Privacy Policy

Notice of privacy practices

Shriners Hospitals for Children® (SHC) is committed to maintaining patient confidentiality and recognizes its patients’ rights to expect that their medical records and information about their care will be kept confidential. SHC has implemented policies and procedures to comply with HIPAA privacy and security regulations as well as state laws governing confidentiality. To view SHC’s Notice of Privacy Practices click here.

Internet privacy and user agreement

This Web site is owned and operated by or on behalf of Shriners International (Shriners). We recognize that visitors to our site may be concerned about the information they provide to us, and how we treat that information. This Privacy Policy addresses those concerns. This policy may be changed or updated from time to time.

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, you can contact us at:

Shriners International Headquarters
Public Relations Department
2900 Rocky Point Drive
Tampa, FL 33607-1435

We are available to answer your questions or hear your concerns.

Our privacy policy

Shriners International uses its best efforts to respect the privacy of its online visitors. At our site, we do not collect personally identifiable information from individuals unless they provide it to us voluntarily and knowingly. This means we do not require you to register or provide information to us in order to view our site. Shriners International only gathers personally identifiable data, such as names, addresses, zip/postal codes, e-mail addresses, etc. when voluntarily submitted by a visitor. This information is used solely by Shriners International or other entities that are involved in the operation of this site for internal purposes. Shriners International’s lists are never sold to third parties. We will only share personally identifiable information with third parties when (i) the person submitting the information authorizes us to share it; (ii) sharing the information is a necessary operation of the site or (iii) we are required to by law.

Personal information

If you volunteer or request information, we may collect the following information; first and last name, street address, city, state, zip code, telephone number, email address, occupation, and subject of inquiry. We limit the use of information provided to us on our Web site to the following:

  1. If you do not make a service request, inquiry, or otherwise identify yourself, we will have no personally identifiable information about you. We will only use aggregate information derived, in part, from your use of our site to improve our site and our service to you.
  2. If you provide personal information, we may enter your name into our constituent database and contact you in order to:
    • Request voluntary time or other contributions to SHC. Respond to inquiries on membership.
    • We collect the email addresses of those who communicate with us by email or give us their email address. Inquiries may be forwarded to the appropriate SHC department for response and may be entered into our constituent database.

Data security

We are committed to protecting the security of your personal information and to honoring your choices for its intended use. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we strive to maintain physical, electronic, and administrative safeguards.

Inside Shriners International, data is stored in password-controlled servers. Our staff and volunteers are educated about the importance of safeguarding your information and we are committed to holding them accountable for protecting your confidentiality. However, such precautions do not guarantee that our Web site is invulnerable to all security breaks. Shriners make no warranty, guarantee, or representation that the use of our Web site is protected from viruses, security threats, other vulnerabilities and that your information will always be secure.

Whenever Shriners permits an external third party to access personally-identifiable information, appropriate procedures are followed to help ensure that the information is used only for authorized purposes and by authorized persons in a manner consistent with the choices Shriners’ constituents have made under this statement, and that the security, integrity and privacy of the information is maintained. While Shriners will employ procedures to help ensure that your information is only used for authorized purposes as described above, we cannot make any guarantees with respect to the actions or policies of such third parties.

External links

Our privacy policies apply only to your use of this Web site. Should this site contain links to other sites, including sites that have a special relationship with us, we do not disclose personally identifiable information to those operating linked sites and we are not responsible for their privacy practices. Links to other sites do not imply an endorsement of the materials or policies on those Web sites. You should read the privacy policies of each site you visit to determine what information that site may be collecting about you.

Thank you for visiting our site. Please contact us should you have any questions about the operation of the site. For further information see the Internet User Agreement below.

Online advertising

Shriners Hospitals for Children utilizes:

  • Third party vendors, including Google, show ads on sites on the internet.
  • Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to our sites and microsites.
  • You may opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page.

Cookies

Visitors should be aware that non-personal information and data may be automatically collected by the Shriners Hospitals for Children website through the use of “cookies.” “Cookies” are small text files a website can use to recognize repeat visitors, facilitate the visitor’s ongoing access to and use of the site, and allow a site to track usage behavior and compile aggregate data that will allow content improvements. Cookies are not programs that come onto a visitor’s system and damage files. Generally, cookies work by assigning a unique number to the visitor that has no meaning outside the assigning site. If a visitor does not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows the visitor to deny or accept the cookie feature. SHC uses “cookie” technology only to obtain non-personal information from its online visitors in order to improve visitors’ online experience and facilitate their visit within our site.

User agreement

Terms of use

This World Wide Web site is offered by Shriners International (“Shriners”) at no charge to users of the World Wide Web, with the express condition that these users agree to be bound by the terms and conditions set forth in the User Agreement. Shriners reserves the right to change these terms and conditions at any time, without notice to you, and you must consult the most recent version of this User Agreement each time you view the Web site. Use of this Web site constitutes your acceptance or all of the following terms and conditions, in their current form or as modified.

Disclaimer of warranty

Shriners makes no warranties of any kind regarding this Web site, including but not limited to any warranty of accuracy, completeness, currency, reliability, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, or any warranty that these pages, or the server that makes them available, are free of viruses or other harmful elements, and such warranties are expressly disclaimed.

Limitation of liability

You agree that you will hold harmless Shriners and its officers, directors, employees, and volunteers from all claims arising out of or related to your access or use of, or your inability to access or use, this Web site or the information contained in this Web site or other web sites to which it is linked. This includes, but is not limited to, information or materials viewed or downloaded from this Web site or another web site to which it is linked that appear to you or are construed by you to be obscene, offensive, defamatory, or that infringe upon your intellectual property rights. In no event will Shriners or the contributors of information to this Web site be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made or action taken by you in reliance on such information or for any consequential, special or similar damages, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Usage of content

Unless otherwise indicated, all information contained on this Web site, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips is copyrighted by and proprietary to Shriners, and may not be copied, reproduced, transmitted, displayed, performed, distributed, sublicensed, altered, stored for subsequent use or otherwise used in whole or in part in any manner without Shriners’ prior written consent, except that the user may make such temporary copies in a single computer’s RAM and hard drive cache as are necessary to browse the web site. The user may also make a single copy of the Content displayed on any page of the web site to be used by the user for personal and noncommercial uses which do not harm the reputation of Shriners, provided that the user does not remove any trademarks, copyright and any other notice contained in such content.

Jurisdiction

This Web site (excluding linked sites) is controlled by Shriners, which is headquartered in the State of Florida, United States of America. It can be accessed from all 50 states, as well as from other countries around the world. As each of these places has laws that may differ from those of Florida, by accessing this Web site both you and Shriners agree that the statutes and laws of the State of Florida, without regard to conflicts of laws principles thereof, will apply to all matters arising from or relating to use of this Web site. You and Shriners also agree and hereby submit to the exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue of the Supreme Court of Hillsborough County, Florida and the United States District Court of the Central District of Florida with respect to such matters. Shriners make no representation that materials on the Web site are appropriate or available for use in other locations, and accessing them from territories where their contents are illegal is prohibited. Those who choose to access this Web site from other locations do so, on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws.