Easter Seals Online Network Privacy Policy

Notification of Change
The Information We Collect
Opting Out
Your California Privacy Rights
Correct/Update Your Profile
Aggregate Information
Cookies
Security of Your Information
Tell-A-Friend, Ecards and Personal Fundraising Pages
Links to Other Web Sites
Information from Children
Transmission of Health-Related Data

Welcome to the Easter Seals Online Network, the Web site of Easter Seals, Inc. (Easter Seals headquarters) and participating Easter Seals affiliates across the country.

Because Easter Seals values the privacy of constituents visiting the Easter Seals Online Network, users of the Easter Seals Online Network have the right to manage their own personal information.

You can contact Easter Seals for more information related to the privacy of the information you provide online:

Mail:  233 South Wacker Drive, Suite 2400, Chicago, IL 60606.
Phone:  312-726-6200
Online:  Click here to contact Easter Seals via email. Your request will be answered within 2-3 business days.

Notification of Change
Easter Seals reserves the right to change this policy at any time. Easter Seals privacy policy will be kept up-to-date and clearly posted on our Web site.

The Information We Collect
On many pages of the Easter Seals Online Network -- in particular when donating online, completing an action alert, registering for a special event, purchasing a product, or completing various feedback forms -- visitors are asked to list name, address, and other personal contact information. Information collected is specifically and knowingly provided by site visitors and may include name, email address, format preference (HTML vs. text), address, telephone number, interests and other similar information. Collecting this information helps Easter Seals to better provide site visitors with relevant and useful content.

Easter Seals has partnered with Convio, Inc. to power the Web content, email and transaction processing capabilities to serve our constituents and fulfill our mission on the Internet. Convio, Inc. is an Internet software and services company that provides online electronic Constituent Relationship Management (eCRM) solutions for nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions. Convio will not disclose your name or other personally identifiable information (such as your e-mail address or phone number) to any party other than Easter Seals.

Neither Easter Seals nor Convio store sensitive information such as credit card numbers. When an online transaction is completed through the Easter Seals Online Network, such as a charitable contribution, credit card information is used solely for the purpose of completing that specific transaction and is not retained in the Easter Seals or Convio database.

Easter Seals will not sell, share or exchange personal contact information collected from this Web site with other organizations. If a user has a previous relationship with Easter Seals through another channel (i.e., mail, phone), Easter Seals will occasionally rent or exchange those names and addresses with other organizations as a way of providing extra funds to help support services. If you do not want to participate in this program, please let us know.

Visitors to the Easter Seals Online Network are not required to share any personally identifiable information. Users who do not wish to share personal information when visiting the Easter Seals Online Network can still access the Network's Web pages and the valuable information provided.

Opting Out
Easter Seals provides site visitors with the opportunity to opt-out of receiving our online and offline communications.

If you would like to opt-out of receiving email communications please update your user profile. Email unsubscribe requests are processed immediately.

To discontinue the receipt of postal mail, please contact Easter Seals. Shortly, Easter Seals will be adding the capability to remove your name from our postal mailing list online. You'll need to register as user of the Easter Seals Online Network. Please note: there is a 8-12 week lapse period due to the fact that a subsequent mailing may already be in production. If you do receive another mailing, please disregard it.

Your California Privacy Rights
To review a special notice for California residents only per California Privacy Law (SB27): Exchanging, Renting, Reselling Personal Information, please visit the "Your California Privacy Rights" section. 

Correct/Update Your Profile
Easter Seals offers the option to change and modify personally identifiable information. Upon your request, Easter Seals will remove personally identifying information retained in organizational databases. If you are a registered user of this site, you can access your Easter Seals profile and update your contact information and user preferences by clicking here.

Easter Seals reserves the right to maintain information on users who have had their access to the Easter Seals Online Network blocked.

Aggregate Information
Demographic and profile data (i.e., age, gender, browser usage) is also collected via the Easter Seals Online Network. Easter Seals uses such data to improve marketing and promotional efforts, statistically analyze site usage, improve content and product offerings and to customize site content, layout, and services. Additionally, this data may be shared with third parties on an aggregated basis. Easter Seals does not share personally identifying information with third parties, except to a court or governmental agency if required by law and as stated above in the section titled "The Information We Collect."

Cookies
A cookie is a small text file a Web site places on a site visitor’s computer hard drive. Its purpose is to let the site know when a user visits and to perform certain functions such as saving passwords and personal preferences.
 
Cookies help evaluate visitors' use of a Web site, such as what viewers want to see and what they never read. This information allows Easter Seals to better focus online information and to concentrate on information people are using.

Your browser is probably set to accept cookies. If you would like to turn this feature off, you will need to change the settings of your Internet browser.

Security of Your Information
All credit card and personal profile information provided to Easter Seals or our Internet software partner, Convio, Inc., is transmitted using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption using Verisign as a payment gateway. SSL is a proven coding system that allows a browser to automatically encrypt, or scramble, data before it is sent.

Easter Seals also protects account information by placing it on a secure portion of the Easter Seals Online Network that is only accessible by certain qualified employees of Easter Seals. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. Easter Seals strives to protect your information, however cannot ensure or warrant the security of such information.

Tell-A-Friend, Ecards and Personal Fundraising Pages
If you elect to use the referral service to inform a friend about a page on the Easter Seals Online Network, send an ecard, or raise funds for Easter Seals by soliciting friends and family, you will be asked for the friend's name and email address. Easter Seals will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. Easter Seals stores this information to send this one-time email only. In addition, the contact information will be maintained solely for the future convenience of the individual who provided the information -- to send subsequent ecards or fundraising reminders/updates.

