|
The
Hivanon.org Project Privacy Policy
We need
your help to build a new online community.
A community of people “affected” by
HIV sharing health information and life
experience in a safe and supportive
environment.
We know that we are ALL
“affected”.
We are
community whose collective voice can be
expressed through HIVANON, empowered by
the voices of many and enriched by the
spectrum of experiences we represent. In
an effort to develop a better global
understanding about HIV disease and its
effects on the population of people
worldwide, we will use this website as a
forum for conversation and a tool to
collect the wisdom and information our
users are willing to share with us. The
more you share, the more effective we can
be.
Our
Commitment to Privacy
We
realize that asking you to share
information about your health is asking a
lot. In order to begin to earn your trust,
we provide this Privacy Policy explaining
our online information practices and the
choices you can make about the way your
information may be collected and used. We
promise to protect information that
personally identifies you (“Personal
Information”) with the same vigor we
would employ to protect our own. We are a
company conceived, developed, and managed
by HIV+ persons and those who have spent
their lives and careers caring for them.
We understand how important your privacy
is. To make the Privacy Policy easy to
find, we make a link to it available on
our homepage and at every point where
Personal Information may be requested.
Hivanon.org,
is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy
Program. TRUSTe is an independent,
non-profit organization whose mission is
to enable individuals and organizations to
establish trusting relationships based on
respect for personal identity and
information by promoting the use of fair
information practices. This privacy
statement covers the site www.hivanon.org.
Because we want to demonstrate our
commitment to our users’ privacy, we
have agreed to disclose our privacy
practices and have them reviewed for
compliance by TRUSTe.
If
users have questions or concerns regarding
this statement, you should first contact mailto:customerservice@hivanon.org
If you do not receive
acknowledgment of your inquiry or it is
not satisfactorily addressed, you should
then contact TRUSTe through the TRUSTe
Watchdog Dispute Resolution Process at
https://www.truste.org/pvr.php?page=complaint.
TRUSTe will serve as a liaison with the
Web site to resolve users concerns.
We will
inform you of the following in this
Privacy Policy:
- What
information Hivanon.org collects
- Who
is collecting the information
- How
Hivanon.org will use the information
we collect
- With
whom the information may be shared
- What
choices you have regarding collection,
use and distribution of your
information
- What
kind of security procedures
Hivanon.org has in place to protect
the loss, misuse or alteration of
information under our control
- How
you can correct any inaccuracies in
the information
Back
to Top
Information
Collection
Hivanon.org
is the sole owner of the information
collected on www. Hivanon.org. We collect
information from our users at several
different points on our website as
described below. Hivanon.org does not
share, sell, rent, or trade Personal
Information with third parties for
promotional purposes.
Registration
You
may use much of Hivanon.org website
without registering or submitting any
Personal Information. In that case, the
only information we collect will be
non-personal information collected through
the use of cookies (see details below).
We
have provided certain services and
features of the site which, by their very
nature, require registration. In order to
become a member of Hivanon.org through
registration, we require that you provide
us with a valid e-mail address and a
password of your own choosing, a
Discussion group nickname, a “Forgot
Password Answer” in order to automate
the recovery of a forgotten password, and
a generic reason for using the site. This
information is stored securely in our user
profile database.
We
use the information that you provide
through registration to respond to
questions from you and/or inform you of
significant changes to this Privacy
Policy, to help manage your registration,
and to protect the rights of all users of
this site from inappropriate use by
another user. We may also use this
information to send you e-mails of
newsletters or site updates with content
that you may elect to receive.
You
can always opt-out of receiving such
e-mails or unsubscribe to newsletters at
the time you register or at any time
thereafter from the Sign Up Information
and Change Password links on the
Hivanon.org page.
Share
Information
The
very first time you log in as a registered
member of Hivanon.org, you will be
directed to a page that expressly requests
that you share information about yourself,
your current health, and your historical
experience living as, or caring for, a
person with HIV disease. This
information is critical to our mission and
we hope that by demonstrating our
commitment to your privacy, security, and
anonymity, you will feel secure and
willing to share this information about
yourself. This information is entirely
optional and will not in any way limit
your ability to utilize the site or any of
its features whatsoever. Like registration
information, this optional personal
information will be stored in our user
profile database. You will also be able to
change or update this personal information
at any time from the Personal Information
and HIV-related Information links on the
Hivanon.org Home page.
