This Privacy Policy outlines how City of Hope National Medical Center ( “we”, “us”, or “our”)
may collect, use, process, maintain and discloses information collected from you (“you”, “your”,
“user”)) when you download and/or interact with our mobile application services, “City of Hope
Mobile Application” (“App”, or “Services”). The purpose of the App is to allow patients or
visitors who are users to request appointments, find a doctor, get directions to our facilities, read
news articles and stories, and make donations. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully before
downloading and using the App.
This Privacy Policy tells you what information we collect, how we protect it, your relationship with
our Services, and what choices you have regarding your information. This Privacy Policy is a part of,
and is governed by, our Terms of Use. It is important that you carefully read both this Privacy Policy
and our Terms of Use. By accessing or using our Services, and voluntarily providing us with your Personal
Information, you are consenting to our use and disclosure of your Personal Information in accordance with
the terms of this Privacy Policy.
If any of your data is considered Protected Health Information (“PHI”), we will treat it confidentially
in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and its implementing
regulations (“HIPAA”), and in accordance with our Notice of Privacy Practices.
- Personal Information Collected
- Account Registration. At the time you request an invitation code to become a Registered User of the
Services, you may be asked to provide us Personal Information including your email address, username
so we can create an account for you. Your provision of any Personal Information is voluntary. However,
if you choose not to provide the information requested, certain aspects or elements of the Services
may not be available to you.
- Contact Us. If you send us emails such as customer support inquiries, we may maintain those communications
and their contents so that we can resolve your inquiries or otherwise assist you. We use the Personal
Information we collect from such emails that you send to us in order to contact you to respond to your
inquiries, and we do not use this Personal Information to add you to our newsletter list or to send you
other unsolicited marketing messages (unless you also otherwise provide us with your Personal Information
for those purposes).
- Data Collected by the App. We may collect Personal Information that you provide us via the App. For
example, our App has certain functionalities allowing you to voluntarily submit your Personal Information
in connection with appointment request forms; charitable donation forms; requests for materials or information;
subscriptions to email communication services; surveys or feedback forms; and email links to City of Hope
departments or individuals. If you elect to receive regular e mail communications from City of Hope (such
as an e mail newsletter subscription), you will always be provided with an "opt out" method so that you
can unsubscribe at any time.
- Donor Information. If you choose to donate to City of Hope, you will be redirected from the App to a
secure web page where you may submit your credit card or other financial information. This financial
information will only be used by City of Hope and its trusted partners for purposes of accepting your
donation, and will be maintained confidentially. We may also exchange your contact information with other
trustworthy non profit organizations if you choose to become a donor. This practice helps us to find new
City of Hope supporters. This process is carefully monitored at all times. You may opt out of by calling
(866) 683 4673 or emailing [email protected].
- Social Media. The App allows you to visit third party social networking sites (e.g. Facebook®,
Twitter®). If you choose to do this, your interactions with these third parties are governed by the
privacy policy of the company providing them, not by this Privacy Policy.
- Information Collected Automatically
While you are using the App on your mobile device, we may collect information from that device, including your IP address, browser type, and device type, and other usage information about your device. When you are using the App, we may collect the app version, device hardware model, device operating system (OS) version, language and region settings, and measurement mode.
In order to personalize and enhance your experience with our Services, we may also collect information through the following technologies:
- 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, clicked pages and any other information your browser may send to us.
- Web Beacons. Web beacons are small graphic images or other web programming code that may be included in our Site pages or other areas of the Site. Web beacons are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of users of our Services. Unlike cookies, which are typically stored on your computer or mobile device’s hard drive, web beacons are embedded invisibly on web pages. Web beacons or similar technologies help us better manage content on our Site by informing us what content is effective, counting the number of users of the Services, monitoring how users navigate the Services, or counting how many emails, articles or links were actually opened or viewed.
