Thank you for visiting our Help.org website and reviewing our Privacy Policy. This policy pertains to Help.org and all Help.org funded websites. Our policy is clear:
- We do not collect personally identifiable information (PII) about you unless you choose to provide that information to us.
- Any PII you chose to provide is protected by security controls consistent with the HHS Information Security and Privacy Policy and National Institutes of Standards and Technology and Office of Management and Budget guidance.
- Non-PII information related to your visit to our website may be automatically collected and temporarily stored.
For more information on your health information privacy and security rights, or on the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules, visit the HHS Office for Civil Rights.
Information Collected and Stored Automatically
When you browse through our website, we gather and temporarily store technical information about your visit. This information does not identify who you are. The information we collect includes:
- The name of the domain you use to access the Internet;
- The date and time of your visit;
- The pages you visited; and
- The address of the website you came from when you came to visit.
We use this information to improve our website and provide a better user experience for our visitors. We use a tool, Google Analytics, to collect and aggregate this information. This information is available only to web managers and other designated staff who require this information to perform their duties. It is retained only for as long as needed for proper analysis. There is no PII included in this data.
Web Measurement and Customization
We use web measurement and customization technologies, such as cookies, to help our website function better for visitors and to better understand how the public is using our website.
Cookies
Help.org uses “cookies” to test and optimize our website design and content. A cookie is a small text file automatically placed on your computer. We use two types of cookies on our websites:
- We use session cookies to gather data for technical purposes, such as enabling better navigation through our website and generating aggregated statistics about how the website is used. Session cookies are temporary text files that expire when you leave our website. When cookies expire, they are automatically deleted from your computer. We do not use session cookies to collect PII, and we do not share data collected from session cookies. Our use of session cookies is defined as “Tier 1” usage in accordance with the OMB Memorandum (M)-10-22 Guidance for Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies.
- We use multi-session cookies, a.k.a. persistent cookies, to customize our website for frequent visitors and to test variations of website design and content. Multi-session cookies are cookies that are stored over more than a single session on your computer. We do not use multi-session cookies to collect PII, and we do not share data collected from multi-session cookies. Our multi-session cookies are set to expire two years after your last visit to our website. After two years, they are automatically deleted from your computer. Our use of multi-session cookies is defined as “Tier 2” usage in accordance with the OMB Memorandum (M)-10-22 Guidance for Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies.
You can take actions to block cookies. Blocking these cookies from your computer will not affect your access to the content and tools on our website.
Personal Information Voluntarily Submitted to Help.org
If you choose to provide Help.org with personal information – for example by completing a “Contact Us” inquiry via email, leaving a comment, or completing a survey – we may use that information to respond to your message and/or help us get you the information or services you asked for. Submitting personal information (name, address, telephone number, email address, etc.) is voluntary and is not required to access information on our website.
Disclosure
Help.org does not disclose, give, sell, or transfer any personal information about our visitors unless required for law enforcement or by Federal law.