Legal | Web User Privacy Rights

Website Activity

We collect some basic details about activity on our website, such as traffic patterns and server-usage statistics. We also use cookies, pixels, or similar tools (collectively, we call these “cookies”) to gather information about your engagement with our website (such as pages visited or actions taken).  Cookies are generally small bits of data that can be set on your computer by us, or a third party, which can be retrieved for a set period of time. They may provide essential services (e.g., keeping your settings) and other purposes (e.g., analytics). You can learn more about them, including options for limiting or disabling them, by visiting http://www.allaboutcookies.org. We may collect the cookie information ourselves or rely on our vendors to do so. You can find more details about our use of cookies later in this policy and also in our Terms of Use.

Online Forms

Forms on our website may request you to provide your confidential health information. These online forms are located on a secure site, but you can request a printable version if you prefer.

Newsletters, Publications, and Press Releases

We will collect your email address — as well as your name state, and county if you choose to submit them — when you subscribe to a newsletter, publication, or press release. We keep this information on a private list and do not use it for any other purpose.

Donations and Fundraising

When you donate online to us or register for a fundraising event, we ask you to provide your name, address, telephone number, email address, and credit card number. We need this information to process your donation or event registration, send you a receipt or confirmation, and communicate with you (if necessary). If you prefer, you can provide that information by phone or mail.

Emails

We do not collect your email address unless you voluntarily submit it to us or choose to communicate with us via email. Please do not email patient health information, as that information is confidential and should only be discussed with your physician.

We use the information you provide to personalize your experience, run surveys, improve our services or website functionality, provide a service you request, and share important information with you (such as details about programs and events), or similar activities.

We specifically want to draw your attention to how we use cookies. We use information gathered through cookies—such as details about which pages you visit, where you click, and what you search for—to enable website functionality and refine our understanding of how you engage with our website. This helps us improve your experience and show you personalized content.

Sometimes we share information with trusted third parties, including our analytic vendors, to help us carry out the above purposes. For example, we may have our vendor set a cookie and receive the resulting information because they can provide specialized insight and analysis to guide us in our work. But any vendor with whom we share information can only use the information in connection with our specified purpose and at our direction. Except in limited circumstances described below, we do not sell your personal information to marketers, and we never share identifiable information collected from surveys.

Our disclosure practices for information you provide when you donate online to us or register for a fundraising event, however, are slightly different than our practices for other information. Our philanthropy department, the Boston Children’s Hospital Trust (“the Trust”), may share relevant data with vendors to help with donation and event processing.  The Trust may also contact you directly about opportunities to support the hospital. The Trust may also share our donor lists with a few, selected organizations.  If you don’t want your name and address included in this list-sharing program, you can opt-out by emailing privacypolicy@chtrust.org or sending a letter to Privacy Policy, Children’s Hospital Trust, 401 Park Drive, Suite 602, Boston, MA 02215. You may also opt out using any of the options provided by the Trust, such as check-box opt-outs, included in any outreaches by the Trust. 

It is possible that we could be forced to disclose visitors’ information in response to a search warrant, subpoena, court order, or other legal process. Disclosures may also be appropriate to protect our legal rights and the security or integrity of our website, or to avoid liability. Those kinds of disclosures are highly unlikely, but possible.

This website has links to other websites for the purpose of providing visitors with convenient access to other websites that might interest them. A link to another website does not reflect our endorsement of that website’s content or services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of websites not owned by us. We encourage you to be aware of that when you leave our website and to read privacy policies for any websites that you visit.

We make every reasonable effort to ensure that all of the transactions that occur on our website are secure. We use industry-standard solutions designed to protect the information you submit on our site, whether we keep that information in a digital or physical format.

Boston Children’s may change this policy from time to time. When we update this policy, we may post notice of the changes on our website, and we will notify you about material changes as required by law. In any event, your continued use of our website after any changes become effective constitutes your consent to those changes.

If you would like to discuss the deletion of your personal information, please contact us at webmaster@chtrust.org or call 617-355-6890.

You can direct questions about this policy to:
Boston Children’s Hospital
300 Longwood Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
617-355-6000

Children’s Hospital Trust
401 Park Drive, Suite 602
Boston, MA 02215-5301
617-355-6890