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Epocrates Privacy Policy

Privacy policy last updated August 29^th, 2016

At Epocrates, we are committed to respecting your privacy. This privacy policy describes how Epocrates, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliated companies, including athenahealth ("Epocrates," "we" or "our") may collect, use and disclose information about customers who use our websites, including epocrates.com , and our mobile applications displaying this policy ("Services"). This policy does not cover websites, applications or services displaying different privacy statements. For instance, some of the services implement the Google Maps web mapping service. Your use of Google Maps is subject to Google's privacy policy, located at http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/ .

1. What information does Epocrates collect?
2. How does Epocrates use the information we collect?
3. How does Epocrates protect your information?
4. Will Epocrates share the information it collects with others?
5. What access does Epocrates give you to your personal information?
6. How are "tracking technologies" used on our Site?
7. Is this privacy statement subject to change?
8. How to send us your feedback

TRUSTe Privacy Statement

Epocrates, Inc. has received TRUSTe's Privacy Seal signifying that this privacy statement and our practices have been reviewed for compliance with the TRUSTe program viewable on the validation page available by clicking the TRUSTe seal. The TRUSTe program covers only information that is collected through this web site,  www.epocrates.com and through our mobile application.

If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or practices, please contact us at legal@epocrates.com . If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily, please contact TRUSTe  here .

1. What information does Epocrates collect?

Information you provide us.

• When a medical professional sets up or edits their Provider Directory profile, we ask for his or her name, gender, office contact information, place of residency, year residency completed, practice specialty areas, practice type, place of employment, hospital affiliations, whether he or she is accepting new patients, insurance accepted, languages spoken and clinical interests.
• When you order, we ask you for your name, email address, postal addresses, telephone number, and credit card information so that we can complete the transaction.
• When you register for a mobile application, we ask for information including your name, email address, postal code, profession, specialty, medical school and year of graduation.
• When you use our mobile application to find medical professionals near you, we collect your precise geo-location data.
• We may ask you for other types of information like demographics information, for example, when you participate in a survey or product test or when you enter a contest or other promotional event.
• We may ask for a list of "contacts" and their contact information to enable you to send and receive messages to those contacts through the Services. The information collected is only used for the purpose for which it was collected.

Information we may automatically collect.

When you visit our websites, some information is automatically collected and stored in log files. For example, when you visit our websites your computer's operating system, Internet Protocol (IP) address, access times, browser type and language, and the website you visited before our site are logged automatically. We also collect information about your usage and activity on our Sites. We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you. We do this to improve services we offer you, to improve marketing, analytics, or site functionality. For more information about this practice please refer to "How are 'cookies' and 'web beacons' used on our website?"

Additionally, when you use our mobile applications, we may automatically collect data about your device such as your device ID, type of device you use, operating system version and how you use our application including pages you view.

Information we receive from third parties.

We may also collect additional information about you from third parties, including the AMA to assist us in providing you with services. For example, if you are a physician, we compare the name, medical school and graduation information you provide with the AMA database to help verify the accuracy of our subscriber database.

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2. How does Epocrates use the information we collect?

We use personal information collected through our Services for purposes described in this policy or disclosed to you in our Services. For example, we may use your information to:

• operate and improve our Services;
• respond to your comments and questions and provide customer service;
• provide and deliver products and services you request;
• send you related information, including confirmations, invoices, technical notices, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages;
• better understand you so that we may tailor messaging and services based on your interests, preferences, needs and specialties;
• communicate with you via email, mobile alerts and other messaging services about commercial, non-commercial, sponsored and non-sponsored clinical information, FDA and product safety alerts, new drugs and pharmaceutical studies; by accepting the terms of this policy, you are opting in to receiving these communications from Epocrates;
• send you information via email about products and services offered by Epocrates, affiliates, and our selected partners; by accepting the terms of this policy, you are opting in to receiving these emails from Epocrates (if you do not wish to receive these kinds of emails, you may choose to opt out by updating your profile. See " What access does Epocrates give you to your personal information? ");
• send you invitations, by email or other means, to market research survey opportunities through the Epocrates Honors program; by accepting the terms of this policy, you are opting in to receiving these invitations from Epocrates (if you do not wish to receive these invitations, you may choose to opt out by updating your profile. See " What access does Epocrates give you to your personal information? ");
• send you invitations, by email or other means, from other Epocrates members to connect and/or communicate through our Services; by accepting the terms of this policy, you are opting in to receiving these invitations (if you do not wish to receive these invitations, you may choose to opt out by updating your profile. See " What access does Epocrates give you to your personal information? ");
• link or combine your information with other personal information we collect through our Services, including the Epocrates Honors program, or get from third parties, to help understand your needs and provide you with better service; and
• for our own marketing, promotional, and informational purposes, including sharing with contracted third parties to assist with our own marketing efforts (all contracted third parties must agree not to use your personal information other than to fulfill their responsibilities to us).

