This PRIVACY SUPPLEMENT supplements the information contained in the Privacy Policy of WebMD LLC and its subsidiaries (collectively, “we,” “us,” or “our”) and applies solely to our users who are residents of U.S. states, commonwealths or territories with applicable data privacy laws (“consumers” or “you”) in relation to your use of our owned and operated websites that are intended for use by consumers (non-professionals) for non-commercial personal, family or household purposes, including WebMD.com, MedicineNet.com, RxList.com, OnHealth.com, and eMedicineHealth.com and including the mobile optimized versions of these sites and our Mobile Device Applications or "Apps" (we refer to these sites and Apps collectively as the “WebMD Sites”). We refer to the WebMD Sites and Apps, along with the information and services made available to you through the WebMD Sites and Apps, as the “Services”.
We adopt this notice to comply with the requirements of certain applicable U.S. data privacy laws and regulations, including the California Consumer Privacy Act, the California Privacy Rights Act and other California privacy laws, Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, the Colorado Privacy Act, as well as the Connecticut Act Concerning Personal Data Privacy and Online Monitoring (collectively, “Applicable Data Privacy Laws”). Any terms defined in our Privacy Policy or in Applicable Data Privacy Laws have the same meaning when used in this notice.
Information we collect.
Certain information that we collect identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household (“personal information”).
We have collected personal information from the following categories of information from consumers within the last twelve (12) months:
| Category | Examples | Collected |
| A. Identifiers. | A real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, Social Security number, driver's license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers. | E.g., your name, email address, and IP address |
| B. Personal information listed under Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e). | A name, signature, Social Security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver's license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information. Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other categories. | E.g., your name |
| C. Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law. | Age (40 years or older), race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, religion or creed, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, sex (including gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy or childbirth and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, veteran or military status, genetic information (including familial genetic information). | E.g., age upon registration |
| D. Commercial Information. | Records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies. | E.g., products purchased |
| E. Biometric Information. | Genetic, physiological, behavioral, and biological characteristics, or activity patterns used to extract a template or other identifier or identifying information, such as, fingerprints, faceprints, and voiceprints, iris or retina scans, keystroke, gait, or other physical patterns, and sleep, health, or exercise data. | N/A |
| F. Internet or other similar network activity. | Browsing history, search history, information on a consumer's interaction with a website, application, or advertisement. | Yes |
| G. Geolocation data. | Physical location or movements. | Yes |
| H. Sensory data. | Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information. | N/A |
| I. Professional or employment-related information. | Current or past job history or performance evaluations. | N/A |
| J. Non-public education information. | Education records directly related to a student maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalf, such as grades, transcripts, class lists, student schedules, student identification codes, student financial information, or student disciplinary records. | N/A |
| K. Inferences drawn from other personal information. | Profile reflecting a person's preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes. | Yes |
| L. Sensitive Personal Information | See Sensitive Personal Information below. | E.g., for users of WebMD Health Manager |
Personal information may not include:
- Publicly available information from government records.
- De-identified or aggregated consumer information.
- Information included in categories F, G and K may be collected and used in a de-identified and/or aggregated manner.
- Information excluded, such as:
- protected health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), clinical trial data or biomedical research study covered by the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (Common Rule) or the human subject protection requirements of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA); or
- personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), the Farm Credit Act of 1971 and the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994.
- information and documents created for purposes of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986.
Sensitive Personal Information
Sensitive personal information may include (1) personal information that reveals (A) a social security, driver’s license, state identification card, or passport number; (B) account log-in, financial account, debit card, or credit card number in combination with any required security or access code, password, or credentials allowing access to an account; (C) precise geolocation; (D) racial or ethnic origin, immigration status, religious or philosophical beliefs, or union membership; (E) the contents of mail, email, and text messages except where we are the intended recipient of the communication; (F) genetic data; (2) the processing of biometric or genetic information for the purpose of uniquely identifying a consumer; (3) personal information collected and analyzed concerning a consumer’s health or diagnosis; (4) personal information collected and analyzed concerning a consumer’s sex life or sexual orientation; and (5) personal information collected from a known child.
We may collect and store certain categories of sensitive personal information (e.g., account log-in, precise geolocation) in order to provide the Services to you and for short-term, transient use based on your interactions with the WebMD Sites.
If you are a user of WebMD Health Manager, we may store certain health information that you provide to us. Such information is only used to provide such services to you.
Categories of sources from which information is collected.
As described in our Privacy Policy, we may obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:
- Directly from you, such as when you register with WebMD.
- Directly and indirectly from your activity on our Sites and Apps, as described below under Services and device information and Cookies and other tracking technologies.