By
sharing your personal information, we have
the best opportunity to learn about our
community of people living with HIV
disease and begin to understand how we
might influence the development of
education programs and research
initiatives to improve the lives of all
people living with HIV and AIDS. We ask
you to share as much information as you
possibly can to help us all achieve our
end goal.
Your
information is secure and encrypted and
will never be shared with any third party
in association with any means to
personally identify you unless you
expressly request The Hivanon.org do so in
order to involve you in an offline
initiative you elect to participate in.
What
are Cookies?
A
cookie is a piece of data stored on the
user’s computer tied to information
about the user. We use both session ID
cookies and persistent cookies. For the
session ID cookie, once users close the
browser, the cookie simply terminates. A
persistent cookie is a small text file
stored on the user’s hard drive for an
extended period of time. Persistent
cookies can be removed by following
Internet browser help file directions.
Every
computer is assigned a different cookie by
Hivanon.org. The information collected by
cookies helps us to statistically monitor
usage patterns on our site and selected
partners' sites. We may use cookie
information to target certain information
to your browser or to determine the
popularity of certain content. However,
cookies are not tied to your personally
identifiable information.
Your
browser software can be set to reject all
cookies. Most browsers offer instructions
on how to reset the browser to reject
cookies in the "Help" section of
the toolbar. If you reject our cookie,
certain functions and conveniences of our
site may not work the way they were
intended but you do not have to accept our
cookie in order to productively use our
site. If you accept our cookie, we will
link your user id to site usage patterns.
E-mail
A Friend
When
you use Hivanon.org "E-mail a
Friend" application, Hivanon.org
e-mails the article or other content you
designate to your friend's e-mail address
and lists what you supply as your e-mail
address as the sender. Hivanon.org uses
the friend's e-mail address only for the
purpose of sending your friend the e-mail
you requested and for no other purpose.
\
Your
Profile
Collectively,
all of the information we have described
that we collect through cookies, log
files, and databases create a profile of
our users. A profile is stored
information that we keep on individual
users that detail their usage patterns and
their required and voluntary information
shared through the Registration and Share
Information process. Consequently,
collected site usage information is tied
to the user’s user id to provide
tailored content for the user and to
develop a more robust and meaningful
understanding of our community.
Online
Donation
Personally
identifiable information collected by
Hivanon.org through the online donation
process is voluntary information. We may
ask you to provide us with your name and
e-mail address. Wel also give you the
opportunity to make your donation ‘in
honor of’ or ‘in memory of’ an
individual or group. If you choose to
provide this information it will be stored
in our database and used only for the
purposes of (a) sending you an electronic
receipt for your donation, and (b) listing
your name on our web page titled
“Supporters of HIV Anonymous,
Inc.(501c3).” Please note you may choose
to be listed by your name or as an
anonymous supporter.
When
you make an online donation to Hivanon.org
HIV Anonymous, Inc., additional personally
identifiable information is collected by
the third party vendor PayPal. Hivanon.org
does not have access to the credit card or
bank account information you enter on the
PayPal web site. Hivanon.org contracts
with PayPal because we believe PayPal to
be a trusted, reliable, secure source for
online donations. We encourage you to read
the PayPal Privacy Policy to learn how
PayPal uses and stores your personally
identifiable information. When you make an
online donation to Hivanon.org
via PayPal, PayPal will notify
Hivanon.org of your donation and provide
us with your e-mail address. We will only
use this e-mail address to send you an
electronic receipt for your donation.
|
1
|
|
|
Back
to Top
Information
Use
We
do not share your personal profile
information with other third parties.
However, collective trends including your
profile will be shared in aggregate form,
allowing Hivanon.org to analyze data from
our user population to generate research
and program agendas to better serve our
users. By sharing your personal
information and experiences, you
contribute to the collection of valuable
data about women living with HIV disease.
It is our fundamental belief that by
sharing the collective voices of women
living with HIV disease as well as the
people who care for us, we can influence
how the millions of dollars invested every
year into treatment research, clinical
trials, and education are spent. By
becoming the most comprehensive and
reliable resource for information about
people affected by HIV and AIDS we also
ensure our sustainability in the market so
that we may continue to provide the
education and community resources that
serve our core mission: to improve the
lives of people living with HIV and AIDS
and those who care for them.
What
is Aggregate Information?
