MJA insight - What's shaping medicine now

Privacy policy

Last updated: 1 June, 2010

What else do we collect when you use our website?

Protecting your privacy is important to us. Please take a few moments to review this Policy.

Introduction

InSight, a website owned and operated by the Australasian Medical Publishing Company Proprietary Limited (AMPCo Pty Ltd), which is an Australian-based medical publishing house, is currently hosted at TPP Internet. We take privacy issues seriously and are committed to protecting your personal information.

This privacy policy explains what information has been collected about you, how personal information is being used, to whom personal information is being disclosed and how this personal information is stored and protected. This privacy policy has been developed in accordance with our legal obligations and may be updated from time to time.

If you have any queries concerning your personal information or any questions on our use of the information, please contact us.

1. The information we collect and how we use it

1.1 What information is being collected and how is it used?

Insight is intended for authenticated medical users only. There are various sections of the website, for which we collect different information. What we collect and how this is used is as follows:

1.2 Non-registered users of InSight

Non-registered users of InSight can only view the homepage. We collect information about your use of the site. Essentially this will be which pages you have visited and how long you stay online. We will not be able to identify who you are from the information we store, but we will be able to identify where you are located.

1.3 Registered users of InSight

You will be asked to submit details including a personal email address as well as your name and contact details. All mandatory information is indicated so that we can understand our users and fulfil our obligations to you. You will be asked if you wish to receive general email updates and further product information from us, and if you do not wish to do so, you can “opt out” from receiving these. The onus is on individuals who register with www.mjainsight.com.au to ensure they meet the requirements for eligible use of this website.

2. What else do we collect when you use our website?

Each time you use the internet, an IP address is assigned to your computer via the internet service provider (ISP). This number may either be the same or different each time. Each time your computer requests information from our website, we log your IP address on our server. We may use this in order to gather information about the website traffic and usage.

Whether you are a registered user or not, our web server collects certain information such as:

a. IP address

b. host names

c. domain name

d. time and date information as requested

e. the browser version and platform when it is requested

f. a record of which pages have been requested.

From time to time on the site you will be able to order products, enter contests, vote in polls or otherwise express an opinion, or subscribe to one of our services such as our online newsletters. The types of personally identifiable information that may be collected at these pages include: name, address, email address, telephone number, fax number, credit card information, and information about your interests in, and use of, various products, programs and services.

You can and may submit information about other people such as a person’s name and email address for that person to receive information or a product. The types of personally identifiable information that may be collected about other people at these pages include: recipient’s name, address, email address and telephone number.

Also, we may collect certain non-personally identifiable information when you visit many of our web pages, such as the type of browser you are using (e.g. Internet Explorer), the type of operating system you are using, (e.g. Windows 2007 or Mac OS) and the domain name of your ISP.

3. What else do we use personal information for?

Other than for fulfilling our obligations to you (where these exist), on some occasions we use the information provided to produce aggregate statistics in relation to pages being accessed. We may also use it to monitor usage patterns on the website in order to improve navigation and design features to help you get information more easily. This information is provided to us as daily logged files. In order to help us develop the website and our services, we may provide such aggregate information to third parties. The statistics, however, will not include any information that can be used to identify any individual.

4. To whom will personal information be disclosed?

Unless you have agreed otherwise, we will not disclose your personal data to any third party other than our contractors who must keep this data secure and confidential. Corporate location information, however, may be shared.

5. How long do we keep the information we collect?

We keep your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil our obligations to you and protect our legal interests.

6. Can you change information we hold about you?

Where you have provided us with an email address or any information which becomes outdated, you should inform us by using the contact details on the website or updating your details in the My Profile page.

7. How is your personal information stored and protected?

Your personal data may be stored by us in electronic and paper-based form. Website usage information is stored electronically.

8. Security

The information we collect about visitors to the site is stored in secure environments and we do not share any data that identifies any individual with any other individual or party. We have mechanisms in place to protect data. One such mechanism is called a “firewall”. A firewall is a barrier that allows only authorised traffic through. It safeguards our computer systems and your information. We also use system and application logs to track all access. We review these logs periodically and investigate any anomalies or discrepancies.

