Privacy Policy

PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACY. This privacy policy details the privacy practices for Open Forest. The policy is intended to apply to the information contained in or collected by our website. Open Forest takes the privacy of its users seriously and therefore, in accordance with our intention to protect our users, we will do the following:

• Take proper precautions to protect against and prevent unauthorized access to or misuse of your personal data and information;
• Take proper precautions to protect your protected health information (PHI);
• Fully comply with all legal standards, including but not limited HIPAA and HITECH;
• To refrain from sharing, selling or allowing any type of access to your information or data by any third party;
• Protect any sensitive information entered into our application both online and offline;
• Use encryption techniques, where applicable, to further protect any information or data entered into our application by our users;
• Refrain from granting access to any personal information to any employee of Open Forest for any purpose other than when absolutely necessary to perform a certain job related task; and
• Require all healthcare providers registered with Open Forest to comply with our privacy policies, HIPAA and HITECH.

DATA COLLECTED FROM USERS. In order to operate Open Forest and provide our users with products and services that may be of interest, we may collect personal information or demographic information about our members. Open Forest does not collect or retain personal or demographic information from anyone under the age of 18 without the consent of a parent or legal guardian. We will not collect Protected Health Information (PHI) as part of your registration with Open Forest, however, such information may be collected by the providers a user chooses to engage for services, and in turn may be stored by the systems of Open Forest. That information is not considered personal or demographic information and thus a higher standard of protection will be applied to such information.

Open Forest may use your email address and other non-identifying and/or non-protected personal information to communicate with you regarding your activity on the site. We may also review all demographic data of our users and use said information to tailor our site and communications to your interest.

Open Forest allows users to obtain certain healthcare services electronically. This will often include providing protected information to a third party healthcare provider who is also registered with Open Forest. Any information provided to a third party provider by a registered user will be viewed as posted with consent. However, this does not relieve the provider of his or her obligation to adhere to the policies of Open Forest which require providers to strictly adhere to the provisions of HIPAA and HITECH with regard to the use, storage, protection and disclosure of protected information of our users. This, however, does not include any and all data provided to Open Forest by a member as part of any registration process associated with using the website and its services.

USE OF DATA COLLECTED. Open Forest will use and process the information entered by users and collected during the registration process. This data will be used in the following ways:

• To improve the Open Forest website for its users;
• To identify additional programs or applications that may be desirable to users of Open Forest ;
• For the marketing purposes, such as to identify companies to advertise through the application;
• To communicate administrative or technical assistance information to users;
• To investigate disputes between users and providers or complaints by users using the application; and
• To operate the Open Forest website and optimize its performance in ways that are beneficial to users.

By using the Open Forest website, you are representing that you understand and agree that all non-identifying and non-protected information submitted by you on the Open Forest site becomes the property of Open Forest and may be used in accordance with the law, including HIPAA and HITECH and this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use of Open Forest.

DATA DISCLOSURE TO THIRD PARTIES. Open Forest may share information about our users with advertisers, business partners, sponsors or other third parties; however, this is only demographic type information. No user-specific information will ever be shared with the above referenced parties without your express written consent.

Due to the nature of the services provided by Open Forest users may provide or disclose information that is protected by HIPAA and/or HITECH to providers who utilize Open Forest to provide asynchronous telemental healthcare services to our users. Users should provide this information with the understanding that such information is protected and that both Open Forest and your provider have agreed to fully comply with all applicable HIPAA and HITECH provisions.

There are certain circumstances under which we may be required to disclose data and/or protected information about you, as a user of the Open Forest website. You also have the right, at any time, to request full disclosure of all data being used and/or stored in your electronic health record by Open Forest. We may disclose your data and/or protected information, without additional consent in response to certain legal requests and in any instance where such information must be provided to healthcare professionals and/or law enforcement because a user poses a risk of harm to him or herself or others. Data will also be released to any party you designate, if such designation is done in writing and bears your signature to indicate your consent to the disclosure.

DATA STORAGE. Open Forest will retain user data for as long as it is reasonably necessary for business purposes or in accordance with the record retention policy of the state of Open Forest and the provisions of HIPAA and HITECH.

INTERNATIONAL USERS. Open Forest is a United States based website. As an international user you are hereby agreeing to allow us to apply the same privacy, data storage and data disclosure policies as those which apply to US based users.

CHANGES. Open Forest has the exclusive right to change this privacy policy at any time so long as the policy continues to comply with HIPAA, HITECH and all other applicable privacy laws. Any changes to this policy will be posted to the Open Forest website and will be considered effective on the date of posting.

QUESTIONS. If you have further questions about this policy or other specific privacy concerns please contact us at Open Forest.