Edcast Medical provided by StreamOn.net is committed to protecting your privacy and following best practices and regulations regarding continuing medical education.
This privacy statement covers the site edcastmedical.com and is effective on/since 31st March 2007.
Edcast Medical seeks to enable individuals and organizations to establish trusting relationships based on respect for personal identity and information by promoting the use of fair information practices. The privacy policy of this Web site is strictly enforced.
If users have questions or concerns regarding this statement, they should first contact StreamOn.net Limited, by email or in writing using the addresses listed in the Contact section of this privacy policy.
Information Collection and Use
Registration / Profile
In order to use this Web site, a user must first complete the registration form. During registration, a user is required to give contact information (such as name and email address). We use this information to contact the user about services on our site for which he has expressed interest.
It is necessary to collect personally identifiable information in order to manage continuing education credits and to award certificates. If a user does not provide personal information, they will not be able to participate in continuing education programs.
Information Use
Aggregate data is used to analyse the effectiveness of the educational program and contribute to the success of future research and programmes. The education provider is granted access to an individual user’s data such as test grades and survey results. This is required so the education provider can certify successful program completion and award continuing medical education credits.
This site does not retain or track personally identifiable health record information.
Profile
This profile is used to tailor a user’s visit to our Web site. We may share your profile with the education provider, but your profile is not accessible to any commercial education sponsor, advertiser, or third-party company. We may use your profile to keep you informed of new programs that correlate to your profession or specialty (see the section on Communications from the Site for more information).
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. We use session ID cookies and persistent cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close the browser, the cookie simply terminates. The session cookie is linked to the user´s account information and is required to access password protected sections of the site. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user’s hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions.
By setting a cookie on our site, users would not have to log in a password more than once when this feature is available, thereby saving time while on our site. If users reject the cookie, they will be unable to log in to the site since a session cookie is used to maintain application state. No third party business partners use cookies on our site (for example, advertisers).
The web site will not work without the use of non-persistent cookies which are required for session tracking to facilitate log in and access control.
Log Files
Like most standard web site servers, we use log files. These include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track a user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.
Communications from the Site
Service Announcements
On very rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service-related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.
Continuing Education Program Announcement E-mail Notifications
We may use your profile to keep you informed of new programs that correlate to your profession or specialty. When new CME offerings are added to the site, an email is sent to relevant registered users selected by profession or specialty. Users may choose to opt in or out of these communication. (see the section on Choice/Opt-out for more information).
Customer Service
We communicate with users to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account. We reply via email. Established members will occasionally receive information on new programs, service announcements, and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users, we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see the Choice/Opt-out section.
Sharing
Legal Disclaimer
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or a legal process served on our Web site.
Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)
Aggregate data is used to analyse the effectiveness of the educational program and contribute to the success of future research and programmes.
Personally Identifiable Information
The education provider for a specific continuing education program has access to personally identifiable information for the purpose of certifying participation.
Business Transitions
In the event Edcast Medical / StreamOn.net goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users’ personal information will, in most instances, be part of the transferred assets. Users will be notified via prominent notice on our Web site prior to a change of ownership or control of their personal information. If, as a result of the business transition, the users’ personally identifiable information will be used in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection, the users will be given a choice consistent with our Notification of Changes section.
Choice/Opt-out
Users who no longer wish to receive our promotional communications related to continuing education programs may opt-out of receiving these communications. Users with an account who have not set their communication preferences will be included in announcements related to educational programs. The announcements are correlated with the user´s profile (profession and specialty) to provide emails only to relevant clinicians.
User´s may set their site communication preferences using the link available from their My Account page.
Since the education provider shares your record of attendance in education programs, if you receive promotional materials related to a program that you participated in, then it is necessary to contact the education provider directly to be removed from their correspondence list.
Links
This Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that edcastmedical.com / StreamOn.net are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.
Surveys
Our site reserves the right to request information from users via surveys (in addition to required educational program evaluations). Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site and its medical education content. Survey information requested during an educational program is provided in aggregate to the sponsor of a program. The education provider has access to granular survey information including contact information.
Tell-A-Friend
A Tell-A-Friend link is occasionally available on select email announcements. If a user elects to use the referral link for informing a friend about the announcement, we ask them for the friend’s name and email address. Edcast Medical will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. Edcast Medical does not store this information.
Security
This Web site takes every precaution to protect our users’ information. When users submit sensitive information via the Web site, their information is protected both online and off-line.
When our registration form asks users to enter sensitive information such as credit card number that information is not sent or stored by Edcast Medical. Instead it is handled by our payment handling partners WorldPay, who ensure it is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry – Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). While on a secure page, the lock icon on the bottom of web browsers (such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer) becomes locked, as opposed to unlocked, or open, when users 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. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information.
A user´s information is retained for a period of time based on the length of time that the education provider is required to retain the information, which is generally six years.
If users have any questions about the security at our Web site, they can send an email to info@edcastmedical.com.
Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information
If a user’s personally identifiable information changes (such as postal/zip code, phone, email or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate users’ personally identifiable information. This information can be changed on the My Account page.
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.
If, however, we are going to use users’ personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection, we will notify users via email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if users have opted out of all communication with the site or deleted/deactivated their account, then they will not be contacted, nor will their personal information be used in this new manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our Web site notifying users of the change. In some cases where we post a notice, we will also email users who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.
Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at:
Email: info@edcastmedical.com
or
Edcast Medical.com
StreamOn.net
Unit 8 Ormeau Business Park
Belfast
BT7 2JA
Northern Ireland