Privacy Statement
Purpose
This notice describes how information collected by Delmarva Foundation of the District of Columbia (DFDC)
Web systems is used and disclosed. Please review this document carefully
and contact us at security@dfmc.org if you have any questions.
Who
We Are
DFDC is a not for profit corporation,
incorporated in the District of Columbia. As a Health Care Quality Improvement
Organization (QIO), we manage a great deal of confidential information for
individuals, organizations, and government agencies. All DFDC staff
are educated in the protection of confidentiality and the handling of
confidential materials.
Information Collection and Use
DFDC uses Web sites for many purposes, including education of the public
concerning our organization, providing information to the public regarding
health care and our services, and to support and assist with our many
improvement projects. The type of information collected varies with
the purpose of the site. Therefore not all of the provisions of this
policy apply to every site, but every site is covered by this policy
statement.
DFDC is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. DFDC collects information from our users at several different points on our website, depending on the particular site. All methods are described below.
Registration
Some sites may require registration before they can be used, or before allowing access to confidential services. During registration a user is required to give their contact information (such as name and email address.) This information is used to contact the user about the services on our site for which they have expressed interest. The user may also be asked to provide demographic information (such as income level or gender), and unique identifiers (such a d.o.b., mother's maiden name, a pin number/password created by the user). Any information that is not necessary for the purposes of the registration is clearly marked as optional.
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s hard drive containing
information about the user. Use of a cookie is in no way linked to any
personally identifiable information while on our site. Once the user
closes their browser, the cookie simply terminates. For instance, by
setting a cookie on our site, the user would not have to log in a password
more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If a user rejects
the cookie, they may still use our site. The only drawback to this is
that the user may be limited in some areas of our site. For example,
the user may not be able to receive customized information from our site
or have information preloaded into some forms.
Log Files
We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s
movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.
IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.
They may be resolved to identify the name of the organization owning
that IP address.
Sharing
We share information on the use of our sites with some of our customers,
such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), some State
governments, and others. We do not provide personally identifiable information
in these reports. Generally, these reports are for verifying the level
and type of use of our Web sites.
Links
A Web site may contain links to other sites. Please be aware that DFDC is not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites.
We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read
the privacy statements of each Web site that collects personally identifiable
information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected
by this Web site.
Newsletters
Some sites may offer newsletters. If a user wishes to subscribe to our
newsletter, we ask for contact information such as name and e-mail address.
Surveys
From time-to-time some of our sites request information from users via
surveys. Participation in these surveys is voluntary and the user therefore
has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Information
requested may include contact information (such as name and shipping
address), and demographic information (such as zip code, age level).
Survey information may be for research purposes or for monitoring or
improving the use of and user satisfaction with this site.
Security
This website takes every precaution to protect our users’ information.
When users submit sensitive information via the website the information
is protected both online and off-line.
When our survey or registration form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as a social security number), that information is encrypted and is protected with one of the best encryption software programs in the industry - SSL. While on a secure page, such as a survey, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when you are just ‘surfing’.
While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line. All of our users’ information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, a project manager or database administrator) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Furthermore, ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Every quarter, as well as any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our customers’ information is protected. Finally, the servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment, behind a locked cage.
If you have any questions about the security at our website, you can send an e-mail to security@dfmc.org.
Notification of Changes
We reserve the right to amend this policy as necessary without prior
notice. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those
changes on our site so our users are always aware of what information
we collect, how we use it, and under circumstances, if any, we disclose
it. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information
in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected,
we will notify users by way of an e-mail. Users will have a choice as
to whether or not we use their information in this different manner.
We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under
which the information was collected.
Date of this notice: revised September 2008