Hivanon.org
may provide to third parties non-personal
information about you that does not allow
you to be identified or contacted and that
is combined with the non-personal
information of other users. This is what
we describe as Aggregate Information. For
example, we will produce reports for third
parties regarding the number of users of
our site and the activities they conduct
while on our site. We might also inform a
pharmaceutical company (that may or may
not be partner on our site) that "25
percent of our users are women below the
age of 25 or that 76 percent of our users
are women infected with HIV." We may
charge third parties for this Aggregate
Information as a primary funding mechanism
of our business plan.
Information
Collected and/or Stored in Hivanon.org
information that is received, used, or
disclosed in connection with Hivanon.org
is encrypted. This means that when the
information is transmitted over the
telephone or other communication wires, it
is transmitted as a series of symbols and
characters that are not readable by normal
circumstances but which are later
de-scrambled by a computer system that
allows you to read the information and us
to store the information within the safe
confines of our respective computer
environments.
Hivanon.org
collects the Personal Information
you voluntarily store in My Well.
Hivanon.org
does not use the Personal
Information stored in Hivanonfor any
purpose except to provide members with a
readily accessible, easy-to-update means
of collecting and storing information,
articles, slides, and data sets that are
of particular interest to you. The only
entities that will have access to
Hivanonare Hivanon.org
itself and any third parties hired
by Hivanon.org
to assist us in operating,
maintaining, and improving the site. These
third parties are required by us to hold
your information in the strictest of
confidence and may not use or disclose it
except to fulfill the service we hired
them to perform. Hivanon.org
will not share any of the
information that is stored in Hivanon with
any other third parties without your
express permission.
Back
to Top
Disclosure
of Your Information
Hivanon.org
will not disclose any Personal
Information it gathers from you on our
Website except as we have set forth in
this Privacy Policy or as requested in
writing by you. We may release Personal
Information to third parties to comply
with valid legal requirements such as a
law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena
or court order; or in special cases, such
as a physical threat to you or others. In
the event that we are legally compelled to
disclose your Personal Information to a
third party, we will notify you unless
doing so would violate the law or court
order
Disclosure
to Hivanon.org
Third Party Contractors
Hivanon.org
employs third party contractors who
sometimes have limited access to your
Personal Information in the course of
providing products or services to
Hivanon.org . These contractors include
technology specialists and analysts that
provide us with services, and/or analysis
related to improving the operation and
managing the maintenance of our Website. Unless
you have opted out of receiving e-mails
and newsletters from Hivanon.org , these
contractors also may have access to your
e-mail address to send newsletters to you on
our behalf or to send e-mails to you
for purposes such as conducting market
research on our behalf.
Access
to your Personal Information by these
contractors is limited to the information
the contractor will require to perform
this limited function for Hivanon.org .
Hivanon.org
requires that all third party
contractors who have access to such
Personal Information sign a contract
agreeing to protect the privacy of your
Personal Information under the guidelines
of this Privacy Policy, and not to use or
disclose your Personal Information for any
purpose other than providing us with the
services for which we have contracted
them.
Disclosure
to Linked Sites
For
your convenience we provide links to
websites operated by companies other than
Hivanon.org
("Third Party Websites").
These links may be referenced within
content, or placed beside the names or
logos of sponsors. Hivanon.org
does not disclose your Personal
Information to these Third Party Websites
without first obtaining your consent.
Hivanon.org
does not endorse and is not
responsible for the privacy practices of
these sites. If you choose to link to one
of these Third party Websites, you should
review the privacy policy posted on the
linked site to understand how that Third
Party Website collects and uses your
Personal Information and to decide whether
or not you will agree to the terms of use
of Third Party Website.
Back
to Top
When
Hivanon.org
will Contact You
When
you become a member of Hivanon.org , you
are indicating your consent to permit
Hivanon.org
to store your username (e-mail
address) and password in our database.
We
provide a regular e-mail Newsletter that
will inform you of new content on our site
and special programs available through the
web or otherwise, that may be of interest
to you. You are automatically included to
receive this Newsletter. You will have the
opportunity during registration to opt out
of this service by de-selecting the box
associated with our e-mailing services. If
we find information that may meet your
profile, we will send you an e-mail
notification of the new information. You
may also elect to receive regular e-mails
relating to new content on the site and/or
news related to HIV and AIDS.
Hivanon.org
will contact you if you notify us
that you have lost or forgotten your
password. We will contact you using the
preferred method reported in your profile.
Hivanon.org
will contact you periodically, but
no more than once in a one-month period,
when we have provided significantly new or
different functionality to our Web site,
so that you are aware of the new services
and can decide whether to take advantage
of them.
