Digital Privacy Policy

Overview

This Digital Privacy Policy (“Policy”) explains how Cook Children’s Health Care System, including Cook Children’s Health Plan, Cook Children’s Physician Network, Cook Children’s Medical Center, Cook Children’s Medical Center-Prosper, Cook Children’s Home Health, Child Study Center, Cook Children’s Health Foundation, and each of their respective medical staffs, professional staffs, employees, and volunteers (“Cook Children’s”), collects, uses, stores, protects, and shares information when you use Cook Children’s Digital Tools.

This Policy describes how Cook Children's digital tools, which include, but are not limited to, Cook Children’s websites, patient portals, mobile applications, virtual health technologies, and other online services through which individuals interact with Cook Children’s (our "Digital Tools”) use, store and transmit information and data. Cook Children's may modify this Policy at any time after it is posted. Your use of our Digital Tools constitutes your acceptance of this Policy and any updates. Your use of our Digital Tools is subject to the applicable Application End User License Agreement.

Your personal and health information

Our Digital Tools and the limited ways Cook Children's uses your information

Cook Children's uses information collected through its Digital Tools to provide, maintain, and improve our services; authenticate users; respond to requests and inquiries; operate and secure our Digital Tools; troubleshoot technical issues; analyze usage and performance; communicate with users; comply with applicable legal, regulatory, and accreditation requirements; and support other legitimate operational, healthcare, and business purposes. We will use information only as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy or as otherwise permitted or required by law.

Cook Children's does not sell or license any information you may provide while using our Digital Tools, but we may may disclose information collected through our Digital Tools to third parties as necessary to operate, maintain, and secure those Digital Tools and to provide related services. Such recipients may include service providers, contractors, cloud hosting providers, technology vendors, analytics providers, and other entities that perform services on our behalf.

We may also disclose information:

• To comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, or governmental requests;
• To protect the rights, safety, and security of Cook Children's, our patients, users, and others;
• In connection with an organizational transaction such as a merger, acquisition, restructuring, or transfer of assets; or
• As otherwise authorized or required by law.

Except as noted below, our Digital Tools do not send your personal or health information directly to Cook Children's and do not store any of your personal or health information on your device or the associated cloud-based storage solution. Cook Children's attempts to minimize the amount of your personal and health information stored or retained on your device and on our systems.

However, in order to provide certain features to you, our Digital Tools may request personal information from the servers and systems you utilize to access the Digital Tools and our Digital Tools may record technical information about that request, such as an IP address and related information, with the type of device, platform and operating system you use with our Digital Tools. Cook Children’s retains information collected through its Digital Tools in accordance with applicable legal, regulatory, operational, and internal record retention requirements. Certain third-party technologies incorporated into our Digital Tools may also collect technical information necessary to provide functionality, security, analytics, or performance monitoring.  These third parties may retain such information in accordance with their own privacy practices, as limited by any contractual provisions between the third party and Cook Children’s requiring them to safeguard the information and use it only for authorized purposes.

Information Relating to Children

As a pediatric healthcare organization, Cook Children's provides services to minors and their families. Information relating to children may be collected through our Digital Tools in connection with the provision of healthcare services and related operations. Parents, legal guardians, and other authorized representatives may access and manage certain information on behalf of a minor patient, subject to applicable law and Cook Children's policies. In certain circumstances, federal or state law may provide minors with rights to confidential healthcare services. In those situations, access to information may be limited or restricted as required by law. Cook Children's handles information relating to children in accordance with applicable privacy, healthcare, and child protection laws.

Cookies and Other Technology

Our Digital Tools may use “cookies” or other similar technologies to support functionality, security, performance monitoring, and analytics. When you visit a website or access our Digital Tools again, the cookie allows that website or tool to recognize your browser or device. You can turn off cookies in your browser preferences at any time without affecting performance of the Digital Tools if you wish to do so. We leverage cookies in the following ways:

• Strictly necessary cookies- no personal identifying data is collected, and the “cookie” is erased when the visit ends.
• Analytical cookies and scripts- measure website use and performance
• Functional cookies- help our Digital Tools remember information about your preferences and settings. These may be anonymized and cannot be used to track your browsing activity on other websites.

MyCookChildren’s Mobile App for iOS and Android

Cook Children's mobile applications for patients, specifically MyCookChildren's for iOS and Android (our “Apps”), are intended to connect to servers and systems operated and maintained by Cook Children's to provide you with secure mobile access to those systems, and your personal and health information.