- From third parties that interact with us in connection with the Services, such as from consumer data providers for research and analytics purposes as described below.
Use of your personal information.
Services and Device Information
When you access and use the Services, WebMD automatically collects and stores in its server logs information from your browser or mobile device such as your IP address or unique device identifier, browser information (including referring URL), your preferences and settings, cookies and information about the content you have viewed and actions taken (e.g., search queries, ad engagement, clicks and the associated dates and times). WebMD may also collect device-specific information when you install and use an App including your device model, operating system information, advertising ID (which is a unique, user-resettable identification number for advertising associated with a mobile device) and App version and usage information. When enabled by you, we collect precise location information provided by your mobile device, which you may disable through the device settings.
Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
We and our partners use cookies to collect information about your use of the Services. “Cookies” are small data files assigned to your browser when you visit a WebMD Site which enable recognition of your browser and collect and store information about your use of the Services, as described above. In addition to cookies, we and our partners use other tracking technologies that collect information about your use of the Services, including mobile identifiers and "web beacons" which are small graphic files (sometimes called “clear GIFs” or “web pixels”) embedded in a web page or email typically used to monitor activity and send relevant information back to a home server (which can belong to the host site, a network advertiser or some other third party). The information collected by such tracking technologies may be combined with other information that our partners have access to, including your name, email address and physical address, so that we can send you materials, either electronically or by direct mail, that may be of interest to you.
Our advertising service partners may use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect information about your use of the WebMD Sites, including content you have viewed. These third parties may use this information to help WebMD deliver advertising on the WebMD Sites and on other third party websites based on your browsing activity on the WebMD Sites. WebMD may further tailor the advertising on the WebMD Sites and these other third party websites based on additional information to the extent known by WebMD or these third parties. Two of the third parties that WebMD works with are Google and Facebook. In addition to using the information it collects performing services for WebMD, Google may also use such information as described in its privacy policy. To see how Google may use information collected through our use of the Google services on the WebMD Sites visit https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. While Facebook does not provide any personal information to WebMD, Facebook may use information that it has about you and that it collects performing services for WebMD (which may be associated with personal information that Facebook has about you) as described in its privacy policy available at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy.
We also work with third party ad networks to display advertising on our WebMD Sites and on third party websites. Our ad network vendors use technologies to collect information about your activities on the WebMD Sites and in our flagship WebMD App to provide you cookie-based targeted advertising on our WebMD Sites and on third party websites based upon your browsing activity and your interests.
For more information about how our cookies and other tracking technologies are used in connection with the Services, please read our Cookie Policy.
When you download and install one of our Apps onto your mobile device we assign a random number to your App installation. This number cannot be used to identify you personally, and we cannot identify you personally unless you choose to become a registered user of the App. We use this random number in a manner similar to our use of cookies as described in this Privacy Policy and in our Cookie Policy. Unlike cookies, the random number is assigned to your installation of the App itself and not a browser, because the App does not work through your browser. Therefore the random number cannot be removed through settings. If you do not want us to use the random number for the purposes for which we use cookies, please do not use the Apps. Our use of cookies and other tracking technologies on our mobile optimized sites and our flagship WebMD App are similar to our use on our desktop sites. Your choices to reject cookies, use the Network Advertising Initiative and the opt-out mechanism described below in the section "Your Choices and Rights" are available on our flagship WebMD App and on our mobile optimized sites.
Use of personal information.
Your personal information included in each of categories A, D, F, G, K and L described above may be used for the following business purposes:
- to provide, improve and create new Services,
- to respond to your inquiries and to send you administrative communications about the WebMD Sites and Services,
- to obtain your feedback about the WebMD Sites and Services,
- to send you secure electronic messages and personalized emails pertaining to your interests as inferred from your use of the Services, including news, announcements, reminders and opportunities from WebMD,
- to statistically analyze trends and user behavior and activity including how frequently areas of the WebMD Sites are visited, how the Services are being used and how many emails are received and opened,
- to provide you and people with similar demographic characteristics and interests with more relevant content including advertising both on and off the WebMD Sites and Apps,
- to offer lead generation services,
- to detect and defend against fraud and other threats to the Services and our users,
- to identify issues with the Services,
- to conduct research and measurement activities, including those described below, and
- to administer your account.
In addition, WebMD may use personal information about you for other purposes that are disclosed to you at the time we collect the information and/or with your consent.
