1. What personally identifiable information does workcompcentral.com collect from me?

Workcompcentral.com collects information in several ways from different parts of our network of web sites. Some personal information is gathered when you register. During registration, workcompcentral.com asks for your name, email address, physical/mailing address, phone and fax numbers. See the Registration Page for complete details. This information is used for contact information purposes. Sometimes this contact information is made available to workcompcentral partners, vendors, or sponsors where highly specific material may be relevant to you.

In addition to registration, information will be gathered regarding data that is necessary for filling out forms. This information is no different than the information you provide to your insurance company, your attorney or your doctor, and is no different than the information that is readily accessible by any member of the public in good standing, for instance from the California Workers' Compensation Appeals Board upon request, unless the file is "sealed". In no way will personally identifiable medical information be supplied to any person except as permitted or required by law.

We may ask you for personal information at other times, including (but not limited to) when you enter a sweepstakes, contest or promotion sponsored by workcompcentral.com and/or our many partners, when you make a purchase using workcompcentral.com, when you post a workcompcentral.com advertisement, when you submit a listing for a web site, and when you report a problem with one of our sites or services. If you contact workcompcentral.com we may keep a record of that correspondence.

2. What are cookies?

A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. This helps us provide faster, and more accurate service to you by allowing our computers to readily identify your computer as an authorized user, among other details.

3. How does workcompcentral.com use my information?

Workcompcentral.com collects the information necessary to allow you to use the information services that you sign up for, and to do the billing for it. Relevant portions of your information, as described by the forms that are filled out, may also be queried or searched by paying members of workcompcentral.com for legally permissible purposes only. On occasion your contact information may be provided to a workcompcentral.com affiliate, partner, vendor or sponsor where highly specific material may be relevant to you. You may opt to not receive such information by making the appropriate choice after clicking on. Additionally, if your account is associated with a master account, such as with a shared subscription or a premium corporate subscription, the account manager will have access to your registration information and your user statistics, including the information or content you have viewed, for the purpose of account management.

4. With whom does workcompcentral.com share my information?

Workcompcentral.com shares the information with members and agents of workcompcentral.com for the processing of claims, bills, and workers' compensation reports. Data may be transmitted to the State in accordance with applicable laws, rules and regulations promulgated for such activity. The information collected and distributed by workcompcentral.com is no different than the information collected, retained and available by any member of the public viewing such information contained in files maintained by the California Workers' Compensation Appeals Board or applicable State administrative body.

Third Party Data & Data in the Aggregate: Under confidentiality agreements, workcompcentral.com may match user information with third party data. Also, workcompcentral.com discloses aggregated user statistics (for example, 45% of our users are M.D.s) in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes. Other: workcompcentral.com may also disclose account information in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating workcompcentral.com's Terms of Service or may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) workcompcentral.com's rights or property, other workcompcentral.com users, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities. Workcompcentral.com may disclose or access account information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it and for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service, and improve our products and services.

Basic contact information may be shared with a workcompcentral.com affiliate, partner, vendor or sponsor where the affiliate, partner, vendor or sponsor has highly specific material that may be relevant or of interest to you.

If you are part of a shared account or other group account managed by a third party your identification and use information may be shared with the manager of the account for management purposes including your usage statistics, what content you have consumed, and other information deemed relevant by the master account owner.

5. What are my choices regarding collection, use, and distribution of my information?

Workcompcentral.com may, from time to time, send you email or direct mail regarding our products and services. In addition, if you indicated upon registration that you are interested in receiving offers or information from workcompcentral.com and our partners, we may occasionally send you direct mail about products and services that we feel may be of interest to you. Only workcompcentral.com (or its agents, affiliates, partners, vendors or sponsors) will send you these direct mailings and only if you indicated that you do not object to these offers.

On some types of workcompcentral.com promotions, we will ask for your email address in order to update you on your score, entries, and status in prize drawings. When you participate in these types of promotions, you automatically receive promotion-related email, unless you choose the no-email option that some promotions offer. Occasionally these promotion-related email messages may include targeted advertisements.

On occasion we may sell or rent workers' compensation case data that would otherwise be readily accessible to any member of the public in good standing from the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board or other administrative body of the State. State and federal law strictly regulate all such activity. Workcompcentral.com may collect non-personal data from transactions submitted via workcompcentral.com for use and analysis by various industry entities. If you do not wish to allow your data to be shared, you can choose not to use a particular service or not to participate in certain promotions or contests.

6. How does Workcompcentral.com protect my personal financial and health-related information?

Keeping your personal financial and health-related information private is vitally important to us. As with all information, workcompcentral.com will never rent or sell your personal financial or health-related information (except as that information that may appear on common workers' compensation claims forms). We are in the business of processing workers' compensation claim data that is otherwise readily accessible by the public from the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, or other State administrative body.

Please note that there are several places on the workcompcentral.com network of Web sites where you can transmit credit card information in order to complete a purchase transaction or for verification purposes. Any time we ask for a credit card number we transmit that credit card number in an encrypted format. We use industry-standard, SSL (secure socket layer) encryption not only for the transmission of credit card transactions, but for all of our claims processing transactions. We do not store any credit card information on our servers. All saved financial information is managed by a third party banking service that is regulated by the federal government and meets the highest security standards available. Any credit card information is transmitted in the highest industry standard secure, encrypted format to avoid detection and/or theft.

7. What security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse, or alteration of my information?

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, workcompcentral.com cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or from our online products or services, and you do so at your own risk. To minimize the risk, we utilize SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption for transmitting personal data and patient data.

8. How do the Civil Code and Labor Code protect my privacy?

California Labor Code section 3762 prohibits an insurer, third-party administrator and their agents and employees from disclosing or causing to be disclosed to an employer any medical information defined in subdivision (b) of Civil Code section 56.05 about an employee who has filed a workers' compensation claim except if the diagnosis of the injury would affect the employer's premium or medical information regarding the injury that is necessary for the employer to have in order for the employer to modify the employee's work duties.

California Civil Code, Division 1, Part 2.6, also known as the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, governs the rights and liabilities of persons with access to, or control of, private medical information. In short, this law requires medical care providers, insurers, and their agents or employees to maintain strict standards of confidentiality regarding medical information. This confidentiality may be exempt however, in the context of a workers' compensation claim. Furthermore, section 56.16 of the Civil Code provides that "nothing in this part shall be construed to prevent a provider, upon an inquiry concerning a specific patient, from releasing at its discretion any of the following information: the patient's name, address, age, and sex; a general description of the reason for treatment (whether an injury, a burn, poisoning, or some unrelated condition); the general nature injury, burn, poisoning, or other condition; the general condition of the patient; and any information that is not medical information as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 56.05."

Your state or the federal government may have similar laws that you can consult regarding your privacy.

9. What else should I know about my privacy?

Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online - for example on message boards, through email, or in chat areas - that information can be collected and used by others. In short, if you post personal information online that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return. Ultimately, you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and/or any account information. Please be careful and responsible whenever you're online.