Website Privacy PracticesThe University of Texas Medical Branch

This document describes how The University of Texas Medical Branch (“UTMB Health,” “UTMB,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, and shares information about you that we obtain through webpages hosted on utmbhealth.com, utmb.edu and other UTMB-affiliated web properties (collectively, the “Sites”). These Privacy Practices do not apply to any offline data collection activities, unless otherwise stated below or at the time of collection.

Information You Provide To Us

We collect information you provide directly to us through the Sites. For example, we collect information when you create an account, subscribe to receive notifications, make a donation or a purchase, apply for a job, or otherwise communicate with us through the Sites.

The information we collect from you may include personal information. “Personal Information” is information that, whether alone or in combination with other information, can be used to identify an individual (such as first and last name, e-mail address, home address, telephone number, payment card information, or date of birth). Information that has been de-identified such that it cannot be connected to an individual is not considered Personal Information for purposes of this Privacy Policy.

Information We Collect Automatically

When you access or use the Sites, certain information about your use of the Sites may be collected automatically. For example, we may collect your IP address, device identifier, browser type, domain name, operating system characteristics, data regarding the device you’re using, and information about your visit, such as access times, duration, and how you arrived at the Sites. This usage information may be combined with Personal Information, in which case we would treat the combined information as Personal Information.

In addition to logging information about your website visit, we may use various tracking mechanisms such as cookies, web beacons (also known as tracking pixels), and embedded scripts (collectively, “Tracking Technologies”) to automatically collect information about interactions with our Sites or e-mails.

• Cookies are small text files that a web page server places on your hard drive. The use of cookies is a common practice on many websites. We may place cookies on your computer to allow us to recognize you on the Sites during future visits, to measure web traffic, to offer you certain products or services, or to customize your visit. We may use both session ID cookies and tracking cookies. Session cookies make it easier for you to navigate the Sites, and they expire when you close your browser. Tracking cookies help us understand how you use the Sites and enhance your user experience, and they remain on your hard drive for an extended period of time.
  Your Internet browser may include settings that permit you to block cookies or to be notified when cookies are placed. Please be aware that if you use these mechanisms to block or remove cookies, certain features and functions of the Sites may be unavailable or may not operate optimally.
• Web Beacons (also called “tracking pixels”) are small graphic images, also known as “Internet tags” or “clear gifs” that are embedded in web pages and e-mail messages. Web beacons may be used for various purposes, such as to count the number of visitors to the Sites, to monitor how users navigate the Sites, or to verify how many articles or links were actually viewed.
• Embedded Scripts are designed to collect information about your interactions with the Sites. These scripts are temporarily downloaded onto your computer from our web server, or the server of a third party with whom we work. They are active only while you are connected to the Sites, and are deleted or deactivated thereafter.

Additional information about Tracking Technologies and your choices concerning their use are explained below in the Analytics Section and under Your Choices.

Information from Other Sources

We also may obtain information about you from other sources, such as other non-profit organizations, and combine that with information we collect about you. If we do collect and combine third-party sourced information with Personal Information we collect directly from you on the Sites, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information under this Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for the privacy statements or practices of third parties or on any other websites or online services that we do not control.

We use information about you to operate the Sites and to deliver the content and services you request. In addition, in certain instances we may use information about you for other lawful purposes, including to:

• Facilitate, manage, personalize and improve your online experience;
• Respond to your comments, questions and requests, provide customer service, send you informational notices, and contact you if we need to obtain or provide additional information;
• Manage your online account(s), including requests and payments;
• Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages;
• Communicate with you about products, services, newsletters and events and provide information we think will be of interest to you;
• Conduct research and analysis, including focus groups and surveys about current services or of potential new services;
• and Prevent and address fraud, breach of policies or terms, and threats or harm.

We may permit our agents, vendors, consultants, and other service providers to access information collected through the Sites to carry out work on our behalf. Any third-party service providers are prohibited from using Personal Information obtained in this manner for any purpose(s) other than to provide the services we have engaged them to perform. We do not sell data we collect.

