Providence Health System respects the privacy of your personal health information. This Privacy Policy is intended to specify how information you supply through our Website is collected, safeguarded, transmitted and used by Providence Health System.

Anonymous visitors to our Website may have a temporary "Cookie" placed on their computer to customize the delivery of content based on usage patterns and interests. These Cookies do not uniquely identify users to us by name, nor are they used in any other way to uniquely identify visitors.

Providence Health Plans members who register with our site, or visitors who register a personal "My Providence" account, have a Cookie placed on their computers to allow us to customize their experience on our site. An example of this function would be to provide a class registration form that has been partially filled out ahead of time with demographic information, such as name and address as a convenience to the user.

All information submitted to our Website using our forms is encrypted for transmission using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol and 128-bit encryption. If your Web browser does not currently support this security protocol, you will be prompted to update your security and presented with a link to a site where you may obtain the necessary plug-in at no charge. SSL is used for transmitting personal demographic information, health plans member account information and claims information, personal health information and credit card Information.

Personal health information transmitted across the Internet via e-mail is not secure and will not be requested or accepted by Providence Health System. Secure customer service forms are available for all member and patient communications.

Personal information collected through our site is secured within the Providence Health System data network. The information is subject to applicable access restrictions and protocols that are maintained by our Data Management and Security office and are in compliance with applicable state and federal regulations.

Information obtained as part of your My Providence account or Providence Health Plans member account is collected for the sole purpose of providing you with convenient, personalized service while you interact with Providence Health System. Uniquely identifiable data collected and stored as part of the Providence Website will not be shared with third parties, without your permission, for reasons beyond the following:

• Credit card validation and processing is performed for Providence by VeriSign

Providence Health System may use aggregate data for internal analysis to better serve the health needs of our communities, to improve the usefulness of the Website and to provide better customer service.

During linking from the Providence site to any external site not under our control, no data, including URL query strings, will contain identifiable information to allow a third party to ascertain user identification or any other uniquely identifiable user information from our Website except in cases noted above.

Users of our Website who do link to a third-party Website must be aware that our Privacy Policy does not extend beyond the borders of the Providence Website. Other standards may apply outside our site. We will disclose certain information to local, state, federal, national or international law enforcement authorities if required by law to do so.