Epocrates may store and process information in the United States and other countries. We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services contact us at support@epocrates.com . We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

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3. How does Epocrates protect your information?

We take appropriate measures to protect the information that we receive about you from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. When we collect sensitive information (such as a credit card number or geolocation), we encrypt the transmission of that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). No method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure; as a result, we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you have any questions about security, you can contact us at support@epocrates.com .

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4. Will Epocrates share the information it collects with others?

Epocrates may share aggregated or deidentified information such as statistics about our customers, sales, product usage or traffic patterns, and related website information. This information will not include any information directly identifying you. We display profile information we collect about or from medical professionals to anyone who uses our Provider Directory. If are a medical professional and you wish to request removal of your information from our Provider Directory, you can contact us at support@epocrates.com .

When you use our mobile application, we may share your approximate geo-location data with a third-party service provider for the purpose of enhancing your searching ability. If you do not wish to allow us to share your information in this manner please opt-out by editing the setting at the device level.

If you post a comment or message in our blog or other public forums, it will be shared publicly. You can request the removal of your personal information from our blog or public forums, by contacting us at support@epocrates.com . In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why. When you communicate with other users through the athenaText application, your name and public profile will be shared with those users.

We display personal testimonials of satisfied customers on our site in addition to other endorsements. With your consent we may post your testimonial along with your name. If you wish to update or delete your testimonial, you can contact us at support@epocrates.com .

We will share your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this privacy policy. We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We may share personal information as follows:

• with your consent, for example, when you agree to our sharing your information with other third parties for their own purposes subject to their separate privacy policies;
• with third party vendors, consultants, agents, and other service providers with whom we contract to help us provide our services. For example, we may work with companies to host and maintain our data and website properties, analyze our data, provide marketing assistance, or a mapping service provider to find medical professionals near you. All contracted third parties must agree not to use your personal information other than to fulfill their responsibilities to us;
• with accrediting bodies, such as the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the American Nurses Credentialing Center, and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, and other accredited Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Continuing Education (CE) providers who certify CME and CE activities, to process CME or CE activities you may choose to take through our Service;
• to provide our commercial clients, such as pharmaceutical companies, with your identifiable information when you engage with such clients' promotional content through our Service and information about the type of engagement (e.g., whether you viewed, interacted with or requested information about such promotional content). We will not provide clients with your personal contact information such as email or postal address. We will only share your identifiable information with clients who have agreed to use such information solely for their internal purposes;
• to (i) comply with laws or to respond to lawful requests and legal process, (ii) to protect the rights and property of our agents, customers, and others including to enforce our agreements, policies and terms of use or (iii) in an emergency to protect the personal safety of Epocrates, its customers, or any person;
• in connection with or during negotiation of any merger, financing, acquisition or bankruptcy transaction or proceeding involving sale or transfer of all or a portion of our business or assets to another company, we will post a notice on our Web site of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.

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5. What access does Epocrates give you to your personal information?

You may amend any inaccuracies or update your Epocrates profile, including your personal information and email preferences, at any time.

You have the option of correcting, updating, deleting and/or changing contact and demographic information and other information previously provided and stored in our database. If you wish to correct, update, delete or change your information, simply update your profile . We will respond to your request to access within 30 days.

You may opt out of any promotional emails at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions in the promotional emails you receive from us, by updating your profile as described below or by sending an email to support@epocrates.com .

You may opt out of the Epocrates Honors market research program at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions in the invitation emails you receive from us, by updating your profile as described below or by sending an email to support@epocrates.com .

You may opt-out of location-based services at any time by editing the setting at the device level.

We may occasionally send you push notifications through our mobile applications to send you service related notices that may be of importance to you. You may at any time opt-out from receiving these types of communications by turning them off at the device level through your settings.

How to update your profile: Please visit the home page of our website at www.epocrates.com , click on "Login", and then sign in using your email address and password. Then under the "Account" heading click on "Edit Email Preferences." To opt in or out of email communications, go to the bottom of the form and make the selection of your choices. If you unselect a box, you will NOT receive emails of the type listed. You may also request profile changes by sending an email to support@epocrates.com . If you have already claimed your Provider Directory profile, you can make changes to your contact and professional information via the Provider Directory tile on your mobile installation of the Epocrates application.

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6. How are "tracking technologies" used on our Site?

Technologies such as: cookies, beacons, tags, and scripts are used by Epocrates and our marketing partners, affiliates, or analytics or service providers. These technologies are used in analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users' movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis.

