Rare Diseases Media Center

When you register as a user of the site, you voluntarily provide information about yourself and the Hospital/Group/Practice on whose behalf you register. If you complete the registration on behalf of a Hospital/Group/Practice and its personnel, you represent to us that you are authorized by the Hospital/Group/Practice and its personnel to give us consent to use the information included on the enrollment forms. We will use that information in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of Use and this Privacy Policy, unless you, the Hospital/Group/Practice, or the affected individual notifies us to the contrary. We also collect other information that you voluntarily provide to us through responses to surveys, questionnaires, and the like.

We may also collect information about you and your use of our site through the use of "Cookies". "Cookies" are small computer files that are transferred to your computer's hard drive that allow us to know how often you visit our site and the activities you conduct while on our site. This information helps us dynamically generate, create and change content on our web pages that is specifically designed for you and also allows us to statistically monitor how many people are using our site and for what purpose. Sponsors, advertisers or third parties may also use Cookies when you select their advertisement, content or service, and we cannot control their use of Cookies or how they use the information they gather. If you do not want us to collect information about you through Cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that will allow you to deny or accept the Cookie feature. However, it may be necessary for us to use Cookies in order to provide you with certain features available on the site, for example, customized delivery of information.

Disclosure of Information to Third Parties

Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy, we will not disclose to companies other than the Rare Diseases Media Center, its subsidiaries, affiliates and licensees, any information we gather from you which could be used to identify or contact you ("Personal Information"). Any personal information provided to the Rare Diseases Media Center, its subsidiaries, affiliates and licensees is treated in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy, unless you are notified otherwise. In the following limited circumstances, we may release Personal Information to third parties: (1) to comply with applicable legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena, discovery request, or court order; or (2) in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others.

We may provide information about you that does not allow you to be identified or contacted ("Aggregate Information") by third parties. For example, we may inform one or more third parties regarding the number of users of our site and the activities they conduct while on our site. Depending on the circumstances, we may or may not charge for this information.

Internal Handling of Personal Information

Security.

We want your Personal Information to remain as secure as reasonably possible. That is why we have a two-tier system that combines technical safeguards and employee access restrictions. On the technical side, we use Secure Socket Layer ("SSL") encryption technology to protect the integrity and privacy of the Personal Information you provide to us via the Internet. As an additional security measure, your Personal Information is kept physically separate on a secure server where your password is encrypted and stored in a database. To take advantage of these technical safeguards, your computer must meet the minimum browser requirement for this site, which is Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or higher. On the employee side, only authorized Rare Diseases Media Center employees are permitted to access your Personal Information.

Use.

We may use your registration information and other voluntarily submitted information, including Personal Information, in any way that is consistent with the Terms and Conditions of Use Agreement and this Privacy Policy, including the following:

To enable us to verify user credentials in order to maintain reasonable security
To enable us to process and verify payments
To provide our editors with information that is useful in developing new features and services for our users
To allow us to potentially vary advertising based on user preference, usage preferences, and demographics
To enable us to develop and improve the features, content, and services available through the site
To contact you regarding subscription renewals and other subscription-related matters and changes to the Terms and Conditions of Use Agreement or any other Rare Diseases Media Center web site policies
To contact you regarding new site features, topic-based news alerts, products, and product and service buying opportunities

Internally, we use Aggregate Information in a number of ways to improve the site and its content and services. The Aggregate Information helps us determine how much our customers use parts of the site, so that we can improve our site to assure that it is as appealing as we can make it for as many people as possible.

Updating Your Personal Information and Contacting Us

You can always contact us by e-mailing us at dtcc@epi.usf.edu in order to (a) delete your Personal Information from our system, (b) update the Personal Information that you have provided to us, and/or (c) change your preferences with respect to informational/promotional contacts.

We may change our Privacy Policy at any time by posting revisions to our site. Your use of the site constitutes acceptance of the provisions of this Privacy Policy and your continued use after changes are posted to the site constitutes acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the provisions of this Privacy Policy or any revisions to the Privacy Policy, please exit the site immediately.

Throughout the Agreement and Privacy Policy, we have used "you"
and "your" when referring to users rather than using "user," in an
attempt to make the Agreement and Privacy Policy easier to read.