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This site respects the importance of the privacy of personal information
from our members. We are committed to honoring your privacy. This
document is our privacy policy for our Web site, and it describes
what information we may collect about you, what uses we may make
of it, how you can tell us what to do with your information, and
what precautions we take against unauthorized access or use of your
information.
Medical Malpractice Defense (www.medicalmalpracticedefense.net)
is our Web site for physicians and allied health care professionals.
It is also open to non-professionals as well.
This privacy policy only applies to the Medical Malpractice Defense
web sites. You should read the privacy policy at each other Web
site that you visit after you leave our sites. We are not responsible
for how other Web sites treat your privacy, once you leave a Medical
Malpractice Defense site.
Changes
As the privacy policies change in significant ways, we will post
them here. Minor changes will not affect our use of individually
identifiable information. When the privacy policies change in a
way that significantly affects the handling of personal information,
we will not use the information we have previously gathered without
obtaining consent from the appropriate individual. Privacy policy
change will be posted on the web sites in a timely manner.
Information Collected from Unregistered Visitors
Visitors to our Web sites can access the Web site's home page, and
browse some areas of the site, without disclosing any personally
identifiable information. We do track information provided to us
by your browser, including the Web site you came from (known as
the "referring URL"), the type of browser you use, the
time and date of access, and other information that does not personally
identify you.
Information We Collect When You Register
Those registering for membership are asked to provide us with identifying
information, such as name, gender, contact information, and other
identifying information. We clearly label which information is required
for registration, and which information is optional and may be given
at your discretion. You can choose whether or not to receive newsletter
information. We ask for your consent before collecting personally
identifiable information.
Information from Outside Sources
If you are buying services we will ask customers for information
such as credit card information. Where necessary (for example, to
process an order for a purchase), we may contact financial or credit
organizations to confirm customer credit cards
Other Information
Forums: When you are using a forum on our Web sites, you are posting
a message and your user name, which is available for all registered
users to see. We suggest you use a user name that does not identify
you. When you are posting the other members of that level or the
level above on the web site can see your message. You should not
post any information you want to keep private to a discussion board
or other public forums.
In addition, we gather information about you that is automatically
collected by our Web server, such as your IP address and domain
name. Medical Malpractice Defense will use this information to personalize
its offerings and presentations to you, facilitate your movements
throughout our Web sites, provide personalized services, and to
communicate with you individually.
Medical Malpractice Defense Editorial and Customer Support Staff
will have internal access to files containing personally identifiable
information, including evaluation forms. These files may be used
to respond to your questions or comments. We may also use personally
identifiable information, including registration information and
evaluation data,and in assessing educational needs and planning
marketing activities.
We may use the information we collect as otherwise permitted in
this Privacy Policy.
Use of Cookies
Cookies are a technology used by the Medical Malpractice Defense
sites to identify a user as the user moves through the Web site.
Your browser allows us to place some information on your computer's
hard drive that identifies the computer you are using. Our only
use of cookies is to run the forum if you use it, and it does not
collect any information.
Your Web browser can be set to allow you to control whether you
will accept cookies, reject cookies, or to notify you each time
a cookie is sent to you. If your browser is set to reject cookies,
Web sites that prevent cookies will not recognize you when you return
to the Web site, and some Web site functionality may be lost. The
Help section of your browser will tell you how to prevent your browser
from accepting cookies.
Children's Privacy
Medical Malpractice Defense sites are designed and intended for
use by adults, and are not intended for, nor designed to be used
by children under the age of 18. Minors under the age of 18 may
not register for our Web sites.
Uses We Make of Information
Aggregate Data
We create aggregate data about visitors for product development,
improvement activities, for market analysis. We may provide information
from our Web sites in aggregate form, with identifying information
removed, to third parties. When aggregated health information is
provided, we pool it from many individual records and strip it of
any data that could be used to identify an individual before it
is used. Any third party that receives aggregated health care data
must agree not to attempt to re-identify the people it belongs to.
Depending on our agreement with the third parties, we may or may
not charge for this information.
Marketing and Advertising
Advertising or marketing may be targeted depending on information
we have about you. We may also personalize our Web site based on
your interests.
We use information for our own internal marketing, research, and
related purposes.
Third Parties
In addition to aggregate information (discussed previously), we
may share some kinds of information with third parties as described
below.
Legal Requirements: We may release account and other personal information
when we believe release is required to comply with law.
When we share information with third parties, we ask that they agree
in writing to abide by Medical Malpractice Defense's privacy policies.
If we discover that a third party inadvertently disclosed personal
information about any of our customers, we will take immediate action
to prevent further occurrences.
Other than the cases described above, Medical Malpractice Defense
will not release personally identifiable information to a third
party without the customer's consent. Also, if we ask your consent
to release personal healthcare information to a third party, we
will use our best efforts to clearly define and limit the scope
of your consent.
Protection of Information
General Policies
Our technology and security policies, rules and other measures protect
the personal data that we have under our control from unauthorized
access, improper use, alteration, unlawful or accidental destruction,
and accidental loss. We also protect your information by requiring
that all our employees and others who have access to or are associated
with the processing of your data respect your confidentiality.
Medical Malpractice Defense uses security methods to determine
the identity of its registered users, so that appropriate rights
and restrictions can be enforced for that user. Reliable verification
of user identity is called authentication. Medical Malpractice Defense
uses both passwords and usernames to authenticate users. Users are
responsible for maintaining their own passwords.
Medical Malpractice Defense employees are required to keep customer
information private, as a condition of their employment with the
company. Only selected, authorized Medical Malpractice Defense employees
are permitted to access your health information.
All employees and contractors must abide by our privacy policy
Privacy Questions or Concerns
For privacy questions or concerns about Medical Malpractice Defense
sites, please contact admin@mddef.net.
Revision date: This policy was last updated on December 1 , 2003.
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