Website Disclosures and Privacy Statements
updated July 1, 2010

Statement of Purpose

Our purpose is to serve the volunteers of Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center and its satellites with a credible and useful source of online information.

Disclosures

This web site is owned and maintained by the Volunteer Services Department located at the nonprofit and public benefit Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center.

Funding for the website is provided by the Volunteer Services Department and server allocation is provided by Internet Services Group of Kaiser Permanente.

This web site does not accept advertising from any source not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

We are committed to provide timely and accurate content approved by the manager of the Volunteer Services Department.

Web Site Privacy Statement

Kaiser Permanente is committed to protecting the privacy of the users of this Web site. We will use and disclose the information you provide us as stated in our Web Site Privacy Statement (May 1, 2007).

We do not sell or rent personal information about visitors to this site or customers who use the site.

This Web site has security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information under our control. These measures include encryption of data using the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) system, and using a secured messaging service when we send you personal information electronically. Despite these measures, the confidentiality of any communication or material transmitted to or from us via this site by Internet or e-mail cannot be guaranteed. At your discretion, you may contact us at the mailing address or telephone number 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 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 Web site. 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. Web site visitor data Kaiser Permanente routinely gathers data on Web site activity, such as how many people visit the site, the pages they visit, where they come from, how long they stay on the site, 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 site content and overall usage. The information is not shared with other organizations for their independent use. Collecting and using personal information Except as disclosed in this Privacy Statement, we do not collect any identifiable information about visitors to this site or our customers who use this site. The policies, sources, and uses of information are outlined in the following sections:

Web logs

We maintain standard Web logs that record data about all visitors and customers who use this site and we store this information for a while. 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 site; the pages you viewed on the site; the address of the Web site you linked from, if any. If you sign on to this Web site to use its secured features, our Web logs will also contain an individual identifier and show the services you have accessed.

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 site, to identify popular features, to resolve user, hardware, and software problems, and to make the site more useful to visitors.

Internet cookies We may place Internet "cookies" on the computer hard drives of visitors to this Kaiser Permanente Web site. 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 help customize your experience on our site, maintain your signed-on status as you navigate through our features, and to track your "click path" through our Web pages.

Persistent cookies remain on your hard drive after you've exited from our site, and we use them for several reasons. For instance, when you give us permission to "remember" a feature about you when asked by the Web site, such as your Kaiser Permanente region, we place a persistent cookie on your hard drive so that the next time you visit us, we won't have to ask you that information again. If you've given us permission to e-mail you with information about your Kaiser Permanente benefits, or for other reasons, we may place a persistent cookie on your hard drive that will let us know when you come back to visit our site. We sometimes use this type of persistent cookie with a "Web beacon" (see below). Persistent cookies will not contain any personal information about you such as a Kaiser Permanente Health/Medical Record number.

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 this site may not work properly for you. For instructions on how to remove cookies from your hard drive, go to your browser's Web site for detailed instructions. In addition, further information regarding cookies may be available on other Web sites or from your Internet service provider. Netscape and Internet Explorer are two common browsers.

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 e-mail communications, and for other purposes. Web beacons are tiny images, placed on a Web page or e-mail, that can tell us if you've gone to a particular area on our Web site. For example, if you've given us permission to send you e-mails, we may send you an e-mail urging you to use a certain feature on our Web site. If you do respond to that e-mail and use that feature, the Web beacon will tell us that our e-mail communication with you has been successful. We do not collect any personal health information with a Web beacon, and do not link Web beacons with any other personal health information you've given us.

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.

E-mails Kaiser Permanente uses a third-party vendor to help us manage some of our e-mail communications with you. While we do supply this vendor with e-mail addresses of those we wish them to contact, your e-mail address is never used for any purpose other than to communicate with you on our behalf. When you click on a link in an e-mail, 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 visited our Web site. Kaiser Permanente never shares any information, other than your e-mail address, with our third-party e-mail vendor, which does not share these e-mail addresses with anyone else.

If you have any questions about this web site, please email or telephone the Volunteer Services Office: 408-851-1716.