Sydney Adventist Hospital Website Privacy Policy
Updated January 2009
At Sydney Adventist Hospital (SAH), we understand that health is a very personal, private subject, and we are committed to protecting the privacy and security of visitors to our site.
Sydney Adventist Hospital must comply with the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) under the Privacy Act 1988 and other privacy laws that govern how private health service providers handle your personal information.
This Privacy Policy will tell you what information we collect from the website, how it is used, and what your choices are. Please read this policy carefully.
Collection – Personal Information
What personal information does SAH collect via the website?
When accessing or using the SAH website, we do not attempt to identify you as a particular user and we generally do not collect any personal information. However, sometimes we do require you to supply personal information in order to provide services that you request.
You may be asked to provide personal information, such as name and contact details and/or demographic information for items such as class or event registration, information requests or to provide feedback.
Only authorised SAH staff who need the information you provide to perform a specific task have access to your information. All SAH hospital staff are required to sign a privacy agreement and abide by the Hospital’s Policy on Privacy and Confidentiality.
Health Tools Information
You may need to provide personal information in order to use some of the health tools on our site. This information may include your answers to questions about your health status. We use this information to calculate your personalised answer; we don't store or share it.
Emails
When providing personal information via e-mail to the hospital, please be aware that inherently, e-mail messages can be viewed by other Internet users while in transit. Although this risk is usually quite small, if you have personal or other information to discuss, you may wish to contact the necessary person or department using traditional means such as phone or mail.
Newsletters
We require you to provide an e-mail address to subscribe to the SAH Foundation newsletter, ‘San News’. This information is securely stored in SAH Foundation’s mailing database accessible to appropriate SAH Foundation staff. We do not share your name or e-mail address and you may unsubscribe at anytime by contacting the SAH Foundation.
Links to third party websites
The SAH website offers links and some interactive functions that are operated by third parties as a convenience for you. If you choose to use a link or one of these functions, please recognise that SAH has no control over the privacy policies and practices of such third parties. If you have any concerns, you are urged to review the privacy terms of those sites.
Are there advertisements on SAH web site?
SAH does not accept advertisements on its web site.
Web-based financial transactions
SAH web-enabled financial transactions such as paying your bill or making a donation are wholly processed through the Westpac Secure Payment site. No personal information or account details are collected or stored by SAH during these transactions. For more detail regarding Westpac’s Secure Payment security and privacy policies, please click here.
Collection – Statistical Information
When you visit our website, our Internet Service Provider (ISP) will record and log the following information for statical purposes:
• Your computer address (IP address)
• Your top level name (such as .com, .org, .gov, etc.)
• Date and time of your visit
• Pages and documents you access during your visit
• Browser you are using
IP addresses
We collect and log the IP address of all visitors to SAH websites. An IP address is a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet. IP addresses allow computers and servers to recognise and communicate with one another. We collect IP address information so that we can properly administer our system and gather aggregate information about how our site is being used, including the pages visitors are viewing. This aggregate information may occasionally be shared with sponsors and other businesses. To maintain your anonymity, we do not associate IP addresses with records containing personal information. However, we will use IP address information to personally identify you in order to enforce our legal rights or when required to do so by law enforcement authorities.
Information Use & Data Security
In what ways is the collected personal and statistical information used?
Currently, SAH only uses personal information you provide on the Web in order to process functions or requests which have been initiated by you or as we may be required to do by law.
Information requested on voluntary forms is used to provide services that you have asked for, such as registration for classes, mailing of publications, and so forth.
SAH may occasionally provide statistics to third parties related to the number of visitors who use the site. These statistics do not provide personally identifiable information. There are no current plans to make other disclosures of such information and we will notify you through this on-line policy if there are any changes to these circumstances.
Does the SAH website use "cookies" to collect user information?
"Cookies" are small parcels of text sent by a website server to your web browser and then sent back unchanged by your browser each time it accesses that web server. These types of cookies are used for authenticating, session tracking and maintaining non-personal information about users, such as site preferences.
The SAH website does not use cookies to store any personal information. General SAH website users can browse the web site even if cookies have been disabled. However, SAH Website users who are Doctors or site administrators will need to have cookies enabled in order to access their password protected sections of the website.
How we protect your personal information
SAH is committed to ensuring that your personal information remains as secure as possible. Accordingly, we prevent unauthorised access by a secure firewall and use of security infrastructure to protect the integrity and privacy of the personal information you provide to us.
All data that you enter on this site is entered on a shared secure server and protected by 128 bit SSL security protocol for internet communications. This means that your data is protected while being transferred over the Internet to our servers.
Once your data reaches our servers, the same modern security software that guards our hospital’s essential business and patient data protects your data as well. In addition to using security technology, we de-identify data before it is used in any aggregate reporting that may be done.
Your Consent & Future Changes to the Web Privacy Policy
By choosing to use the SAH Web site, you acknowledge and agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. Please read this policy thoroughly. We may occasionally need to make changes to our Website Privacy Policy, to reflect changes in our site and address new issues. Changes will be posted here, so please refer to this policy regularly.
Website Privacy Query Process
If you have a question regarding SAH website privacy or if you believe your privacy rights may have been violated, Please contact the SAH Privacy Officer on 02 9487 9221 or via privacy@sah.org.au.