We
will contact you in response to any
inquiry you make to our support or service
staff in regards to any question,
suggestion, or comment you may have about
this policy or about the site in general.
Please use one of the e-mail addresses
listed in our Contact Us section to submit
any questions, suggestions, or concerns
you may have.
Occasionally,
we will e-mail you surveys or
questionnaires to request feedback that
can be used to enhance our site to better
serve your needs.
You
may indicate to Hivanon.org
that you wish to receive no
communications from Hivanon.org
during registration or by editing
your profile in the information section of
“Hivanon.org ” web site. If you so
indicate, Hivanon.org
will not contact you under any
circumstances except to respond to a later
communication initiated by you or to
provide you with an activation e-mail upon
joining or any change in your profile or
user status.
On
rare occasions it is necessary to send out
a strictly service related announcement.
For instance, if our service is
temporarily suspended for maintenance, we
might send users an e-mail. Generally,
users may not opt-out of these
communications, though they can deactivate
their account in order to stop these
communications. However, these
communications are not promotional in
nature.
Back
to Top
Changes
to the Privacy Policy
Hivanon.org
will regularly review the Privacy
Policy to ensure that it provides an
appropriate level of protection for your
Personal Information. From time to time,
we may make changes to the Privacy Policy
to keep it current with industry standards
and to ensure it complies with the
practices we employ on our site. We will
post the date of the most recent revisions
on this privacy policy page. We will also
post a notice on our Home page of any
substantial or significant changes to this
policy which would materially affect your
rights as described herein. Please check
this page from time to time to make sure
that you are current and up-to-date on our
Privacy Policy. Please keep in mind that
your use of our website means that you
accept our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
as they may be amended at any time,
excluding any substantial or materially
significant changes which will otherwise
be treated according to this policy.
Back
to Top
Policy
Relating to Advertising, Children, Public
Forums, and E-mail Communication
Advertising
Policy
Hivanon.org
does not presently host or receive
funding from advertising.
We reserve the right to do so, with
or without notice, in the future.
Children
We
are committed to protecting the privacy of
children. This website is not designed or
intended to attract children under the age
of 18. We do not knowingly or purposefully
collect Personal Information from any
person under the age of 18.
Public
Forums
This
Privacy Policy does not protect you from
third parties when you use Hivanonymous
Discussion Boards. Hivanon.org
features discussion boards and
bulletin boards where users with similar
topics for discussion can share
information and support one another or
where users can post questions for experts
to answer. You should be aware that any
information shared in a discussion thread,
chat room, bulletin board, or other online
dialog is public information and may be
seen, disclosed to or collected by third
parties that do not adhere to our Privacy
Policy. You should think carefully before
disclosing any personal information in any
public forum.
E-mails
to Hivanon.org
This
Privacy Policy does not protect you when
you send business information, ideas,
concepts or inventions to Hivanon.org
by e-mail to the various
Hivanon.org
departments listed on the
"Contact Us" link on our
Website. If you want to keep business
information, ideas, concepts or inventions
private or proprietary, do not send them
in an e-mail to Hivanon.org . We try to
answer every e-mail in a timely manner,
but are not always able to do so.
Back
to Top
How
Hivanon.org
Handles Privacy and Security
Internally
We
take every precaution to protect your
Personal Information. When you provide us
with Personal Information, it is protected
both online and off-line.
User
Name and Password
The
first line of protection is your encrypted
password, selected by you, which along
with your user-id forms the basis for
authentication to the site. Your user
name, which is based on your e-mail
address is unique to you, and is only
effective for protected site access in
combination with your password. No one can
access any of the secure areas of our site
without a proper user name and password
combination.
To
minimize the chance that someone can guess
your password, we require passwords of at
least 6 characters with at least one
letter and at least one number. If a user
of our site enters an invalid password a
certain number of times, that user will be
blocked from entering the site for a
period of time thereafter.
Since
Personal Information will only be
displayed or entered in a secure area, the
combination of the unique user id and the
non-trivial password provides considerable
protection.
Encryption
In
addition to the password protection, any
personal information you provide is
encrypted (using 128-bit encryption) and
must be accessed using the SSL (Secure
Socket Layer) encryption standard. You can
tell that you are on a secure, encrypted
page while browsing our site by looking at
the lock icon on the bottom of Web
browsers such as Netscape Navigator and
Microsoft Internet Explorer. If the page
is secure, the lock is closed; when the
page is unencrypted (as it is during
standard surfing), the lock becomes
un-locked.
