Privacy Policy

Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, a Division of Wits Health Consortium (Pty) Ltd (hereinafter “VIDA”) is committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that gives you the most powerful and safe online experience. This Statement of Privacy applies to the VIDA website and governs data collection and usage. By using the VIDA website, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

VIDA may collect personally identifiable information, such as your email address, name, home or work address or telephone number. VIDA may also collect anonymous demographic information, which is not unique to you, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favourites.

There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by VIDA. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring website addresses. This information is used by VIDA for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the VIDA site.

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through VIDA public message boards, this information may be collected and used by others.

Note: VIDA does not read any of your private online communications.

VIDA encourages you to review the privacy statements of websites you choose to link to from VIDA so that you can understand how those websites collect, use and share your information. VIDA is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on websites outside of the VIDA and VIDA family of websites.

VIDA collects and uses your personal information to operate the VIDA website and deliver the services you have requested, in as far as may be applicable. VIDA also uses your personally identifiable information to inform you of other products, services or information available from VIDA and its affiliates.

VIDA does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. If consented to by yourself, VIDA may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to VIDA, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

VIDA does not collect, use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

VIDA keeps track of the websites and pages our customers visit within VIDA, in order to determine what VIDA services and links are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customized content and advertising within VIDA to customers whose behaviour indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

VIDA Web sites will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on VIDA or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of VIDA; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of VIDA, or the public.

The VIDA website uses “cookies” to help you personalise your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a webpage server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize VIDA pages, or register with VIDA site or services, a cookie helps VIDA to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same VIDA Web site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the VIDA features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the VIDA services or Web sites you visit.

VIDA secures your personal information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. VIDA secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. When personal information is transmitted to other Web sites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

VIDA will occasionally update this Statement of Privacy to reflect company and user feedback. VIDA encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how VIDA is protecting your information.

VIDA welcomes your comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that VIDA has not adhered to this Statement, please contact VIDA at info@wits-vida.org. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.