Privacy Policy

(Updated May 2007)

1. Overview

   Benefifocus.com, Inc. ("Benefitfocus"), a South Carolina corporation, owns and operates this web site (the "Site").

   This Privacy Policy covers Benefitfocus treatment of personally identifiable information ("Personal Data") that Benefitfocus gathers when its users access and use the Web Site and when they use content and/or services on the Web Site. Benefitfocus knows that users care about how their personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy seriously. Please read the following to learn more about our privacy policy.

   By voluntarily providing us with Personal Data, you are consenting to our use of it in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you provide Personal Data to this Site, you acknowledge and agree that such Personal Data may be transferred from your current location to the offices and servers of Benefitfocus and the authorized third parties referred to herein located in the United States.

2. Information Collected Through the Site:

   We collect Personal Data through the Site when you voluntarily chose to provide us with such Personal Data, such as through one or more of the following options:

   Personal Data:

   • Registration. Our Site's registration system requires users to give us various Personal Data, including contact information such as their name and e-mail address, and demographic information such as a ZIP code, sex, age, or income level. Such contact information is used to contact the user when necessary. Users may also choose (opt-in) to subscribe to newsletters (as further explained in the choice/opt-in section below).
   • Personal Health Information.  If you choose to provide personal health information, it will be treated in the same manner as all other Personal Data you provide.  Benefitfocus may provide Aggregate Information to third parties. “Aggregate Information” is statistical information reflecting the habits and characteristics of a large group of anonymous people. Web sites may use aggregate data or share it with their business partners so that the information and services they provide best meet the needs of the users. Aggregate data also helps advertisers and sponsors on the Web know how effectively they are reaching and meeting the needs of their target audience.   Depending on the circumstances, we may or may not charge third parties for this Aggregate Information. We require parties with whom we share Aggregate Information to agree that they will not attempt to make this information personally identifiable, such as by combining it with other databases.
   • Surveys and Questionnaires. Our online surveys and questionnaires may ask users for contact and demographic information. The users contact information is used to contact the user when necessary. Users may opt-out of receiving future mailings (as further explained in the choice/opt-in section below).

   Other Information:

   • Demographics. We receive and store certain types of information whenever users interact with our Site. Benefitfocus automatically receives and records information on our server logs from users’ browser including IP addresses, Benefitfocus cookie information, and the page requested.
   • Generally, our service automatically collects usage information, such as the numbers and frequency of visitors to our Site and its components, similar to TV ratings that indicate how many people watched a particular show. Benefitfocus only uses this data in aggregate form, that is, as a statistical measure, and not in a manner that would identify a user personally. This type of aggregate data enables us to figure out how often users access parts of the Site so that we can make the Site appealing to as many users as possible, and improve the content. This information may be shared with advertisers and other third parties on an aggregated basis, but it does not indicate the identity of individual users.
   • IP Addresses. An IP address is a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet. All computer identification on the Internet is conducted with IP addresses, which allow computers and servers to recognize and communicate with each other. Through the Site, we collect IP addresses in order to conduct system administration, report aggregate information to sponsors and advertisers, and to conduct Site analysis. If a user requests pages from the Site, our servers enter the visitor's IP address into a log. To maintain visitor anonymity, we do not associate IP addresses with records containing Personal Data. However, we will use IP addresses to identify any user who refuses to comply with our in-house rules or terms of service, and to identify users who threaten our service, Site, customers, advertisers or others.
   • Cookies. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that a Web site transfers to an individual's hard disk for record keeping purposes. Our Site uses cookies during your online session to deliver content specific to your interests. Cookies allow us to avoid showing you the same ad or other message repeatedly. Our cookies do not collect or contain Personal Data. They do enable us to relate your use of the Site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided to our Site. Benefitfocus does not combine the general information collected through cookies with other Personal Data that would reveal the identity of a user, his/her user or screen name or email address.
     Most browsers have an option for turning off the cookie feature, which will prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, as well as (depending on the sophistication of your browser software) allowing you to decide on acceptance of each new cookie in a variety of ways. We strongly recommend that you leave the cookies activated, however, because cookies enable you to take advantage of some of our Sites most attractive features.  Certain portions of the web site may not be available to you if you choose to disable cookies.

