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Privacy Statement for Mental Health Professionals
Overview
4therapy.com NETWORK respects your professional and personal privacy and provides this informational statement so that you may better understand how we may collect, aggregate and use personal information about you. Future changes to our privacy statement will be announced on the website at least one week prior to the effective date of the change. This Privacy Statement describes 4therapy.com NETWORK's privacy and security practices for this Web site.
4therapy.com is committed to safeguarding you, the registered Mental Health Professional (also referred to as the registered "MHP"), and your privacy on our Web site. We operate under the following set of strict privacy principles:
- The only information 4therapy.com obtains about any registered MHP is that supplied voluntarily.
- In cases when 4therapy.com may need additional information to provide the registered MHP with customized content or to inform them about new features or services, the registered MHP will be explicitly asked for that information.
- Personally identifiable information provided by the registered MHP (name, e-mail or home address, etc.) will not be disclosed to anyone unless the registered MHP indicates that 4therapy.com may do so.
- Only statistical information about our the registered MHPs as a group (usage habits, demographics) may be shared with any partner of 4therapy.com. Personally identifiable information will not be shared at any time without the registered MHP's permission. 4therapy.com employs strict security measures to safeguard online transactions; personal information is stored in a secured database and always sent via an encrypted Internet channel.
The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for this Web site: 4therapy.com.
A mental health professional’s personal information (for example, home address, credit card number, etc.) will never be sold to or shared with any third party, unless that professional expressly gives us the permission. In fact, 4therapy.com NETWORK currently does not ask for that permission in any way. It is available only to the staff of 4therapy.com NETWORK , and will be used only for administrative purposes.
A professional’s practice information (specifically, the practitioner/practice name, gender, work address, work phone number, professional degrees, and bio - nothing more) will be the only information available to the general public through our directory of counselors. 4therapy.com NETWORK, Inc. considers placement in the directory to be one of the primary benefits of being a member of the 4therapy.com “NETWORK”, as well as an integral part of the way this website functions. Mental health professionals that object to the posting of their practice information online should not become members of 4therapy.com NETWORK.
There are three important exceptions to our assurances of confidentiality:
- 4therapy.com NETWORK reserves the right to submit a mental health professional’s personal and practice information to a professional background-checking organization. We do so to protect our consumer users, which is understandably this Company’s chief concern. The organization to whom we submit this information has, like 4therapy.com NETWORK , the policy not sell or share it with any other party in any way. If you would like to know the name or other information about any background-checking organizations we use, refer to the contact information at the end of this document.
- United States law requires that any suspicion of risk of child abuse be reported to child welfare authorities or law enforcement authorities. If we, or the counselors, believe that a child is at risk of being abused, has already been abused, or that someone who previously abused children is still a threat, we have no choice but to immediately make every effort possible to report it to social services agencies and/or the police.
- Most United States courts have the power to subpoena our records and a counselor’s records if you are involved in a court case in which your relationship with 4Therapy.com NETWORK or the counselor is somehow relevant. Although this may be rare, if you have any questions, it is better to contact your lawyer prior to disclosing any information you may deem private.
Employees of 4therapy.com NETWORK that have access to the registered MHP’s records must read and abide by this Privacy Statement, and are subject to immediate termination in the event that they violate it in any manner.
For the MHP to register for 4therapy.com NETWORK’s “Practice Manager” suite of office services, they must provide certain information to. This includes:
- Username
- Password/Verification of Password
- Full Name
- Gender
- Date of birth
- Fax number
- E-mail address
- Home address
- Phone number
- Work address (if different than one above)
- Work phone number (if different than the one above)
- State license number
- License renewal date
- Malpractice insurance carrier
- Insurance policy number
- Policy expiration date
- Professional degree(s), year(s) received, and granting institution(s).
[4therapy.com NETWORK relies on registered professionals to provide accurate information and assumes no responsibility for verifying the information provided. We do however, reserve the right for any reason to verify the information provided by professionals registered with 4therapy.com NETWORK.]
After the professional has been approved for use of the Practice Manager™ suite of services, they are guided through a second stage of "registration" - the customization of their Office, and the process of setting up their account with 4therapy.com NETWORK. This involves providing 4therapy.com NETWORK with credit card information (which we will use to bill the professional after the end of their free trial), creating a "bio" which consumers can access, customizing the Office’s billing features, and other steps of that nature.
A professional automatically receives welcome/instructional e-mails when they register, and when they are granted Practice Manager™ services.