Firewalls
To
protect against hackers entering our
server environment, we have put in place
appropriate firewalls. Data contained on
our servers is visible only to proprietary
middleware applications. Log-in passwords
are required by internal staff and are
changed on a periodic basis. All internal
activity is logged.
Off-line
Protection
While
we use SSL encryption to protect Personal
Information online, we also work very hard
to protect Personal Information off-line.
Any information we receive, whether
defined as Personal Information or not, is
restricted in our offices. Only employees
who need the information to perform a
specific job (for example, our database
administrators) are granted access to your
Personal Information. ALL of our employees
are kept up-to-date on our security and
privacy practices. Every quarter, as well
as any time new policies are added; our
employees are notified and/or reminded
about the importance we place on privacy,
and what they can do to ensure our users'
information is protected.
Government
Subpoenas, Warrants or Orders
We
reserve the right to disclose your
personally identifiable information as
required by law and when we believe that
disclosure is necessary to protect our
rights and/or comply with a judicial
proceeding, court order, or legal process
served on our Web site.
Physical
Security
We
also protect and secure the physical
environment in which data is stored. We
store Personal Information on servers kept
in a secure environment, within locked,
environmentally controlled server rooms.
Back
to Top
Your
Privacy is Your Choice
At
various locations on the “Hivanon.org
” web site, you will be given the option
of receiving recurring informational
newsletters and surveys or other
communication via e-mail from Hivanon.org
and/or directly from third parties.
You
can unsubscribe from the newsletters at
any time by simply clicking on the
"unsubscribe" link at the bottom
of any e-mail newsletter. An e-mail to our
automated unsubscribe service will be
created on your machine. Click the
"send" button. You will then be
unsubscribed from that newsletter within
two to three business days. If you are
experiencing difficulties with our
automated unsubscribe service, you can
e-mail us at customerservice@
Hivanon.org . Hivanon.org
Customer Service will unsubscribe
you from that newsletter in two to three
business days.
At
Registration and at various times as you
use the site, you may have the option of
receiving e-mails or newsletters directly
from third parties, participating in
research or marketing surveys and
participating in other activities. You may
exercise these options by placing a check
mark beside a statement that expresses a
preference for receiving these
communications or participating in these
activities. You may change your decision
at any time by changing your preferences
within your Member Profile or by following
other directions provided in association
with the individual communication or
activity.
Statement
Regarding HIPAA Compliance
The
Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act ("HIPAA")
controls the collection, use, and
distribution of individually identifiable
health information by certain health care
providers, called "covered
entities" under the statute.
Hivanon.org
is not a covered entity as that
term is defined under HIPAA. As a result,
and because you (instead of a third party)
have willingly and knowingly provided the
information we collect, HIPAA does not
apply to our services.
Back
to Top
Updating
Your Personal Information and Contacting
Hivanon.org
You
can always contact us in order to delete
your Personal Information from our
systems, update the Personal Information
that you have provided to us, and change
your preferences by e-mailing us at customerservice@
Hivanon.org . Such changes will
not have any effect on other information
that Hivanon.org
maintains. If you have a complaint
or problem you may e-mail us at customerservice@
Hivanon.org and
the customer service department will
forward your complaint to the appropriate
internal Hivanon.org
department for a response or
resolution. We try to answer every e-mail
in a timely manner but are not always able
to do so. If you do not receive adequate
resolution of a privacy related problem,
you may write to Hivanon.org 's Privacy
Help Desk at:
Hivanon.org
Attn:
Office of Privacy
Austell, Georgia
30106
Or
call (770) 910-5083
If
you have contacted Hivanon.org
about a privacy related concern and
you do not believe that the problem has
been addressed, you may file a complaint
with TRUSTe.
You
should be aware that it is not
technologically possible to remove each
and every record of the information you
have provided to Hivanon.org
from our servers. The need to
back-up our systems to protect information
from inadvertent loss means that a copy of
your Personal Information may exist in a
non-erasable form that will be difficult
or impossible for us to locate.
Nevertheless, we promise that upon
receiving your request, all Personal
Information stored in the databases we
actively use for research and daily
business activities, and other readily
searchable media, will be deleted.
©
2003-2006 Hivanon.org, is a subsidiary of
HIV Anonymous, Inc. A Not For Profit
Corporation. All rights reserved.
Last
updated: July 27, 2009.
Back
to Top
|
