Online Privacy Statement for www.nwtma.ca

The NWTMA recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of personal information. You have a right to know the types of information collected at the www.nwtma.ca web site and how and why we collect and use it. You also have a right to choose whether or not you wish to provide us with this personal information or have it collected.

Please read this Privacy Statement carefully so that you will understand how your personal information will be treated as you make use of our site. By using the www.nwtma.ca site, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Statement.

The range of services we offer continues to expand. In the future, we may make changes to our privacy policy. We will notify you of any significant changes and obtain your consent to any significant new uses of your personal information if it was collected from you prior to a significant change in this policy. We recommend that you check this posted Privacy Statement regularly to ensure that you have viewed the most recent version. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Statement or any revised statement, please exit the site immediately.

How we collect information at the www.nwtma.ca site

GlobalMedic Inc., a subsidiary of the Canadian Medical Association, is a specialized internet service provider entrusted with the management of the www.nwtma.ca web site. It uses state of the art technology to safeguard your data.

There are two places at www.nwtma.ca where information can be collected

• During registration, you provide us with personal information; and
• When you access the site, your computer leaves a data trail.

What information is collected at the www.nwtma.ca site and why

A) Personal information
Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Certain portions of www.nwtma.ca are reserved for physicians, medical students and residents. And within the physician portal are pages earmarked for NWTMA members. We require personal information like your NWTMA ID number and date of birth to confirm your identity as a NWTMA member and physician and information such as practitioner and sex to create aggregate demographic profiles of web usage. If you do not provide us with this personal information, you will not be able to visit the physicians' only and members' only portions of the web site.

B) Email Address
We also require your email address so that we can confirm that you have successfully registered. You will not receive further email communication from us unless you check the appropriate box during initial registration. We ask you if you would like to receive updates about the features and contents of the web site that we believe might be of interest to you. You can change your mind at any time about receiving email communication by using the unsubscribe instructions provided with each e-mail. As well, your email preference and address is saved in a part of the www.nwtma.ca web site called "My Profile". You can change your email preferences by accessing your profile at any time.

C) Clinical and Lifestyle Interests
At sign up, you might also choose to provide us with information about your clinical and lifestyle interests. This is done so that we might improve your experience of the www.nwtma.ca web site by personalizing your subsequent visits. We use the information you provide to bring to your attention areas of the web site and services of potential interest to you. For instance, if you indicated a clinical interest in a specific area, we might alert you if a new clinical practice guideline is issued on this topic. You can choose not to answer these questions about your practise areas and interests at initial registration. You can also choose not to receive these email alerts.

Cookies
Apart from the personal information collected when physician visitors sign up, we also collect anonymous non-personal information through the use of "cookie technology". Cookies are small text files a Web site creates when you visit a site. There are two common types of cookies, "session cookies" and "persistent cookies". Session cookies store information only for the length of time that you are connected to a web site. Unlike "persistent cookies", they are not written onto your hard drive.

The use of cookies is an industry standard and many major web sites use them to provide useful features to their visitors. Cookies in and of themselves do not personally identify users, although they do identify a user's computer.

A) Cookies and Web Usage Reports
We use session cookies to learn how all our visitors navigate throughout the various parts of the web site. This web site tracking data is used in the aggregate to help us provide the most efficient service and navigational tools for our visitors.

For registered physician visitors, we also link the web site tracking data generated from the session cookies to some of the personal information you provided. Through this linkage, we can create aggregate demographic profiles of web usage. These statistical and aggregate reports do not contain any personally identifiable information.

We use aggregate reports to learn how many visitors with certain characteristics (e.g. specialty, geographic region) visit a particular portion of the web site. This aggregate information will help us to determine areas of the web site of particular interest to certain segments of the physician community. The aggregate reports could also serve as the catalyst for the creation of new features at the www.nwtma.ca site and the development of future benefits and services for physicians. With your permission, you will receive email notices about these new features and services. As stated above, you can indicate at the initial registration stage or at any time whether you wish to receive e-mail updates about the web site features.

B) Cookies and Log-in Preferences
Cookies can also make your use of the web easier by saving language and log-in preferences. We use persistent cookies to store your language preference and log-in information so that you will be "remembered" by our server. You will not have to go through the "splash page" and enter your log-in id each time you visit the site. You can indicate at initial registration whether you wish to have your computer "remembered" by checking the "Remember Me" box at sign-up. You will have to re-input your log-in information each time if you do not choose this option. You can also visit "My Profile" at any time to update your log-in preference.

With most internet browsers, you can erase cookies from your hard drive, block all cookies or receive a warning before a cookie is used. Please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions.

Disclosing information
Only selected individuals within the NWTMA have access to the personal information that you provide at the www.nwtma.ca web site. This access is granted strictly for the purposes identified in this On-line Privacy Statement.

We will not sell or share personal information collected at the www.nwtma.ca web site with other organizations except to the extent that disclosure is required by a valid legal requirement such as a law, regulation or search warrant.

The statistical and aggregate reports generated about web usage at www.nwtma.ca may be shared with third parties such as content suppliers and advertisers who might assist us in managing, financing and improving the web site. For example, we might inform third parties regarding the number of users of our site and the activities they conduct while there. We require third parties to whom we disclose aggregate information to agree that they will not attempt to make this information personally identifiable by combining it with other databases or through any other means.

Accessing Your Personal Information
If at any time you wish to update the information you provided during registration or to verify its accuracy, you may visit the "My Profile" section of the web site.

Security
The www.nwtma.ca web site has physical and technical measures in place to ensure the security of information. Servers reside in pass code secured rooms that are accessible only to a limited group of authorized personnel. All access to these rooms is tracked through video surveillance. We also use advanced encryption and firewall technology. Although we will make every reasonable effort to protect your personal information from loss, misuse or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk involved in transmitting information over the Internet.

Questions about this Policy Statement
We will in all cases respect your privacy preferences.

This privacy statement applies only to the www.nwtma.ca website. The www.nwtma.ca site does contain links to other sites. Once you enter another website, be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage you to look for and review the privacy statements of each and every web site that you visit through a link on www.nwtma.ca site or any site that collects personal information from you.

If you have any questions about the www.nwtma.ca Online Privacy Statement, please feel free to e-mail .