Privacy Statement | Sanford Health

Your Right to Privacy Online

Sanford Health acknowledges and respects any individual’s right to privacy. We take your concerns related to privacy and security seriously. We therefore want you to know how we may collect, use, share, and protect your information through our website and mobile apps. In addition to this Privacy Statement, visitors to the Sanford Health website should consult the Sanford Health website Terms & Conditions as well as any product or service specific terms and conditions that may apply. The Sanford Health Notice of Privacy Practices is a separate document which references how patient medical information (protected health information) may be used or disclosed.

This Privacy Statement applies to sanfordhealth.org and other websites under Sanford Health control which we will refer to as our “website” and also any Sanford mobile apps available for both iPhone and Android.

Information We Collect and How It Is Used
Visitors can browse all Sanford Health websites without providing any personal information. Certain pages contain forms that give visitors the option of providing us with contact information including name, physical address, phone, and email address if you choose to contact us. Providing this information is voluntary. The information you submit is shared internally with Sanford Health employees who need this information to help respond to your request or improve Sanford Health operations. Information submitted may also be used to evaluate the technical functionality of our website. Information provided may also be utilized to address inappropriate use or communications associated with our website.

Newsletters, Email Communications, and Other Related Services
Sanford Health offers you the opportunity to receive e-newsletters and e-publications related to Sanford Health services, news and announcements. You can sign up for free and can unsubscribe at any time through the contact information contained in those communications.

Other communications that you send to us via email may be shared with a customer service representative, employee, medical expert or other Sanford Health employee that is best able to respond to your inquiry. Email communications are not completely secure or confidential. It is possible that an email may be accessed or read by other internet users. Please do not use email for communications you wish to keep protected and secure.

IP Addresses
Our internet server automatically tracks the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computers that access our site. An IP address is a number that is assigned to your computer when you access the internet. IP addresses are not personally identifiable information because different individuals may use the same computer to access the internet. Sanford Health may use this information to evaluate how visitors navigate our websites and help improve the content.

Tracking Technologies
Sanford Health, or any third-party advertising partners we choose to work with, may employ various tracking technologies such as cookies, web beacons and analytics software. These tools help us manage the content on our websites by informing us what content is useful to visitors.

Cookies

• When you visit our website we send one or more “cookies” to your computer or other internet browsing device. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers stored on your computer through your web browser and are used by most websites to help personalize your browsing experience. Cookies may facilitate additional website features for enhanced performance of your web experience such as remembering preferences, allowing social interactions, analyzing usage for website optimization, providing custom content, allowing third parties to provide social sharing tools, and delivering images or videos from third party websites. Some features of our website will not function if you do not allow cookies. We may link the information we store in cookies with any other information you submit while on our website.
• We may use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. A session ID cookie expires when you close your internet browser. A persistent cookie is stored on your computer. Cookies enable us to track and target the interest of our visitors to enhance your experience on our website. You can learn how to remove persistent cookies by following the directions provided in the “Help” portion of your internet browser.

Web Beacons

• We may use Web Beacons alone or with cookies to collect information about our website content. Web Beacons are tiny graphic objects that are embedded in a web page or email and are usually invisible to the user but allows verification that a user has viewed the web page or email. Web Beacons may be used to track web page visits or form submissions. In some cases the Web Beacon may be tied to the information submitted by visitors to our website. This technology allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of our website and any Sanford Health advertising or marketing campaigns.

Third Party Tracking Technologies

• The use of cookies or web beacons by any third-party service provider is not covered by our Privacy Statement. We do not have access to or control over these technologies utilized by third parties.

Location Tracking

• An IP address (also called Internet address) must be assigned to devices that access the internet. IP addresses are used to make the connection between your device and the websites and services you use. You can’t prevent a website or app from getting the IP address of your device. Your IP address includes some general information about your device location and we use that information to display your approximate location in the website and mobile app user experience. We identify your device’s approximate location from your IP address, which is provided to us when you visit our website or use the Sanford mobile app. We do this to provide you a customized experience on our website and mobile app, including the display of location-based information that is relevant to you and your care.
• With your permission, we may collect your precise device location using technologies like GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, to help you find a facility, doctor, or directions within a facility, or to provide you with timely notices when you visit a facility.
• Please note for mobile apps, you may opt in or out of location-based services by changing the location permission settings on your device.

Analytics Software
We and any third-party tracking utility parties we partner with may use log files on our website to gather certain information automatically and store for analytical purposes. This information includes internet (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data. We use this information to track and compile non-personal information to analyze trends, monitor visitor traffic within our website content, and gather aggregate demographic information about our visitors. We may combine this log file information with other information we collect from or about you to help improve the services we offer, our marketing, analytics or website functionality.

Social Media Features and Widgets
Our website contains various features that allow visitors to interact with our website content via their chosen social media platform, such as the Facebook “Like” or “Share” buttons. Use of these interactive widgets on our website is voluntary. These services are provided to enhance your browsing experience and ability to communicate information from our website to the audience of your choice. These social media features are hosted by a third party and governed by the Privacy Statement of the company providing those services.

We may provide you with the opportunity to share information from our website with a friend or make a referral by providing an email address or other contact information for that person. We will use that contact information to provide information about Sanford Health services.

Links to Other Websites
Our website content may contain links to other websites not owned by Sanford Health. These third-party websites have different privacy notices and practices. If you submit any information to those websites, your information is governed by the Privacy Statement published on that website. We encourage you to carefully read the Privacy Statement for any website you visit.   

