Website Privacy Policy

Effective Date: November 19 2021

The Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, and its Corporate Affiliates as set forth at the end of this Privacy Policy (collectively, "Lurie Children's", "we", "us" or "our"), respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect when you use our website at www.luriechildrens.org, its subdomains, related websites controlled and/or maintained by Lurie Children’s, mobile applications (collectively, the “Site”). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect personal information provided to us via the Site.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to any other data gathered or used by Lurie Children’s including through websites not controlled or operated by us. This Privacy Policy does not cover any information collected by third-party sites or content or applications that may link to or be accessible from or on the Site. The collection and use of Protected Health Information is governed by our Notice of Privacy Practices. 

By using this Site, you consent to our collection, use, and processing of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is not a contract and does not create any contractual rights or obligations.

Changes to our Policy

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time without notice. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of this Privacy Policy and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our homepage or sending you a notification). Therefore, please check this Privacy Policy periodically for updates and to stay informed about our information practices.

Personal Information We Collect

Lurie Children’s may collect certain information from you through the Site, including personal information (i.e. individual information that may be used to personally identify or contact you). We may collect this information actively (i.e. by collecting information you voluntarily give us) and passively (i.e. by collecting information automatically gathered from your computer).

Information You Provide

We collect information that you provide directly to us. For example, we collect information when you create an account or profile, use interactive features within the Site, share your story, subscribe to an email list or newsletter, make a donation, make a purchase from our store, apply for a job or provide other information to us through the Site. 

Examples of information that we collect from you includes:

• Account Information – Account information includes information such as your name, email address, password, address, phone number, date of birth and other information you provide to establish an account or profile.
• Transaction Information – Transaction information may include credit card and billing information and could be collected if you pay a bill, buy a gift from our gift shop or make a donation. Transactions may be processed by a third party payment processor.
• Educational and professional Information – Educational and professional information may include your employment history, curriculum vitae and academic history and other information provided in applying for a job via our Site.

If a vendor processes a transaction, we encourage you to read the vendor’s privacy policy and terms of conditions before providing personal information. We may not receive complete payment information for a vendor-processed transaction, but our vendor will provide us with personal information upon completion of the transaction, which may include your name, billing address, email address, telephone number, the amount of transaction, part of a credit card number, and why you are supporting Lurie Children’s (if making a donation).

You may also provide information to be published or displayed on a public area of the Site or transmitted to other users of the Site or third parties. Such posts and user contributions are posted and transmitted to others at your own risk.

Information We Automatically Collect

When you use the Site, we may automatically collect certain information about you, including:

• Log Information – We automatically collect certain log file information, such as your internet protocol address, operating system me and version, browser name and version, referring URL, access times, pages viewed, links clicked and other information about your use of our Site. 
• Mobile Device Information – If you access the Site from a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet, we may collect information specific to your device such as the hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifier and mobile network information. With your consent, we may collect information about the location of your device, as well as information about certain native applications on your device, such as your device’s camera, photo album, phonebook or calendar applications in order to facilitate your use of certain features on the Site. If you do not wish to provide access to location information or native applications, please consult your device’s instructions for information on how to disable these features. Please note that disabling these setting may affect certain features of the Site.
• Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies – We and our service providers use tracking technologies, including cookies and web beacons, to collect information about your use of the Site. For more information about cookies and how to block them, see “How We Use Cookies” below. Web beacons are electronic images that may be used in our Site or emails and help deliver cookies, count visits and understand usage and campaign effectiveness. You may still use the Site if you reject, block or delete our cookies, but you may not be able to access some areas or all features.
• Third Party Analytics – We may use third party services, such as Google Analytics, to provide Site usage analytics.  Such third parties may use cookies, web beacons, and/or other technologies to collect information about your use of the Site, which may include: your device’s internet protocol address, browser name and version pages visited, time spent viewing any page, links clicked and other information about your use of the Site. Such analytics may help us track usage of the Site, identify popular features and improve the Site. If you wish to block, erase or be warned of cookies for analytics purposes, please refer to your browser’s instructions or help screen to learn about these functions. You may review Google Analytics’ security and privacy principles by clicking here and opt out of the use of cookies in web browsers by Google Analytics by clicking here.  

Information We Collect From Other Sources

We may obtain information from other sources and use it as contemplated herein, including to provide the Site to and otherwise communicate with you. We may also collect information about you when you post content to our pages or feeds on third party social media sites.

