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WebMD Privacy Policy Summary

WebMD understands how important the privacy of personal information is to our users. We understand that your privacy matters and we respect your privacy choices. This summary of our privacy policy is intended to give you an overview of:

What information we collect about you
What choices you have about your information
How we use your information
How and with whom we may share the information we have about you
How we protect your information
How to contact us with questions or concerns

We urge you to take the time to read our entire Privacy Policy for complete detail about our privacy practices and your information.

Information Collected About You

We may collect “Personal Information” about you – such as your name, address, telephone number, email address or health information – in the following ways:

When you register for or update an existing profile on our web sites or Apps or register for the WebMD Health Manager;
When you use certain interactive tools and services (e.g., the Ovulation/Pregnancy Calendar or Symptom Checker);
When you sign-up for newsletters or other communications from WebMD;
When you use our “Email a Friend” service;
When you participate in an online survey; or
When you provide personal information in a community area or other public forum.

We may collect “Non-Personal Information” – information that cannot be used to identify you – via Cookies, Web Beacons, WebMD mobile device applications and from external sources, even if you have not registered with or provided any Personal Information to WebMD.

What Choices Do I Have?

If you do not want your Personal Information used by WebMD as provided in this Privacy Policy, you should not register as a member or for any specific tool or application that collects Personal Information. You may correct, update or review Personal Information you have submitted through registration, tools and applications by signing in and updating your registration information. If you have registered and no longer want WebMD to use your Personal Information, you should delete your information as described in this Policy.

Most browser software can be set to reject Cookies, and you can opt out of Cookies for several Ad Servers by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative gateway opt-out site.

You can click on the Ad Choices logo at the bottom of every page of the WebMD web sites to stop tailored advertising from WebMD.

How Information Collected About You Is Used

We may use information we collect about you to:

Administer your account;
Provide you with access to particular tools and services;
Respond to your inquiries and send you administrative communications;
Obtain your feedback on our sites and our offerings;
Statistically analyze user behavior and activity;
Provide you with more relevant content and advertisements;
Conduct research and measurement activities; or
Send you personalized emails or secure electronic messages pertaining to your health interests, including news, announcements, reminders and opportunities.

We may combine Personal and Non-Personal Information collected by WebMD about you, and may combine this information with information from external sources. Third parties may also use Non-Personal Information in order to display advertising that reflects the interests and preferences of our user community.

With Whom Do We Share Your Information?

WebMD will not disclose any Personal Information about you unless specifically agreed to you by you or:

To comply with legal requirements, such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena, or court order;
To our vendors and suppliers in the course of their provision of products or services to WebMD;
In the event of a corporate change in control resulting from, for example, a merger, a sale of assets, or bankruptcy; or
In special cases, such as in response to a physical threat to you or others.

WebMD does not make your Personal Information available to third parties for their marketing purposes.

How Do We Secure and Retain Your Information?

We have put in place technical, physical, and administrative safeguards to protect the Personal Information that we collect.

Contact WebMD

Please send us an email using the Contact Us link at the bottom of every page of our site if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the Personal Information we maintain about you.

You can also contact WebMD’s Privacy Office at:

WebMD, LLC
Attn: Office of Privacy
1201 Peachtree Street, NE
400 Colony Square, Suite 2100
Atlanta, GA 30361
Phone: 866-788-3097

Read the complete WebMD Privacy Policy.

WebMD Privacy Policy

WebMD understands how important the privacy of personal information is to our users. This Privacy Policy will tell you what information we collect about you and about your use of WebMD and its services. It will explain the choices you have about how your personal information is used and how we protect that information. We urge you to read this Privacy Policy carefully.