3. Our Use of Your Personal Data and Other Information:

   We use the Personal Data you provide in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy. If you provide Personal Data for a certain reason, we may use the Personal Data in connection with the reason for which it was provided. For instance, if you contact us by e-mail, will we use the Personal Data you provide to answer your question or resolve your problem. Also, if you provide Personal Data in order to obtain access to the certain services available through the Site, we will use your Personal Data to provide access to such services and to monitor your use of such services. We may also use your Personal Data and other personally non-identifiable information collected through the Site to help us improve the content and functionality of the Site, to better understand our users and to improve our services. We may use this information to contact you in the future to tell you about services we believe will be of interest to you. If we do so, each communication we send you will contain instructions permitting you to "opt-out" of receiving future communications. In addition, at any time you wish not to receive any future communications or to have your name deleted from our mailing lists please contact us as indicated below. If we intend on using any Personal Data in any manner that is not consistent with this Privacy Policy, you will be informed of such anticipated use prior to the time at which the Personal Data is to be used.

4. Our Disclosure of your Personal Data and Other Information:

   Benefitfocus is not in the business of selling your Personal Data. We consider this information to be a vital part of our relationship with you and will not disclose your Personal Data to a third party except as set forth in this Privacy Policy.  Benefitfocus uses and may make available to others aggregated data of user activity.  This data describes the behavior of our visitors at as a group and does not contain any data that identifies, or can be used to identify, any individual visitor.  There are, however, certain circumstances in which we may share your Personal Data with certain third parties without further notice to you, as set forth below:

   • Business Transfers:

     As we develop our business, we might sell or buy businesses or assets. In the event of a corporate sale, merger, reorganization, dissolution or similar event, Personal Data may be part of the transferred assets.

   • Related Companies:

     We may also share your Personal Data internally for purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy. Any internal recipient is subject to this Privacy Policy.

   • Agents, Consultants and Related Third Parties:

     Benefitfocus, like many businesses, sometimes hires other companies to perform certain business-related functions. Examples include mailing information, maintaining databases and processing payments. When we employ another company to perform a function of this nature, we only provide it with the information that it needs to perform its specific function and require that it keeps your Personal Data confidential and only uses it consistent with this Privacy Policy.

   • Legal Requirements:

     Benefitfocus may disclose your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to (i) comply with a legal obligation, (ii) protect and defend the rights or property of Benefitfocus, (iii) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of the Site or the public, or (iv) protect against legal liability.

   • Consent:

     Except as set forth above, you will be notified when your Personal Data may be shared with third parties, and will be able to prevent the sharing of this information.

5. External Links:

   In order to provide users with greater value, our Site may provide links to various third party web sites. However, even if a third-party affiliation exists between the Site and that destination site, we do not exercise authority over these linked sites, each of which maintains independent privacy and data collection policies and procedures. While we do not pass information to these sites, we do not assume responsibility or liability for these independent methods or actions and are not responsible for the independent policies or procedures of destination sites. Similarly, we cannot take responsibility for the privacy initiatives or the content of such web sites. These links to third party web sites are provided only for your convenience, and as such, you access them at your own risk. However, we wish to ensure the integrity of the Site and its destination links, so any comments pertaining to the Site or any Sites accessed through these links are greatly appreciated.

6. Third Party Ad Services:

   Our Site utilizes certain services of third party service providers to display advertising for our third party advertisers. We do not share Personal Data with these third parties. The services provided by these third parties may in certain instances specifically ask you to provide to them Personal Data such as in response to contests or special offers. Such Personal Data is not provided to the Site and is not subject to this policy. These third party service providers are, however, bound to Benefitfocus not to collect Personal Data from you in any way other than from your voluntary response to a specific request stating the intended use of the information you provide. These third-party service providers may also place a cookie on your computer for the purposes of ad tracking and presentation.

