Privacy Policy

The team at Boston Children's Hospital takes your privacy very seriously and we're conscious about how we handle your data. In this privacy policy we'll explain what data the Feverprints app (the "App") collects, how it is transported over the internet and how it can or cannot be linked to individual users.

By using the App you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in this privacy policy. You also consent that we collect, use, and share your information as described in this privacy policy.

What does this Privacy Policy cover?

This Privacy Policy covers our treatment of personally identifiable information ("Personal Information") that we gather when you are accessing or using the App. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of companies or institutions that we do not own or control, or to individuals that we do not employ or manage.

Your use of the App will allow you to provide us with Personal Information, including but not limited to information about your overall health, family history, medications you are taking, and temperature record. The App collects your Personal Information for the purposes of a research study being conducted by Boston Children’s Hospital called Feverprints (the “Study”).If you choose to use the App to provide us with any Personal Information, you must first review and acknowledge the informed consent form for the Study, which will be presented to you within the App.

Children under 18 years of age are not allowed to register to the study on their own, they will need parental consent. We do not knowingly allow anyone under 18 to register for the App on their own. If you are under 18, you must have your parents/guardians register you for the study, and you must not send any information about yourself to us, including but not limited to your name, address, telephone number, or email address. In the event that we learn that we have collected Personal Information from a person under age 18 without parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a person under the age of 18 who is using the app without parental consent, please contact us at: feverprints@childrens.harvard.edu.

What information does the App collect?

The App will obtain information from you in two ways. The first is information that you manually enter into the app. If you have a smarth thermometer, the app may also collect temperature information automatically.

Information you manually enter into the App

We receive and store some information you manually enter into the App. We do not collect Personal Information that directly identifies you, such as your name and birth date. Your name is only shown inside the app, and we only collect your birth year, conforming to the HIPAA Privacy Rule 1. Instead, when you first use the app, a random number is created which will be used by us to know that the different information sent to us belongs to the same person.

In addition to directly identifiable Personal Information, we ask you to enter information including gender, month and year of birth, etc. Information collected when you answer questionnaires may contain information about your medications, medical history, lifestyle choices, illnesses, and associated symptoms. In the future we may collect additional health-related information as the App and the surveys presented to you are further developed. You can choose not to provide us with certain information by not providing this information in the “You” section inside the App, or simply by skipping questions that you are uncomfortable answering.

Information collected automatically

In addition to the Personal Information that you manually enter, the App also collects certain Personal Information about you automatically through your smartphone and/or any other wearable device which you use during the Study. If you have a Bluetooth-enabled thermometer synced to your smartphone, the App will obtain temperature data recorded from Apple's HealthKit database. This data will be automatically uploaded when you complete a survey.

The App may also collect information about your location, including real-time location, through your smartphone or wearable device's applicable geolocation, GPS, wifi or similar capabilities ("Location Information"). We will use the Location Information only when you sign up for the study to determine the state you live in. The App will not store your Location Information.

The App may also automatically receive technical information relating to your usage of the App such as your operating system, device, features used, content viewed and downloaded, the dates and times of your interactions with the App and other information. We may use this information to understand, customize and improve user experience with the App and the Study. For example, we may engage analytics services to analyze this information in order to help us understand how users engage with and navigate the App, how and when features within the App are used and by how many users. This information cannot be linked to you nor to the data you provide as part of the research study.

Push Notifications

"Push notifications" are messages that are sent to your smartphone to remind you of what you need to do in the Study. The App will send you push notifications throughout your participating in the Study, to make sure that you know to do certain things as part of the Study. You can choose to disable notifications in settings.

Is Personal Information about me secure?

All information collected through the App is encrypted on your device. This makes it virtually impossible for anyone except the study organizers to read your information. Encrypted data is then sent to a server run by Boston Children's Hospital and hosted by Amazon, then forwarded to a secure database hosted at Boston Children's Hospital.

Because your data only contains your random number, researchers using the data will not be able to identify individuals participating in the study.

Access to the App on your smartphone is protected by Touch ID or the passcode you selected after you downloaded the app. One of these needs to be entered every time you access the App the first time after a few minutes. You should take steps to prevent unauthorized access to your account and personal information by selecting and protecting your Touch ID and passcode appropriately and limiting access to your smartphone.

