Area Health Education Centers is committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that gives you the most powerful and safe online experience. This Statement of Privacy applies to the Area Health Education Centers Web site and governs data collection and usage. By using the Area Health Education Centers website, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

Collection of your Personal Information

Area Health Education Centers collects personally identifiable information, such as your e-mail address, name, home or work address or telephone number. Area Health Education Centers also collects anonymous demographic information, which is not unique to you, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favorites.

There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by Area Health Education Centers. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring Web site addresses. This information is used by Area Health Education Centers for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the Area Health Education Centers Web site.

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through Area Health Education Centers public message boards, this information may be collected and used by others. Note: Area Health Education Centers does not read any of your private online communications.

Area Health Education Centers encourages you to review the privacy statements of Web sites you choose to link to from Area Health Education Centers so that you can understand how those Web sites collect, use and share your information. Area Health Education Centers is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on Web sites outside of the Area Health Education Centers and Area Health Education Centers family of Web sites.

Use of your Personal Information

Area Health Education Centers collects and uses your personal information to operate the Area Health Education Centers Web site and deliver the services you have requested. Area Health Education Centers also uses your personally identifiable information to inform you of other products or services available from Area Health Education Centers and its affiliates. Area Health Education Centers may also contact you via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services that may be offered.

Area Health Education Centers does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. Area Health Education Centers may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to the third party. In addition, Area Health Education Centers may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to Area Health Education Centers, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

Area Health Education Centers does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

Area Health Education Centers keeps track of the Web sites and pages our customers visit within Area Health Education Centers, in order to determine what Area Health Education Centers services are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customized content and advertising within Area Health Education Centers to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

Area Health Education Centers Web sites will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Area Health Education Centers or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Area Health Education Centers; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Area Health Education Centers, or the public.

Use of Cookies

The Area Health Education Centers Web site use "cookies" to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize Area Health Education Centers pages, or register with Area Health Education Centers site or services, a cookie helps Area Health Education Centers to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same Area Health Education Centers Web site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the Area Health Education Centers features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the Area Health Education Centers services or Web sites you visit.

Security of your Personal Information

Area Health Education Centers secures your personal information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. Area Health Education Centers secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other Web sites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Changes to this Statement

Area Health Education Centers will occasionally update this Statement of Privacy to reflect company and customer feedback. Area Health Education Centers encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how Area Health Education Centers is protecting your information.

Contact Information

Area Health Education Centers welcomes your comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that Area Health Education Centers has not adhered to this Statement, please contact Area Health Education Centers at admin@localhost/ahec. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.