Website privacy policy

Effective date: Sept. 20, 2024 

This privacy policy (“policy”) describes how Sharp HealthCare ("we", “our”, "us") processes certain information we collect from you on our website, www.sharp.com (the “Site”) and our mobile app (the “App”, and with the Site, collectively, “Digital Tools”). This policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect and use the personal information you provide to us and help you make informed decisions when using our Digital Tools.

We want you to feel safe and comfortable when using our Digital Tools. You should read and familiarize yourself with this policy and our “Terms and Conditions of Use” Agreement. When you use our Digital Tools, you agree to abide by this agreement.

This policy does not apply to protected health information that we collect from individuals pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Additional information regarding our privacy practices with respect to protected health information can be found in Sharp HealthCare’s Notice of Privacy Practices.

Information we collect

Personal information you provide. You may submit personal information, which is information that can be used to identify you individually, when you interact with our Digital Tools. For example, we may collect certain personal information from you when you donate to Sharp HealthCare, sign up to volunteer, or apply for a position through our career portal. Generally, we may collect certain contact information, such as name, email address, postal address, or phone number from visitors that use the Digital Tools. We may also collect payment card information and billing information when you donate to us. You may voluntarily choose to provide us with your racial or ethnic identity, gender identity, and veterans status when you apply for a position through our career portal.

Information collected automatically. We, and the vendors we work with, may use tracking technologies (such as cookies, log files, and pixels) that automatically or passively collect certain information from visitors on our Site. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, and date/time stamp.

Cookies are pieces of information stored on a user's computer, which allow a website to recognize repeat users or track usage patterns. Your browser is probably set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to accept cookies, you can change your browser settings to refuse them. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our Digital Tools will not function properly when you view them. For example, if you disable cookies, you may have to enter your login information every time you use the Site.

We may use certain third-party technology vendors (such as Google and Snowplow) in connection with your activity on certain pages, including for advertising purposes and to understand details about your use of the Site (including referring URL, cookie ID, device type, what web pages you visited, how you engaged with our content, clicks, cursor movement, and scrolling activity).

We may use tracking technologies like Google Analytics on certain pages (for example, on our careers portal). For more information on how Google Analytics uses data it collects, visit policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. To opt out of Google Analytics, visit: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. To adjust your Google advertising settings, visit: myadcenter.google.com.

Information collected by third parties. Third-party service providers or partners may disclose to us your personal information that you submit to them. For example, if you make a donation on our Site, this may be facilitated by a third party that may disclose your personal information to us. When submitting information to a third party, you are subject to that third party’s terms of use and privacy policies. Sharp HealthCare may combine information about you that we maintain with information we obtain from third parties.

How we use information

We and our vendors may use the personal information collected through the Digital Tools for various purposes, including to communicate with you and to fulfill your requests. For instance, if you provide information in the course of making a donation to us, we use the information you submit to complete your transaction.

We may use the personal information you provide to us to send you information that we believe may be of interest to you, including newsletters, information about new medical breakthroughs and other items related to Sharp HealthCare and its medical community. You can manage these communications, as described below in "Your choices."

We may also use the personal information we collect to facilitate and personalize your user experience, monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities of visitors, take certain action with regard to any suspected or actual fraudulent or illegal activity or activity that violates our polices, comply with applicable laws, rules, regulations, and legal processes, and for any other purpose, with your consent.

How we disclose personal information

Sharp HealthCare may disclose personal information we have collected through the Digital Tools to our business partners and vendors. For example, we may use service providers to help us administer our business activities and to respond to your inquiries. To the extent we grant third parties access to information collected via your mobile device, they are expected to follow privacy practices no less protective than our practices to the extent allowed by applicable law.

We also may disclose your personal information (i) in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business assets (e.g., further to a merger, liquidation, reorganization, or any other business transaction, including negotiations of such transactions); (ii) to comply with legal requirements (for example, to respond to court orders, subpoenas, government or law enforcement agency requests, or other legal processes); (iii) to protect or defend Sharp HealthCare; (iv) where we perceive a threat or risk to individuals or property as a result of activity on our Digital Tools; (v) in connection with their inappropriate use of our Digital Tools, noncompliance with our Terms of Use, or a complaint filed about your use of our Digital Tools; or (vi) with your consent or at your direction.

Our commitment to security

Sharp HealthCare has adopted commercially reasonable security standards to prevent unauthorized access of information. These standards include physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect and secure the information that we collect from you. While we follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. We, therefore, cannot guarantee absolute security.

Links to other websites

Our Digital Tools contain links to other websites that are not owned or controlled by Sharp. Please be aware that Sharp HealthCare is not responsible for the privacy practices, content, or accuracy of such other websites. Sharp HealthCare encourages you to be aware when you leave our Digital Tools and to read the privacy policies of every website that collects your personal information.

Your choices

Sharp HealthCare may send you communications, including email communications, regarding products, services, promotions, changes to our Digital Tools or other information. You may choose not to receive such communications by following unsubscribe directions stated in the footer of email communications. Please note that even if you unsubscribe from receiving promotional emails from us, we may still send you transactional or informational emails.

With respect to App, you can stop all collection of data generated by use of the App by uninstalling the App. Also, you may be able to exercise specific privacy choices, such as enabling or disabling certain features (e.g., location-based services, push notifications, accessing calendar/contacts/photos), by adjusting the permissions in your mobile device and/or the App’s settings. Beware that if GPS precise location services are disabled, other means of establishing or estimating location (e.g., connecting to or proximity to Wi-Fi) may persist.

