Introduction
Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s Department of Research and Evaluation provides this website to allow interested members of the public, as well as Kaiser Permanente physicians and staff, learn about the research conducted in Kaiser Permanente Southern California.
This Privacy Statement applies to the Website, which is owned and operated by Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. (“Kaiser Permanente”, “KP”). This Privacy Statement describes how Kaiser Permanente collects and uses the personal information you provide on, and other information that is collected from your use of the Website. It also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal information and how you can access and update this information.
Kaiser Permanente is committed to protecting the privacy of the users of the Website. We will use and disclose your personal information as stated in this Privacy Statement.
Website Privacy Statement
Use and disclosure of your personal information includes using the information to answer any questions you may have about Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s Department of Research and Evaluation. Our use and disclosure of an individual’s personal information (including health information) is limited as required by state and federal law. We do not sell or rent personal information about visitors to the Website.
Security
The Website has security measures in place that are intended to help protect against the loss, misuse, unauthorized access or alteration of information under our control. These measures include encryption of data using the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) system. Despite these measures, the confidentiality of any communication or material transmitted to or from us via the Website by Internet or email cannot be guaranteed. At your discretion, you may contact us at the email address 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 modify the way in which we manage information, 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 Website prior to the changes becoming effective. Any revised Privacy Statement will apply both to information we already have about you at the time of the change, and any personal information created or received after the change takes effect. 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.
Website visitor data
In addition to web logs, described below, Kaiser Permanente routinely gathers data on website activity, such as how many people visit the site, the web pages they visit, where they come from, how long they stay, 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 our content and overall usage. The information is not shared with other organizations for their independent use.
The Website does not honor a browser’s signal or header request not to track the user’s activity.
Collecting and using and disclosing personal information
Except as disclosed in this Privacy Statement, we do not collect any personally identifiable information about visitors to the Website. The policies, sources, uses and disclosures of information are outlined in Sections 1 through 15 that follow:
1. Information collection, use, and disclosure
We collect the following personal information from you:
- contact information such as name and email address
- questions and comments regarding the administration of a research program
We use and disclose this information to:
- respond to your questions about a research program
- respond to customer service requests
- send you email and newsletter communications
- respond to your questions and concerns
- improve our website
- conduct internal quality improvement or business analysis
2. Web logs
As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically. We maintain standard Web logs that record data about all visitors and customers who use the Website and we store this information. 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 pages you viewed; and the address of the website 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 Website; to identify popular features; to resolve user, hardware, and software problems; to make the Website more useful to visitors; and for security purposes.
3. Internet cookies
We and our partners may place Internet “cookies” or similar technologies on the computer hard drives of visitors to the Website. 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. We use session cookies to track your “click path” through our Web pages.
Persistent cookies remain on your hard drive after you’ve exited from our website, and we use them for several reasons. For example, we use Google Analytics to collect and process data about visits to our site. More information about Google Analytics is available here: www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. We sometimes use this type of persistent cookie with a “Web beacon” (see below).Persistent cookies will not contain any personal information about you.
You may have software on your computer that will allow you to decline or deactivate Internet cookies, but if you do so, some features of the Website may not work properly for you. For instructions on how to remove cookies from your hard drive, go to your browser’s website for detailed instructions. In addition, further information regarding cookies may be available on other websites or from your Internet service provider. Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and iOS browsers are commonly used browsers.
4. Web beacons
We may also occasionally use “Web beacons” (also known as “clear gifs,” “Web bugs,” “1-pixel gifs,” etc.) that allow us to collect non-personal information about your response to our email communications, and for other purposes. Web beacons are tiny images, placed on a Web page or email, that can tell us if you’ve gone to a particular area on our website. For example, if you’ve given us permission to send you emails, we may send you an email urging you to use a certain feature on our website. If you do respond to that email and use that feature, the Web beacon will tell us that our email communication with you has been successful. We do not collect any personal health information with a Web beacon.
Since Web beacons are used in conjunction with persistent cookies (described above), if you set your browser to decline or deactivate cookies, Web beacons cannot function.
