The privacy of your personal information is important to Pfizer. To better protect
your privacy, we provide you with our Privacy Policy so that you will understand
both our commitment to you and to your privacy. This Privacy Policy describes what
information we may collect about you; how we use your information; how we protect
it; and what choices you have on how that information is used. At Pfizer, we understand
that health is a very personal, private subject, and we want you to feel as comfortable
as possible visiting our various Web sites and using their respective services.
Pfizer is a licensee of the
TRUSTe Privacy Program. This policy discloses the privacy practices for
the Pfizer site that you linked from. TRUSTe is an independent, nonprofit organization
whose mission is to build users' trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting
the use of fair information practices. Because we want to demonstrate our commitment
to your privacy, we have agreed to disclose our information practices and have them
reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this policy, you should first contact
privacy.officer@pfizer.com. If you do not receive acknowledgement of your
inquiry or your inquiry is not satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact
TRUSTe through the
TRUSTe Watchdog Dispute Resolution Process. TRUSTe will then serve as a
liaison with the Web site to resolve users concerns. However, please understand
the TRUSTe program covers only information collected through zoloft.com and does
not cover information that may be collected through software downloaded from the
site.
As our privacy policy changes in significant ways, we will make every effort to
notify you of the changes. Minor changes to the policy may occur that will not affect
our use of individually identifiable or personal health information. When the privacy
policy changes in a way that significantly affects the way we handle personal information,
we will not use the information we have previously gathered without providing notice
or obtain your consent when appropriate. We will post privacy policy changes on
our Web sites in a timely manner.
The following articles make up our Privacy Policy. We hope that reading them gives
you a clear idea of how we manage information regarding you. For immediate access
to a particular topic, click on the title of that topic.
When we refer to ourselves as "we" or "Pfizer," we mean our entire company, including
any company that we control (for example, a subsidiary that we own). We may share
information among companies that we own or control, and we may share information
with our co-promotion partners, and companies working with Pfizer but all information
we share will always be protected under the terms of this Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy only applies to the TRUSTe certified Pfizer's Web sites. You
should read the Privacy Policy at each Web site that you visit after you leave one
of our sites. Pfizer is not responsible for how other Web sites treat your privacy
once you leave a Pfizer site.
To review definitions of keywords, click here:
Glossary
I. Personal information we collect
Information we collect from visitors
Visitors to each of our Web sites can access the Web site's home page and browse
some areas of the site without disclosing any personally identifiable information.
We do track information provided to us by your browser, including the Web site you
came from (known as the referring URL), the type of browser you use, the time and
date of access, and other information that does not personally identify you. On
some of our sites, you must register to access portions of the site.
In addition, we gather information about you that is automatically collected by
our Web server, such as your IP address and domain name. Pfizer may use Web server
and browser information to individually customize its offerings and presentations
if you submit your personal information.
Information we collect when you register
Visitors registering for services on our Web sites are asked to provide identifying
information, such as name, gender, contact information, and other identifying information.
On the registration screen, we clearly label which information is required for registration,
and which information is optional and may be given at your discretion. Pfizer Web
sites obtain visitors' consent before collecting personally identifiable information.
Information from outside sources
We may also collect information about physicians or other healthcare professionals
who register on our Web sites from other sources in order to verify their licensure
status and identity. In some cases, we ask customers for information after they
register, such as credit card information. Where necessary (for example, to process
an order for a purchase), our Web sites may contact financial or credit organizations
to confirm customer credit card information.
From time to time we may augment our existing user databases with legally obtained
information from third parties. Some of this information may be personally identifiable,
such as national change of address information. We do this to better target our
information offerings and promotional campaigns and to provide pertinent offers
in which we think you would be interested.
Other information
We also collect information that you voluntarily provide to us through responses
to surveys, search functions, questionnaires, feedback, "Tell your story" forms
and the like.
On some of our Web sites, we offer health assessment tools that ask you to provide
self-assessment information.
We may also ask you to provide additional information such as your e-mail address,
if you want to obtain additional services or information, or to resolve complaints
or concerns.
