Legal Information
Disclaimers
All Health-related Information available on the Lancaster General Health Web sites are provided for convenience and information only and should not be used in place of, or as a substitute for, medical advice. Always consult with your physician regarding information for medical conditions and treatments.
Please be advised that some information on the Lancaster General Health Web sites are linked to sites not managed by Lancaster General Health. While Lancaster General Health believes this information to be valuable, useful, respected information, Lancaster General Health does not own, control or take responsibility for the content of these sites. Visitors are encouraged to review the privacy/service agreements of each linked site.
Privacy Policies
This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.
Web Privacy Policy
Our Commitment to Privacy
Lancaster General Health is committed to respecting and protecting your privacy as a visitor to our Web site . We take the issue of privacy very seriously and value the trust you place in us each time you use our services and access this Web site. This statement describes the practices and policies we have put into place to safeguard your personal and health-related personal information that may be gathered and used as you visit our Web site.
The policy may change from time to time so please check back periodically. If you have any questions about our privacy policies, we encourage you to contact us using any of the methods outlined at the end of our Privacy Statement.
Who Is Collecting the Information?
Lancaster General Health is collecting information on this Web site as outlined in this privacy policy.
What Information Do We Collect?
Automatic Collection of Information:
If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the web site or download information, our system will automatically gather and store certain information about your visit. This information does not identify you personally and is used in an aggregate way to help us improve our web site and tell us the number of visitors to our site each day.
Our Web server automatically collects and records the following information:
- Aggregate information on what pages are accessed
- The name and release number of web browser software used
- The operating system used
- Date and time you access our site
- The address of the Web site that linked to us (referrer URL)
Permission-based Collection of Information:
At different places on our site depending upon the feature you use, you may be asked to volunteer personal and health-related information such as your name, email, mailing address, telephone number, and health history.
The following information is collected with your permission at this Web site:
- Anonymous user health preference, health history, or medical status information
- Personal information/identification information gathered through registration for educational programs
- Anonymous user survey information
- The names and e-mail addresses of those who use a feedback form
- The e-mail addresses of those who communicate with us via e-mail
How Do We Use the Information We Collect?
The information we gather automatically and with your permission during your visit to our Web site is used in the following ways:
- Monitor, review, measure, and analyze Web site utilization
- Modify and enhance the Web site
- Improve the content and design of our Web site
- Determine the need for new programs and services
- Respond to your requests
- Monitor the changing health information needs of site visitors
- Customize the content and/or layout of our page for each individual visitor
- Monitor and improve our customer service efforts
- Study general usage habits and demographic information for our own marketing research purposes
- Distribute news and other health information requested by Web visitors
- Determine the effectiveness of health promotion and marketing programs
- Strategic Planning
With Whom Will the Information Be Shared?
The personally identifiable information gathered during your visit to this Web site is not shared with any organization for any purpose. We do not rent, sell, exchange or in some way provide personally identifiable information to any third-party organization.
Access and Correction of Personal Information
Opt-out of Transfer of Information
Individuals may notify us that they wish to opt-out and prevent the transfer of their personally identifiable information by:
- Sending us e-mail to that effect at: webservices@lghealth.org
- Calling us by telephone at: (717) 544-4129
- Writing to us at the contact address
Review of Personal Information
Site visitors may not access information we have collected and maintain about them.
Our Use of Cookies
Many Web sites now use "cookies" to provide useful features to their visitors by providing customizable and personalized services.
A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. For example, a Web site may use cookies to store and sometimes track information about you, your preferences, or the pages you last visited.
Your browser software can be set to reject all cookies, or to ask you if you would like to accept or decline a cookie from a particular site before it is set. Most browsers offer instructions on how to reset the browser to reject cookies in the Help section of the toolbar. You should know, however, that if you reject a cookie, certain functions and conveniences of a site may not work properly.
We do not use any cookies to store or collect information on our Web site.
Registration for Access
Some Web sites require you to provide some personal information through a registration process in order to take advantage of certain Web site features and to access content areas. For example, a registration form might request your name, telephone number and e-mail address.
Access to some of the features on this Web site requires registration, and the disclosure of some personal information, which may include:
- This site offers a specialized registration process for certain programs, events, and classes.
Our Children's Privacy Policy
We are especially concerned about protecting children's privacy. We hope parents and teachers are involved in children's Internet explorations. It is particularly important for parents to guide their children when children are asked to provide personal information on line.
Our site may feature information and services of interest to children 13 and under and we have the following practices:
- We do not create user profiles of children on our Web site.
- To obtain more information on a child's use of this site, parents or guardians can contact us in writing at the Web site contact address.
Interactive Services and Tools
Interactive services and tools such as health risk assessments, health-related calculators, and other technology-based features provide Web site users with a richer and more valuable experience. The tools can provide you with information that is customized according to your personal health background and needs.
Some interactive tools may request identifying personal and health-related information in order to function. It is important for you to know how your information will be used when it is requested, for what purposes it may also be used, and if it will be shared with any other party.
This site uses interactive tools that may ask you for identifying and health-related personal information.
Security of Communications
We recognize that many people are concerned about the privacy and protection of information as it is transmitted over the Internet. You should keep in mind that the possibility exists for unauthorized individuals to intercept any email message you send over the Internet. In some cases, information can be encrypted (scrambled or encoded) to make it very difficult to read if it is intercepted during communication. Certain technology and practices allow Web sites to provide an increased level of security for your personal and health-related information when appropriate.
We use the following practices on our Web site to enhance the level of security for communication and the transmission of personal information:
- We use e-mail forms to allow our customers to ask questions about our services and programs. These are not hosted on a secure server. The possibility exists that unauthorized individuals may intercept email messages.
- We are not responsible for the privacy of e-mail messages except those stored in our system.
- We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information that we have collected from you at our site
E-Commerce, On-line Donations, and Online Shopping
Purchasing items or making donations over the Internet usually requires you to provide your personal identifying information and credit card information on a Web site. Many people have become accustomed to on-line commerce as a time-saving and useful convenience. There are a number of practices that can make providing your sensitive credit card information more secure and therefore make you feel more comfortable about doing so.
We do process credit card payments for donations, merchandise, or services on our Web site. These transactions are handled through a secure service for protection from fraud and abuse.
Advertising Servers
On-line advertising, such as banner ads, has become commonplace on many Web sites. Certain Web sites have developed relationships with third-party advertising servers to display these advertisements on their sites. By clicking on one of these banner ads, you will be taken to another site with different privacy policies. These third party ad servers may also use cookies to collect non-personal information on your preferences and interests via the advertisement you decide to view.
At this time, we do not partner with or have special relationships with any advertising server companies.
Links to Other Sites
Web sites often provide a number of links that offer direct access to other useful or interesting web sites holding potential value to site visitors. Inclusion of the other sites by links does not imply any endorsement of the material or information on the other sites. Users are encouraged to review the privacy policy of each linked site before sharing personal and health-related information.
This site includes links to non-affiliated external Web sites. We have the following practices:
- We encourage users to review the privacy policy of each linked site, as we cannot be responsible for the privacy practices of other sites.
Changes in Our Privacy Policy
From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy notice. If our information practices change at some time in the future, we have the following practices:
- We will post the policy changes to our Web site to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our Web site periodically.
Web Site Contact Information
If you have questions about our privacy policy, or feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, please contact us.
Lancaster General Health
555 North Duke Street
Lancaster, PA 17604
Contact: Jan DeCew
E-mail: webservices@lghealth.org
Telephone: (717) 544-4129
Modification Date
This privacy policy was last modified on August 20, 2010.