We may share your information:

• To perform statistical analysis, send you e-mail or postal mail, or provide customer support;
• With our affiliates for internal business purposes;
• If we are required to do so by law, regulation, or legal process (such as in response to a court order or subpoena);
• To fulfill requests by government agencies, such as law enforcement authorities;
• When we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss, or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity; or
• To enforce our policies, or protect rights, property, or safety.

We also may share your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any proposed or actual merger, or any other type of acquisition or business combination of all or any portion of our assets, or any transfer of all or a portion of our business to another entity. We reserve the right to transfer any information we obtain through the Sites in the event we transfer all or a portion of our business or assets (including in the event of a merger, reorganization, or liquidation).

The Sites may include features, such as message boards and embedded third-party-owned social media platforms, that allow you to freely submit information that can be viewed by others. We or others may store, display, reproduce, publish, distribute, or otherwise use such information (including the date and time you post the information) in any media or format, and we may or may not attribute the content to you. Please keep in mind that if you post information on the Sites using these features, others also may view the information and/or have the ability to access and share that information with third parties.

Healthcare-related communications on message boards and social or review sites are not private and can be viewed by other members of the public who also use these features. UTMB Health is not responsible for the privacy, security, accuracy, use, or misuse of any information that you disclose, or that you receive from third parties, via message boards, blogs or social media pages referenced from our Sites.

The Sites may include hyperlinks to other websites, online locations, platforms, or services for your convenience and information. Such linked websites may be operated by third parties that are not owned or controlled by UTMB Health. They may use their own cookies, web beacons, and other Tracking Technologies to collect information about you, and they may solicit Personal Information directly from you. If you follow links from the Sites to other websites, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with their privacy policies and terms of use. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of websites that we do not control.

We may engage and work with third parties to serve advertisements on our behalf on the Sites or on other websites, and to provide analytics services about use of the Sites and performance of our ads and content on our and other websites. In addition, we may participate in online advertising networks and exchanges that display relevant advertisements to visitors, both on the Sites and on other websites, based on the visitors’ interests as reflected by their browsing habits. Third parties may use cookies and other tracking technologies to automatically collect information about you and your activities, such as registering a unique identifier for your device and tying that to your online activities on and off of our Sites. We may use this information to analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, deliver advertising and content targeted to your interests, and better understand your online activity.

Information about your use of the Sites and other websites may be collected using tracking technologies across time and services, and used for various purposes such as to associate different devices you use, and to deliver relevant and retargeted content, including interest-based ads.

Accessing and Changing Information

With few exceptions, you are entitled to request to be informed about the information UTMB Health collects about you. Under Sections 552.021 and 552.023 of the Texas Government Code, you are entitled to receive and review the information. Under Section 559.004 of the Texas Government Code, you are entitled to have UTMB Health correct information about you that is held by us and that is incorrect, in accordance with the procedures set forth in The University of Texas System Business Procedures Memorandum 32.

The information that UTMB Health collects will be retained and maintained as required by Texas records retention laws (Section 441.180 et seq. of the Texas Government Code) and rules. Different types of information are kept for different periods of time per UTMB’s record retention policy.

Communications

You can opt out of receiving promotional e-mails from us by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the email, or by changing your communication preferences when you log on to any accounts you maintain with us. Please note that your opt-out will not affect subsequent subscriptions or non-promotional communications from us, such as such as administrative and service announcements.

Tracking Technologies Generally

Regular cookies generally may be disabled or removed using tools available as part of most commercial browsers. In some instances, a browser may include settings that allow you to preemptively block cookies from being placed on your computer. Please be aware that if you disable or remove cookies and similar technologies, some parts of the Sites may not work properly. Also, if you revisit the Sites from a different computer or using a different browser, you may not be able to limit browser-based Tracking Technologies in the same way.

Analytics Services and Interest-Based Ads

The Sites use third-party web analytics services, such as Angelfish and other third-party tools, to help us analyze how visitors use the Sites. Learn more about Angelfish. Learn more about opting out of data collection through Google Analytics.