This Privacy Policy applies to Web sites owned and operated by WebMD that are intended for use by consumers (non-professionals) for non-commercial personal, family or household purposes, including WebMD.com, MedicineNet.com, RxList.com, and eMedicineHealth.com and including the mobile optimized versions of these sites (we refer to these sites collectively as the “WebMD Web Sites”). This Privacy Policy also applies to the consumer-facing version of the WebMD Health Manager Product. However, if you are an employee or health plan member who has enabled access to your health record at WebMD.com by registering at your employer's or health plan's website, the privacy policy applicable to your information at your employer's or health plan's website remains applicable to your personal health record at WebMD.com. If your employer or health plan account is no longer made available to you by your employer or health plan, you will continue to have access to your health information from WebMD.com, using the same username and password, but will be subject to this Privacy Policy. Except where noted, statements in this Privacy Policy with respect to the WebMD Web Sites also apply to the WebMD Mobile Device Application (or "App") including the WebMD Baby Mobile Device App for the iPhone, the iPad and mobile devices operating with the Android operating system.

References to "WebMD" mean WebMD LLC, including any company that WebMD, LLC controls (for example, a subsidiary that WebMD, LLC owns). WebMD may share information among its subsidiaries or web sites that it owns or controls, but information collected under this Privacy Policy is always protected under the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Information Collected About You

Personal Information

If you choose to register or update an existing member profile with WebMD or access certain functionality on the WebMD Web Sites, you may be required to submit Personal Information. “Personal Information” means information that we can use to identify or contact you, such as your name, address, telephone number or email address. Some of our interactive tools and services may request you to submit health information, which would also be considered Personal Information. You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the Personal Information that you submit to WebMD. Inaccurate information will affect your experience when using the WebMD Web Sites and tools and our ability to contact you as described in this Privacy Policy.

Registration

Access to some WebMD interactive tools and services may be limited to users who have registered. Some of our tools (such as certain quizzes or calculators) do not retain your Personal Information, while others (such as Ovulation/Pregnancy Calendar) store your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the authorization you provide at the time you submit Personal Information in order to use the tool. WebMD Health Manager, which allows you a secure place to gather, store, manage and share your Personal Information and provides tools and services to better manage your health and the health of your family, requires additional registration. WebMD Health Manager has the ability to use Personal Information that you provide to send you personalized emails or secure electronic messages. However, WebMD does not allow any third parties to place beacons or cookies or to gather any data about you in connection with your use of the WebMD Health Manager. Furthermore, WebMD does not use any information that you submit in connection with that tool to deliver any advertisements to you on or off of the WebMD Web Sites.

If you download the WebMD The Magazine App from the Apple App Store News Stand and agree to provide your information to WebMD, your information will be treated like that of a registered user under this Privacy Policy.

Newsletters & Emails to You

At registration and at various times as you use the WebMD Web Sites, you will be given the option of providing us with Personal Information in order to receive recurring informational/promotional newsletters – such as a newsletter relating to a specific health condition – via email from WebMD and/or directly from third parties. In the WebMD Health Community, you can also click the “Watch This Discussion” link in any Health Community posting, and WebMD will send you an email summary of each day’s postings in that Community.

When you sign up for our email newsletters or at any time, you can choose to opt out of receiving additional promotional newsletters from WebMD or our Sponsors.

You can unsubscribe from a newsletter by:

Following the directions included at the bottom of the newsletter.
Logging in to the WebMD Web Sites and unchecking the newsletters you no longer wish to receive under the “My Profile” section.

Email a Friend

If you use our Email a Friend service to tell a friend about a feature on the WebMD Web Sites or a newsletter, we will ask you for your name, your email address and your friend's email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the site using your name and email address as the "from" email address. WebMD does not use your friend's email information for any other purpose. We will only use the information you provide to send the requested email to your friend.

Market Research

From time to time, WebMD may conduct online research surveys through email invitations, pop-up surveys and online focus groups. When participating in a survey, we may ask you to enter Personal Information. The Personal Information you submit in a survey may be used by WebMD for research and measurement purposes, as described below, including to measure the effectiveness of content, advertising or programs. When our market research surveys collect Personal Information we will not knowingly accept participants who are under the age of 13. Market research surveys conducted by or on behalf of WebMD will contain a link to this Privacy Policy.