We endeavor to protect the privacy of the Personal Information we hold in our records, but we cannot guarantee complete security. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors, may compromise the security of your Personal Information at any time.

All information collected by the App will be processed in the United States. During the study, only Boston Children's Hospital and contractors engaged by Boston Children's Hospital will be able to compile data you generate or provide through or with the App. You should only transmit data for the Study if you are in the United States at the time you transmit such data. You should be aware that the laws in the United States may not protect your privacy to the same extent as the laws in the country from which you have transmitted data to the App.

Will Boston Children's Hospital share any of the information it receives?

If you have granted us permission to do so in the informed consent form for the Study, we may share your coded study data (data not containing your name nor date of birth) with researchers outside of Boston Children's Hospital under criteria established by Boston Children’s Hospital.

The information collected by the App will not be shared with or sold for advertising purposes.

If required by law, the anonymous data you provide may be disclosed to United States Department of Health and Human Services agencies, the Office for Human Research Protection, and other agencies as required by law. Also, the Institutional Review Board at Boston Children's Hospital, which monitors the safety and conduct of human research, can look at the anonymous study data you provide.

What Personal Information can I access?

Through the App, you may access, edit or delete the following information you've provided to us: first name (only visible in the app, never sent to us); gender and date of birth (month and year only); your temperature, symptoms, medications. Your temperature may be periodically updated by reading your latest entry from HealthKit.

When you update or delete information in the App, information already sent to us during previous data collections will persist and cannot be changed or updated. The information you can view and update may change as the App undergoes further development.

If you have any questions about viewing or updating information we have on file about you, please contact us at: feverprints@childrens.harvard.edu.

What choices do I have?

You may choose not to install the App. If you choose not to install the App, you will be unable to participate in the Study.

You may stop all collection of information by the App at any time by withdrawing from the study on the "You" page within the App or uninstalling the App. If you uninstall the App, we will retain all of information about you that was collected prior to that point and continue to use such information as described in this Privacy Policy. We will not be able to restore your data after you have withdrawn from the study or uninstalled the app.

If you have questions about withdrawing, please contact us at: feverprints@childrens.harvard.edu.

Re-Contact

Since we do not collect your name, address, or email address, we are unable to contact you should we desire to do so. If you use the App's built-in help system to ask us a question, we will be able to reply to you but will not know your name, address, phone number or email address. Should you contact us by email we will be able to see your email address and respond to you accordingly.

What limitations are there on my use of the App?

When you download the App, you receive a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-assignable license (without the right to sublicense) to install and use one copy of the App solely for your personal, non-commercial use in connection with the Study. You must own or control the device on which you download the App. By downloading and using the App, you agree that you will not do anything to interfere with or disrupt the operation of the App, will provide only accurate and current information through the App, and will not impersonate anyone else in your use of the App. You further agree not to transmit content that you do not have the right to transmit or that infringes the rights of any party, and you agree to use the App in compliance with all applicable laws. You understand that the App or portions ofit may be subject to patent, copyright, trademark and other intellectual property protection and that the ownership of software and other intellectual property related to the App, as well the goodwill associated therewith, remains with Boston Children's Hospital or its licensors. You agree that any improvements or other changes to the App or the Study itself are the sole property of Boston Children's Hospital.

Effective Date and Changes to the Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is effective as of December 31, 2015. We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. New versions of this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted to our website at the following link: http://www.feverprints.com. Use of information we collect now is subject to the version of the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is used.

How is my Health app data handled?

You have the option to share data from your mobile device's iOS HealthKit database with the App. Once you agree to share your data through and with the App, such data become covered by this Privacy Policy.

The App was developed using Apple's HealthKit framework and thus complies with Apple's development guidelines. To view these guidelines, go to https://developer.apple.com/appstore/review/guidelines/#healthkit.

Questions or concerns?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the topics addressed in this privacy policy, please send a message to: feverprints@childrens.harvard.edu.

This Privacy Policy forms part of our End User License Agreement and as such shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Massachusetts as further provided in the End User License Agreement.