Updated April 26, 2004

WEB SITE PRIVACY POLICY

Your privacy is important to us. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association ("BCBSA") maintains high standards for the protection of your privacy at our web sites. Here is what you can expect when you visit BCBS.com:

Other than to fulfill a request from you, we won't sell, rent or share any personally-identifiable information you provide without your consent.

·We won't send you any unsolicited e-mail ("spam").

·No personally-identifiable information collected at this site will ever be used to affect your health insurance coverage by or premiums paid to a Blue Cross and Blue Shield Company.

PLEASE REMEMBER that this policy covers only the data collection and use practices for BCBS.com, an official Web site of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. BCBSA's privacy policies may differ at other of its websites or in its off-line data collection and reporting practices. Questions regarding the privacy policy of your independent, local Blue Cross and Blue Shield company should be directed that company.

The Information We Collect

Our web servers automatically capture your domain name, the IP address of the web page from which you enter our site, the pages you visit on our site and the amount of time you spend here. We do not collect any information that can reveal your personal identity unless you voluntarily provide it when you register to use interactive features of the site, including the sales portal, or to receive information from us or our member Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies ("Blue Plans"). Any section of BCBS.com that is directed to children or teens will be protected by a screening mechanism to help ensure that parental consent is obtained before we collect or use personal information from children under 13. We do not knowingly collect or use information from children under 13 without the consent of a parent or guardian.

Personally identifiable information voluntarily provided by you may be retained indefinitely for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice.

Use of the Information this Site Gathers/Tracks

Any personally-identifiable information you give us will be used only to provide the product, service or information you have requested or for which you registered, like a quote from one of the Blue Plans. Unless you specifically consent to let us do so, your personally-identifiable information, including your e-mail address, will not be sold, rented, licensed, or otherwise shared with third parties, other than our member Blue Plans as required to fulfill a request from you. The non-personally identifiable information we gather in aggregate form may be used to improve our site, and we may share that information with our member Blue Plans or our health and wellness sponsors. Personal information you voluntarily provide and the non-personally identifiable information we collect in aggregate form will not affect your insurance coverage, eligibility, premiums or claims payment by any Blue Cross and Blue Shield Company.

Making Changes to the Information You Provide to Us

Information that you voluntarily provided will be maintained as long as BCBSA deems appropriate to fulfill the purpose for which you provided the information or until you request us to remove it.

Cookies

When you visit BCBS.com, we may place a temporary "session" or a permanent cookie on your computer that will allow us to customize and enhance your experience at the site, make improvements to our site, or to report site activity. Our session cookies are not permanently stored on your computer and expire when you leave. Permanent cookies are issued only to site visitors who link the site from a search engine and are used only to permit BCBSA to attract qualified users to the site. Our cookies will never be used to track your activity on any third party web sites or to send spam, nor will they provide us with any personally identifiable information about you. We store cookie information only in aggregate form and use the aggregate information only to make improvements to the site or in internal reports on site activity. You may use your browser controls to refuse to allow cookies to be placed on your computer. Refusing cookies disables our ability to include information about your visit in our regular monitoring of site traffic.

Sites We Link To

If you choose to use any of the links we provide to our member companies, sponsors, and other third party resources, you will be leaving our web site and going to a new web site. Protection of your privacy at those other sites will be governed by the privacy policy at that site. We've taken special care selecting the companies that appear in the Health and Wellness section of BCBS.com to try to ensure that they respect your privacy as we do, but please take the time to read the privacy policies at their sites.

Changes to this Policy

If we make any changes to this policy, we'll let you know the effective date of the changes and provide a tool for you to understand what has changed. If you have any questions or comments or receive any unwanted e-mail from this site, please contact our webmaster via e-mail at Privacy@BCBSA.com.