App Disclosures

Apple and Google have determined our Apps are subject to their Health Apps requirements. As a result, we are required to provide the following information so we can make our Apps available to you in the Play store and the Apple app store.

• When you add a profile photo to our Apps, you may select an existing photo on your device or take a new photo using the camera app on your device. If you select an existing photo on your device or use a camera app on your device to take a new photo, a temporary copy of your chosen photo is stored in our mobile app via secure storage areas within the application on your device (“app-private storage”). Certain camera apps may save a copy of your new photo in locations outside of our Apps’ app-private storage; you should review the privacy policy for the camera app you use to understand how that app interacts with your photos. Temporary files stored in our Apps’ app-private storage on your device are regularly deleted and are also deleted if you uninstall our mobile app. If you already have a profile photo stored in your profile through your healthcare organization – our Apps do not interact with that photo in any way.
• When you connect our Apps to Google Fit, Health Connect (by Google), or Apple Health, your health and fitness data is securely transmitted by our Apps and saved in your medical record. We do notstore any health and fitness data within our Apps. Any information required for you to select recipients of your data is encrypted and stored in app-private storage. If you stop sharing your health and fitness data or uninstall our mobile app, the encrypted information is deleted from app-private storage.
• When you view documents (such as letters or images) using our Apps, to make the files viewable for you, temporary copies are stored on your device in app-private storage. The temporary copies are deleted when you close your session on our Apps or delete the app.
• When you include a photo or video in a message you send using our Apps, you may select an existing photo or video from your device or take a new photo or video using the camera app on your device. If you use the camera app on your device to take new photos or videos, temporary copies are stored on your device in app-private storage. These temporary files are regularly deleted and are also deleted if you uninstall our Apps.
• When you join a telehealth appointment with your provider, our Apps will ask for permission to access your device's video and audio functionality to make the appointment possible. Our Apps do not record or store video or audio data from these visits.
• If you enable automatic appointment arrival, our Apps temporarily store identifiers and times for your upcoming appointments in app-private storage to detect your arrival at an appointment. If you stop using our Apps or disable automatic appointment arrival, the identifiers are deleted.
• If you enable location-based check-in for in-person appointments, or to find healthcare providers near you, you may choose to allow our Apps to temporarily interact with your device’s location data for those purposes. Our Apps do notstore or use your location data in any other way.
• If your healthcare organization allows you to notify front desk staff electronically when you arrive for an appointment, you may choose to allow our Apps to interact with your Bluetooth data for this purpose. Our Apps do notstore your Bluetooth data.
• While you use our Apps, if you choose to call a phone number displayed within the app, we will ask for permission to access your device’s phone to place a call to the phone number. Our Apps do not store your call history or data about the call. 
• Any temporary files created during the interactions described above are regularly deleted and are also deleted if you uninstall our Apps.
• Our Apps interact with your microphone only if you use your microphone to navigate our Apps.

You can access more specific Terms and Conditions for our Apps on our MyCookChildren’s website.

How we protect your personal and health information

The security of your information and data while using our Digital Tools is important to us. Our Digital Tools employ a variety of technical safeguards to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your personal and health information, including Transport Layer Security (TLS) / Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption and certificate technology and multi-factor authentication. Additionally, Cook Children’s maintains a variety of physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to protect information collected through its Digital Tools from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

Cook Children’s employs and will continue to employ industry standard methods to protect the confidentiality and security of its patient’s/member’s personal information and to meet applicable State and Federal regulations related to privacy and information security, including the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). For more information, please see Cook Children’s Notice of Privacy Practices.  While we employ reasonable and appropriate safeguards, no method of transmitting information over the Internet or storing information electronically can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Accordingly, Cook Children's cannot guarantee the absolute security of information transmitted to or through its Digital Tools.

Policy Updates

Cook Children's may update this Digital Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or operational needs. The date of the most recent revision will be identified at the bottom of this Policy. Material changes may be communicated through our Digital Tools or by other appropriate means. Continued use of our Digital Tools following the effective date of any changes constitutes acceptance of the revised Policy.

Contact Cook Children's

Cook Children's Health Care System
801 7th Ave.
Fort Worth, TX 76104
Website: cookchildrens.org
Privacy Officer Telephone: 682-885-7822
Email: privacyofficer@cookchildrens.org

Last Updated: July 20, 2026