Website Privacy Policy

Effective Date: November 14, 2023

This Privacy Policy describes how Cedars-Sinai collects personal information from you or about you through our website at www.cedars-sinai.org, www.cedars-sinai.edu, www.csconnect.cedars-sinai.org, and secondopinion.cedars-sinai.org (collectively, the “Site”), why we collect this information, how we may use or disclose this information, and the choices you have with regard to the information we maintain.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to protected health information that we collect from individuals pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Additional information regarding our privacy practices with respect to protected health information can be found in the HIPAA Privacy Policy section under the Patient Rights and Privacy page.

Personal Information You Provide. You may submit personal information, which is information that can be used to identify you individually, when you interact with the Site. For example, we may collect certain personal information from you when you donate to Cedars-Sinai (“Donation Page”), buy from our online gift shop (“Gift Shop Page”), sign up to volunteer (“Volunteer Page”), use our insurance estimate tool (“Estimate Page”), or apply for a position through our career portal (“Careers Page”). Generally, we may collect certain contact information, such as name, email address, postal address, or phone number from visitors to the Site.

When you interact with our Donation Page or Gift Shop Page, we may also collect payment card information and billing information.
.When you interact with our Volunteer Page, we may also collect Social Security number, date of birth, gender identity, racial or ethnic origin identity, sexual orientation, vaccination status, and employment and education information.

When you interact with our Estimate Page, we may collect your medical insurance information.

When you interact with our Careers Page, we may collect your educational background, work experience, and information about certifications and licensure. You may voluntarily choose to provide us with your racial or ethnic identity, gender identity, and veterans status when you apply for a position on the Careers Page.

In addition, we may engage vendors to provide certain interactive features on the Site. Your use of these interactive features is voluntary, and we may retain the information that you submit through these features. For example, we may offer an interactive chat feature on the Site to assist you with navigating the Site and for other purposes. When you participate in the interactive chat, the contents of the chat may be captured and kept as a transcript. By using these features, you understand that our vendors may process the information obtained through the feature to provide the service on our behalf.

Information Collected Automatically. We, and the vendors we work with, may use tracking technologies (such as cookies, log files, and pixels) that automatically or passively collect certain information from visitors on the Site. This information may include IP addresses, device identifiers, language preferences, referring URLs, and browser and platform details.

Cookies are small data files stored on a computer's hard drive that allow a website to recognize a visitor’s device, record visitor preferences, track the pages a user visits on a website, and identify the referral website. Our Site uses both session ID cookies and tracking cookies. Session ID cookies make it easier for you to navigate the Site and expire when you close your browser. Cookies help us understand how you use the Site and enhance your visitor experience. Most browsers automatically accept these cookies, but you usually can change your browser settings to remove or reject cookies. Please note that blocking cookies on our Site may prevent you from using some of the features of our Site. Also, disabling cookies may invalidate opt-outs that use cookies to recognize devices that have opted out.

Please note that we or other parties may collect personal information about your online activities over time and across different devices and online properties when you use the Site. Please note our Site is not designed to respond to “Do Not Track” signals received from browsers.

We may use certain third-party technology vendors (such as Facebook, Adobe, and Hotjar) in connection with your activity on certain pages, including for advertising purposes and to understand details about your use of the Site (including referring URL, clicks, cursor movement, and scrolling activity) and personalize content for you.

Microsoft may collect information subject to its Microsoft Privacy Statement: privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement.

For more information on how Adobe uses data it collects on certain pages like the Donation Page, visit: www.adobe.com/privacy/experience-cloud.html and experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/technotes/privacy-overview.html. To opt out of Adobe cookies, visit: www.adobe.com/privacy/opt-out.html.

We may use Google Analytics on certain pages, such as on our Gift Shop page, to understand details about your use of such pages. For more information on how Google Analytics uses data it collects, visit: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. To opt out of Google Analytics, visit tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. To adjust your Google advertising settings, visit: myadcenter.google.com.