Internet Protocol Addresses
An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a number assigned to your computer for the purpose of identifying it on the Internet. All computer identification on the Internet is conducted with IP addresses, which allow computers and servers to recognize and communicate with each other. 4therapy.com collects IP addresses in order to conduct system administration, report aggregate information to sponsors and advertisers, to conduct site analysis and to accumulate data that can be used to develop meaningful statistical information. If visitor requests pages from 4therapy.com, the servers enter the registered MHP's IP address into a log. To maintain the registered MHP anonymity, 4therapy.com does not associate IP addresses with records containing personal information. However, 4therapy.com will use IP addresses to identify any registered MHP who refuse to comply with 4therapy.com's in-house rules or terms and conditions, and to identify visitors who threaten our service, site, customers or others.
Cookies
4therapy.com NETWORK uses cookies to store your User ID on your PC. A cookie is a small data file that Web sites transfer to your computer’s hard drive when you visit the site. A cookie file can contain information such as a user ID; however, the only information a cookie can contain is the information that you supply to it. A cookie cannot read data off your hard disk or identify other cookie files created by other sites. 4therapy.com NETWORK uses these "cookies" to enable you (as a registered user) to enter certain areas of our website that are otherwise restricted, and to save you the trouble of logging back onto the website every time you return. If you do not want to remain logged into the site, you can log out through a link on the homepage of your Practice Manager. If your browser is set to reject all cookies, you will not be able to become a member (register) of 4therapy.com NETWORK.
External Links
In order to provide the registered MHP with greater value, 4therapy.com may provide links to various third party Web sites. However, even if a third-party affiliation exists between 4therapy.com and that destination site, 4therapy.com exercises no authority over linked sites, each of which maintains independent privacy and data collection policies and procedures. 4therapy.com assumes no responsibility or liability for these independent methods or actions and is not responsible for the independent policies or procedures of destination sites. Similarly, 4therapy.com cannot take responsibility for the privacy initiatives or the content of such Web sites. These destination links are provided only for your convenience, and as such, you access them at your own risk. However, 4therapy.com wishes to ensure the integrity of the 4therapy.com Web site and its destination links, so any comments pertaining to the 4therapy.com Web site or any sites accessed through 4therapy.com links are greatly appreciated.
Surveys and Questionnaires
Our online surveys and questionnaires may ask the registered MHP for contact and demographic information. The customer's contact information is used to contact the registered MHP if necessary. Users may opt-out of receiving future mailings; see the choice/opt-in section below. Demographic and profile data is also collected at our site. This information is shared with advertisers on an aggregate basis, but it does not indicate the identity of individual users.
E-Commerce and E-Healthcare transactions
Some 4therapy.com site features may use applications to collect data to facilitate an e-commerce or e-healthcare transaction. We will ask your explicit permission to transfer this data to the third party to facilitate this transaction.
4therapy.com may store this information to verify the transaction for customer service and accounting reasons and may use this information to help personalize your experience on the 4therapy.com site. 4therapy.com may also share this information with other third parties on an aggregate basis, but it does not indicate the identity of individual users. (See the External Links section above for additional disclaimers regarding third-party Web sites).
Third Party Ad Services
4therapy.com may utilize certain third-party advertising services to display advertising for our advertisers. These third-party services may place a cookie on your computer for the purposes of ad tracking and presentation. 4therapy.com does not share personally identifiable professional’s information with its advertising services.
Public Forums
4therapy.com provides its users with chat rooms, forums, message boards and/or news groups. Please remember that any information disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information.
Security Procedures
4therapy.com NETWORK uses strict security measures to safeguard your privacy. Sensitive information is stored in a secure database and is always sent via an encrypted Internet channel, utilizing Secure Socket Layer ("SSL") encryption technology. This includes a mental health professional’s personal information, case records, etc. E-mail between mental health professionals and users takes place behind several layers of security, including this encryption technology. In addition, 4therapy.com NETWORK takes advantage of Netmeeting ™, a product created by Microsoft, to enable teleconferencing between consumers and mental health professionals. Audio and video communications transmitted through this program are at least as secure (and arguably more so) than communications transmitted through a regular telephone. Finally, security measures are also in place to protect against the loss or inappropriate alteration of the information under our control.
Updating/Reviewing Your Personal Information
You can update your information yourself through the "Customize" link found at the top right corner of the website. If you ever forget your password, you can call us and we will (after confirming your identity) give you a new one.
Chat Rooms and Message Boards
Any information that is posted within chat rooms, message boards, or any other public areas may be seen by third parties and is not controlled by 4therapy.com NETWORK . Any links to a third party from our site is not subject to our policy. Please refer to the Privacy policies on each of these sites before entering any information about yourself.
Contacting 4therapy.com NETWORK
If you have any questions about 4therapy.com NETWORK ’s Privacy Statement, the practices of this website, or your dealings with this website, you can contact:
Re: Information
4Therapy.com NETWORK, Inc.
13223 Ventura Blvd
Suite E
Studio City, CA 91604
Or, send an e-mail to:
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