This Website is owned and operated by Cornell University, a New York Education Corporation, including Weill Cornell Medicine and/or any department or affiliate thereof, (“Cornell,” “WCM,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). By using this website and its Services, you agree to this Privacy Policy. Please read the following carefully before proceeding.
This Policy applies to WCM’s website located at weillcornell.org, and weill.cornell.edu, as well as all other websites owned, operated, licensed, or controlled by WCM, and certain affiliate websites that are hyperlinked to them. This Policy also applies to all mobile applications offered under the WCM name that do not have a separate privacy policy or that link to this Policy (the “Apps”). Collectively, the Websites and Apps are referred to as the “Services” in this Policy.
This Policy applies to the use of the Services and the information provided by or obtained from users of the Services. WCM maintains a separate Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) in connection with Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA), which can be viewed on the weillcornell.org/privacy website at Notice of Privacy Practices (cornell.edu). The NPP explains how we may use and disclose Protected Health Information (PHI) and other medical information about you. PHI is defined in the HIPAA regulations and includes individually identifiable information you provide to a WCM clinical care facility or to our affiliated entity, NewYork Presbyterian (NYP), while being treated as a patient or within the MyConnect portal.
In cases where there may be a conflict between this Policy and the NPP, the NPP takes priority.
BY ACCESSING OR USING THE SERVICES, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND THE TERMS OF USE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY OR THE TERMS OF USE, DO NOT ACCESS OR USE THE SERVICES.
Your Consent, Information We Collect, and How We Use Your Information
WCM collects two types of information through the Services:
1. Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”): This includes, but not limited to, your name, address, email, and phone number, which you provide voluntarily when accessing certain features of the Services as noted below in this Policy.
2. Usage Information: This information is collected automatically as you interact with the Services. It is often used by WCM staff to help deliver Services to you, such as appointment reminders.
By using any of these Services, you consent to the collection, use, and sharing of information as described in this Policy. By providing us with an email address, you agree that we may use it to communicate with you about our Services and deliver select messages from our partners or affiliates (note: opt-out options are discussed below).
WCM uses the information it collects to:
- Ensure the proper functionality of the Services across various devices.
- Process user inquiries and respond to user requests.
- Analyze usage trends.
- Improve the Services and develop new ones.
WCM processes information only for the purposes for which it was collected and in accordance with this Policy.
WCM may share your PII with authorized third-party contractors/providers that perform business or administrative services for us (for example, our online scheduling provider). These include the Services described below under the heading “Cookies, Tracking, Analytics, and Internet-based Advertising.” A third-party contractor/provider is an independent individual or organization that provides services to WCM under a contractual agreement. They are hired for specific tasks and are paid for their services. Examples of third-party contractors include research organizations, manufacturers, academic collaborators, web-hosting platforms, marketing agencies, software services, consultants, and outsourced data centers.
Information That You Provide Voluntarily on the Services
WCM collects PII that you enter into data fields on the Services. For example, when you access the “Request an Appointment” or “Schedule an Appointment” feature via the Service, you may be asked to provide certain PII, including but not limited to, your name and email address. Other features of the Services may ask for additional PII necessary for their proper functionality. If you decline to provide certain information while using a Service, you may not be able to use or participate in some or all the features offered through the Services.
WCM also collects and stores PII that you enter during chats and into pre-chat surveys. We may retain email and other communications that you send us to process your inquiries, respond to your requests, and improve your website experience.
Usage Information That Is Automatically Collected on the Services
When you access the Services, WCM may collect certain information automatically without you actively providing it. This information may include technical information from your device (e.g., your IP address, device identifiers, the type of mobile device you are using, and your operating system), as well as information about your usage of the Services (e.g., how you interact with the Services, search terms, and frequency of use). Certain Services may assign you unique analytics tracking identification number (ID), which WCM uses to collect information about your interaction with the Apps to improve your experience. Some Services may also use location-based services to provide location-based features. If you enable location services on your device and grant permission for such Services to access your location, we may collect your GPS location to provide these features.
How We Use Your Information
We may also use your information to:
- Personalize your experience and inform you about the treatments/services in which you have shown interest.
- Tailor digital advertisements on third-party websites based on your interactions with the Services.
- Send you information and updates.
- Administer promotions, surveys, or other feature of the Services.
- Communicate changes to our Privacy Policy or Terms of Use.
- Fulfill online requests, process credit card information, and respond to customer service inquiries, or in other ways as required by law.
Cookies, Tracking, Analytics and Internet-based Advertising
Our Services work with third-party providers (“Providers”), such as Google, Mixpanel, and other authorized third parties, to track and analyze visitor activity on the Websites and Apps, measure the effectiveness of our advertising, and optimize our digital marketing campaigns.