You may be able to enable or disable location tracking on the App by adjusting the permissions in your App account settings or through your mobile device settings. Note that uninstalling the App or changing the App permissions will not delete your user account or any information we previously collected via the App.

Access to Sharp HealthCare App

Patients may log in to the Sharp HealthCare App, our health management tool, through the App. You can learn more about our practices under HIPAA at our Notice of Privacy Practices.

Our App may constitute a COVID-19 app. Our App may collect certain information from you (or request additional permissions from your device), including:

  • Use of your location data to notify front desk staff when you arrive for an appointment or to suggest healthcare providers and locations that are near you. Our App will not store your location data.

  • Use of your camera to take new photos or to capture and transmit video for video visits. You choose if you want to use photos to personalize your account or send them as file attachments when you send messages to your healthcare providers. If you use the camera app on your device to take a new photo or video, it will be saved to your camera app. Any photo or video saved to your camera app remains available in your camera app until you choose to delete it.

  • Use of your microphone to capture audio for video visits. Our App will not store your audio data.

  • Access to your device’s storage to read and write files and photos you choose to use in our App. These files and photos may be used as attachments that are sent to your provider, or they may be created from attachments sent to you from your provider.

  • Access to your device’s Bluetooth to detect other nearby devices. This information will be used to notify front desk staff when you arrive for an appointment. Our App will not store your Bluetooth data.

  • Use of your phone to call phone numbers displayed in the app. Our App will not store your call history or other call data.

  • Access to your calendar to allow you to save appointments. Our App will not read or store any information from your calendar.

  • Access to your Wi-Fi state to ensure that you are connected to the internet when registering. Our App will not store your Wi-Fi information.

How we protect your personal information

We use technical controls and safeguards to protect the privacy, security, integrity and availability of your personal information.

  • We enable the use of multi-factor authentication for users of our mobile apps by default. Multi-factor authentication is required when you use our mobile apps unless your healthcare organization makes or allows changes to this control.

  • We use https for secure communication between servers.

  • When we store data on your mobile device, we store it in app-private storage that cannot be accessed by other apps.

  • Before data is shared from our mobile apps, we provide in-app notifications so you can choose if you want to share the data.

  • We disable screen-shot functionality by default for Android devices, and allow Android users to choose if they want to enable the function. We cannot disable this functionality in iOS.

  • We maintain internal policies and processes that limit access to your information to our staff who need to know the information to perform their jobs.

  • We maintain internal data retention and deletion policies to help us ensure we only store information about your use of our mobile apps as we describe in this policy.

Each health care organization you connect to through our mobile apps also uses safeguards to protect your information. Contact them if you have any questions about their safeguards. You can take other steps to protect your information:

  • Do not share the username and password you use with our mobile apps.

  • Change your password immediately if you believe any unauthorized access has occurred.

  • Use the security tools on devices you use with our mobile apps.

  • Do not root or jailbreak devices you use with our mobile apps. Doing so can create security risks by removing your devices’ built-in security measures and exposing sensitive information on your device.

The limited ways we use your personal information

We do not sell or license your information. These are the limited ways we interact with your information in connection with our mobile apps:

  • 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. If you already have a photo stored in your profile through your healthcare organization — we do not interact with that photo in any way.

  • 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 (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.

  • When you choose to include a photo or video in a message you send using our mobile apps, you may select an existing photo or video from your device or take a new photo or video using the camera app on your device. If you use the camera app on your device to take a new photo or video, it will be saved to your camera app. Any photo or video saved to your camera app remains available in your camera app until you choose to delete it.

  • When you join a telehealth visit with your provider, we will ask for permission to access your device’s video and audio functionality to make the telehealth visit possible. We do not record or store video or audio data from these visits. 

  • If you choose to enable automatic appointment reminders, Sharp HealthCare temporarily stores 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 you disable automatic appointment arrival, the identifiers are deleted.

  • If you choose to enable location-based check in for in-person appointments, or to allow app to find healthcare providers near you, you may choose to allow the Sharp app to interact with your location data for those purposes. Sharp HealthCare does not store your location data.

  • If you choose 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. Sharp HealthCare does not  store your Bluetooth data.

  • While you use our apps, if you choose to call a phone number displayed within the app, we will ask for permission to access your device’s phone to place a call to the phone number. We do not store your call history or data about the call.

  • While you use our apps, we collect non-identifying information so we can provide customer service to you or your health care organization and understand how people use our mobile apps so we can improve our products. This information includes the time you began using the app, the health care organization you interacted with, 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.

  • You may contact us through the methods listed on our website. If you contact us, we may keep a record of the communication. You can decide how much information you want to share with us in those cases.

Children's privacy

We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under the age of 13. If we become aware that we have obtained information from a user under the age of 13, we will delete such information in accordance with applicable law.

Changes to our privacy policy

Sharp HealthCare reserves the right to change this Digital Tools policy at any time without advance notice to our users. Modifications to the policy shall be effective when they are posted. We will notify you of any changes to the policy by updating the “Effective Date” at the top of this page. Your continued use of the Digital Tools following the posting of any such modifications constitutes your acceptance and agreement to be bound by such modifications. We encourage you to check this policy regularly to see if we have made any modifications to this policy.

Contact us

If you have questions regarding our website privacy policy or other general questions, please contact Sharp HealthCare at 1-800-82-SHARP (1-800-827-4277).