Use of Information

Lurie Children’s may use the information about you for various purposes, including to:

• Monitor Site use, as well as optimize performance and user experience;
• Communicate with you about updates, alerts, and provide you with technical notices;
• Communicate with you about our services and provide news and information that may be of interest to you;
• Respond to your comments, questions and requests;
• Process employment and other applications;
• Maintain administrative records;
• Detect, investigate and prevent fraud or other illegal activities;
• Protect our rights and property;
• Process financial transactions such as bill payment, gift shop purchases and donations;
• Improve and maintain the Site;
• Establish and maintain your accounts with us;
• Market and advertise products and services; and
• Carry out any other purpose for which the information was collected.

We also may use aggregated or de-identified information, which cannot reasonably be used to identify you. Once de-identified and aggregated so that data does not personally identify you (for example, we may aggregate data in order to improve our automation and improve care), it is no longer personal information. Such de-identified and/or aggregated information which does not identify individuals is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

Sharing of Information

Lurie Children’s may share information about you, including personal information, as follows or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy:

• With vendors, consultants and other service providers who need access to such information to carry out work or perform services on our behalf.
• In response to requests from law enforcement, or any judicial, administrative or other legal proceeding, such as in response to a subpoena, if we believe disclosure is required by law;
• In connection with or during negotiations of any merger, sale of assets, financing or acquisition of us by another party;
• Between and among our affiliates, subsidiaries and other companies under common control and ownership;
• With your consent or at your direction;
• To investigate suspected fraud or violations of law;
• To protect and defend our rights and property;
• To protect our safety or the safety of the public or those who use our Site; and
• As otherwise permitted or required by law;

We may provide third parties with aggregate statistics about our visitors, traffic patterns and related Site information. This data may reflect Site usage patterns gathered during visits to our Site each month.

Children’s Privacy

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. Our Site is not intended or designed to attract children under age 13. We do not knowingly collect or use personal information from children under age 13 nor do we knowingly disclose personal information from children under age 13 to any third-party in any form without parental or legal guardian consent.

How We Protect Your Personal Information

Lurie Children’s is committed to maintaining reasonable physical, technical and administrative measures to protect your personal information. Unfortunately, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of information that you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk.  

How We Use Cookies

Lurie Children’s and some of our vendors may use “cookies” to help us collect information about how you access, browse and use the Site. Cookies are pieces of information that many websites store on your computer's hard drive when you visit them. In most cases, a web browser will automatically accept cookies. Cookies have different durations and functions. There are two types of duration cookies: session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie only lasts for the specific duration. A persistent cookie remains in your device’s storage until it is deleted or expired. There are two types of functionality cookies: essential and non-essential. An essential cookie is a cookie that is either used solely to carry out or facilitate a transmission to a server hosting a website or that is necessary to provide an online service. A non-essential cookie may enhance the performance or functionality of a website, be required to access a portion of a website, or be used for analytics or marketing. Lurie Children’s and our vendors may use one or more of the above-described cookies to facilitate access to various features of the Site.

You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. The “Help” features on most browsers provides information on how to accept or disable cookies or receive notifications about them. Many cookies are strictly necessary and by blocking or deleting them, you will lose access to certain features of the Site.

Links to Third Party Sites

Our Site may contain links to other web sites. Other web sites may also reference or link to our Site. These other web sites are not controlled by Lurie Children’s. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our Site to read the privacy policies of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. We do not endorse, screen or approve, and are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such other web sites or mobile applications. Visiting these other web sites is at your own risk. Please note that if you use the "Share" function available from the Lurie Children’s Site, it will lead you to a separate web site or service governed by another party’s privacy policy and terms.

How We Respond To “Do Not Track” Signals

Some web browsers have “Do Not Track” or similar features that allow you to tell each website you visit that you do not want your activities on that website tracked. At present, the Site does not respond to “Do Not Track” signals and consequently, the Site will continue to collect information about you even if your browser’s “Do Not Track” feature is activated.

Account Information

You may update, correct or modify information about you by contacting us at webmaster@luriechildrens.org. Please note that we may retain some information about you as required by law or for legitimate business purposes.