Community, Health Communities, Blogs and Other Public Forums

WebMD features several community areas and other public forums where users with similar interests or medical conditions can share information and support one another or where users can post questions for experts to answer. We also offer online discussions moderated by healthcare experts. Our communities are open to the public and should not be considered private.

Any information (including Personal Information) you share in any online community area including a chat room, Health Community, Ask Our Expert posting or online discussion is by design open to the public and is not private. You should think carefully before posting any Personal Information in any public forum. What you post can be seen, disclosed to or collected by third parties and may be used by others in ways we cannot control or predict, including to contact you for unauthorized purposes. As with any public forum on any site, the information you post may also show up in third-party search engines.

If you mistakenly post Personal Information in our Community areas and would like it removed, you can send us an email to request that we remove it by using the Contact Us link on every page of the WebMD Web Sites. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your Personal Information.

Emails You Send to WebMD

This Privacy Policy does not apply to information, content, business information, ideas, concepts or inventions that you send to WebMD by email. If you want to keep content or business information, ideas, concepts or inventions private or proprietary, do not send them in an email to WebMD.

Non-Personal Information

Even if you do not register with or provide any Personal Information to WebMD, we collect Non-Personal Information about your use of the WebMD Web Sites. “Non-Personal Information” means information that we cannot use to identify or contact you. We may also acquire Non-Personal Information about our users from external sources While you may use some of the functionality of WebMD without registration, many of the specific tools and services on the WebMD Web Sites require that you register with WebMD.

Cookies and Web Beacons

We collect Non-Personal Information about your use of the WebMD Web Sites and your use of other web sites through the use of Cookies and Web Beacons. “Cookies” are small data files that are stored on the hard drive of the computer you use to view a web site. Every computer that accesses the WebMD Web Sites is assigned a different cookie by WebMD. “Web Beacons” are graphic image files imbedded in a web page typically used to monitor activity on a web page and send back to its home server (which can belong to the host site, a network advertiser or some other third party) information from your browser, such as the IP address, the URL of the page on which the beacon is located, the type browser that is accessing the site and the ID number of any Cookies on your computer previously placed by that server.

Third parties under contract with WebMD may use Cookies or Web Beacons to collect Non-Personal Information about your usage of the WebMD Web Sites, including which health topics you have viewed. These third party advertising service providers may use this information, on our behalf, to help WebMD deliver advertising on the WebMD Web Sites as well as on other sites on the Internet based on your browsing activity on our sites. WebMD may further tailor the advertising on these third party sites based on additional Non-Personal Information to the extent known by WebMD or these third parties.

Mobile Device Applications (“Apps”)

When you download and install one of our WebMD Mobile Apps onto your mobile device we assign a random number to your App installation. This number cannot be used to identify you personally, and we cannot identify you personally unless you choose to become a registered user of the App. We use this random number in a manner similar to our use of Cookies as described in this Privacy Policy. Unlike Cookies, the random number is assigned to your installation of the App itself and not a browser, because the App does not work through your browser. Therefore the random number cannot be removed through settings. If you do not want us to use the random number for the purposes for which we use Cookies, please do not use the Mobile Device App, and please use your mobile device browser to access the WebMD Web Sites or our mobile optimized sites. We do not obtain any information about your mobile device, other than the brand, make and model and type of operating software your device uses. Please note that certain WebMD Mobile Apps require registration either to use the App or to use certain functionality in the App.

WebMD’s Sites (including our mobile sites such as m.webmd.com) and WebMD’s Apps ask for your consent (via an opt-in) before using information from pin-pointing technology like GPS or cell tower information. You can withdraw your consent (opt-out) for the use of "location" by WebMD at any time by changing your location services in the "Settings" function on your mobile device. We use location services on our web sites and Apps to provide you content based upon your location, local search results, and local offers.

