Privacy Policy Statement
General Information

We, Samueli Institute for Information Biology (“Institute”), operated and maintained this Website, www.SamueliInstitute.org, (“Website”) until 2016. We were a nonprofit organization providing objective research, analysis and effective solutions that address complementary, alternative and integrative medicine practices and usage around the world.
We respect your privacy, as a visitor and user of our Website. This privacy policy statement outlines our use of automatically collected and personally identifiable information submitted on the Website. This privacy policy statement does not apply to other websites referenced by us in print, online or in e-mail.  

Information Automatically Collected and Stored 
The information collected on the Website is used to help us better serve our affiliates and visitors. We automatically collect and store the following information: 

  • The Internet domain from which you have accessed the Internet. For example, if you connect to the Internet through America Online, the domain is aol.com.
  • The Internet protocol (IP) address of the computer that was used to access the Internet. An IP address is a number that is assigned to a user's computer when he/she logs onto the Internet. When a Web page is requested, the user's IP address is included in the message, and the recipient of the request can respond to it by sending another message using that IP address.
  • The name and version of your computer’s operating system and Internet browser. For example, Windows 2000 (operating system) and Internet Explorer 6.0 or Netscape Navigator 7.1 (Internet browsers).
  • If you arrive to the Website from another website, the Internet address of the "referring" website.
  • The date, time, and duration of your visit to the Website, and the pages visited.
  • Cookies
What is a Cookie? 
When a user visits a website, the website's server generates a piece of information known as a "cookie" and places it on the user's computer. Some cookies remain on a user's computer after the user has ended his/her website visit. These types of cookies are called "persistent cookies”. Persistent cookies collect personal information about a user and allow the user's computer to be recognized in the future. Non-persistent cookies, or "session cookies," are erased by a user's computer after a period of inactivity or when the user closes his/her Internet browser. Session cookies do not collect any personal information about a user. They serve technical purposes, such as allowing seamless navigation through a website. Session cookies are stored in memory and are only available during an active browser session.

Additional Information Collected and Stored

We will not collect your personally identifiable information (e.g., name, contact information, etc.) through the Website without your consent. By providing us your personally identifiable information, you are consenting to our collection and storage of such information.

Registration and Log-In
Some features of the Website require you to register and provide certain personal information in order to have access to the Institute’s services, make donations to the Institute or to join the Institute’s mailing lists. If you are not comfortable with providing such information, you may elect to not provide such information by simply not using the features of the Website that require such information. Registration and log-in forms will clearly identify what information is required in order to use a particular feature and what information is optional. The information collected during the registration and log-in process may include: information manually submitted by you during the registration and log-in process and date, time and duration of your registration/log-in submissions.

E-mail Messages Sent to the Website

You may submit inquiries and comments to us through the Website and in such instance we collect and store the message content, the date and time of your submission and your e-mail address.

The Institute’s Use of Information Collected and Stored
We may use the information that is automatically collected and stored for statistical purposes (e.g., to measure the numbers of visitors to various sections of the Website), to enhance the value of the Website and our services, to maintain security of the Website and to assist us in evaluating the Website and our services.

We may use the information provided by you through registration, log-in, donation and email features to enhance the value of the Website and our services and communicate with affiliates and you as follows:
 
  • Respond to inquiries submitted by you; 
  • Make the Institute’s services available and provide services to you, if you are a registered user;
  • Contact you about information, notifications and news; 
  • Keep records of donations, which may include communications with the Institute’s third party vendor; and
  • Further the mission and purpose of the Institute.

The Institute does not disclose, give, sell, or transfer any personal information about visitors to the Website, including the identity of anyone who submits inquiries to the Institute through the Website, unless required to do so by law or except in the process of receiving a donation made through the Website. If you make a donation to the Institute through the Website, the information you submit during the donation process is collected and stored by the Institute’s third party vendor, Authorize.Net LLC, and is subject to Authorize.Net LLC’s privacy policy. Authorize.Net LLC’s privacy policy can be viewed by clicking www.authorize.net/company/privacy.

Links to Other Websites from the Website
The Website may provide links and references to external websites. We do not guarantee the privacy or security of information provided to linked and/or referenced websites. This privacy policy statement does not apply or cover any information collected by third-party websites, contents or applications that may link to, or be accessible from or on the Website. 

Patient Privacy
The Institute conducts and supports research that may include clinical trials. Access to the Institute, including this Website, is based on the understanding that members of the news media will adhere to all policies and laws related to patient privacy, including obtaining patient authorization prior to disclosure of patient information. A patient being interviewed has the right, under terms of federal patient privacy regulations, to withdraw consent for press use of his or her identity and protected health information at any time before, during or after the interview. A patient also may terminate an interview at any time. In such cases, the news media must immediately end the interview and any related recording or filming of the interview subject. If such a patient also withdraws consent at that time, news media once again may not release protected health information or in any way identify the patient.

Please also note that under federal policies and laws, "protected health information" includes direct or "overheard" conversations between and among caregivers, patients and family members, as well as information contained in medical records. Therefore, while the Institute provides reasonable press access to its facilities, if members of the press should overhear or see "protected health information" that is not covered by an authorization they must not use or disclose that information without obtaining a specific authorization for that information. To keep inadvertent disclosures to a minimum, restrictions in some areas may be imposed and escorts for all news media film crews and still photography are required.

Security of Information Collected
We use industry standard efforts to protect the confidentiality of your personally identifiable information. To assure the integrity of information on the Website’s server, we reserve the right to monitor system access for malicious actions taken to disable, or attempt to disable, online services or intentionally gain unauthorized access to our or our affiliate’s systems and/or data.

Opting Out

If you provide us with your contact information and later desire to not be contacted by us, please let us know by sending an email to communications@samueliinstitute.org with your request to be removed from our mailing lists and we will promptly remove you from our mailing lists.  Please note that if a communication is already prepared for distribution to the Institute’s mailing list at the time of your request, we may be unable to remove your contact information from that particular communication.

Changes to This Privacy Policy Statement
Your use of the Website signifies your agreement to the terms of this privacy policy statement, as may be amended from time-to-time. Periodically, we may make changes to this privacy policy statement. When our information collection and/or dissemination practices change or when this privacy policy statement is amended, we will post the policy changes on the Website. We recommend that you review the privacy policy statement frequently to remain updated regarding the latest policy. 

Questions regarding this privacy policy statement may be directed to communications@samueliinstitute.org.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.