Privacy
Important Update
We have updated our privacy policy in order to enable our sponsors (typically pharmaceutical companies) to provide more customized, clinical content to you as we improve our targeting efforts. Our ultimate goal is to deliver relevant, useful content to you, our member. Moreover, this updated privacy policy will allow us to provide the information necessary for our sponsors to better understand and evaluate our effectiveness at targeting caregivers with important educational material.
We continue to recognize the sensitivity of this information and value your privacy. Going forward, when you engage with sponsored content (e.g., pharmaceutical-sponsored DocAlerts), we will share your name and activity (e.g., click on DocAlert) with that piece of content to the relevant sponsor, upon request. We will not share your contact details or other important profile information, nor will we share specific information about your usage of non-sponsored Epocrates content (e.g., drug searches). The formal, detailed policy governing the protection of your personal information is below, and we encourage you to read it in its entirety.
Epocrates Privacy Policy
At Epocrates, we are committed to respecting your privacy. This privacy policy describes how Epocrates, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliated companies ("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/.
- What information does Epocrates collect?
- How does Epocrates use the information we collect?
- How does Epocrates protect your information?
- Will Epocrates share the information it collects with others?
- What access does Epocrates give you to your personal information?
- How are "cookies" and "Web beacons" used on our Site?
- Is this privacy statement subject to change?
- How to send us your feedback
TRUSTe Privacy Statement
Epocrates, Inc. has been awarded TRUSTe's Privacy Seal signifying that this privacy policy and practices have been reviewed by TRUSTe for compliance with TRUSTe's program requirements including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information. The TRUSTe program covers information collected through this Web site, www.epocrates.com. TRUSTe's mission, as an independent third party, is to accelerate online trust among consumers and organizations globally through its leading privacy trustmark and innovative trust solutions. If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or practices, please contact us at legal@epocrates.com . If you are not satisfied with our response you can contact TRUSTe here .
What to do if you have questions or concerns about the TRUSTe privacy statement
If you have questions or concerns regarding this policy, you should first contact Epocrates Customer Support at support@epocrates.com. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with Epocrates to resolve your concerns. However, please understand that the TRUSTe Privacy Program covers only information that is collected through the Epocrates website, and does not cover information that may be collected through software downloaded from the website or elsewhere.
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, date of birth, 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 geolocation 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.
Information we may automatically collect.
When you visit our websites, some information is automatically collected. 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. 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 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.
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 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? ");
- 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.
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.
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. No method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure; as a result, we cannot guarantee absolute security.
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 you post a comment or message in our blog or other public forums, it will be shared publicly.
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 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, or provide marketing assistance. 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.
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.
How to update your profile: Please visit the home page of our website at www.epocrates.com, click on "My Account", and then sign in using your email address and password. To opt in or out of email communications, go to the bottom of the form and make the selection of your choices. If you select 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.
6. How are "cookies" and "Web beacons" used on our Site?
"Cookies" are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer's hard drive. We use both session cookies and persistent cookies on our website to help us provide you with a more personalized experience and improve our services. We may also use third party cookies to collect anonymous traffic data. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually change your browser settings to remove or reject cookies. Disabling cookies in your browser, however, may prevent access to some features of our website. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our website.
We may also collect information using Web beacons. Web beacons are electronic images used on our Sites and in our emails. We use Web beacons to deliver cookies, count visits, understand usage and campaign effectiveness and to tell if an email has been opened and acted upon.
Certain features of our websites may also use Local Shared Objects. Local Shared Objects are technologies that allow storage and retrieval of information relating to your web browsing activities. For information about identifying Local Shared Objects on your computer and adjusting your settings, visit: www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_ma... (Adobe Flash Objects) and http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/get-started/install/privacy.aspx (Microsoft's Silverlight Objects).
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.
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.
Epocrates, Inc.
1100 Park Place, Suite 300
San Mateo, CA 94403
Privacy policy last updated June 27, 2013
