Hattiesburg Clinic takes your privacy seriously, and for that reason, we want you to know how we collect, use and share your information through our website at hattiesburgclinic.com or our affiliated websites (“Site” or “Sites”).  This Privacy Notice describes the type of information we may collect from you and how we might use or disclose it.  By accessing or using our Sites or providing information about you to us in connections with our Sites, you agree to the terms and conditions of the most recent version of this Privacy Notice.

Any health information considered “protected health information” under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) and that is created or collected about you by Hattiesburg Clinic in the course of using our services is not subject to this Privacy Policy, but is instead covered by our Notice of Privacy Practices.

What information do we collect?

Information you provide to us:  We receive and store some information about you that you enter on our Sites or that you provide to us through the Sites in other ways. 

This includes information that you provide by filling in forms on our Sites, such as our “Contact Us” form. It also includes information you provide when you communicate with us such as records of your correspondence and information that may personally identify you, including your name, e-mail address, home, work or mobile telephone numbers, age, date of birth, physical characteristics, or other information you disclose. We use this information so we can help answer your questions, schedule an appointment, or respond as necessary based on your inquiry.

Information we collect automatically: In order to provide a better user experience and help customize your experience, information may be collected about you automatically as you search through or use our Sites. Information collected automatically may include:  

  • Usage Details. Details of your visits to our Sites, such as how many times you visit us, referring/exit pages, date and time of your visit to or use of our Sites, error information, click information, Site behaviors, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on or in the Sites.  This helps us understand what you as a user find most helpful and what areas we can improve.
  • Device Information. Information about your computer, mobile device, and Internet connection, specifically your IP address, operating system, or browser type.  This information helps us improve our website based on the devices being used to access our Sites.
  • Location Data. Information about your location, specifically city and state.  This helps us understand where our users are coming from so we can potentially make enhancements in those geographic areas.
  • Certain Demographic Data.  This de-identifiable (also known as anonymized) information is based on a subset of user which assists in estimating age and identified gender.
  • Additional Sources of Information.   We may also collect information that helps us to improve our Sites and deliver a better and more personalized service by enabling us to estimate our audience sizes, usage patterns and improve our product and service offerings.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

  • Cookies (also known as browser cookies). We and our service providers may use cookies to receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with our Sites through your computer or mobile device. A cookie is a small file or piece of data sent from a website and stored on the hard drive of your computer or mobile device. 
  • Pixels and Web Beacons. Pages on our Sites may contain small electronic files known as web beacons and pixels (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit us to count users who have visited specific pages, opened an e-mail, clicked on an advertisement and for other related analytics.   
  • Google Analytics 4. We use Google Analytics 4 (GA4), a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”) to collect certain information relating to your use of our Sites. Google Analytics uses cookies, which are text files placed on your computer, to help our Sites analyze how users use the Sites. You can find out more about how Google uses data when you visit our Sites by visiting “How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services” (located at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites). We may also use Google Analytics Advertising Features or other advertising networks to provide you with interest-based advertising based on your online activity. For more information regarding Google Analytics please visit Google’s website and pages that describe Google Analytics, such as https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/.

How does Hattiesburg Clinic use “Contact Us” forms?

Communications that you send to us via the email links or “Contact Us” forms on our Site may be shared with a customer service representative, employee, medical expert, or agent that is most able to address your inquiry. We make every effort to respond in a timely fashion once communications are received. Please note that communications sent through our contact forms on hattiesburgclinic.com are encrypted. If exchange of information occurs, subsequent communications might not be encrypted and it is possible that unencrypted communications with us may be accessed or viewed by another internet user while in transit to us.  Also, please note that if you are a current patient or caregiver of a patient at Hattiesburg Clinic and have a medical question or question related to current care, please use our patient portal, Iris, to communicate any questions or comments to your specific health care provider.

How does the Clinic use surveys or questionnaires?

We may occasionally survey visitors to our site. The information from these surveys is used to help us understand the needs of our visitors so that we can improve experiences on our Sites for our patients, community and visitor experiences. The information may be shared with third parties with whom we have a business relationship. We generally do not ask for information in surveys that would personally identify you; if we do request contact information for follow-up, you may decline to provide it.

How do we use the information we collect?

In addition to the uses described above, we might use the information we collect for things like:

  • Improving the performance and user experience of our sites;
  • Operating, evaluating, and improving our business;
  • Providing services to you;
  • Marketing and advertising products and services;
  • Conducting research and analysis;
  • Compliance with legal and regulatory requirements
  • Or other health care operations.

How do we disclose your information?

We may share the information we collect about you with third party business associates who we have engaged to help us provide the Sites, as well as the services available through our Sites. In this regard, we may disclose your information to affiliates, contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business. The services provided by these organizations include providing IT and infrastructure support services, advertising, marketing, and payment processing services. Hattiesburg Clinic takes personal data seriously and has security, privacy and confidentiality agreements and/or policies in place to keep your information protected.

How can you choose to disclose your information?

We do not control third parties’ use of cookies or how they manage the information collected through the use of cookies.  These third parties may aggregate the information they collect with information from their other customers for their own purposes. 

In addition, you have other choices in protecting your health information when using your personal cell phone or tablet. Please find the following resource to learn more: Protecting the Privacy and Security of Your Health Information When Using Your Personal Cell Phone or Tablet | HHS.gov

How is my security protected?

Whether you are visiting the Hattiesburg Clinic Site or one of our clinic locations, we use reasonable security measures to protect the confidentiality of personal information under our control, and we appropriately limit access to it. We use a variety of information security measures to protect your online transactions with us. The Hattiesburg Clinic Site uses encryption technology, such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), to protect your personal information during data transport. SSL protects information you submit via our website. We have taken reasonable steps to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of personally identifiable information that you may provide. You should understand, however, that electronic transmissions via the internet are not necessarily secure from interception, and so we cannot absolutely guarantee the security or confidentiality of such transmissions nor can we be held liable for it.

Links to other websites

Our Sites might link to other websites, many of which have their own privacy policies. Be sure to review the privacy policy on the site you’re visiting. If you click on a link and leave our Sites, Hattiesburg Clinic is not responsible for the information, actions, or privacy policies on those other sites.

Privacy policy updates

This policy may be updated to reflect changes in technology and adaptations by Hattiesburg Clinic to improve Site experiences. It is the user’s responsibility to read and understand our updated policies.