Terms of Use

Website Privacy Statement

North York General Hospital protects the privacy of any personal information you may provide when visiting our website. Our information management practices have been designed to ensure compliance with the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004. 

This privacy statement applies to interactions with the North York General Hospital website and does not apply to any other website you make link to from our site. Following is an overview of our website practices.

Personal information

When you visit the North York General Hospital website, you do so anonymously — there is no need to tell us who you are. Our web server does not collect or retain your e-mail address in a database format. If you direct an enquiry to the hospital, we will ask you to provide your name and mailing address or e-mail address for the purpose of responding to your enquiry. Only those who “need to know” will have access to the personal information provided. 

Encryption technology protects personal information during transmission. A notice stating “you are in a secure site” will be posted on our site when you are in an encrypted session. This is the same type of technology used by banks that encrypt information during your on-line banking session. A security lock icon will also appear in either the lower right corner or, depending on your browser, the lower left corner of your browser window.

Secure pages are not saved in temporary caches on a computer so when you close or exit secure screens, those screens can’t be accessed again by clicking the “go-back” icon in your browser. If encryption is not available through a site, an alternative means of communication will be recommended.

For example, North York General Hospital provides secure online bill payment through Teranet Inc. The personal information collected is limited to that necessary to process your payment and to ensure your account is properly credited. Your bill paying session is encrypted and the site includes a link to Teranet’s privacy and security policy. 

Logging practices

North York General Hospital logs HTTP requests to the web server. These logs record the IP address of site visitors, the time, date and pages visited. An IP address is the number automatically assigned to the computer or to the ISP (Internet Service Provider) requesting a URL.

Our logging is passive and we don’t use technologies such as “web bugs” to maintain any information on site visitors. The only use of “cookies” on the site is to maintain a user’s chosen font size. Logged information, also known as clickstream data, is recorded in non-identifiable form and is used by North York General Hospital staff or those under contract for website system administration. Log files are archived and used for statistics and maintenance.

Comments?

If you have any questions about North York General Hospital website collection practices, please contact the Chief Privacy Officer at 416-756-6448 or privacy@nygh.on.ca. The mailing address is:

Chief Privacy Officer
1W-Room 118 
North York General Hospital
4001 Leslie Street
Toronto, Ontario M2K 1E1
Attention: Rita Reynolds