
• Log File Information: When you use the CTHDC Site, our servers automatically record certain information that your web browser sends whenever you visit any website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type, browser language, referring/exit pages and URLs, platform type, number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the amount of time spent on particular pages, the date and time of your request, and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.
• Clear GIFs Information: When you use the CTHDC Site, we may employ "clear GIFs" (a.k.a. Web Beacons) which are used to track the online usage patterns of our Users anonymously (i.e., in a non-personally-identifiable manner). In addition, we may also use clear GIFs in HTML-based emails sent to our users to track which emails are opened by recipients.

The Way CTHDC Uses Information

• If you submit personally identifiable information to us through the CTHDC Sites, then we use your personal information to operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of the CTHDC Site.
• Any personal information or content that you voluntarily disclose online (e.g., in a report summary information) becomes publicly available and can be collected and used by others. Any data, document, information and link that you submit to the CTHDC Sites may be redistributed through the internet and other media channels, and may be viewed by the general public.
• We do not use your email address or other personally identifiable information to send commercial or marketing messages. We may, however, use your email address without further consent for non-marketing or administrative purposes (such as notifying you of major CTHDC Site changes or for customer service purposes).
• We use both your personally identifiable information and certain non-personally-identifiable information (such as anonymous User usage data, cookies, IP addresses, browser type, clickstream data, etc.) to improve the quality and design of the CTHDC Site and to create new features, promotions, functionality, and services by storing, tracking, and analyzing User preferences and trends.
• We use cookies, clear gifs, and log file information to: (a) monitor the effectiveness of the CTHDC Site; (b) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, pages viewed, etc.; and (c) track your submissions and entries to the CTHDC Site.

When CTHDC Discloses Information

• We provide personally identifiable information and non-personally-identifiable information to our Collaborative members, or other businesses or persons for the purpose of processing such information on our behalf. We require that these parties agree to process such information in compliance with our privacy policy, and we use reasonable efforts to limit their use of such information and to use other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
• We do not share your personally identifiable information (such as name or email address) with other, third-party companies.
• We do share non-personally-identifiable information (such as anonymous User usage data, referring / exit pages and URLs, platform types, number of clicks, etc.) with interested partners and third-parties to assist them in understanding the usage patterns for certain content, services, and/or functionality on the CTHDC Site.
• We may release personally identifiable information and/or non-personally-identifiable information if required to do so by law, or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws (such as U.S. Copyright Law) or respond to a court order, subpoena, or search warrant.
• CTHDC also reserves the right to disclose personally identifiable information and/or non-personally-identifiable information that CTHDC believes, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to enforce our Terms of Use, take precautions against liability, to investigate and defend itself against any third-party claims or allegations, to assist government enforcement agencies, to protect the security or integrity of our web site, and to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of CTHDC, our Users or others.

Your Choices

You may, of course, decline to submit personally identifiable information through the CTHDC Site, in which case CTHDC may not be able to provide certain services to you—namely, the option to submit reports to the CTHDC Site. You may update or correct your personal profile information and email preferences at any time by visiting your account profile page. Please note that links and files uploaded by Users to the CTHDC Site remain subject to our Terms of Use.

To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps (such as requesting a unique password) to verify your identity before granting you profile access or making corrections. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information at all times.

Please contact CTHDC with any questions or comments about this Privacy Notice, your personal information, and your consent using this contact form.

Our Commitment To Data Security

CTHDC uses commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of your personal information. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to CTHDC and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission of information, CTHDC makes commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the security of our systems. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.

If CTHDC learns of a security systems breach, then we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. CTHDC may post a notice on the CTHDC Sites if a security breach occurs. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive a free written notice of a security breach (or to withdraw your consent from receiving electronic notice) you should notify us using this contact form.

Special Note to International Users

The CTHDC Sites are hosted in the United States and are intended for and directed to Users in the United States. If you are a User accessing the CTHDC Sites from the European Union, Asia, or any other region with laws or regulations governing personal data collection, use, and disclosure, that differ from United States laws, please be advised that through your continued use of the CTHDC Sites, which are governed by U.S. law, this Privacy Notice, and our Terms of Use, you are transferring your personal information to the United States and you consent to that transfer.

In the Event of Merger, Sale, or Bankruptcy

In the event that CTHDC is acquired by or merged with a third party entity, we reserve the right, in any of these circumstances, to transfer or assign the information we have collected from our Users as part of such merger, acquisition, sale, or other change of control. In the unlikely event of our bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, receivership, or assignment for the benefit of creditors, or the application of laws or equitable principles affecting creditors’ rights generally, we may not be able to control how your personal information is treated, transferred, or used.

Changes and updates to this Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice may be revised periodically and this will be reflected by the “effective date” below. Please revisit this page to stay aware of any changes. In general, we only use your personal information in the manner described in the Privacy Notice in effect when we received the personal information you provided. Your continued use of the CTHDC Site constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Notice and any future revisions.

For revisions to this Privacy Notice that may be materially less restrictive on our use or disclosure of the personal information you have already provided to us, we will attempt to obtain your consent before implementing such revisions with respect to such information.

Date Last Modified:

This Privacy Notice was last modified May 15, 2007.

Contact Information:

Please contact CTHDC with any questions or comments about this Privacy Notice using this contact form.