Non-Personal Information Collected by Third Parties Not Acting on WebMD’s Behalf

We work with third parties to display advertising that reflects the interests and preferences of our user community. Sponsors or advertisers on the WebMD Web Sites may use their own Cookies, Web Beacons or other online tracking technologies in the banner advertisements served on the WebMD Web Sites and in emails, special promotions or newsletters we send you. Their advertisements may be displayed on the WebMD Web Sites or on other sites that you visit after you visit the WebMD Web Sites. Some advertisers use companies other than WebMD to serve their ads and to monitor users' responses to ads, and these companies ("Ad Servers") may also collect Non-Personal Information through the use of Cookies or Web Beacons on the WebMD Web Sites.

We do not control how third parties use Cookies or Web Beacons or how they manage the Non-Personal Information they gather through the use of these technologies on the WebMD Web Sites. However, we do require sponsors, advertisers and Ad Servers who collect cookie or web beacon information through the WebMD Web Sites to agree that they will not collect any Personal Information from the WebMD Web Sites without your consent. They have promised us they will not link any Non-Personal Information collected by them on the WebMD Web Sites to Personal Information they or others collect in other ways or from other sites except as may be described in connection with a particular program.

What Choices Do I Have?

Updating/Removing Your Personal Information

If you do not want your Personal Information used by WebMD as provided in this Privacy Policy, you should not register as a member or for any specific tool or application that collects Personal Information. You can correct, update or review Personal Information you have previously submitted by going back to the specific tool or application, logging-in and making the desired change. You can also update any Personal Information you have submitted by contacting us using the contact information listed below.

If you have registered and desire to delete any your Personal Information you have provided to us from our systems please contact us using the contact information listed below. Upon your request, we will delete your Personal Information from our active databases and where feasible from our back-up media. You should be aware that it is not technologically possible to remove each and every record of the information you have provided to the WebMD Web Sites from our servers.

If you decide that you would prefer not to receive personalized email or secure electronic messages from the WebMD Health Manager tool, you may "Opt-out" of the service by clicking on the settings tab on your Health Manager home page and changing your email preference or following the unsubscribe instructions included in each promotional email.

Cookies

Most browser software can be set to reject 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 Cookies, certain of the functions and conveniences of the WebMD Web Sites may not work properly but you do not have to accept our Cookies in order to productively use the WebMD Web Sites. It is important to note that in order to use the opt-out services described below, such as the Network Advertising Initiative and the TRUSTed Ads Program, you must not reject all Cookies because these opt-out procedures work by placing Cookies on your browser that enable these opt-out procedures to function. The “opt-out Cookies” are placed, for example, in order to help prevent the placement of Cookies used for the targeting of advertising.

Certain Ad Servers allow you to prevent them from collecting data through the use of Cookies. In order to do so, you must Opt-out of such data collection with each individual site. Currently, you can opt out of Cookies for several Ad Servers by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative gateway opt-out site or TRUSTe’s Preference Manager at http://preferences.truste.com/. This website will also allow you to review the Ad Server's privacy policies. You can find additional information and resources about how to opt out of advertising and related Cookies by visiting the World Privacy Forum's Site.

We work with third party ad networks to display advertising on our Sites. Our ad network vendors use technologies to collect non-personally identifiable information about your activities on our web sites to provide you cookie-based targeted advertising based upon your browsing activity and your interests. To read about how to opt out of targeted advertising on the WebMD mobile sites see the section of this policy named TRUSTed Ads Program Ad Choices below

TRUSTed Ads Program Ad Choices

In order to give you more control over your privacy choices we have implemented the TRUSTed Ads™ program from TRUSTe. At the bottom of every page of the WebMD Web Sites you will see an Ad Choices logo, (which looks like this: Ad Choices Logo ). By clicking on that logo you will be presented with a window (the “TRUSTe Window”) that will identify all of the companies that WebMD uses to direct tailored advertisements to you, both on the WebMD Web Sites as well as on third-party sites. If you would like to stop this tailored advertising from WebMD, you can manage these advertisements through the choices in that window. By clicking the + symbol next to the name of a vendor in that window you will get information about how and where that vendor assists us with the delivery of advertisements.