5. Emails
Kaiser Permanente uses a third-party vendor to help us manage some of our email and electronic newsletter communications with you. While we do supply these vendors with email addresses of those we wish them to contact, your email address is never used for any purpose other than to communicate with you on our behalf. When you click on a link in an email, you may temporarily be redirected through one of the vendor’s servers (although this process will be invisible to you) which will register that you’ve clicked on that link, and have viewed the electronic newsletter. Kaiser Permanente never shares any information, other than your email address, with our third-party email vendors, which may only share this information with its authorized subcontractors.
Even if you have given us permission to send emails to you, you may revoke that permission at any time by following the “unsubscribe” information at the bottom of the email you receive from us.
6. Evaluation and quality improvement
We will periodically ask users to complete surveys asking about their experiences with features of the Website. Our surveys ask visitors for demographic information such as age, gender, and education, but will not request that users provide specific information about any medical condition. We use survey information for evaluation and quality improvement purposes, including helping Kaiser Permanente to improve information and services offered through the Website. In addition, users giving feedback may be individually contacted for follow-up due to concerns raised during the course of such evaluation. Demographic information and Web log data may be stored for future evaluation and quality improvement activities.
7. Messages and transactions
Comments or questions sent to us using email or secure messaging forms will be shared with Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s Department of Research and Evaluation staff who are most able to address your concerns. We will archive your messages once we have made our best effort to provide you with a complete and satisfactory response.
8. Data integrity and correction
Requests to view and correct personal information from the Website, that that you have entered through this website, may be submitted using the contact information in the “Questions, complaints, and contacts” section below.
If your personal information changes, or to update or request deletion of information collected on our Website, please use the contact information in the “Questions, complaints, and contacts” section below. We will respond to all access requests within 30 days.
9. Children
We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If Kaiser Permanente is made aware of collecting information from a child under 13 we will delete this information.
10. Disclosures
We may disclose personal information to any person performing audit, legal, operational, or other services for us. We will use information which does not identify the individual for these activities whenever reasonably possible. Information disclosed to vendors or contractors for operational purposes may not be re-disclosed to others by such a vendor or contractor, except as permitted by Kaiser Permanente and applicable law.
We may also disclose your personal information to third parties who provide services on our behalf to help with our business activities. These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us.
These services may include:
- sending marketing communications
- fulfilling subscription services
We may also disclose your personal information:
- as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal process
- as described in our Notices of Privacy Practices for protected health information
- when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect you or others from threats of imminent
- harm, investigate fraud or other activity in violation of the law, or respond to a government request
- to protect the security and reliability of the Website
- if Kaiser Permanente is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of its assets; you will be notified via email and/or
- a prominent notice on our Website of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may
- have regarding your personal information
- to any other third party with your prior consent to do so
11. Opt out
If a user makes a request to receive information (for example, requesting a subscription to our online newsletter) in an ongoing manner through the Website by providing an email address the user may request to discontinue future mailings or messages. Similarly, if you receive information about a research study conducted by the Department of Research & Evaluationyou may make a request to discontinue receiving similar messages in the future. All such materials sent to you by email or text message will contain information about how to opt out.
12. Other requests to limit use and disclosure of your personal information
State and federal laws may allow you to request that we limit our uses and disclosures of your personal information for treatment, payment, and health care operations purposes. We will consider all requests and, if we deny your request, we will notify you in writing. Federal law requires us to agree to your request to restrict disclosures to a health plan or insurer relating to specific health care services, if you have paid for those services in full. The law does not, however, require us to restrict any disclosures we think are important for treatment purposes.
13. Data retention
We will retain your information for as long as needed to provide you services. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
14. Social media
Our Online newsletter includes Social Media Features, such as the Instagram and Twitter buttons. These Features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the Feature to function properly. Social Media Features are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Site. Your interactions with these Features are governed by the privacy statement of the company providing them.
15. Links to third-party websites
Our Website includes links to other websites whose privacy practices may differ from those of Kaiser Permanente and the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research and Evaluation website. If you submit personal information to any of those sites, your information is governed by their privacy statements. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy statement of any website you visit.
Questions, complaints, and contacts
If you have any questions about this Privacy Statement our policies and practices concerning the Website or your rights under this statement you can contact the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research and Evaluation Contact Us form.
Last revised April 1, 2019.