To accomplish this, the Services use “cookies,” tracking pixels, and related technologies. These can be set by WCM or by our Providers.
Cookies are small data files that online services store and retrieve from your computer or mobile device through your web browser. The information in the data file is stored and retrievable either for the duration of a website visit (known as “session cookies”), or until some later time set by the website delivering the cookie (known as “persistent cookies”).
Most internet browsers accept cookies by default, but you can modify your browser preferences to block or restrict cookies if you do not want your web browsing activity tracked. There are various tools publicly available to manage cookies and similar technologies.
We and our Providers use this information in aggregate to understand how our visitors use different resources and to improve our Services. We may also collect information about individual users, which may be used to direct WCM advertisements and/or informational content when you visit third-party websites.
Our Providers may acquire additional information about your activity, including pages you visit, access times, the duration of your visit, how you arrived at our Website and your IP address. An IP address is a number that identifies a device connected to the Internet. Our Providers may also acquire device identifiers and specific information about the browser you use. In some cases, this information may be unique to you.
WCM also uses platforms of third-party Providers such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta and Mixpanel to manage and deliver digital advertisements about our Services. In providing this service, these platforms may collect limited data related to your activity on those third-party websites using cookies to measure the effectiveness of our advertising efforts, and optimize our digital marketing campaigns.
WCM advertises on those websites for users that may find them relevant. For example, cookies on those third-party websites may capture data such as date and time of web browsing, browser type, operating system type, IP address, or alphanumeric identifier. To provide verification to WCM that an ad was delivered, these platforms may report some of this data to WCM on an aggregated basis.
How Long Do We Keep Your Information?
We retain your personal information only as long as is necessary for the purposes outlined in this Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (e.g. for tax accounting or legal requirements).
When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to retain or process your personal information, we will either delete, or anonymize, or securely store it from any further processing until deletion is possible.
How Do We Keep Your Information Safe?
We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. For data protection and retention policies for the Weill Cornell ITS server, please visit https://its.weill.cornell.edu/policies/1102-privacy-of-the-network.
Third-Party Websites and Applications
In order to provide you with other valuable information, the Services may provide links to other websites and applications, including third-party websites and applications outside the WCM network. Please be aware that this Policy does not apply to those external websites and applications. WCM exercises no authority over, and does not necessarily endorse, such third-party websites and applications. We encourage you to carefully read the terms of use and privacy policy of any other websites or apps before providing the third party with your personal information.
These destination links provided through the Services are offered solely for your convenience, and you access them at your own risk. However, WCM wishes to assure the integrity of the Services and their destination links, so any comments pertaining to the Services, or any websites accessed through our links, are greatly appreciated. Comments can be submitted to webmaster@med.cornell.edu.
Connect Patient Portal
Certain interactive patient applications may be linked to the Services as a convenience for you. The MyConnect portal, which offers patients secure access to their medical records, including electronic messaging to participating practices, is an example of such a patient application. If you choose to use a specific patient application, please be sure to read the privacy policy associated with that application.
Email Information
Please do not provide personal information to us via email unless it is through a secure channel (these will be marked, for example as secure online forms). Remember that email messages, unless encrypted while in transit, can be viewed by other Internet users. If you have personal information to communicate, please use the appropriate secure online form or contact the necessary party using traditional means such as phone or mail.
If you receive an email that appears to be from WCM and asks for your personal information, do not respond. This may be a scam or “phishing” email intended to steal your information. WCM will never request your password, username, credit card information or other personal information through email.
Legal Matters
WCM reserves the right to comply with the law and to release PII relating to any user of the Services (i) if we reasonably believe that the user is in violation of our Terms of Use, this Policy, or other published guidelines, or is engaged in illegal activity, (ii) in response to court and governmental orders, other enforceable requests from government entities, civil subpoenas, discovery requests and otherwise as required by law, (iii) if we reasonably believe that such release is required to protect the rights, property, safety or security of any of our users or the public, or (iv) to respond to an emergency.
Children’s Privacy
The Services are not intended for use by children under the age of 18. In accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), WCM does not knowingly request PII from anyone under the age of 13 without parental consent. In compliance with COPPA, if we receive information (with parental consent), we will not share their PII with third parties, regardless of their stated preference given at registration.
Changes To Privacy Policy
WCM may change this Policy from time to time. We encourage you to check this page regularly for any changes to the Policy and for new versions thereof. By continuing to access, browse, and/or use the Services, you agree to accept any posted revised terms.
Last updated: June 10, 2025