Privacy Policy
The purpose of this policy is to educate visitors about privacy issues regarding the use of this site.
UT Southwestern is dedicated to protecting the privacy of our visitors. We do not actively share the personal information of our visitors. However, UT Southwestern is a public institution regulated by the Texas Public Information Act. As such, UT Southwestern could be forced to release some of the information gathered on this Web site to the proper legal agencies, if compelled by law.
Since UT Southwestern is an education facility, it is also subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA strictly prohibits the release of education records without the prior permission of the student in question. FERPA only applies to students of this institution.
UT Southwestern maintains several Web servers. Each Web server shall adhere to this privacy policy. All Web servers must post this privacy policy prominently on the home page of the Web server.
Third-party content and external links
UT Southwestern may post links to external Web sites or use content served from external third parties. For example, this site may include a graphic script from a third party. These links and third-party content are posted as a convenience to our visitors. These sites are not controlled by this institution’s privacy policy. UT Southwestern is not responsible for the privacy policies and procedures of any external entity for which a link or third-party content is provided.
Collected information
UT Southwestern gathers information through this site in several ways:
- Server Logs
- Cookies
- Contact Forms
- Registration Forms
- Online Surveys
Server logs
Our servers collect information through the process of Web traffic logs. These logs are collected for the purpose of optimizing and troubleshooting our servers. These logs may contain the following information:
- Host name or IP address of the computer accessing the site
- A listing of Web pages requested per IP address
- The type of Web browser used
- The date and time in which resources were requested
- Any unique Identifiers assigned by the site or site administrator
Cookies
Cookies are data stored on the visitor’s computer by the web browser. Cookies are used to store session information on the visitor’s computer. This storage eliminates the need for users to continue to change preferences for viewing certain aspects of the Web site.
Cookies are also used to store authentication information on the visitor’s computer. This allows users to authenticate to the Web site at the beginning of the session and then continue to surf – until the browser is closed without continually re-authenticating each time a new Web page is requested.
Contact Forms
If you chose to make use of our online contact form, the information you enter may be saved into a database for future reference. This information will also be sent via email to a departmental inbox. If you have medical questions, you should not use the contact forms, but contact your doctor’s office directly.
Patient confidentiality
UT Southwestern is committed to protecting the confidentiality of medical and personal information, as required by state and federal privacy laws. Information will be held in confidence and not released without proper authorization, unless the release of that information is required by other laws or regulations.