Important: If your device uses the Apple iOS Operating System, you will not see the Ad Choices icon on our mobile optimized sites (such as www.m.webmd.com.) Advertisements are not tailored based on browsing activity or interests for devices that access our mobile optimized web sites using the iOS operating system, including iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

How Information Collected About You Is Used

Information collected by WebMD about you is used by WebMD to:

administer your account,
provide you with access to particular tools and services,
respond to your inquiries you send to us and to send you administrative communications about the WebMD Web Sites or services,
obtain your feedback about the WebMD Web Sites or our offerings,
statistically analyze user behavior and activity including how frequently areas of the site are visited and how many emails are received and opened,
provide you with more relevant content or advertising both on the WebMD Web Sites or on other web sites that you visit after you leave the WebMD Web Sites; and
conduct research and measurement activities, including those described below.

WebMD may combine Personal and Non-Personal Information collected by WebMD about you, and may combine this information with information from external sources. WebMD Health Manager has the ability to use Personal Information that you provide to send you personalized emails or secure electronic messages. During registration or at any time, you have the option of choosing whether or not you wish to receive emails pertaining to your health interests, including news, announcements, reminders and opportunities. The WebMD Health Manager email service requires an "opt-in" authorization from you.

We also use Cookies in order to enable us to conduct surveys for our own use and on behalf of our advertisers. These Cookies are used to determine whether you have seen certain content or advertising so that we may request your opinions. We may also use Cookies to authenticate respondents or to help you pick up where you left off in a survey. If you have Cookies disabled you may not be able to participate in some surveys.

Research and Measurement Activities

Information that WebMD collects about you may be combined by WebMD with other information available to WebMD through third parties for research and measurement purposes, including measuring the effectiveness of content, advertising or programs. This information from other sources may include age, gender, demographic, geographic, personal interests, product purchase activity or other information. We may report aggregate information, which is not able to be identified back to an individual user of the WebMD Web Sites, to our current or prospective advertisers and other business partners. We do not sell or share any Personal Information with any third parties, except contractors performing services on our behalf who agree not to use this information received from us for any purpose other than performing services on our behalf.

With Whom Do We Share Your Information?

Except as described in this Privacy Policy or as specifically agreed to by you, WebMD will not disclose any Personal Information it gathers from you through the WebMD Web Sites. We may only release Personal Information to third parties: (1) to comply with legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order; or (2) in special cases, such as in response to a physical threat to you or others, to protect property or defend or assert legal rights. In addition, we may disclose Personal Information as described below.

In the event of a corporate change in control resulting from, for example, a sale to, or merger with, another entity, or in the event of a sale of assets or a bankruptcy, WebMD reserves the right to transfer your Personal Information to the new party in control or the party acquiring assets. In the event of such a change, your Personal Information will continue to be treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy unless any changes to the Privacy Policy are made in accordance with the section below that discusses “Changes to This Privacy Policy.”

Disclosures to WebMD Operations and Maintenance Contractor

WebMD contractors sometimes have limited access to your Personal and Non-Personal Information in the course of providing products or services to WebMD. These contractors include vendors and suppliers that provide us with technology, services, data analysis, research, advertising and marketing assistance and/or content for the operation and maintenance of the WebMD Web Sites. We contractually require that our operations and maintenance contractors: 1) protect the privacy of your Personal and Non-Personal Information consistent with this Privacy Policy and 2) not use or disclose your Personal or Non-Personal Information for any purpose other than providing the limited service or function for WebMD.