We use cookies to help us provide you with a more personalized experience and improve our services. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies, you may still use our site, but your ability to use some features or areas of our site may be limited. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our website.

We use mobile analytics software to allow us to better understand the functionality of our Mobile Software on your phone. This software may record information such as how often you use the application, the events that occur within the application, aggregated usage, performance data, and where the application was downloaded from.

Third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our site or to display advertising based upon your Web browsing activity use LSOs such as HTML 5 to collect and store information. Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5 LSOs.

We partner with a third party to either display advertising on our Web site and mobile application or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third party partner may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this site and other sites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you interest-based ads, you may opt-out by clicking here . Please note this does not opt you out of being served ads. You will continue to receive generic ads.

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7. Is this privacy statement subject to change?

We may update this privacy policy to reflect changes to our information practices. If we make any material change in how we use your personal information we will notify you by email (sent to the e-mail address specified in your account) or by means of a notice on this Site or through our services prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

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8. How to send us your feedback

Our goal is to respect your privacy and we encourage user feedback to help us improve our privacy policies. If you have any questions or suggestions about this privacy statement, please contact us at: suggestionbox@epocrates.com .

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Epocrates, Inc.
50 Hawthorne
San Francisco, CA 94105
Privacy policy last updated August 29^th, 2016

Epocrates Editorial Policy

About this Policy
Epocrates is dedicated to publishing accurate, authoritative content of clinical significance through our websites - including epocrates.com - and our mobile applications (collectively, the "Services"). Our content development and publishing processes are designed to ensure that editorial accuracy, objectivity, independence and integrity are upheld at all times. This Editorial Policy explains how our Medical Information Staff of in-house and commissioned writers, physicians and other healthcare professionals selects and/or develops content for distribution through our Services ("Epocrates Content"). It also describes how we distinguish between Epocrates Content and content provided by a third-party sponsor for distribution through our Services ("Sponsored Content"). Epocrates strives to create transparency for our members regarding content types and sources.

Editorial Policies
Our policies and procedures are designed to ensure that our Medical Information Staff operates independently of outside influence, in order to bring content of the highest caliber and integrity to our members.

Our Medical Information Staff creates or curates - independent from any outside influence - content that is accurate, current, unbiased, relevant, and essential to the needs of our members at the point of care. Epocrates Content may include third-party or licensed content chosen by Epocrates for publication. Additionally, some Epocrates Content is independently developed or selected by Epocrates for use in the Services, yet is funded by an external entity such as a professional association, pharmaceutical company or other outside organization. The same standardized editorial review process is applied for all Epocrates Content, regardless of any associated funding support.

Our Medical Information Staff is expected to meet the highest professional and ethical standards applicable to their roles and responsibilities in providing the Services. They make determinations about content, workflow and publication solely based on their professional experience, clinical judgment and feedback from our members. Our Medical Information Staff is required to disclose financial and other interests to allow us to evaluate potential conflicts of interest that would prevent us from providing content that is unbiased. In the event that a potential conflict of interest arises, appropriate steps are taken to reassign workflow to mitigate potential conflict. External entities, including Epocrates clients, have no control over Epocrates Content development or publication.

Sources of Epocrates Content
Epocrates Content is created or curated by our Medical Information Staff. Sources for Epocrates Content include, but are not limited to, in-house generated drug information and proprietary content developed for our Infectious Disease Treatment Selector. In addition, we publish content from government agencies such as the FDA, CDC, and AHRQ, and also from professional medical organizations with whom we contract. Epocrates reviews the content provided through the Services on a regular basis to ensure that we continue to provide content that is accurate, current, unbiased, relevant and essential to our members at the point of care. Content provided through our Services is updated as necessary.

Sponsored Content
Some content offered through our Services is provided by external sponsors. Epocrates does not control the development of this content, and the Epocrates Content editorial review process is not applied. While members of the Epocrates Medical Information Staff may consult on structure, concepts, and guidelines related to Sponsored Content, they are not engaged in the creation or curation of Sponsored Content. For more information on how to identify Sponsored Content within our Services and the standards for Sponsored Content to be provided through our Services, please see the Epocrates Third-Party Sponsorship Policy . We have designed the Services to clearly differentiate between Epocrates Content and Sponsored Content for reader transparency.

Third-party logos and links to third-party websites may be included in the Services. Such inclusion is not intended to be an approval or recommendation by Epocrates. Please note that visiting any third-party website included in our Services that sets forth separate terms and conditions will be subject to those additional terms and conditions associated with such third-party website.

Editorial Policy Changes
This Editorial Policy is subject to change at any time, at Epocrates' sole discretion. If we make any changes to this Editorial Policy, we will change the "Last Updated" date below.

