Privacy policy

Updated October 4, 2006.

MayoClinic.com is committed to protecting your online privacy. We feel it is important for you to know how we handle the information we receive from you via the Internet. In general, you can visit www.MayoClinic.com without revealing any personal information. However, you are required to provide personal information to gain access to some of our content and services, as explained below.

How we and our affiliates collect and use personal information

Registering with MayoClinic.com allows you to personalize the "My page" section of our site. The only information required for registration is your e-mail address, gender and year of birth.

MayoClinic.com may contain links to Web sites operated by third parties. MayoClinic.com has no control over the privacy policies and practices of such third-party sites, and if you have any concerns, you are urged to review the terms of those sites for more information about the policies applicable to those sites.

IP addresses

We collect and log the IP address of all visitors to MayoClinic.com. An IP address is a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet. IP addresses allow computers and servers to recognize and communicate with one another. We collect IP address information so we can properly administer our system and gather aggregate information about how our site is being used, including the pages visitors are viewing. This aggregate information may be shared with advertisers, sponsors and other businesses. To maintain your anonymity, we do not associate IP addresses with records containing personal information. We will use IP address information, however, to personally identify you in order to enforce our legal rights or when required to do so by law enforcement authorities.

How we use 'cookies'

As you probably know, "cookies" are small pieces of information that some Web sites store on your computer's hard drive when you visit them. Like many other Web sites, MayoClinic.com uses cookies to provide us with information relating to the sources of our site traffic. Collecting this information, however, does not allow us to personally identify you.

Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies but allow you to modify security settings so that you can approve or reject cookies on a case-by-case basis. Our site requires that both cookies and JavaScript be enabled. If you reject cookies from our site, some parts of the site may not work properly for you.

Registration and health tools information

We collect personal information that you choose to share with us in the registration and health tools sections of our site. This information may include your e-mail address, your health interests and your answers to questions about your health status. We use this information to tailor our services to the data you entered. Information from registration is saved to our database. This enables you to use the personalized features on our site on a recurring basis. This saved information is collected only with your permission and may be updated or deleted by you at any time. If you choose to not provide the information required for registration, you may not register with the site and you will not be able to personalize the site.

Surveys

You may be asked to complete surveys when you visit MayoClinic.com. We use information from surveys to better understand the needs of our users and to gather information about health care trends and issues. We may share information from surveys with third parties who perform data management services for our site. Those third parties have agreed to keep all data from surveys confidential. Also, we may share information from surveys in an aggregated, de-identified form with third parties with whom we have a business relationship.

How to update or delete your personal information

Once you have registered with our site, you can update the information in your "profile" at any time by logging in and visiting the "Update my profile" page. You can delete your profile by clicking the link at the bottom of the Update my profile page under the heading: "Delete my profile." Deleting your profile will remove you from our user database, and you will no longer receive the information you had requested when you registered.

It's not technologically possible for us to remove from our servers every record of the information you've provided to MayoClinic.com. 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 nonerasable form that will be difficult or impossible for us to locate. Nevertheless, we promise that upon receiving your deletion 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.

Remember:

• Unsubscribing from our e-mail newsletter will not delete your profile information.
• Your personal information will remain accessible to you so long as you log in to the site on a regular basis. If you do not log in to the site for one year, your personal profile will be automatically deleted from our database, after which you will no longer be able to access your personal information. You may re-register on the site after automatic deletion.

How we protect your personal information

All personally identifiable data that you enter on this site are encrypted with secure server software (SSL). The encryption means that your data are protected while they are being transferred over the Internet to our servers.

Once your data reach our servers, the same state-of-the art security software that guards our company's essential business data protects your personal data as well.

In addition to using the most secure technology available, we de-identify the information you provide before it is used in any aggregate reporting that may be done.

What we provide to third parties

Except as noted above for surveys, MayoClinic.com does not provide any third-party access to your personal information unless the information has been aggregated and de-identified to make it anonymous. We may provide third parties with aggregate statistics about our visitors, traffic patterns and related site information. These data reflect site-usage patterns gathered during visits to our Web site each month, but they do not contain behavioral or identifying information about any individual member unless that member has given us permission to share that information.

Our sponsors and advertisers and their Ad Servers may use cookies when you view pages on our site. They use those cookies to collect nonpersonal information as a way of measuring the effectiveness of their advertising. We do not control these third parties' use of cookies or how they manage the nonpersonal information they gather through them. However, our sponsors and advertisers have agreed that they will not collect any personally identifiable information from our site visitors while they are on MayoClinic.com. If you click on an advertisement on MayoClinic.com and visit a site maintained by one of our sponsors or advertisers, please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of that site. You should read the privacy policies of each site you visit to determine what information that site may be collecting about you.

Some Ad Servers allow you to opt out of anonymous data collection through the use of cookies. To do so, you must opt out of such data collection with each individual site. You can opt out of cookies for several Ad Servers by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative gateway opt-out site. At that site you can also review the privacy policies of those Ad Servers.

Aggregate information

We use general traffic, site usage and length-of-stay information in reports to advertisers and firms with which we have a business relationship. This sort of information is shared only in aggregate and does not personally identify you.

Children's privacy

This site is intended for adults age 18 and older. It is not intended for or designed to attract persons under the age of 18. We do not permit registration by, nor do we collect personally identifiable information from any person we actually know to be under the age of 18.

E-mail communications, newsletter and related services

MayoClinic.com provides you with the opportunity to receive communications from us or third parties. At registration time, you can sign up for a free e-mail newsletter. You can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time.

E-mail communication that you send to us via the e-mail links on our site may be shared with a Customer Service representative, employee, medical expert or agent that is most able to address your inquiry. We make every effort to respond in a timely fashion once communications are received. Once we have responded to your communication, it is discarded or archived, depending on the nature of the inquiry.

The e-mail functionality on our site does not provide a completely secure and confidential means of communication. It's possible that your e-mail communication may be accessed or viewed by another Internet user while in transit to us. If you wish to keep your communication private, do not use our e-mail.

You may decide at some point that you no longer wish to receive communications from our site. To stop receiving communications, send an e-mail message to mayoinfo@mayoclinic.com or send regular mail to the following postal address:

Security and Privacy Officer
MayoClinic.com
200 First St. S.W.
Rochester, MN 55905

Complaint process

If you have a complaint or problem, or if you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may e-mail us by clicking the "Contact us" link at the bottom of any page. Please indicate the following reason for contacting us: I want to provide feedback about your site. Our Customer Service department will forward your complaint to the appropriate MayoClinic.com department for response or resolution. If you don't receive adequate resolution of a privacy-related problem, you may write to MayoClinic.com's Security and Privacy Officer at:

Security and Privacy Officer
MayoClinic.com
200 First St. S.W.
Rochester, MN 55905

If you've contacted MayoClinic.com about a privacy-related concern and you do not believe your problem has been addressed, you may file a complaint with the Mayo Clinic Chief Security Officer by dialing the Mayo Clinic general number at (507) 284-2511 and asking for the Chief Security Officer.

Changes to our Privacy policy

We will occasionally update this Privacy policy. You will see the word "updated" followed by the date next to the Privacy policy link near the bottom of all pages on the site. If the "updated" date has changed since you last visited, you're encouraged to review the policy to be informed of how this site is protecting your information.

Remember: You may opt out of our services at any time you do not agree with the terms of this policy by simply deleting your personal profile.

ABOUT THIS SITE

Dec 5, 2007