Use of cookies and other tracking systems
Cookies, log files, and pixel-tags (Web beacons) are technologies used by the Pfizer
Web sites to identify a user as the user moves through our Web sites. Your browser
allows us to place some information (session based IDs and/or persistent cookies)
on your computer's hard drive that identifies the computer you are using. We may
use cookies to personalize our Web sites and to track your usage across other Pfizer
Web sites.
Your Web browser can be set to allow you to control whether you will accept cookies,
reject cookies, or to notify you each time a cookie is sent to you. If your browser
is set to reject cookies, Web sites that are cookie-enabled will not recognize you
when you return to the Web site, and some Web site functionality may be lost. The
Help section of your browser will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting
cookies.
On occasion, we contract with third parties to place cookies on your computer's
hard drive. These third parties have entered into an agreement with us that require
them to observe our Privacy Policy.
Although cookies do not normally contain personally identifiable information, if
you have provided us information about you, we may associate your registration information
with cookies or other tracking utilities our Web site places on your computer's
hard drive. Associating a cookie with your registration data allows us to offer
increased personalization and functionality. Without cookies, this functionality
would not be possible.
Some of our business partners may use cookies on our site (for example, links to
business partners). We do not want our business partners to use cookies to track
our customer's activities once they leave our sites. However, we may not have total
control over how our business partners may use cookies on our Web site. If you become
aware that a Pfizer business partner is placing an unwanted cookie on your hard
drive, please contact our privacy officer to assist us in resolving the problem.
In addition, we may use other tracking systems like Pixel-tags. Pixel tags, sometimes
called Web beacons, are similar in function to a cookie. But because of its insignificant
size, it is not visible; though, it is used to pass certain information to our servers
to personalize our Web sites and to track your usage across other Pfizer Web sites.
In addition, we may also use Pixel tags in our HTML based emails.
II. How we use the information
Aggregate data
We gather aggregate data about visitors to our Web sites for product and service
development and improvement activities. We also use it for market analysis. We may
provide information from our Web sites in aggregate form, with identifying information
removed, to third parties. When aggregate health information is provided, we pool
it from many individual records and strip it of any data that could be used to identify
an individual before it is used. Any third party that receives aggregated healthcare
data must agree not to attempt to re-identify the people it belongs to.
Marketing-Healthcare Messages
We may target our marketing and healthcare messaging depending on information we
have about you. For example, a user we know is a woman may receive information on
products targeted at women that a male user will not see, or a user who we know
is a healthcare professional who treats arthritis may receive information for new
arthritis therapies. We may send information to you that we may believe will benefit
you, including information about any Pfizer product. (See your privacy choices section.)
We may also personalize our Web site based on your interests. For example, you may
see different articles in different places on our Web site based on information
you have shared with us, or information we have gained by reviewing your previous
visits, or information we may have gained from your interactions with a third party
that shares information with us.
When we share information with third parties working on behalf of Pfizer, we use
our best efforts to assure that they agree in writing to abide by Pfizer privacy
policies.
If we discover that a third party working on behalf of Pfizer inappropriately disclosed
personal information about any of our visitors, we will take immediate action to
prevent further occurrences.
Other than as described above, Pfizer will not release personally identifiable information
to a third party without your consent.
Tell-A-Friend
If you choose to use our referral function to tell a friend about our site, our
site will ask you for your friend's name and email address as well as your information.
The form automatically sends your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to
visit the site. We do not access or store this information, except to send this
invite.
III. Protection of information
How Pfizer handles privacy internally
Our commitment to security
We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures
to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly
use the information we collect online.
General policies
We have implemented technology and security policies, rules, and other measures
to protect the personal data that we have under our control from unauthorized access,
improper use, alteration, unlawful or accidental destruction, and accidental loss.
We also protect your information by requiring that all our employees and others
who have access to or are associated with the processing of your data respect your
confidentiality.
Pfizer uses security methods to determine the identity of its registered users,
so that appropriate rights and restrictions can be enforced for that user. Reliable
verification of user identity is called authentication. Pfizer uses both passwords
and usernames to authenticate users. Users are responsible for maintaining their
own passwords.