Last Updated: March 3, 2014

Epocrates Third-Party Sponsorship Policy

Some Epocrates services and content offered through our websites - including epocrates.com - and our mobile applications (collectively, the "Services") is supported by funding from third-party sponsors. This funding allows us to provide certain content at no additional cost to our members. In addition, we believe that third parties have information that is relevant and valuable to clinicians. Therefore, we also provide opportunities for third parties to market their own products and services or distribute their own content to our network through a variety of mechanisms within our Services.

Epocrates takes very seriously the importance of identifying the source of our content to allow our members to distinguish content that is influenced by or associated with third-party sponsors. We categorize content included in the Services as follows:

1. Content selected and/or developed by our internal Medical Information team ("Epocrates Content"), free from any external influence or association;
2. Epocrates Content funded by third-party sponsors; and
3. Content both funded and developed by third-party sponsors.

This Third-Party Sponsorship Policy outlines the requirements for content offered through our Services that is influenced by or associated with a third-party sponsor.

When a third-party sponsor provides funding for Epocrates Content , the sponsor does not participate in or influence the editorial process; the material presented is independently controlled or curated by Epocrates. See the Epocrates Editorial Policy for more information. Third-party support for Epocrates Content will be clearly and unambiguously identified by the text "Funding from."

When a third-party sponsor provides content for distribution within our Services, the Epocrates Medical Information team does not control the creation or selection of this content; the material presented is paid for, developed for, and approved by the sponsor. This content is not subject to the Epocrates Editorial Policy . However, this content must adhere to our requirements (including those below), and it is reviewed by Epocrates for compliance with this Third-Party Sponsorship Policy. All content provided by third-party sponsors will be clearly and unambiguously identified by the text "Provided by" or "Sponsored by" to differentiate it from Epocrates Content within our Services.

Requirements for Content Provided by Third-Party Sponsors
All content provided by third-party sponsors must adhere to the requirements below. Epocrates retains the sole discretion to interpret and enforce this Third-Party Sponsorship Policy and all other issues related to sponsorship within our Services as we see fit. Acceptance of content from a third-party sponsor is not an endorsement of the product and/or services described or of the sponsoring entity. Epocrates retains the right to reject content - or discontinue publishing any previously accepted content - at any time if, in our opinion, the content does not meet these requirements.

The general principles of displaying content within our Services are as follows:

1. Source-identified. Content provided by a third-party sponsor must be readily distinguishable from Epocrates Content
2. Appropriately labeled. Titles, headlines, and other identifiers must be consistent with the content provided
3. Accurate. Content must be based on scientifically accurate, rigorous research and must be resonant with good clinical judgment
4. Current. Content must be up to date and reflect current practice standards
5. Unbiased/balanced. Content must be presented fairly and reflect the clinical context appropriately
6. Relevant. Content should be actionable, practical, and clinically significant to practicing clinicians; content placement must be consistent with relevance
7. Essential. Content must be necessary for clinicians at the point of care in the inpatient or outpatient setting, and must be limited to a concise format consistent with the workflow of busy clinicians

Content types that we will not accept include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. False, misleading, unsubstantiated, or objectionable content
2. Content that disparages, discriminates against, or misrepresents an individual or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or any other status that Epocrates deems inappropriate for delivery to Epocrates members
3. Content that does not meet our technical or product-related specifications, or that contains any content elements that might potentially detract from the clinician's workflow or ease of use of the Epocrates Services
4. Mechanisms that capture Epocrates user data, either overtly or surreptitiously by mimicking computer functions
5. Contests or other offers that entice the reader to disclose personal identifying information either unwittingly or by baiting

The sponsor is responsible for complying with all US and foreign laws and regulations, including current FDA guidelines for Direct to Physician (DTP) promotion. Epocrates is not responsible for monitoring compliance with laws but may refuse or remove content provided by a third-party sponsor that we deem to be violating known laws and/or regulations.

Epocrates may reject, cancel, or remove content from our Services at any time. In this event, we will provide written notice to the sponsor including our reasoning for the rejection, cancelation, or removal.

Please note that Epocrates Content or content provided by third-party sponsors that has been selected, developed or approved prior to the "Last Updated" date below may be identified differently than as set forth in this Third-Party Sponsorship Policy. Additionally, Epocrates reserves the right to make exceptions to this Third-Party Sponsorship Policy, in its sole discretion, as necessary to conduct its business.

This Third-Party Sponsorship Policy is subject to change at any time. If we make any changes to this Third-Party Sponsorship Policy, we will change the "Last Updated" date below.

Third-Party Sponsorship Policy last updated March 3, 2014