- Cookies. We may collect certain information about users whenever they interact with our Services by using Cookie technology. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser, if you so allow, that enables the Services’ or our or our service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. This technology typically does not personally identify you or extract information from your computer. We may use Cookies to provide an enhanced online experience, to monitor and measure the use of our Site and to improve the Site’s design and content. The type of information collected may include browser information, operating system, type of computer, internet service provider and other similar information. The information we may obtain in this manner also helps us customize the content, services, or products we offer on our Services and to measure their overall effectiveness. You may be able to decline Cookies by changing a setting in your web browser. You may also be able to disable the ability of web beacons to capture information by declining Cookies.
- Third-Party Usage. The use of third-party Cookies is not covered by our Privacy Policy. We do not have access or control over these Cookies. You may visit the third-party links below to opt out of their tracking and learn about their privacy practices. However, we are not in control of the location of the instructions and information provided by the third parties below and, therefore, you may have to locate the particular instructions and information for the respective third party if these links are no longer current.
- Google Analytics. Our website uses Google Analytics to help understand how visitors interact with our website so that the Site can be improved.
- To view Google’s Privacy Policy, please click here.
- To opt out, please download and install the “Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on” by clicking here.
- Geolocation information. We may collect the geolocation (e.g. GPS) of your mobile device so that we can provide you with accurate directions to our facilities. Such geolocation information may be shared with Google Analytics.
- How We Use Your Personal Information
We will not use or disclose your Personal Information in a manner inconsistent with applicable law or this Privacy Policy. Examples of the uses and disclosures we will make include:
- We may use your Personal Information to provide you with our Services;
- We may use your Personal Information to establish you as a Registered User for our Services;
- We may use your Personal Information to verify your identity to allow your access to any password protected portions of the Services;
- We may use your Personal Information to respond to your questions and comments that you communicate to us or to respond to your request;
- We may use your Personal Information to send you information such as new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up-to-date with our related services. You can always opt out of email marketing by clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link appended to the end of a promotional email from us;
- We may use your Personal Information to respond to your customer service requests and support needs;
- We may use your Personal Information to provide, analyze, administer and improve our Services;
- We may use your Personal Information to administer a contest, promotion, survey or other feature;
- We may use your Personal Information to perform business analytics or for other similar purposes to improve the quality of our business, our Services and similar services we offer;
- We may use your Personal Information to create aggregated, non-personal information, or to create de-identified information (“Anonymous Data”); and
- We may use your Personal Information to investigate possible violations of and enforce our contracts, including terms of use and any terms and conditions associated with our products, and to comply with our legal obligations.
- Data Security
City of Hope makes extensive use of technologies and techniques to help protect the integrity of the Personal Information you provide to us via the App. Still, you should be aware that electronic communications may not always be secure, in spite of all precautions. If you are concerned about providing sensitive information, you may wish to do so via phone, regular mail or during a personal consultation, rather than electronically. We have reasonable safeguards in place to protect your information, and we have taken the following security measures:
- Transport Layer Security (TLS) - We use TLS encryption when transmitting certain kinds of information through the App from your mobile device to our server. An icon resembling a padlock is displayed in most browsers during TLS sessions. When you send text messages or emails to your friends, family or other individuals in your contact list, those messages or emails are outside of our control and are not encrypted. Alerts and reminders sent to your mobile device are also not encrypted.
- Secure Storage - We deploy reasonable and appropriate industry standard physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect your Personal Information.
- Vendors and Partners - To protect the security and privacy of your information, we may provide information to partners and vendors who work on our behalf or with us and require them to agree to maintain the confidentiality of your information.
- Access to Information - We limit access to Personal Information to those employees who reasonably need access to such information in order to provide you with services and process your information appropriately.
- Data Retention
We will retain your Personal Information for the length of time needed to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. We may retain de-identified data for an indefinite amount of time for research and development purposes.
- How We Disclose Personal Information and Anonymous Data
We may share Personal Information with service providers and governmental agencies or as otherwise described below:
- Providers and Unaffiliated Third Parties. We may share your Personal Information with Providers in order for them to provide services and products you requested.