Links to Other Web Sites
Easter Seals has links to other Web sites outside of the Easter Seals Online Network. Easter Seals is not responsible for the content of any linked Web site, or any link contained in a linked Web site, or any changes or updates to such Web sites. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by Easter Seals of that Web site.

In addition, please be aware that Easter Seals is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other Web sites. Easter Seals encourages you to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that requests personal information from you.

Information from Children
Easter Seals does not seek to collect personal information about children through the Easter Seals Online Network. If a child submits information through any part of the Network, and Easter Seals is aware that the user submitting the information is a child, the information is not used for any purpose, nor is it disclosed to third parties. Easter Seals will comply with all regulations set forward by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). To learn more about COPPA, visit the Federal Trade Commission.

Transmission of Health-Related Data
Easter Seals understands the sensitivity of collecting and using health-related data. Personally identifiable health-related data collected on the Easter Seals Online Network will not be shared with entities other than Easter Seals, Inc., and Easter Seals affiliates. Any transfer of personally identifiable health-related data between Easter Seals organizations will take place in a secure environment with access allowed only to certain qualified employees of Easter Seals. Easter Seals will comply with all regulations set forward by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). To learn more about HIPAA, visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights.

Easter Seals Metropolitan Chicago
Privacy Policies

It is the policy of Easter Seals that all staff preserve the integrity and the confidentiality of Protected Health Information (PHI) pertaining to our clients. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that our practice have the necessary medical and PHI to provide the highest quality services while protecting the confidentiality of the PHI of our clients to the highest degree possible.  Clients should not be afraid to provide information to our practice and / or staff for purposes of treatment, payment and healthcare operations (TPO). To that end, our staff will:

• Adhere to the standards set forth in the Notice of Privacy Practices
• Collect, use and disclose PHI only in conformance with state and federal laws
• Use and disclose PHI to remind clients of their appointments unless they instruct us not to
• Recognize that PHI collected about clients must be accurate, timely, complete and available when needed.  Our staff will:
• Implement reasonable measures to protect the integrity of all PHI maintained about clients
• Recognize that clients have a right to privacy.  Our staff will respect the client's individual dignity at all times.  Our staff will respect our client's privacy to the extent consistent with providing the highest quality services
• Act as responsible information stewards and treat all PHI as sensitive and confidential. Consequently, our staff will:
• Treat all PHI data as confidential in accordance with professional ethics, accreditation standards and legal requirements
• Not disclose PHI data unless the client (or his or her authorized representative) has properly authorized the release or the release is otherwise authorized by law 
• Recognize that, although our agency "owns" the record, the client has a right to inspect and obtain a copy of his / her PHI.  In addition, clients have a right to request an amendment to his / her record if he / she believes his / her information is inaccurate or incomplete.  Our staff will:
• Permit clients access to their records when their written requests are approved by our agency.  If we deny their request, then we must inform the clients that they may request a review of our denial
• Provide clients an opportunity to request the correction of inaccurate or incomplete PHI in their medical records in accordance with the law and professional standards
• All staff will maintain, for a period not exceeding six years from the date on which the client exited the program, a list of certain disclosures of PHI for purposes other than TPO for each client and those made pursuant to an authorization as required by HIPAA rules.  We will provide this list to clients upon request, so long as their requests are in writing
• All staff will adhere to any restrictions concerning the use or disclosure of PHI that clients have requested and have been approved by our agency
• All staff must adhere to this policy.  Our agency will not tolerate violations of this policy. Violation of this policy is grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment and criminal or professional sanctions in accordance with our agency's personnel rules and regulations
• Our agency may change this privacy policy in the future.  Any changes will be effective upon the release of a revised privacy policy and will be made available to clients upon request

Privacy Procedures

Our agency recognizes and respects the fact that the client has a right to inspect and obtain a copy of his / her Protected Health Information (PHI).

Privacy Procedures to Accomplish this Privacy Policy

• The Privacy Official will provide staff with an original form for clients to complete when the client desires to inspect and copy his / her PHI
• The Privacy Official will photocopy and make available to clients the form to Inspect and Copy PHI
• The Privacy Official will respond to clients' requests and questions concerning inspecting and copying their PHI.  In addition, the Privacy Official will distribute the form to the clients upon their request
• Once the client completes the form, staff should forward the form to the Privacy Official for review
• Once the client has submitted his / her request in writing (using the agency's form is optional), the Privacy Official must verify that the client's signature matches his / her signature on file
• The Privacy Official must review the client's request and respond to the client within 30 days from the date of the request.  The Privacy Official can request an additional 30-day extension as long as the request is made to the client in writing with the reason for the delay clearly explained
• The Privacy Official should agree to all reasonable requests.  If access is denied, the Privacy Official must provide the client with an explanation for the denial as well as a description of the client's review appeal
• When the client has requested to inspect their PHI and his / her request has been accepted, the Privacy Official or other authorized representative should accompany the client to a private area to inspect his / her records and remain with the client during inspection.  After the client inspects the record, the Privacy Official will note in the record the date and time of the inspection and whether the client made any requests for amendments or changes to the record
• When the client's request to copy his / her PHI has been accepted, the Privacy Official should copy his / her record within ten days at a charge of $.05 cents per page