NEJM Group Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 2015

Governing Principles

NEJM Group is a division of the Massachusetts Medical Society (“MMS”). We take privacy issues seriously and are committed to protecting your personal information. Please take a moment to review our privacy policy.

This policy explains how the information we collect when you use a NEJM Group website, mobile or tablet application, or other online service (each a “Service” and collectively “Services”) that links or refers to this policy will be used and shared. This privacy policy does not apply to or govern information furnished to MMS through any other means.


WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
Information You Provide to Us

We will request information from you if you establish a personal profile to gain access to certain content or services, if you ask to be notified by e-mail about online content, or if you participate in surveys we conduct. This requires the input of personal information and preferences that may include, but is not limited to, details such as your name, username and password, address (postal and e-mail), telephone number, professional background and educational information, demographic information and, where applicable, other information about your professional board membership and certification. If you request paid content or services, including subscriptions, we will also ask for payment information such as credit card type and number.

If you choose to register and sign in using a third party account, the authentication of your login is handled by the third party account and the Services will collect your name, email address and any other information about your third party account that you agree to share at the time you give permission for your account on the Services to be linked to your third party account.

Information Collected Automatically
In addition to the information that you provide to us directly, we may collect information about your use of the Services to help us measure and analyze traffic and usage. This helps us to enhance and improve the Services. For example, we may collect:

  • Device Information—such as your hardware model, IP address, other unique identifiers, operating system version and settings of the device you use to access a Service.
  • Usage Information—such as information about the Services you use, the date and time, the duration of your usage, the files downloaded or viewed, and other information about your interaction with content offered through a Service.
  • Location information—such as the physical location of your device in order to provide you with more relevant content for where you are in the world.

Cookies
We use cookies to collect information and help personalize your user experience. We store minimal personally identifying information in cookies and protect this information.  Cookies allow us to recognize you when you return to use a Service and help us to personalize your user experience and track usage. We do not store complete records or credit card numbers in cookies. You can find out more about how we use cookies at our Cookie Information page.

We also may use cookies and other tracking technology to facilitate the delivery of relevant ads to you through the Services.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies. Browsers can be configured to prevent this, but if you do not accept any cookies, you will not be able to make full use of the Services.

In some cases we also work with third party vendors (such as Google) to help deliver advertisements on our behalf across the Internet. These vendors may use cookies to collect information about your use of the Services (i.e., the pages you have visited) in order to help deliver particular ads that they believe you would find most relevant. You can opt out of those vendors' use of cookies to tailor advertising to you by visiting http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
We may also use clear gifs which are tiny graphics with unique identifiers that function similarly to cookies to help us to track activity. We do not use these to collect personally identifying information.


HOW IS THIS INFORMATION USED?
Information that you provide to us will be used to process, fulfill, and deliver your requests for content and services and, where applicable, report points and credits to credentialing organizations. We also may send you information about our various products and services, unless you have indicated you do not wish to receive further information.  You may unsubscribe from our e-mail services at any time.  For additional information on how to unsubscribe from our e-mail services, please refer to the How to Make Changes to Your Information section of this Privacy Policy.

Information collected automatically is used to monitor users’ interests and usage patterns in order to help us enhance and improve our service offerings.  

We may share your personal information with applicable third party service providers, including credit card processors, data analytics and customer support providers, and IT service providers. These providers are obligated to maintain your personal information as confidential and have access to your personal information only as necessary to perform their requested function on your behalf.

We may also report aggregate information about usage to third parties, including our service providers and advertisers. 

For NEJM Knowledge+ users, if your access is purchased for you through a residency program, we may share with your residency program administrators your personal information and certain usage and performance data, including your progress and time spent in various modules, your practice exam scores, and your metacognitive scores.

We may share your information within the NEJM Group Services.

Advertisers
We contract with third-party advertisers and their agents to post banner and other advertisement through the Services.  These advertisements may link to web sites not under our control. These third-party advertisers may use cookie technology or similar means to measure the effectiveness of their ads or may otherwise collect personally identifying information from you when you leave our site or digital applications. We are not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products or other materials offered from such advertisers and their agents. Transactions that occur between you and the third-party advertisers are strictly between you and the third party and are not our responsibility. You should review the privacy policy of any third-party advertiser and its agent, as their policies may differ from ours.

Advertisement Servers
We use third-party ad servers to serve advertising through our Services. The ad servers we use do not collect any personally identifiable information regarding users who view or interact with the advertisements they serve. Our ad servers only collect non-personally identifiable ad delivery and reporting data.

 

WHAT SECURITY MEASURES ARE USED?
We endeavor to keep your personal information confidential and protected against unauthorized access, misuse or alteration with commercially reasonable physical, technical, and administrative measures.

 

HOW TO MAKE CHANGES TO YOUR INFORMATION
Once you have created an account at one of our Sites, you can update your personal information at any time. You may also choose to stop receiving offer information from us about content or services by updating your account preferences or using the “unsubscribe” or other means provided within the communications you receive from us. You may also contact our Customer Service Department by telephone: 800-843-6356 or +1 781-434-7888 (outside the U.S. & Canada), by e-mail: nejmcust@mms.org, or by mail: Customer Service, NEJM Group, 860 Winter Street, Waltham, MA  02451-1413, USA.


OTHER INFORMATION
User-Generated Content Forums
Any data or personal information that you submit to us as user-generated content becomes public and may be used by MMS in connection with the Services and other NEJM Group and MMS publications and offerings in any and all media.

Do Not Track Signals
Like most web services, at this time we do not alter our behavior or change our services in response to do not track signals.

Compliance with Legal Process
We may disclose personally identifying information if we are required to do so by law or we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to (1) comply with the law or legal process; (2) protect our rights and property; (3) protect against misuse or the unauthorized use of a Service; or (4) protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public.

Cross-Border Transfer of your Information
The Services are headquartered in the United States. Your personal information may be transferred outside of your country of residence for processing. By using a service, you consent to the transfer of information outside of your country of residence, in which case personal data protection rules may differ from the rules in your country. 

Children
The Services are not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect or store any personal information from children under 13.

Changes to This Policy
This privacy policy may be periodically updated. We will post a notice that this policy has been amended by revising the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Use of a Service constitutes consent to any policy then in effect.

Contact Us
Please direct any questions regarding this privacy policy to nejmcust@mms.org.

The NEJM Group offices are located at 860 Winter Street, Waltham, MA 02451, USA; telephone: 800-843-6356 or +1 781-434-7888 (outside the U.S. & Canada).