Privacy Policy
Last Updated June 10, 2009
SymptomLog, www.symptomlog.com (the "Site"), succeeds based on the power of our community and the trust we have built by selecting the highest quality health content to power our site. The content library is a URAC-accredited resource; all of the evidence-based content is written by experienced medical writers and independently reviewed by medically credentialed experts. Regular reviews and updates reflect the most recent information and available research.
If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email at customerservice@symptomlog.com.
What information do we collect and why?
SymptomLog members can track their symptoms online and optionally, share that information and gain support from other members who are experiencing the same things.
The type of information that members may add to their profile ("Profile Data") may include, but is not limited to:
- A daily log of symptoms and notes experienced - measured by frequency, duration and intensity.
- Journal entries ("Blogs") on anything a member might want to share with the community.
- A brief personal introduction.
Members may enter information voluntarily that specifically identifies them ("Personally Identifiable Information or PII") into a Blog Entry or elsewhere on the site. During the registration process, SymptomLog may also ask you to provide certain information about yourself that is not a part of your profile and not visible to other members of the site, such as your name, email address, date of birth, gender and postal code.
While our goal is to help our members improve their health, we cannot guarantee any specific benefits to using this site. However, keeping track of personal well-being, treatments and symptoms has been shown to be helpful in improving overall health. There is a possibility that members may feel uncomfortable sharing information online. You are free to stop using this service at any time. You are also free to skip any questions or data fields that make you feel uncomfortable.
We may periodically ask you to participate in short surveys. Your response is not required and will not change the experience on the site.
How Your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Is Used
So that other members can learn and benefit from your experience, your Profile Data may be aggregated and made visible to other members of the site. For example, we may report the total number of members who are tracking fever during a specific time frame such as Flu Season.
In addition to serving the individual needs of our members, SymptomLog may sponsor research studies. By filling out your Profile Data you are adding your health information to our database which may be used in research. For example, we may look at scientific questions such as, "Do certain symptoms persist more frequently during a certain time period relative to other symptoms?".
SymptomLog will never rent, sell or share information that personally identifies you for marketing purposes. At SymptomLog, we're interested in bridging the gap between patient, doctor and the internet to provide better information, leading to a better diagnosis and treatment - and ultimately, better health.
Profile Privacy Settings
SymptomLog offers two privacy levels you may choose for your community participation:
- Visible: SymptomLog registered members can see your Profile Data and user name, and can contact you through the site.
- Public: Non-SymptomLog members will be able to view your Profile Data and registered members can contact you through the site.
You may change your privacy level at any time, however, public profiles may be indexed by Internet search engines (e.g. Google). Regardless of which level you choose, Personally Identifiable Information not contained in your Profile Data such as full name and e-mail address will not be revealed to others.
Because part of the value of SymptomLog is in sharing your experiences to help others, we hope that you feel comfortable enough to make your profile as visible as possible.
SymptomLog cannot guarantee the identity of any other members with whom you may interact in the course of using the Site or who may have access (based on the privacy level you have selected) to information you have posted in the Member Area. Additionally, we cannot guarantee the authenticity of any data that members may provide about themselves.
Third Party Advertising
We use third-party advertising companies to show advertisements when you visit the site. These companies may use information (not including your name, email address or any other personally identifiable information) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please visit the Network Advertising Initiative. Some of these companies use cookies on our site. We have no access to or control over these cookies. This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by SymptomLog only and does not cover the use of cookies by any third-party advertising companies.
Cookies
Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on www.symptomlog.com. Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to www.symptomlog.com and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html
Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Our advertising partners include Google Adsense.
These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on www.symptomlog.com send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.
www.symptomlog.com has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.
You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. www.symptomlog.com's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.
The use of Cookies is required to use SymptomLog. A cookie is a small data file that often includes an anonymous unique identifier that is sent to your browser from a web site's computers and stored in your computer's hard drive. SymptomLog uses two types of cookies: Session Cookies, and Persistent Cookies. Session Cookies are temporary cookies that remain in the cookie file of your browser until you leave the site. Session cookies do no store any personally identifying information, only a unique visitor ID number that we can use to customize the SymptomLog experience for you. Persistent Cookies remain in the cookie file of your browser for much longer, even after you leave the SymptomLog site. Persistent cookies do no store any personally identifying information, only preferences that should persist from visit to visit, like "Remember Me".
If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites.
Log Files
Like many other Web sites, www.symptomlog.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.
Legal Disclosure
SymptomLog reserves 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 the site.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
If we decide to change this privacy policy, we will post the changes to this privacy policy, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what data we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our homepage.