Web Privacy Statement

The employees of SMDC Health System respect the privacy of our patients and those who use our website. We have created this Privacy Statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy and to disclose our practices in gathering, using and disclosing personal information in connection with our website. Personal information is information about a person that includes identifying information about that person. Note that "website" in this document should be understood as including all/any websites with the SMDC Health System family: SMDC.org, DuluthClinic.org, StMarysDuluth.org, Miller-Dwan.org, etc.

When you use our website, we receive and collect certain information. The information that we receive and collect depends on what you do when using the site. The following are guiding principles that SMDC Health Systems adheres to as it relates to the privacy of your information: 

• Any information you submit to us through our website — whether through a survey, registration form, employment form or email — will be used exclusively by SMDC Health System or third parties performing services for SMDC Health System.
• We will use your personally identifiable information only for the specific reason for which you submitted it.
• We will take reasonable precautions to protect your personal information including encryption with SSL technology and passwords when appropriate.
• Generally, you will only receive email correspondence for information that you have requested or as confirmation of information that you have submitted.

SMDC Health System may use overall demographic data of our web users to improve the site and enhance services. These demographic trends will not be traceable to an individual’s personal information. On rare occasion, SMDC Health System may contact registered users by email to inquire about potential interest in new web services. 

SMDC Health System is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement, except to vendors and agents in support of SMDC Health System activities. SMDC Health System does not commercially sell any customer lists or email addresses. SMDC Health System may, however, disclose personal information if permitted or required to do so by law or in good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to applicable law or comply with legal process served on SMDC Health System; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of SMDC Health System, the website, or website users; or (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of SMDC Health System patients, the we site users, or the public.

For most of the services provided on our website, we neither require nor collect user information that could personally identify you. However, in some instances we do need you to actively submit personally identifiable information. During the registration process, a user is required to give their contact information, usually your name and email address. This information is primarily used to contact users about the services on our site for which they have expressed interest. It is optional for users to provide demographic data, but encouraged, so we can provide you with better information when using our site. 

Cookies are small files that are placed on a users computer hard drive to distinguish each website visitor. SMDC Health System uses cookies to help identify usage patterns so we can analyze trends, administer the site, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. Cookies are not linked to any personally identifiable information while visiting our website. While the use of cookies is a standard practice among websites, users can reject the use of cookie and still use our website. The only drawback to this is that the user will be limited in some areas of our site (i.e., cannot view certain content). SMDC Health System does not use cookies to retrieve information from your computer that was not originally sent in a cookie. Except as described in this Privacy Statement, we do not use information transferred through cookies for any promotional or marketing purposes, nor is that information shared with any third parties except when those third parties are performing services for SMDC Health System. 

The SMDC Health System website may contain links to other websites. Please be aware that SMDC Health System is not responsible for the privacy practices of these websites. SMDC Health System is not responsible for content provided on these sites or for the validity of content on these sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This Privacy Statement only applies to our website.    

We exercise care in providing secure transmission of your information from your PC to our services. Personal information collected by the SMDC Health System website is stored in secure operating environments that are not available to the public. Only those employees who need access to your information in order to do their jobs are allowed access, each having signed a confidentiality agreement. Any employee who violates our privacy and/or security policies is subject to disciplinary action, including possible termination of employment and civil and/or criminal prosecution.

We do not intend to collect personal information from children under age 13 and in any event will not do so without the permission of the child's parent or guardian. No information collected from users under the age of 13 is used for any marketing or promotional purposes whatsoever.

By using this site, you signify your acceptance of the SMDC Health System Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our website. Your continued use of the SMDC Health System web site following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept those changes.

If SMDC Health System decides to change our Privacy Policy, we will post those changes so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use this information in accordance with the Privacy Policy under which the information was collected. We do, however, recommend that you read this Privacy Policy each time you use our website for notice of changes to the Privacy Policy.

SMDC Health System enables you to correct or update personally identifiable information that you have previously provided to us at any time. To do so, send an email to webfeedback@smdc.org indicating the information that you wish to be corrected or updated.

You may opt-out of receiving future contacts or mailings at any time. SMDC Health System provides you with the opportunity to opt-out of receiving electronic communications from us and our partners at the point where we request information about you. To remove your personally identifiable information from our database, to not receive future communications or to no longer receive our services, send an email to webfeedback@smdc.org with the word “remove” in the subject line.

As a high quality network of healthcare providers and healthcare information on the web, we are continually trying to improve our site. We want you and your family to be confident in using SMDC.org as your one-stop health resource. We encourage you to contact us at webfeedback@smdc.org with any questions or suggestions for improving our site so that we can better serve you in the future. Thank you for visiting with us.

Notice of Privacy Practices