The Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh Policy on Internet Privacy
Hereafter any reference to
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh website may be taken to include
subsidiary sites such as surgeonsnews.info
Fellows' and users' Internet
privacy is an important concern to The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
The Faculty of Health Informatics supports privacy of Internet data across The
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh website.
The Royal College of Surgeons
of Edinburgh website does store personal information in the secure users
log-in area. In all other areas The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
website merely logs the user's IP address which is automatically recognised by
the college web server.
We do use cookies for
collecting user information from the website. We only collect information about
fellows and users that is required for system administration of the Web server.
We do not collect personal information outside the log-in area.
The Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh does not:
Provide or release names,
website addresses or e-mail addresses of users to any third party without the
fellows' or users' explicit permission.
The Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh uses fellows' and users' data to:
- Automate signing in
for fellows and users, who can elect to have their username and password
"remembered" by the server using Internet "cookie" technology. Fellows and
users who use this service will be able to bypass the sign in process on each
visit to The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh website. Using automatic
signing in speeds up the signing in process.
- Direct content to
fellows and users who are most likely to be interested in information about
specific subject matter.
- Determine any
advertisements to be seen by the fellows and users while using The Royal College
of Surgeons of Edinburgh website.
- Measure website
activity. Cookie technology helps The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
determine which features and services are important to their audiences so that
we may know where to direct ongoing development.
- The Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh may occasionally advise users of new college activities
or website features.
- The Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh occasionally may alert fellows or users electronically
by e-mail to important surgical or medical information.
- The Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh may contact fellows or users who have un-subscribed from
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh to determine how we might have run
our service to better meet their needs.
- The Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh or its agent may write or call in the process of
performing market research about our services. Any research on behalf of a
third party will be clearly identified as such.
- The Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh may offer services on a limited basis to demographically
identified groups of users.
Definition of Terms
Browser
This is used to locate and display
web pages via a software application. The most popular ones are Netscape Navigator
and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Cookie
This is a message given to a web browser
by a web server. The message is then stored by the browser in a text file called cookie.txt. Each time the browser requests a page from the server, this message
is sent back. A cookie's main objective is to identify users and personalise
their visit by customising web pages for them (eg by welcoming them by
name the next time they visit the same site). A site using cookies will usually
invite you to provide personal information such as your name, e-mail address and
interests.
IP (Internet Protocol)
All networks connected to the
Internet speak IP, the technical standard that allows data to be transmitted
between two devices. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is
responsible for making sure messages get from one host to another and that the
messages are understood.
IP address
If you are connected to the
Internet you have one of these. For example, it may look something like "116.234.134.1".
Web Server
This delivers (serves up) web pages
to your computer.