Storage of health information
Personally identifiable health information you share with us is stored on our database
servers at Pfizer data centers (in whatever country they may be located) or hosted
by third parties who have entered into agreements with us that require them to observe
our Privacy Policy. We have a firewall and other technology to prevent individuals
from accessing information without authorization. Data centers are designed to be
physically secure and protected from unauthorized access by unauthorized persons.
Information in our data centers is backed up routinely, in order to aid in the recovery
of information in the event of accidental damage of information or in the event
of a natural disaster. The backup media is stored in a physically secure storage
facility.
Third parties
In addition to aggregate information (discussed previously), we may share some kinds
of information with third parties as described below.
Companies and people who work for us: Because
we are a large company, we contract with other companies and individuals to help
us provide services. For example, we may host some of our Web sites on another company's
computers, hire technical consultants to maintain our Web-based health sites, or
work with companies to remove repetitive information from customer lists, analyze
data, provide marketing assistance, and provide customer service. In addition, if
you are a healthcare professional, we may validate your licensure status and other
information against available databases that list licensed healthcare professionals.
In order to perform their jobs, these other companies may have limited access to
some of the personal information we maintain about our users. Other companies may
collect information on our behalf through their sites. This occasionally incorporates
the use of frames on the site that will not show the URL you are visiting in the
browser address window. We require such companies to comply with the terms of our
privacy policies, to limit their access to any personal information to the minimum
necessary to perform their obligations, and not to use the information they may
access for purposes other than fulfilling their responsibilities to us. We use our
best efforts to limit other companies use of personally identifiable or healthcare
information.
Promotional and informational offers: Sometimes
we send offers to selected groups of customers. To accomplish this we may use third
parties working on behalf of Pfizer. We provide a variety of mechanisms for you
to tell us you do not want to receive such promotional - informational offers. For
example, we may provide an opt-in box for customers to receive information that
is sent by a third party fulfillment house, and we make clear that, by opting in,
you are submitting your data to a third-party. You can elect not to receive promotional
or informational material from us by following the instructions to opt-out as mentioned
or included in each of our programs we send to you.
Business transfers: If we transfer a business
unit (such as a subsidiary) or an asset (such as a Web site) to another company,
we will require it to honor the terms of this Privacy Policy.
Legal requirements: We may release account and
other personal information when we believe release is required to comply with law.
We may release personal health information if, in our judgment after review by an
attorney, the release is compelled by law or regulation, or if the release may be
necessary to prevent the death or serious injury of an individual.
IV. Your privacy choices
When you complete registration of your member profile, you will be given the option
of receiving recurring informational/promotional e-mail from Pfizer and third parties
working with Pfizer. You may opt-out from receiving this e-mail when you provide
the information or follow the instructions as mentioned in the email or included
in each of our programs we send to you.
Customer Service will unsubscribe you from that newsletter or other programs within
ten business days.
Choice
You will be given the opportunity to choose whether your personal information is
(a) to be disclosed to a third party working with Pfizer or (b) to be used for a
purpose that is different from the purpose originally intended or authorized. In
addition, for sensitive information that includes personal information specifying
medical or health conditions, you will be given an affirmative or explicit opt-in
choice.
Onward transfer (transfers to third parties)
Before we will disclose information to a third party, we will provide you with notice
and choice before either personal information or sensitive information is transferred.
V. Updating your personal information and contacting Pfizer
You can always contact us in order to (i) remove the personal information that you
have provided to us from our systems, (ii) update the personal information that
you have provided to us, and (iii) change your preferences with respect to marketing
contracts by e-mailing us at
privacy.officer@pfizer.com or if available
also logging into your account to update your information.
VI. Children's policy
We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. We do not collect personally
identifiable information from any person we actually know is a child under the age
of 13.
See also our
Terms and Conditions
for more information.
Pfizer Inc. Privacy Policy updated January 2005.
Pfizer Inc
Privacy Officer
235 East 42nd Street
Mailstop 235/24/7
New York, NY 10017
Copyright © 2002-2005 Pfizer Inc. All rights reserved
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