WebMD may combine your personal information and other information collected about your use of the Services, and also supplement with information from external sources for the purposes described in this privacy notice. For example, information that WebMD collects about you may be combined by WebMD with other information available to WebMD through third parties for research and measurement purposes, including measuring the effectiveness of content, advertising or programs. This information from other sources may include age, gender, demographic, geographic, personal interests, product purchase activity or other information. We may report aggregate information, which is not able to be identified back to an individual user of the WebMD Sites, to our current or prospective advertisers and other business partners.
Sharing your personal information
Personal information disclosed for a business purpose
We may share your information with our subsidiaries, affiliates and companies acquired by or merged with us and our affiliates.
WebMD works with third party companies that help us provide the Services and to otherwise assist in the operation of the WebMD Sites and Apps, including those that provide services relating to technology, data analysis, research, email management and deployment, sweepstakes and contest administration, advertising and marketing and/or content. WebMD service providers sometimes have limited access to your information in the course of providing products or services to WebMD. We contractually require that our service providers not use or disclose your information for any purpose other than providing the limited service or function for WebMD.
In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have disclosed your personal information included in each of categories A, D, F, G, and K for a business purpose.
We disclose your personal information for a business purpose to the following categories of third parties: (i) service providers, and (ii) third parties to whom you or your agents authorize us to disclose your personal information in connection with the Services.
Personal information “sold” to or “shared” with third parties
We may share information that we have about you, such as a cookie ID or IP address, with third party advertising partners who may use this information, on our behalf, to help WebMD deliver advertising on the WebMD Sites as well as on third party websites.
In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have made available your personal information included in categories A, F, G and K to third parties for advertising services.
For more information about our use of cookies and other tracking technologies, please read our Cookie Policy.
We do not “sell” or “share” the personal information of consumers that we know are minors under 16 years of age without affirmative authorization as required under the Applicable Data Privacy Laws.
We do not “sell” or “share” your sensitive personal information in category L.
Retention of Personal Information
If you have an account on the WebMD Sites, we may retain your personal information as long as your account is active in order to provide the Services to you and for a period of (2) years thereafter. If you do not have an account, we may retain certain personal information based on your interactions with the WebMD Sites, such as IP address, as long as relevant to your use of the Services.
Your rights
The Applicable Data Privacy Laws provide consumers with specific rights regarding their personal information. This section describes your consumer rights and explains how to exercise those rights.
Right to know and data portability rights
You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information over the past 12 months or beyond the 12-month period on or after January 1, 2022. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will disclose to you:
- the categories of personal information we collected about you.
- the categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.
- our business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling or sharing that personal information.
- the categories of third parties with whom we disclose that personal information.
- the specific pieces of personal information we collected about you (also called a right to access or data portability request).
You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period.
Right to delete
You have the right to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and verify your consumer request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.
We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service providers to:
- complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.
- prevent, detect and investigate security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
- debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
- exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
- comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 seq.).
- engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information's deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research's achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.
- enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
- comply with a legal obligation.
- make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.
Right to correct your inaccurate personal information
You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate personal information about you, taking into account the nature of the personal information and the purposes of processing your personal information. Once we receive and verify your consumer request, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to correct (and direct our service providers to correct) your inaccurate personal information from our records, unless it is impossible or involves a disproportionate effort.
Right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of your personal information
The CCPA defines “sale” and “share” broadly, and it may include our sharing information that we have about you, such as a cookie ID or IP address, with third party advertising partners who may use this information, on our behalf, to help us deliver advertising on the WebMD Sites as well as on third party websites. You have the right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of your personal information subject to certain exclusions as described below. Once we receive your request, we will not sell or share your personal information, unless an exclusion applies. We may request that you authorize the sale or sharing of your personal information after 12 months following your opt-out.
The Applicable Data Privacy Laws exclude certain transfers of your personal information from what constitutes a sale or sharing thereof:
- As directed by you:
- When you direct us to intentionally disclose your personal information or use the Services to intentionally interact with us or a third party (provided that third party does not sell or share your personal information, unless that disclosure would be consistent with the Applicable Data Privacy Laws).
- Opt-out signal:
- We may share an identifier for you if you have opted out of the sale or sharing of your personal information for the purposes of alerting third parties of your election.
- Service provider:
- We may share your personal information with a service provider that is necessary to perform a business purpose as described above if both of the following conditions are met:
- we provide notice of the sharing and your opt-out right as described herein.
- the service provider does not further collect, sell, share or use the personal information of the consumer except as necessary to perform the business purpose.
- We may share your personal information with a service provider that is necessary to perform a business purpose as described above if both of the following conditions are met:
- Change of control:
- We may transfer to a third party your personal information as an asset that is part of a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or other transaction subject to certain requirements described in the Applicable Data Privacy Laws.