Information Collected by Third Parties. Third-party service providers or partners may disclose to us your personal information that you submit to them. For example, if you make a purchase through our Gift Shop, this may be facilitated by a third party that may disclose your personal information to us. When submitting information to a third party, you are subject to that third party’s terms of use and privacy policies. Cedars-Sinai may combine information about you that we maintain with information we obtain from third parties.

We and our vendors may use the personal information collected through the Site for various purposes, including to communicate with you and to fulfill your requests. For instance, if you use our Site to locate a specialist in your area, we use the information you provide to put you in touch with a physician, or if you visit our Gift Shop Page, we use the information you submit to complete your transaction.

We may use the personal information you provide to us to send you information that we believe may be of interest to you, including newsletters, information about new medical breakthroughs and other items related to Cedars-Sinai and its medical community. You can manage these communications, as described below in "Your Choices."

We may also use the personal information we collect to facilitate and personalize your user experience, monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities of visitors, take certain action with regard to any suspected or actual fraudulent or illegal activity or activity that violates our polices, comply with applicable laws, rules, regulations, and legal processes, and for any other purpose, with your consent.

Cedars-Sinai may disclose personal information we have collected through the Site to our business partners and vendors. For example, we may use service providers to help us operationally or to administer activities on our behalf, such as sending emails. In addition, we may disclose personal information in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business assets (e.g., further to a merger, liquidation, reorganization, or any other business transaction, including negotiations of such transactions) or with your consent or at your direction.

Cedars-Sinai also may disclose your personal information (1) to comply with legal requirements (for example, to respond to court orders, subpoenas, government or law enforcement agency requests, or other legal processes); (2) to protect or defend Cedars-Sinai; (3) where we perceive a threat or risk to individuals or property as a result of activity on our Site; or (4) in connection with their inappropriate use of our Site, noncompliance with our Terms of Use, or a complaint filed about your use of our Site.

We take reasonable precautions to ensure your information remains confidential; however, you must keep in mind as you navigate through our Site that any transmission via the Internet is not completely secure. Accordingly, we cannot guarantee the security of your information collected through our Site.

Cedars-Sinai may use the information you provide to send you information and materials that we think may be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive any further promotional emails from us, you can unsubscribe by following the instructions included in any such email. Please note that even if you unsubscribe from receiving promotional emails from us, we may still send you transactional or informational emails.

The Site may provide you with the opportunity to use My CS-Link, our online health management tool and Cedars-Sinai Connect (sometimes referred to as CS Connect), our virtual care and health management tool. For more information about our practices under HIPAA, please see our HIPAA Privacy Policy section under the Patient Rights and Privacy page.

My CS-Link is powered by Epic. You can learn more about Epic’s privacy practices at: www.epic.com/about/privacypolicies#mobile-policy-patient.

CS Connect is powered by K Health. You can learn more about K Health’s privacy practices at: khealth.com/privacy-policy. If you use the tools and features available through CS Connect (e.g., symptom checker and similar tools and features), K Health may de-identify the information you provide through these features and use that de-identified information for its own internal purposes, including to train AI-based models.

Our Site may contain links to features or websites that are not operated by Cedars-Sinai, including social networks operated by unaffiliated parties. You may be asked by these websites to provide personal information or to release information you may have provided on our Site. Please be aware that this Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected through those websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these websites, nor any adverse consequences that may result from your interaction with such third-party websites. We encourage you to be cautious when leaving our Site and to review the privacy statements of other websites.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under the age of 13. If we become aware that we have obtained information from a user under the age of 13, we will delete such information in accordance with applicable law.

Please be aware that any personal information you submit will be transferred to and processed in the United States and the data protection laws and regulations that apply to your personal information may be different from the laws in your country of residence.

This Privacy Policy is subject to change at our discretion. We will notify you of changes to this Privacy Policy by posting an updated version on our Site and updating the “Effective Date” at the top of this page. Your continued use of the Site after any update to this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of the changes.

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at: webmaster@cshs.org.