Certain advertising networks and exchanges participate in the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”). NAI has developed a tool that allows consumers to opt out of certain interest-based advertising delivered by NAI members’ ad networks. Learn more about opting out of such targeted advertising or to use the NAI tool. Please be aware that such opt-outs do not affect non-targeted ads. We are not responsible for the effectiveness of, or compliance with, any third-parties’ opt-out mechanisms or programs, or the accuracy of their statements regarding their programs.

The Sites are not targeted to children under the age of thirteen (13). However, we may have special sections intended, in whole or in part, for children. As a State of Texas government agency that conducts not-for-profit educational programs, we are not required to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) requirements.

We take reasonable measures to help protect personal information collected through the Sites from loss, theft, misuse, and other unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Nevertheless, transmission via the Internet is not completely secure and we cannot guarantee the security of your information collected through our Sites.

This Cookie Policy explains how we and our affiliated companies, business partners and service providers may use cookies and similar technologies in the course of managing and providing the Services. It explains what these technologies are and why we may use them, as well as your rights to control our use of them.

In some cases we may use cookies and other tracking technologies described in this Cookie Policy to collect Personal Information, or to collect information that becomes Personal Information if we combine it with other information. For more information about how we process your Personal Information, please review the privacy disclosures outlined in this document.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by online service providers in order to (for example) make their websites or services work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information. Cookies set by the website owner or service provider (in this case, The University of Texas Medical Branch and UTMB Health’s affiliates (collectively, “we” or “UTMB Health”) are called “first party cookies”.

Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called “third party cookies”. Third party cookies enable third party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website or service you are using (such as advertising, interactive content and analytics). The third parties that set these third party cookies can recognize your device both when it visits the Service in question and also when it visits certain other websites or services.

Why do we use cookies and other tracking technologies?

We use first party and third party cookies for several reasons. Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our Services to operate, and we refer to these as “essential” or “strictly necessary” cookies. Other cookies enable us and the third parties we work with to track and target the interests of visitors to our Services, and we refer to these as “performance” or “functionality” cookies. For example, we use tracking technologies information to analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, deliver advertising and content targeted to your interests, better understand your online activity, associate different devices you use and deliver relevant and retargeted content, including interest-based ads. We use both session ID cookies and tracking cookies: session cookies make it easier for you to navigate websites, and they expire when you close your browser, whereas tracking cookies help us understand how you use websites and enhance your user experience and they remain on your hard drive for an extended period of time. Finally, third parties serve cookies through our Services for advertising, analytics, and other purposes. This is described in more detail below.

Cookies served through our Services

The specific types of first and third party cookies served through our Services and the purposes they perform are described in further detail below:

Essential Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our Services and to use some of their features, such as access to secure areas. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the Services, you cannot refuse them without impacting how our Services function. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings, as described in the “How can I control cookies?” section below.

Performance and Functionality Cookies

These cookies are used to enhance the performance and functionality of our Services but are non-essential to their use. For example, these cookies allow us to recognize you on our website during future visits, to measure web traffic, to offer you certain products or services, or to customize your visit. However, without these cookies, certain functionality may become unavailable.

Analytics and Customization Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our Services are being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our Services for you in order to enhance your experience.

Advertising (Targeting) Cookies

These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They also perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests. For further information, see the “Targeted online advertising” section below.

Other tracking technologies

We and/or our third party partners may use other, similar technologies from time to time, like web beacons, tracking pixels (or “clear gifs” or “Internet tags”), embedded scripts, and other tracking technologies. These are tiny files that contain a unique identifier that enable us to recognize when someone has visited our Services, or in the case of web beacons, opened an e-mail that we have sent them. This allows us, for example, to count the number of visitors to our websites, to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one page within our Services to another, to verify how many articles or links were actually viewed, to deliver or communicate with cookies, to understand whether you have reached our services from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, to serve targeted advertisements to you and others like you, to improve site performance, and to measure the success of marketing campaigns. While you may not have the ability to specifically reject or disable these tracking technologies, in many instances, these technologies are reliant on cookies to function properly; accordingly, in those instances, declining cookies will impair functioning of these technologies.

