Privacy Practices

Web site Privacy Statement
This Web site may have security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information under our control.  These measures could include encryption of data using the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) system, and using a secured messaging service when we send you personal information electronically.  Despite these measures, the confidentiality of any communication or material transmitted to or from us via this site by Internet or e-mail cannot be guaranteed. At your discretion, you may contact us at the mailing address or telephone number listed in the “Questions, complaints, and contacts” section at the end of this Privacy Statement.

Revisions to the Privacy Statement
We may revise this Privacy Statement from time to time as we add new features or as laws change that may affect our services. If we make material changes to our Privacy Statement, we will post notice of this on our Web site. We include a version number on this Privacy Statement consisting of the date (year, month, and day) it was last revised. We encourage you to periodically reread this Privacy Statement, to see if there have been any changes to our policies that may affect you.

Web site visitors data
Kaiser Permanente may routinely gather data on Web site activity, such as how many people visit the site, the pages they visit, where they come from, how long they stay on the site, etc. The data is collected on an aggregate, anonymous basis, which means that no personally identifiable information is associated with the data. This data helps us improve site content and overall usage. The information is not shared with other organizations for their independent use.

Collecting and using personal information
Except as disclosed in this Privacy Statement, we do not collect any identifiable information about visitors to this site or our customers who use this site. The policies, sources, and uses of information are outlined in Sections 1 and 2 that follow:

1. Web logs
We may maintain standard Web logs that record data about all visitors and customers who use this site and we store this information for a while. These logs may contain the Internet domain from which you access the site (such as aol.com, abc.org, etc.); the IP address which is automatically assigned to your computer when you get on the Internet (a static IP address may be identifiable as being connected to you, while a dynamic address is usually not identifiable); the type of browser and operating system you use; the date and time you visited the site; the pages you viewed on the site; the address of the Web site you linked from, if any.

All Web logs are stored securely, and may only be accessed by Kaiser Permanente employees or designees on a need-to-know basis for a specific purpose. Kaiser Permanente uses Web log information to help us design our site, to identify popular features, to resolve user, hardware, and software problems, and to make the site more useful to visitors.

2. Internet cookies
We may place Internet “cookies” on the computer hard drives of visitors to this Kaiser Permanente Web site. Information we obtain from cookies helps us to tailor our site to be more helpful and efficient for our visitors. The cookie consists of a unique identifier that does not contain information about you or your health history. We use two types of cookies, “session” cookies and “persistent” cookies.

A session cookie is temporary, and expires after you end a session and close your Web browser.
October 4, 2010