We understand that the security of your information is important to you. We also understand that our continued success as a publisher on the web relies on our ability to communicate with you in a secure manner. We adhere to the highest standards of decency, fairness and integrity in our operations. We use several measures to authenticate your identity when you visit our site. We also take steps to protect your information as it travels the internet, and to make sure all information is as secure as possible against unauthorised access and use (e.g. by hackers). We review our security measures regularly.

Despite our best efforts, and the best efforts of other firms, “perfect security” does not exist on the internet, or anywhere else. As a result, whilst we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot warrant the security of the information you transmit to us online. You therefore do so at your own risk.

Once we receive your transmission, we make our best efforts to ensure its security on our system.

9. Authentication

You should not share your username and password with other people. If you think you might lose or forget these identifiers, write them down and keep each in a separate place.

10. Email

Any email between you and AMPCo Pty Ltd is not encrypted. It will be stored securely within our corporate firewall.

11. Cookies

Cookies are items of information transferred from a website to your computer’s hard disk to assist with record-keeping. For example, a cookie enables your computer to recognise that you have visited this website. Most web browsers are programmed to accept cookies. Cookies don’t identify users, but they do identify browsers. Cookies can be disabled (see below).

Cookies can be either “persistent” or “session-based”. Persistent cookies are stored on your computer, contain an expiration date, and may be used to track your browsing behaviour on return to the issuing website. Session cookies are short-lived, used only during a browsing session, and expire when you quit your browser.

Generally, this website only uses session cookies. On closing your browser, the session cookie set by this website is destroyed, and no personal information is maintained which might identify you should you visit our website at a later date.

The site does offer an option for the user to be remembered every time they come back to the site. This is achieved through the use of a persistent cookie. Cookies used in this way enable us to monitor our site registration system, for example, by identifying a site visitor who may have previously been a member.

Cookies have a positive benefit in that they can enhance your enjoyment of what we can offer through this website. For example, they can assist us to ensure that information provided to you is relevant to your interests. Through cookies, we can collect aggregated information on how people use the website and which advertisements are effective. With this information we are better able to improve the website and the services and information it provides. Cookies are also used for authentication to grant access to certain areas of the site, for example, to ensure that only authenticated users access specific areas of the site designated for their use.

11.1 Disabling cookies

For information on how to disable cookies, go to: www.microsoft.com/info/cookies.htm.

12. Analysing site use

We may use an independent service to measure and analyse use across the site. Any service we use would have expertise in internet measurement technologies as well as market research and trend analysis. Use of such a service may involve coding being placed on pages on the site to enable the following information on site use to be collected:

a. number of unique visitors to the site;

b. average length of time these unique visitors spend on the site when they visit; and

c. entry and exit points on the site for these unique visitors.

This coding may be derived from software provided by the independent service and would be transparent to a user. Such software stores a cookie in the browser which contains a unique identifier and enables the independent service to track the number of unique visitors to the site. This unique identifier used by the independent service would not identify a user personally. We will not marry any data collected by the independent service with any personal information collected on the site. However, this coding may not be disabled completely. If you disable cookies in your browser the effect would be that the independent service is unable to track you as a unique visitor to the site and will read you as a new visitor each time you browse a new page on the site.

The independent service would collect and collate aggregate information which is then provided to us to assist with our analysis of site usage. This independent service data may also be accessible by media organisations and research companies for the purpose of comparing use patterns with similar internet portals.

13. Use and disclosure of your personal information

We will not use or disclose any of your personal information without your express consent, unless

a. we are required to by law;

b. it is necessary to provide you with a service requested by you;

c. to implement the terms of use of this site; or

d. we consider it necessary to lessen a serious threat to a person’s health or safety.

14. Contact us

If you have any concerns or queries about the information we hold about you or wish to provide feedback about this site, please contact us.

15. Linking to external sites

You will encounter links to other sites that are not those which we control. Please be aware that once you click to one of these sites, you are subject to that site’s privacy policy and not to ours. You may wish to review the privacy policy for each site you visit.

16. Your consent

By using this website you consent to the use of any data we collect as set out in this policy. You should review this privacy policy regularly, to note any changes relating to how we collect and use your information.