Public Forums
Our website may offer publicly accessible blogs, community forums or message boards. Be aware that any personal information you disclose in those public forums may be collected and used by others outside the control of Sanford Health. Please contact the posted administrator of a particular forum to request removal of your personal information. In some cases we may not be able to remove your information.

Legal Disclosure
We reserve the right to disclose personal information as required by law, such as to respond to a subpoena or other mandatory legal process. We may disclose personal information when we believe in good faith that the disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, to protect the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to government requests.

Data Retention
We will retain your information for as long as needed to provide you services, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Sharing Information with Third Parties
We do not share personal information with third parties unrelated to Sanford Health, except when required to for legal purposes or investigations. We may share your personal information with third parties who we have contracted with to help us provide services. We will ensure that these third parties have agreed not to use or disclose your personal information except to help us provide the services.

Security of Your Information
Sanford Health provides reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect our website content and any personal information you may provide against foreseeable hazards. When you enter sensitive information (such as a credit card number) on our forms, we encrypt the transmission of that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). When you come across a web page that is secured, your browser will likely display a “closed lock” or other symbol to inform you that SSL has been enabled. The web address should start with “https://” rather than “http://”. SSL allows a secure connection between your web browser and a web server. No computer system or information however can ever by fully protected from every possible threat or hazard and therefore we cannot warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.

Protecting Children’s Privacy
Sanford Health is committed to protecting children’s privacy on the internet. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

My Sanford Chart and Protected Health Information
Sanford Health offers patients a secure online health connection knows as My Sanford Chart. Any personal information contained or entered within My Sanford Chart is considered Protected Health Information. How we collect, use, and disclose Protected Health Information is referenced in Sanford Health’s Notice of Privacy Practices.

My Sanford Chart Mobile Apps

Sanford Health offers mobile apps to access your health information within your My Sanford Chart account. These are the limited ways our mobile apps interact with our information.

• When you choose to add a profile photo to our mobile apps, you may select an existing photo on your device or take a new photo using the camera app on your device. If you select an existing photo on your device, we store a copy of your chosen photo in app-private storage on your device. If you use the camera app on your device to take a new photo, the photo you take is first saved to your camera app and then also saved to app-private storage on your device. If you remove the photo from your profile or delete our mobile apps, the copy of the photo is deleted from the app-private storage, but the photo saved to your camera app remains available in your camera app until you choose to delete it. The app does not interact with any photos stored in your medical record at Sanford Health.
• When you choose to use Apple’s HealthKit or Google Fit, we create encrypted identifiers to identify recipients of your Apple’s HealthKit or Google Fit data and store them on your device in app-private storage. If you choose to stop using Apple HealthKit or Google Fit or delete our mobile apps, the identifiers are deleted.
• When you choose to view documents from Sanford Health (such as letters or images) using our mobile apps, to make the files viewable for you we temporarily store copies on your device in app-private storage. The temporary copies are deleted when you close your session on our mobile apps.
• If you choose to enable automatic appointment arrival, we temporarily store identifiers and times for your upcoming appointments in app-private storage to detect when you arrive for an upcoming appointment. If you choose to stop using our mobile apps or disable automatic appointment arrival, those identifiers are deleted.
• If you wish to use location-based check in for in-person appointments, or to find healthcare providers or locations near you, you may choose to allow our mobile apps to interact with your location data for those purposes. We do not store your location data.
• If you wish to allow our apps to notify front desk staff electronically when you arrive for an appointment, you may choose to allow our mobile apps to interact with your Bluetooth data for this purpose. We do not store your Bluetooth data.
• While you use our apps, we collect non-identifying information so we can provide customer service to you and understand how people use our mobile apps so we can improve our products. This information includes the time you began using the app, any error messages or codes, the model of device used and its operating system, and the version of our mobile app used. If you use Android devices, we also collect your connection type (cellular or WiFi) during an error.

FOR ANDROID USERS – REQUIRED GOOGLE PLAY DISCLOSURES FOR CERTTAIN HEALTH APPS

Google has determined our mobile apps are subject to their COVID-19 apps requirements. As a result, we are required to provide the following information so we can make our mobile apps available to you in the Play store.

• Our mobile apps interact with your microphone only if you choose to use your microphone to navigate our mobile apps. Our mobile apps interact with your camera roll only if you choose to add a profile photo to a profile in our mobile apps. This information is not used in connection with COVID-19.
• Our mobile apps were not created specifically for the COVID-19 pandemic. They existed before the COVID-19 pandemic to allow you to access your health information. You can access COVID-19-related vaccination information, laboratory test results, and documents with illness-related information using our mobile apps. You may choose if or how you want to access, display, or use the information – just like you can make those decisions about health information relating to other conditions, services, tests, or vaccinations.
• Our mobile apps access, collect, use, and share your information as stated above in the section titled, “My Sanford Chart Mobile Apps.”
• You may use our mobile apps to communicate health information to us and to conduct telehealth appointments with our healthcare providers. Any health information you provide through our app or exchanged during telehealth appointments is collected in accordance with Sanford Health’s Notice of Privacy Practices.

Changes to the Privacy Statement
We may change or update our Privacy Statement over time. Notification of material changes will be on our website. This Privacy Statement was last updated on June 16, 2022.

Contact information
If you have questions regarding this Privacy Statement you can contact us via email or via mail at:
Sanford Health Chief Privacy Officer
PO Box 5039
Sioux Falls, SD 57117-5039