ONLINE JOURNAL PRIVACY STATEMENT

Our Commitment to Privacy

Your privacy is very important to us. To better protect your privacy, we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used.

Why We are Conducting an Online Journal

The purpose of the online journal is to collect information about sexual behaviors, so that we can learn more about how the human papillomavirus (HPV) is passed from person to person. If you prefer to complete your journal offline, you may request a paper version from the Research Administrator (564-5999) or the Interviewer (564-5877).

The Information We Collect

All of your journal responses will be kept confidential and you are free to skip any questions that you do not want to answer. The user name/login for the online journal will be the subject's study id number. The subject's name or initials will not be used anywhere in the online journal. Answers are data linked only to the id number so online journal information will be annonymous. Study subjects will be able to create their own private password. Subjects will be asked to answer a "security" question to protect their privacy in case someone else logs in using their id number and tries to recover their password. Passwords are stored on the server but are only accessible by the administator for this research study. If a participant decides to withdraw from the study, his user name and password will be manually deleted from the log.

We collect information about the type of browser you are using (for example, Microsoft Internet Explorer), the browser version, the operating system (for example, Windows or Mac), and IP address (a unique number for each computer). We collect this information to better design our website and to fix problems you may have using the site.

Our Commitment to Data Security

Once you enroll, you will be able to use a self-selected Login Name/Password system that serves as your first line of security. An automated e-mail routing system will only be used to send data collected from the survey to the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii server. Only users who are enrolled in the study will be able to take the survey. This survey will be collected from a secure website (https://) using 128-bit encryption. The user session will be encrypted using the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) method with 128-bit encryption. SSL is software-based security protocol that encodes data before it is transmitted over the Internet. Many browers today offer both 40-bit and 128-bit versions of SSL. 128-bit encryption provides a much higher level of security, as it is more than 300 x 1024 more secure than 40-bit encryption. Major commercial browsers including Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher, AOL 7.0 or higher or NetscapeTM Navigator 4.75 or higher support the required higher level (128-bit SSL) of encryption to ensure the privacy of your information.

The web servers are physically located in the University of Hawaii data center where only authorized personnel can enter. For high availability, we have multiple identical web servers that are load-balanced. Each server is behind a firewall.

An icon, such as a lock or key, will be displayed in the corner of your browser's window to let you know that your browser's encryption is active.

You can also ensure the security of your information by following these steps:

- Never reveal your Login Name and Password to anyone.

- Always log off before leaving your computer.

- Always log off of this site before accessing other Web sites.

How You Can Correct Your Information

You can access all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain by contracting the study interviewer. You can correct factual errors in your personally identifiable information by sending us a request.

To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.