- Service Providers. We may share your Personal Information with affiliated and unaffiliated companies that perform tasks on our behalf related to our business. Such tasks include managing and analyzing this Site or mobile application usage data, customer service, trouble shooting by accessing users’ systems remotely (with users’ consents), electronic and postal mail service, contests/surveys/sweepstakes administration, marketing services, social commerce and media services (e.g., Facebook, ratings, reviews, blog), and payment processing services. Third-party service providers receive your Personal Information as necessary to perform their role, and we instruct them not to use your Personal Information for any other purposes.
- Professional Advisors. We may share your Personal Information with our auditors, lawyers or other professional advisors so they can support our business. Like the other service providers, these professional advisors are bound by contractual obligations to keep Personal Information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.
- As Required by Law. We will disclose your Personal Information as necessary or appropriate, including to providing information as required by law, regulation, subpoena, court order, legal process or government request; to enforce our Terms of Use, including investigations of potential violations thereof; to detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect your safety or the safety of others; to protect our rights, to investigate fraud, or to respond to a government request.
- How We Disclose Anonymous Data
The Anonymous Data you provide allows us to perform analysis, research and generate the appropriate statistics relevant to you. We may share this Anonymous Data with other research affiliates, agents, and business partners, to better understand our users as well as to improve the content and functionality of the App and the Site. Collecting this information also allows us to perform technical research and development, improve the App and the Site, and develop new features or services.
We may conduct research on our end user’s demographics, interests, and behavior based on the Anonymous Data. This research may be compiled and analyzed on an aggregated basis. We may share with its affiliates, agents, and business partners this “aggregated” data, compiled from the information that it collects from users. These aggregate data do not identify you personally. We may also disclose aggregated data in order to describe our services to current and prospective business partners, and to other third parties for other lawful purposes. Although these aggregated data do not identify users personally, there is a risk that third parties who receive such data from us may re-identify specific users. Prior to sharing any Anonymous Data with third parties, we will secure in writing the express written agreement of such third parties that they will not attempt to re-identify the information to any particular individual.
- Children
We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under the age of 13 and do not target the Site or the App to anyone under 18. If you are under 18, you should not attempt to use the Services or provide any data to us. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 13 has provided Personal Data to us, please contact us ([email protected]), and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases.
- Disclaimers
This App is designed for informational and educational purposes only. It should not be construed as medical advice nor should it be used for diagnostic or treatment purposes. If you feel you have a health problem, please consult a medical professional. This App is not a substitute for professional care. If you have or suspect you have a health problem, please consult a medical professional.
- Your Choices
We strive to maintain the accuracy of any Personal Information that may be collected from you, and will use our commercially reasonable efforts to respond promptly to update our database when you tell us any such information in our database is not accurate. It is your responsibility to ensure that such information is accurate, complete and up-to-date. You may obtain from us, by email or mail, the information in our records and/or files. If you wish to make any changes to any Personal Information you have provided to us, you may do so at any time by contacting our mobile application development team. You may opt out of receiving communications from us and our affiliates by following the opt-out link provided in any email received from us or by contacting us here. If you close your Registered User account, we will no longer use your online account information or share it with third parties. We may, however, retain a copy of the information for archival purposes, and to avoid identity theft or fraud.
We do not currently recognize automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include “do not track” instructions. Therefore, we will not treat you differently if we receive such settings from you.
- Updates to This Privacy Policy
We may periodically update this Privacy Policy to describe new Services features, products or services we offer and how it may affect our use of information about you. If we make material changes to this this Privacy Policy, we will post a notice on the Services prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices. We will not make any materially different use or new disclosure of your Personal Information to another entity using your Personal Information for that entity’s own purposes unless we notify you and give you an opportunity to object.
- Questions
If you have questions about privacy or security issues related to the App, please contact our mobile application development team.