This page explains why we collect data on our site, who has access to it, and why we’re asking you to allow us to do so. We believe that health information should be free to everyone and we rely on advertising to make this possible. Providing the best health information is cost intensive. We spend substantial amounts of time & resources to ensure our articles and information we provide is accurate and precise with quality review by a doctor or other certified, trained medical professional. When you visit our website, we use cookies and similar tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience, store or access relevant information, customize content and offers, personalize advertising, analyze our traffic, and better understand you.
Protecting your privacy is of utmost importance to us. Our website links to other sites, federal agency sites and occasionally, to private organizations. Once you leave our primary site, you are subject to the privacy policy for the site(s) you are visiting not us. We do not collect any personally identifiable information (PII) about you during your visit to other websites unless you choose to provide it to us. We do, however, collect some data about your visit to our website to help us better understand how the public uses the site and how to make it more helpful. We collect information from visitors who read, browse, and/or download information from our website, none of which is identifiable to you.
When visitors submit questions or comments via the Forum on Illness.com, our team or doctors responds to the inquiries and files them. Only designated staff members to the questions respond, can view, or have the ability to answer them. Any private information will not be shared unless made by you public.
References to “Illness.com,” “we” or “us” mean Illness.com LLC. Illness.com may share information among its subsidiaries or websites that it owns or controls, but information collected under this Privacy Policy is always protected under the terms of this Privacy Policy. Except as otherwise noted in this Privacy Policy, Illness.com LLC is the data controller responsible for the processing of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.
The collection of information, and combination with previously collected information, to select and deliver advertisements for you, and to measure the delivery and effectiveness of such advertisements. This includes using previously collected information about your interests to select ads, processing data about what advertisements were shown, how often they were shown, when and where they were shown, and whether you took any action related to the advertisement, including for example clicking an ad or making a purchase. This does not include personalization, which is the collection and processing of information about your use of this service to subsequently personalize advertising and/or content for you in other contexts, such as websites or apps, over time.
Types of Information Collected
When you browse through any Web site, certain information about your visit can be collected. We automatically collect and temporarily store the following type of information about your visit:
Domain from which you access the Internet;
IP address (an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to a computer when surfing the Web);
Operating system and information about the browser used when visiting the site;
Date and time of your visit;
Pages you visited;
Address of the Web site that connected you to Illness.com web site (such as com or bing.com); and,
Demographic and interest data.
We use this information to measure the number of visitors to our site and its various sections and to help make our site more useful to visitors. This information cannot be used to identify you as an individual.
If your electronic medical record (EMR), patient health record (PHR) or other system links you to Illness.com, your diagnosis codes or other information, such as medications or procedures names, are sent to our site in order to link you to the most appropriate information. No personally identifiable information is collected in this process.
How We Collects Information
Illness.com uses Google Analytics to collect the information in the bulleted list in the Types of Information Collected section above. Google Analytics gathers information automatically and continuously. No Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is collected. Illness.com staff conducts analyses and reports on the aggregated data from Google Analytics and those reports are only available to Illness.com managers, members of the Illness.com communications and web teams, and other designated staff who require this information to perform their duties.
Illness.com uses online surveys to collect opinions and feedback from a random sample of visitors. The survey does not collect PII. Although the survey invitation pops up for a random sample of visitors, it is optional. If you decline the survey, you will still have access to the identical information and resources at the Illness.com site as those who do not take the survey. The survey reports are available only to Illness.com managers, members of the Illness.com Communications and Web Teams, and other designated staff who require this information to perform their duties.
When you visit any web site, it may place a small text file, known as a “cookie,” on your computer. The cookie allows the website to “remember” specific information about your visit while you are connected or when you return to that site.
Cookies from Illness.com web pages only collect information about your browser’s visit to the site; they do not collect personal information about you. While visiting certain Illness.com websites, you may occasionally encounter a web page that automatically employs cookies to make it easier to use the web page’s dynamic features.
Illness.com website may use either single session (temporary) or multi-session (persistent) cookies. Session cookies last only as long as your web browser is open. Once you close your browser, the cookie disappears. Persistent cookies are stored on your computer for longer periods.
Session Cookies:We use session cookies for technical purposes such as to enable better navigation through our site. This tier encompasses any use of single session web measurement and customization technologies.
Persistent Cookies:We use persistent cookies to enhance the web experience for our users. Persistent cookies remain on your computer between visits to Illness.com until they expire. This tier encompasses any use of multi-session web measurement and customization technologies when no PII is collected.
For example, Illness.com uses persistent cookies to enable certain features. The persistent cookie retains user preferences such as search result filters, LinkOut displays, institutional icon links, document delivery services, etc. across user sessions. Illness.com also uses persistent cookies to avoid repeated invitations to take our customer satisfaction survey. The persistent cookies that block repeated survey invitations expire in 90 days. Illness.com may employ persistent cookies in other ways consistent with our mission and the guidelines to analyze use patterns and improve our users’ experience on illness.com websites.
How to Opt Out or Disable Cookies
If you do not wish to have session or persistent cookies placed on your computer, you can disable them using your Web browser. If you opt out of cookies, you will still have access to all information and resources at Illness.com. Please note that by following the instructions to opt-out of cookies, you will disable cookies from all sources, not just those from illness.com.
How Personal Information Is Protected
You do not have to give us personal information to visit the illness.com web sites. However, if you choose to receive alerts or e-newsletters, we collect your email address to complete the subscription process.
If you choose to provide us with personally identifiable information, that is, information that is personal in nature and which may be used to identify you, through an e-mail message, request for information, paper or electronic form, questionnaire, customer satisfaction survey, epidemiology research study, etc., we will maintain the information you provide only as long as needed to respond to your question or to fulfill the stated purpose of the communication. If we store your personal information in a record system designed to retrieve information about you by personal identifier (name, personal email address, home mailing address, personal or mobile phone number, etc.), so that we may contact you, we will safeguard the information you provide to us in accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (5 U.S.C. Section 552a).
If Illness.com operates a record system designed to retrieve information about you in order to accomplish its mission, a Privacy Act Notification Statement should be prominently and conspicuously displayed on the public-facing website or form which asks you to provide personally identifiable information. The notice must address the following five criteria:
com legal authorization to collect information about you
Purpose of the information collection
Routine uses for disclosure of information outside of Illness.com
Whether the request made of you is voluntary or mandatory under law
Effects of non-disclosure if you choose to not provide the requested information
For further information about Illness.com privacy policy, please contact the Illness.com Senior Official for Privacy at privacy@illness.com