Targeted online advertising

We work with a variety of advertisers, advertising networks, advertising servers, and analytics companies (“Ad Partners”) that use different technologies to collect data about your use of the Services (such as pages visited, ads viewed or clicked on) in order to deliver relevant advertising.

These technologies may include the placement on our Services of cookies or web beacons, and other data collection technologies by these Ad Partners to track how our Services are being used, to track where users go and what they do after they leave our Services, and to link various devices you may use, and to serve you more relevant ads. These advertisements may appear on our Services or other services that you visit.

In addition, our Ad Partners use the information collected by the technologies on our Services for purposes such as (a) in conjunction with advertising that appears on our website or other websites, (b) to report website traffic, statistics, advertisement data and other interaction with ads and the websites on which they are served, and (c) to measure the effectiveness of web-based and email ads. Please note that our Privacy Disclosures and Cookie Policy do not cover the practices of our Ad Partners.

For more information about how Ad Partners use the information collected by the technologies on our Services and about your options not to accept cookies placed by some of these companies on our Services, please visit the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA’s) opt-out page. You may also opt out of additional third party advertising networks by going to the Network Advertising Initiative’s website and following the directions.

The opt-outs described above are device- and browser-specific and may not work on all devices. If you choose to opt-out through any of these opt-out tools, this does not mean you will cease to see advertising. Rather, the ads you see will just not be based on your interests. In addition, when you opt out using one of these methods, our Ad Partners will continue to collect information for any other purpose permitted by the DAA’s rules. You can opt out of future information collection from our Services by ceasing use of the Service or in the case of an application, uninstalling the application.

How can you control cookies?

You have the right to decide whether to accept or reject cookies.

Browser Controls

You can set or amend your web browser controls to accept or refuse cookies. If you choose to reject cookies, you may still use our Services, although your access to some functionality and areas of the Services may be unavailable or may not operate optimally. The means by which you can refuse cookies through your web browser settings vary from browser-to-browser; visit your browser’s help menu for more information.

Disabling Most Targeted Online Advertising

As discussed above, advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted online advertising. Get more information about opting out of targeted online advertising by visiting https://www.aboutads.info/choices/.

Mobile Advertising

You can opt out of having your mobile advertising identifiers used for certain types of targeted online advertising, including those performed by us, by accessing the settings in your mobile device and following the most recent published instructions. If you opt out, we will remove all data about you and no further data collection or tracking will occur. The random ID we (or our third party partners) had previously assigned to you will also be removed. This means that if at a later stage, you decide to opt-in, we will not be able to continue and track you using the same ID as before, and you will appear to be a new user to our system.

UTMB Health is based in the U.S. and the information we collect is governed by U.S. law and the laws of the State of Texas. If you are accessing the Sites from outside the U.S., please be aware that information collected through the Sites may be transferred to, processed, and stored in the U.S. Data protection laws in the U.S. may be different from those of your country of residence. Your use of the Sites, and providing information through the Sites, constitutes your consent to the transfer, processing, usage, sharing, and storage of your information, including Personal Information, in the U.S. as set forth in these Privacy Practices.

We reserve the right to revise and reissue these Privacy Practices (and any of its components) at any time. Any changes will be effective immediately upon posting of the revised Privacy Practices, and the new effective date will be listed on this page. Subject to applicable law, your continued use of the Sites indicates your consent to the terms of the posted Privacy Practices. We encourage you to periodically review this statement.

If you have questions relating to privacy or our privacy practices, you may contact us via email at utmbcpo@UTMB.EDU.

Employees of UTMB should refer to https://www.utmb.edu/infosec/, which outlines the university’s internal policies and employees’ specific responsibilities related to the use and protection of information resources.

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Revised Mar. 6, 2024