Skip to main content

Harvard Health Publishing Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes the practices of Harvard Health Publishing ("we", "our", "us", or "Harvard"), Gordon Hall, Suite 013, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States of America, email: hhp_info@hms.harvard.edu, phone: 877-649-9457, on the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information from users of our website (https://www.health.harvard.edu/) (the "Service"). Personal information is information related to an identified or identifiable natural person. We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time and will post any changes on this page. We encourage you to check our website frequently to review the most up-to-date version of our Privacy Policy. By accessing or using the Service, you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service. Your use of the Website is also subject to our Terms of Use, available at https://www.health.harvard.edu/terms-of-use.

Information You Submit

Certain transactions in which you choose to engage on the Service, such as online shopping transactions, email newsletter registrations, site registrations, and customer service submissions will require your submission of personal information. Such information may include your name, mailing address, email address, user name, password, and payment information (card information and billing address). To provide you with content and offers targeted to your needs, we may ask you for your interests including health topics.

Information We Collect Automatically

When you use the Service, we may automatically collect certain information about your device and your interactions with the Site. This data may include:

  • IP address
  • Browser type and version
  • Device type and operating system
  • The domain or website from which you linked to the Service (referring site)
  • The web page or form where you signed up or entered information
  • The pages you visit or interact with on the Service
  • The time and date of your visit
  • General geographic location (not your specific address)
  • Other usage and diagnostic data

We use this information to analyze trends, administer the Service, track users' movement through the Service, determine how you arrived at the Service, improve our services, and gather demographic information for aggregate use. We may compile and share aggregated or anonymized statistics (that do not identify individuals) with business partners, sponsors, or third parties.

Information We Collect from Other Sources

In order to enhance our ability to provide relevant marketing, offers and services to you, we may obtain information about you such as postal and email addresses from other sources including public databases, joint marketing partners, data providers, as well as from other third parties. We may also receive aggregated information about your interactions with us on social media platforms ("Social Networks") from such Social Networks.

How We Use Your Information

We may use the information we collect or receive for purposes such as:

  • to respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests, such as to provide you access to the Service or products you have ordered, to respond to any inquiry, feedback, or information and materials regarding our products and services;
  • to send you marketing communications that we believe may be of interest to you, including via email in compliance with applicable laws and in accordance with your preferences;
  • for our internal business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, fraud monitoring and prevention, developing new products, enhancing, improving or modifying the Service, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, and operating and expanding our business activities;
  • to send you administrative information such as invoices, confirmation and renewal notices, information regarding the Service, and changes to our terms and conditions or policies; and
  • for other reasons that we may describe to you at the time of collection.

How We Share Your Information

We may disclose your personal information to the following categories of recipients and for the following reasons:

Service providers

In order to provide the Service to you, it is necessary for us to disclose your information to contracted service providers who perform certain functions of our Services on our behalf.

Payment Processors

In some cases, we may use a vendor to process your payment transactions with us. These vendors act as our processor when providing services to us; however, they may also use personal data you provide them through our platforms, applications and websites to operate and improve their services and for fraud detection, loss prevention, authentication, and analytics related to the performance of their services. As of the last updated date of this Privacy Statement, examples include Strategic Fulfillment Group (SFG), Paymentech, and Stripe. To learn more about their privacy practices, you can access the Stripe privacy policy at https://stripe.com/privacy, the SFG privacy policy at https://www.sfgnetwork.com/privacy/ and the Paymentech privacy policy at https://merchantservices.chase.com/privacy-statement.

Marketing Partners

Your name and mailing address may be released for one-time use to carefully screened third-party mailers who offer products or services that may be of interest to our readers. We may also share personal information with third-party marketing partners for commercial purposes. Please see below for how to opt out of our sharing of your information for these purposes.

Your User Content

If you choose to submit content (e.g., online comments or communications to our editorial staff or members), we may publish your name, screen name, and other information you have provided to us on the Service.

Compliance with laws

We may disclose information where we are legally required to do so in order to comply with applicable law, lawful governmental requests, a court order, or other legal process.

Vital interests and legal rights

We may disclose information where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, to verify the authenticity of any transaction, in cases of suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person, violations of our Terms of Use, or to enforce or protect a legal right of Harvard or a third party.

Business transfers

We may share or transfer information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of our assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another entity, provided that we inform the counterparty it must use your personal information only for the purposes disclosed in this Privacy Policy.

Consent

We may share your information with any other person with your consent to the disclosure.

Your Privacy Preferences

To remove or change your contact information in our database, or to not receive future mailings or other communications, as well as for all other inquiries, please use one of the following methods:

Opting-Out of Emails

On some of our sites you may manage your email preferences and unsubscribe from our lists by visiting the Customer Service link. All of our email newsletters contain an UNSUBSCRIBE link at the bottom of the email. Look for the words "Click here to remove your email address" or "Unsubscribe" and click on that link. You may also contact us at hhp_info@hms.harvard.edu or call 1-203-857-3100 to manage and modify your email preferences.

Opting Out of Postal Direct Mail Marketing

To unsubscribe from marketing materials via postal mail, contact us at hhp_info@hms.harvard.edu or call 1-203-857-3100. Please provide us with the exact name and address as it appears on the mailing label so we can identify your record.

Any Other Opt-Out Questions

For other inquiries and information requests including removal of your name and other information from our database please use the Contact Us form on the pages of our Sites or contact us at hhp_info@hms.harvard.edu or call 1-203-857-3100.

Children's Privacy

Our website and services are not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us so we may remove it.

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies on our website. For details, please review our Cookie Policy.

Users located outside the United States of America

If you are located in a country outside of the United States which has enacted a personal data protection law, please review additional privacy disclosures that may apply to you.

Security

We use reasonable safeguards to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, or unauthorized access. However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure.

Links to Other Sites; Social Networks

This Privacy Policy does not apply to other websites that our Service may link to, including other Harvard University websites. Please review the privacy policy of every site you visit. Harvard Health Publishing is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of third parties.

When you choose to interact with us through social media your interactions with the Social Networks typically allow the Social Networks to collect information such as "Likes," profile information gathered from the Social Networks, or the fact that you viewed or interacted with our Services. Social Networks may collect information about you through digital cookies they place on your device and other tracking mechanisms even when you are not directly interacting with their applications. Please review the Social Networks' privacy policies and choices for sharing information of any Social Network connected to our Services.

Contact Us

If you have a privacy concern or question, email our Grievance/Data Protection Officer at hhp_info@hms.harvard.edu or write to:

Harvard Health Publishing
Gordon Hall, Suite 013
25 Shattuck Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
United States of America

Effective Date: May 6, 2026