Disclosures to Third Party Web Sites

Certain content, services and advertisements offered to you through the WebMD Web Sites are served on, or contain links to, web sites hosted and operated by a company other than WebMD ("Third Party Web Sites"). WebMD does not disclose your Personal Information to these Third Party Web Sites without your consent, but you should be aware that any information you disclose to the other web sites once you access these other web sites is not subject to this Privacy Policy. WebMD does not endorse and is not responsible for the privacy practices of these Third Party Web Sites. You should review the privacy policy posted on the other web site to understand how that Third Party Web Site collects and uses your Personal Information. WebMD makes an effort to make it obvious to you when you leave our website and enter a Third Party Web Site, either by requiring you to click on a link or by notifying you on the site before you visit the third party site. In addition, if you see a phrase such as "Powered by" or "in association with" followed by the name of a company other than WebMD, then you are on a web site hosted by a company other than WebMD.

How Do We Secure and Retain Your Information?

We take reasonable security measures to protect the security of your Personal Information. Despite WebMD's efforts to protect your Personal Information, there is always some risk that an unauthorized third party may find a way around our security systems or that transmissions of your information over the Internet may be intercepted.

The security of your Personal Information is important to us. When you enter Personal Information (including personal health information in various tools on our website), we encrypt the transmission of that information or use SSL connections (Secure Socket Layer) technology.

We will retain your Personal Information as long as your account is active or needed to provide you services. At any time you can remove your Personal Information or instruct us to remove it, but you should be aware that it is not technologically possible to remove each and every record of the information you have provided to WebMD from our servers. WebMD tools that collect and store Personal Information allow you to correct, update or review information you have submitted by going back to the specific tool, logging-in and making the desired changes. We will also retain your Personal Information as necessary to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.

Children

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. The WebMD Web Sites are not designed or intended to attract children under the age of 13. The WebMD Web Sites do not collect Personal Information from any person we actually know is under the age of 13. A parent or guardian, however, may use WebMD Health Manager to establish a personal health record and a WebMD Health Manager home page for a minor. The parent or guardian is solely responsible for providing supervision of the minor's use of WebMD Health Manager. The parent or guardian assumes full responsibility for ensuring that the registration information is kept secure and that the information submitted is accurate. The parent or guardian also assumes full responsibility for the interpretation and use of any information or suggestions provided through WebMD Health Manager for the minor.

Contacting WebMD About Your Personal Information or Privacy

Please send us an email by using the Contact Us link at the bottom of every page of our site if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the Personal Information we maintain about you.

You can also contact WebMD’s Privacy Office at:

WebMD, LLC
Attn: Office of Privacy
1201 Peachtree Street, NE
400 Colony Square, Suite 2100
Atlanta, GA 30361
Phone: 866-788-3097

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change or modify this Privacy Policy or any of our tools or services at any time and any changes will be effective upon being posted unless we advise otherwise. If we make any material changes to this policy we will notify you by email (sent to the email address specified when you register) and/or by means of a notice on this website prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this website for the latest information on our privacy practices. If you do not accept the terms of this Privacy Policy, we ask that you do not register with us and that you do not use the WebMD Web Sites. Please exit the WebMD Web Sites immediately if you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Accreditations and Privacy Seals

WebMD has been awarded e-Health accreditation from URAC, formerly the American HealthCare Accreditation Association. URAC is an independent accrediting body that has reviewed and approved WebMD's WebMD.com Web sites for compliance with its more than 45 quality and ethics standards. To verify our compliance click the URAC logo. To read more, visit the URAC Center on WebMD

WebMD has been awarded TRUSTe's Privacy Seal signifying that this privacy policy and practices have been reviewed by TRUSTe for compliance with TRUSTe's program requirements including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information. TRUSTe's mission, as an independent third party, is to accelerate online trust among consumers and organizations globally through its leading privacy trustmark and innovative trust solutions. If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or practices, please email us by using the Contact Us link at the bottom of each page of our site. If you are not satisfied with our response you can contact TRUSTe here. Please bear in mind that TRUSTe’s Watchdog service and certification is for the WebMD.com, MedicineNet.com, and the WebMD Health Manager sites and does not cover information that may be collected through other WebMD websites, mobile applications or mobile websites. Only information collected by WebMD.com, MedicineNet.com, or WebMD Health Manager should be reported in a TRUSTe Watchdog complaint.