Our Web Privacy Statement

Thank you for visiting our Web site and for your interest in our Web privacy policies.

The Cardiovascular Research Institute at The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center (TAMUSHSC) is committed to respecting and protecting your privacy. The following statement details the steps we take to ensure that privacy. It is derived in part from statements previously created by the State of Texas and the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

We employ the information gathering and use practices listed below:

Cookies

In Internet terminology, a "cookie" is a small text file. This file is placed on your hard drive via your web browser so the file can later be read by that browser. A cookie file contains unique information that a web site can use to track things such as lists of pages you have visited, passwords you have created to log onto a site, and the date when you last looked at a particular page. Commercial sites often use cookies to identify items you have selected for a shopping cart application.

We do not use cookies to collect information.

E-mail

In keeping with the provisions of Government Code §441, e-mail messages are considered official state records. E-mail messages are managed in accordance with the agency’s authorized records retention schedule and e-mail messages residing on agency computers will be made available to the public upon request under the Public Information Act unless the record fits an exception to disclosure described in Government Code §§552.101 through 552.132.

If you send us an e-mail message with a question or comment that contains personally identifying information, or fill out a form that e-mails us this information, we will only use the information you provide to respond to your request and analyze trends.

IP Addresses

We use visitors' IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our Web server, and to manage our Web site.

As far as our site management functions, we collect information for analysis and statistical purposes only . This information is not reported or used in any way that would reveal personally identifiable information, and we will not release the information to any outside parties unless legally required to do so in connection with law enforcement investigations or other legal proceedings.

We use Log analysis tools to create summary statistics, which are used for purposes such as assessing what information is of most interest, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas. The following information is collected for this analysis:

User Client hostname - The hostname (or IP address if DNS is disabled) of the user/client requesting access.
HTTP header, "user-agent" - The user-agent information includes the type of browser, its version, and the operating system it's running on.
HTTP header, "referer" - The referer specifies the page from which the client accessed the current page.
System date - The date and time of the user/client request.
Full request - The exact request the user/client made.
Status - The status code the server returned to the user/client.
Content length - The content length, in bytes, of the document sent to the user/client.
Method - The request method used.
Universal Resource Identifier (URI) - The location of a resource on the server.
Query string of the URI - Anything after the question mark in a URI.
Protocol - The transport protocol and version used.

Linking to Sites Other Than Our Own

Our Web site does contain links to other Web sites. Even though we make every effort to ensure the accuracy and usefulness of our own Web site, we make no claims about the accuracy of materials on Web sites other than our own.

External links to other sites are intended for informational purposes only and they are not endorsed by the Cardiovascular Research Institute. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, accessibility or content of any other Web sites.

Alternative Formats and Accessibility

The Cardiovascular Research Institute is committed to making our Web site as accessible as possible to all of our visitors. Where certain information on our Web site may potentially pose a problem for accessibility, every effort has been made to provide this information in an alternative format. If you do experience difficulties accessing any information on this site, please contact our Webmaster.

Contacting the Webmaster

In addition to accessibility issues, if you have any further questions about our site, please contact:

Webmaster
Department of Medical Physiology
The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center
College Station, Texas 77843-1114

We also welcome comments and suggestions!