The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the Ottawa Health Decision Centre (OHDeC) recognize the importance of protecting the privacy of all information provided by users of our website. We created this privacy statement to document our fundamental respect of our users' right to privacy and to guide our relationships with our users.

DISCLAIMER

Our guides do not replace professional advice. They are designed to prepare users to discuss their decision with a professional.

INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE

OHDeC collects information from our website users. The only personal information this website obtains about users is information voluntarily provided about the decisions that they are making. In this section of our privacy statement, we will describe in more detail the types of information we collect and how we use it to provide better services to our users.

REGISTRATION

When using our interactive Ottawa Personal Decision Guide or a condition-specific guide, users have the option of registering. During registration, users are required to provide a user id and password of their own choosing. This information is encrypted to protect user privacy. If a user registers, they have the option to save their information so they can revisit a decision they are making at a later time.

The data users provide will be reviewed for quality assurance purposes only.

INFORMATION COLLECTION

For our internal use, we gather date, time, browser type, navigation history and computer address of all visitors to our website. We use this information for our internal security audit log, trend analysis and system administration.

We do not share potentially personally identifiable information with any other organizations or companies. We may share aggregate information, which is not personally identifiable, with others. This information may include usage and demographic aggregate statistics.

SECURITY

We use reasonable precautions to protect our users' personal information and to store it securely. Access to ALL our users' information is restricted. Only employees who need the information for quality assurance purposes are granted password-secured access.

LINKS

Our website contains links to other external websites. The OHRI and OHDeC are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such other websites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our website and to read the privacy statements of each website to which we may link.

NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES

If we change our privacy statement, we will post those changes on this page so our users are aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under which circumstances, if any, we disclose it. Users should check our privacy statement frequently to keep abreast of any changes.

Last modified: 2009 April 28

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