7. Exclusions:

   This Privacy Policy does not apply to any Personal Data collected by Benefitfocus other than Personal Data collected through the Site. This Privacy Policy shall not apply to any unsolicited information you provide to Benefitfocus through this Site or through any other means. This includes, but is not limited to, information posted to any public areas of the Site, such as user profiles, comments, and message boards (collectively, Public Areas) any ideas for new products or modifications to existing products, and other unsolicited submissions (collectively, Unsolicited Information). Please think carefully before disclosing Personal Data or other Unsolicited Information in a Public Area. All such Unsolicited Information is not confidential and Benefitfocus shall be free to reproduce, use, disclose, and distribute such Unsolicited Information to others without limitation or attribution and may be used by others in ways we cannot prevent for unauthorized purposes.

8. Children:

   Benefitfocus respects the sensitive nature of children’s privacy online. We are a general audience site. We do not direct any of our content specifically at, nor do we knowingly collect Personal Data from children under the age of 13. If you are under thirteen, please do not submit any Personal Data through the Site. We encourage parents and legal guardians to monitor their children’s Internet usage and to help enforce our Privacy Policy by instructing their children to never provider Personal Data on this Site without their permission. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 13 has provided Personal Data to Benefitfocus through this Site, please contact us, and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases. We have implemented procedures to ensure that if we obtain actual knowledge of a child’s personal information we will take steps to delete that information. In addition, if Benefitfocus knows that a user is under age 13, we will NOT: (i) deliberately collect online contact information from that user without prior parental consent, except where used to respond directly to the child's request; (ii)deliberately collect personally identifiable offline contact information from that user without prior parental consent; (iii) deliberately give that user the ability to publicly post or otherwise distribute personally identifiable information without prior parental consent; (iv)distribute to third parties any personally identifiable information of that user without prior parental consent; and (v) entice that user by the prospect of a special game, prize or other activity, to divulge more information than is needed to participate in the activity.

9. Security:

   We employ reasonable security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the Personal Data under our control. We employ strict security measures to safeguard online transactions, including usernames and passwords. Personal Data is stored in a secured database and always sent via an encrypted Internet channel. However, no Internet or e-mail transmission is ever fully secure or error free. In particular, e-mail sent to or from this Site may not be secure. Therefore, you should therefore take special care in deciding what information you send to us via e-mail.

10. Choice/Opt-In:

    Our Site gives users the opportunity to subscribe to receive newsletters and other communications from us. This Site also gives users the opportunity to stop receiving these communications at any time. You will find an opt-out option at the bottom of all communications.

11. Other Terms and Conditions:

    Your access to and use of this Site is subject to the [provide link to Terms of Service].

12. Contacting the Web Site:

    If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Site, or your interaction with this Site, please contact us by clicking on the Contact Us link at the bottom of the page or at the following address:

    Benefitfocus.com, Inc.
    100 Benefitfocus Way
    Charleston, SC 29492
    Attn: General Counsel
    Tel: 843-849-7476

13. Changes to this Privacy Policy.

    Benefitfocus may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. Use of information we collect now is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is used/collected. If we make changes in the way we use Personal Data, we will notify you by posting an announcement on our Site.

Copyright Notice

© 2008 Benefitfocus.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Registered Trademarks

All of the trademarks, service marks, and logos displayed on this Site including, without limitation, BENEFITFOCUS®, IHEALTHFOCUS™, and ICYOU™ (the "Trademarks") are registered and unregistered trademarks of Benefitfocus, its affiliates, or third parties. Nothing in this Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right in and to the Trademarks without our express written permission or the express written permission of the applicable third party. Except as expressly provided in this Agreement, any use of the Trademarks is expressly prohibited.

Questions or Concerns

If you have any questions or concerns regarding privacy at this site, please send us a detailed message at the e-mail address under the Contact Us link below. We will make every effort to resolve your concerns.