We are unable to process opt-out requests across devices or the Apps for advertising services described herein. For example, if you opt-out on your browser, we are not able to honor that request if you are using one of our Apps due to our practices and the limitations described above.
Right to non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your Applicable Data Privacy Laws rights. Unless permitted by the Applicable Data Privacy Laws, we will not:
- Deny you goods or services.
- Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.
- Provide you a different level or quality of goods or services.
- Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.
We may provide a different level of Services if the difference is reasonably related to value provided by your data.
Exercising access, data portability, correction, deletion and opt-out rights
To exercise the access, data portability, correction, deletion and opt-out rights described above, please submit a request to us by either:
- Calling us at (866) 967-1408.
- Clicking here.
By calling the toll-free number or using the above link, you will be asked to provide certain identifying information, such as name, email, residency and date of birth, which we will only use to process or verify your request. You will be asked to validate your request by clicking a validation link in an email that will be sent to the email address provided.
The verifiable consumer request must:
- Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative.
- Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.
You may be asked to provide further verifying documentation, such as proof of residency and identity.
Only you or a person that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child. If you are making a request through an authorized agent acting on your behalf, such authorized agent must provide proof of written authorization to do so, and you must verify your identity directly with us, unless such authorized agent provides proof of a power of attorney pursuant to Probate Code sections 4000 to 4465.
We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor's identity or authority to make the request.
In case you want to appeal the denial of a decision with regard to a previous request, please submit a request to us by sending an email to [email protected].
Exercising your opt-out right.
You may exercise your opt-out right by visiting our website and selecting your preferences within the cookie banner at the bottom of the page, as well as by clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link in the footer. You may also exercise your opt-out right by enabling an opt-out preference signal as part of your security or privacy settings (where available) in your device or internet browser. The cookie banner will automatically read such signals and comply with your preferences.
As more fully described in our Cookie Policy , in order to give you more control over your privacy choices, we have implemented a DAA (Digital Advertising Alliance) approved opt-out mechanism for interest-based advertising. At the bottom of every page of the WebMD Sites you will see an AdChoices logo (which looks like this:
In our flagship WebMD App you can find the AdChoices option in the “Settings” screen. By clicking on that logo on the WebMD Sites or following the instructions in the flagship WebMD App, you will be presented with a window that will identify all of the companies that WebMD uses to direct tailored advertisements to you, both on the WebMD Sites and in the flagship WebMD App as well as on third-party websites. If you would like to stop this tailored advertising from WebMD, you can manage these advertisements through the choices in that window. By clicking the + symbol next to the name of a vendor in that window you will get information about how and where that vendor assists us with the delivery of advertisements.
The DAA also provides a general opt out of the sharing of your information with certain participating third parties through the DAA WebChoices Tool here.
Opt-outs may be stored via cookies. If you clear cookies or if your browser blocks cookies, your opt-out cookie may no longer be available and your opt-out choices may not be honored. We do not maintain or control the opt-out mechanisms described herein and are not responsible for their operation.
Please note that even if you opt-out of interest-based advertising, you will continue to receive generic advertisements through the Services. Please also note that your choice to stop tailored advertising is specific to the browser or mobile device that you are using so if you make a choice to opt out from one computer or mobile device and you want your opt-out to apply to a different computer or mobile device as well, please opt out from that computer or mobile device too.
You may also control interest-based advertising on your mobile device by enabling the “Limit Ad Tracking” setting in your iOS device’s settings or “Opt out of Ads Personalization” in your Android device’s settings. This will not prevent you from seeing advertisements, but will limit the use of device advertising identifiers to personalize ads based on your interests. If you have questions about how to reject cookies on your specific device, please confirm with the device manufacturer.
Response Timing and Format
We shall confirm receipt of your request(s) within 10 business days and provide you information on how we will process your request. We will endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. Any disclosures we provide will cover a period of no less than 12 months preceding the receipt of a verifiable consumer request. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily usable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.
We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.
For information on Applicable Data Privacy Laws requests we received last year, please click here.
Changes to this privacy notice
We reserve the right to change or modify this privacy notice and any of our Services at any time and any changes will be effective upon being posted unless we advise otherwise. By continuing to use the Services after changes are made to this privacy notice, you agree to such changes. We encourage you to periodically review this privacy notice for the latest information on our privacy practices.
Contact information
Please send us an email by using the Contact Us link at the bottom of every page of the WebMD Sites if you have any questions about this privacy notice or the personal information we maintain about you. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe.
You can also contact WebMD’s Privacy Office at:
WebMD LLC
Attn: Office of Privacy
395 Hudson Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10014
Effective Date: July 1, 2023