This
Privacy Policy
will be effective from February 29, 2012, and will replace the existing
Privacy Policy
.
Introduction
The
Health
On the Net
Foundation (HON) is committed
to honoring and respecting the privacy
and anonymity of the individuals using its website(s) and/or services.
The purpose of this
privacy policy is to inform the individuals
about
the collection, processing and protection of information done by HON;
what
information we collect, why we collect this information and how we use
this
information. This privacy policy
applies to all the websites
and services owned and/or managed by HON (listed below).
This
Privacy Policy will
be reviewed regularly
to reflect the up-to-date practices of HON.
Collection
of personal
information and limitations
HON
collects personal
information only when it
is voluntarily provided for a particular service of HON. The
information
collected concerns primarily communication details, such as names,
phone
numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses. For the HONcode
Certification
process, the webmaster might provide a login/password in order to
access any
restricted areas. This information is used mainly during the HONcode
Certification process, but also when submitting a complaint or
giving feedback,
subscribing to our newsletters, participating in a survey and/or
applying for another
service we provide.
Any
personal information voluntarily
provided to HON by users and
visitors of HON’s websites is kept in the strictest
confidence. This
information is stored in the HON database. Only HON staff members, and
only for
the duration of their contracts, have access to the information stored
in
HON
database. Personal information provided voluntarily by you is used only
for the
purposes it was provided for. HON will ask individuals to explicitly
consent to
their personal information being used for any other reason than the one
provided for.
Rights
to confirm and to ask to
remove your personal data
You
have the right to
ask if HON
holds any
personal information about
you, to ensure that it is accurate and to have access to it, as
provided by law.
To protect your privacy, we take reasonable steps to verify your
identity
before granting you access to, or making corrections to, your personal
information.Any time, you may opt out altogether of
having us to collect, use, or
disclose your personal information, subject to reasonable notice and
applicable
laws.
*If
you want to withdraw from any of our
services, please contact us via http://services.hon.ch/Contact/contact.pl
Removal
and storage of personal
data
The
information
collected by HON will be
removed from HON database upon your request and in case the reason for
which
the personal data had been collected is terminated.
However,
a copy of the
personal information collected
during the HONcode certification will be stored and will be permanently
deleted
within two years after the removal of the HONcode file from the HONcode
database.
Disclosure
of information to
third parties
HON
does not share,
rent, sell
or trade any
personal information with
any third party and the personal information will be kept confidential,
except
if otherwise explicitly agreed or if it is otherwise provided by law.
No third
parties have access to the HON database.
Collection
of impersonal information
HON
collects impersonal
data for different
services and purposes. Impersonal information can be used for
technical,
statistical and research purposes. HON ensures that all shared
information is
made anonymous. The impersonal information is subject to scientific
publications.
Impersonal
information
(including url addresses
and abstracts copied from certified websites and similar information)
is
collected for all theHONcode certified websites and/or for websites
that are included
in a search engine managed by HON. The impersonal information collected
will be
used also for research purposes.
By
participating in a
survey, you consent to HON
collecting your personal information (if any is asked). When we publish
information, we do not disclose any personal information. If the
publication
includes any identifying details such as your name and address, we will
ask for
your explicit permission.
Impersonal
information
is always collected when
someone visits one of HON’s websites to analyze how users use
the website and
improve our websites and services. For further information, see below
under ‘Google
Analytics’.
The
HONcode Seal
HON
has developed a dynamic and active HONcode
Seal which allows changing the real-time status according to the
compliance of
a website to the HONcode Principles. This Seal shows the last date of
review of
the website and is automatically updated after every review or biennial
audit. The
Seal collects only impersonal information such as your Internet
Protocol
address, browser type, browser language etc. which cannot be used to
personally
identify you. We do not sell, transmit, share
or divulge this information to
any third party and it is safely stored on the HON web servers used
only by the
HON collaborators and system manager to improve our services.
Google
Analytics
The
HON website uses
Google Analytics to help
analyze how users use the site. This tool uses "cookies," which are
text files placed on a computer, to collect standard Internet log
information as well as visitor behavior information in an anonymous form. The
information generated by the cookie about the use of the website
(including the IP
address) is transmitted to Google. After this the information is used to
evaluate
visitors' use of the website and to compile statistical reports on
website
activity for the HON website.
We
will never (and will
not allow any third
party to) use this statistical analytics tool to track or to collect any
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of the visitors of the HON site.
Google won't associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.
Neither we
nor Google will link, or seek to link, an IP address with the identity
of the
computer user. We will not associate any data gathered from this site
with any
Personally Identifiable Information from any other source, unless you
explicitly
provide this information to us.
You
can set your
browser
not to accept HON
cookies. Disabling the cookies does not affect navigation to HON
website.
Learn more about Google
Analytics
Privacy:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/privacyoverview.html
Links
to third parties
This
privacy policy
applies to HON websites and
services only. We do not exercise control over the sites listed in our
search
engines or sites that include HON applications, products or services,
or links
within our various services (e.g. HONcode certified sites). The
other sites may place their own cookies
or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal
information
from you. We encourage you to always read the confidentiality statement
of any
website you may visit.
Liability
of HON
HON
does its utmost to
provide trustworthy and
reliable information. If you find any mistakes, please notify us as
soon as
possible and we will try to correct them in the shortest delay possible.
You
agree that your use
of the HON websites is
at your own risk. The website, including all content, software,
functions,
services, materials, and/or information made available or accessed
through the
website, is provided "AS IS," without warranty of any kind. In no
event shall HON be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special
or
consequential damages arising out of or in any way connected with the
use of
the website or with the delay or inability to use same, or with
hypertext or
graphic links to third parties, or for any information and services
obtained
through the website.
Applicable
laws
HON
adheres to Swiss
privacy principles and
commits to respect the Swiss laws on protection of personal data.
Language
of this Privacy
Policy
This
privacy policy has been formed in English.
If any translation has been provided for your convenience, you agree
that the
English version of the privacy policy will govern the relationship
between you
and HON. If there would be any contradiction between the English
language
version and a translated version, then the English version shall take
precedence.
Modifications
on the
privacy policy
This
privacy policy can
be
modified from
time to time. We recommend checking
this information on a regular basis.
Contact
us
Websites
owned or
managed by HON
Please note
that the
communication
details cannot be completely erased for the duration of HONcode
Certification.
They can only be replaced and updated.