Opt-Out of Communications

You may “opt-out” of receiving communications from us, except to the extent that such information is necessary to complete any services or transaction you have entered into, by emailing us at webmaster@luriechildrens.org. You may unsubscribe from receiving marketing or other commercial emails from us by following the instructions included in the email. However, even if you opt-out of receiving such marketing or commercial communications, we retain the right to send you non-marketing communications consistent with this Privacy Policy and applicable law.

Mobile Application Push Notifications

With your consent, we may send promotional and non-promotional push notifications or alerts to your mobile device. You can deactivate these messages at any time by changing the notification settings on your mobile device or within mobile applications.

Users in the European Economic Area (“EEA”)

If you are a European Economic Area (“EEA”) resident, the following additional information applies with respect to personal data collected through your use of this Site. As drafted, this Privacy Notice is limited to the Site (and not general business operations). Any defined terms have the meaning given to them by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

Legal Basis for Processing

 Lurie Children’s relies on the following lawful bases for processing your Personal Data:

• Consent – If we rely on your consent, we will provide transparent notice of the purposes for which we seek such consent at the time we collect your Personal Data. If we process any special categories of Personal Data as set out in Article 9(1) of the GDPR, we may request your explicit consent for such processing.
• Contractual Necessity – We may process your Personal Data if necessary to perform a contract to which you are a party or if you request the processing in order to enter into a contract.
• Legal – We may process your Personal Data as required by law.
• Public Interest – We may process your Personal Data for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in the public interest, as authorized by applicable law.
• Legitimate Interests – We may process your Personal Data for our own legitimate interests, which may include internal administrative purposes, ensuring network and information security, and reporting possible criminal acts and threats to public security to a corporate authority.
• Compatible Purposes – We may process your Personal Data for purposes that are compatible with those described herein.

Data Retention

We will retain your Personal Data for as long as necessary to accomplish the purpose for which it was collected unless a longer period is required by law or needed to resolve a dispute or protect our legal rights. The criteria used to determine the retention period of your Personal Data will vary depending on the legal basis for our processing. If we rely on your consent for processing, we will retain your Personal Data for the time necessary to fulfill the agreement with you, subject to your right to erasure under certain circumstances. If we process your Personal Data to perform a contract, we will retain your Personal Data for the duration of the contract and an additional period of time to comply with law or cover the period in which legal claims could arise out of the contract. If we process your Personal Data as required by law, we will retain your Personal Data for the duration of time we are required by law. If we process your Personal Data on the basis of public interest, we will retain your Personal Data for the period of time necessary to fulfill the purposes of the business process in the public interest and for any period of time that may be required to document the public interest or business process under applicable law. If we process your Personal Data based on our legitimate interests, we will retain your Personal Data for a reasonable period of time based on the interest, while taking into account your fundamental interests and rights and freedoms.

Data Subject Rights under GDPR

Under the GDPR, as an EEA resident you may have certain rights with respect to your Personal Data, which may include:

• The right to access - The right to certain information about your Personal Data.
• The right to rectification - The right to correct or complete your Personal Data.
• The right to erasure - The right to request the erasure of your Personal Data in certain circumstances.
• The right to restriction - The right to request a restriction on the processing of your Personal Data.
• The right to portability - The right to obtain your Personal Data in a format that can be easily transferred to another data controller.
• The right to withdraw - The right to withdraw your consent to processing where the legal basis of the processing was your consent.
• The right to complain to a supervisory authority where you believe your privacy rights have been violated.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at webmaster@luriechildrens.org. In order to verify your identity, we may require you to provide certain personal information prior to accessing your Personal Data.

Cross-Border Transfer of Personal Data

Lurie Children’s processes your Personal Data in the U.S. When your Personal Data is processed by third parties, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to adequately protect your Personal Data, as required by applicable law. If the third-party is not located in the EEA or a country with adequate data protection, we may enter into standard contractual clauses with the third-party or rely on your consent or other safeguards as permitted by GDPR.

Affiliates

Our affiliates include:

• Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute
• Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Foundation
• Pediatric Faculty Foundation, Inc.
• Almost Home Kids
• Lurie Children’s Medical Group, LLC
• Lurie Children’s Primary Care, LLC
• Lurie Children’s Health Partners Care Coordination, LLC
• Lurie Children’s Pediatric Anesthesia Associates
• Lurie Children’s Surgical Foundation, Inc.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy, please contact us at webmaster@luriechildrens.org.