BCBSM Mobile Privacy Policy

Privacy practices

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan ("we") understand the importance of keeping your information private. We follow strict privacy policies in accordance with state and federal law. If you have questions or would like additional information regarding our privacy practices, please call 313-225-9000.

By downloading, installing, and using this mobile application (the "App") you explicitly agree to this Privacy Policy and the BCBSM Mobile Application Terms and Conditions (the "Terms").

HIPAA

We updated our Notice of Privacy Practices (PDF) on Sept. 23, 2013 to comply with updated regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The changes apply to all Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Blue Care Network and Blue Cross Complete of Michigan members, except for members who get a separate Notice of Privacy Practices from their employer.

Our revised Notice of Privacy Practices tells you that:

  • We won't use your protected health information for marketing communications except where the law permits.
  • You have the right to be notified if there's a security breach that involves your protected health information.
  • We won't use or disclose genetic information for underwriting purposes.
  • In certain circumstances, you have the right to make a written request for an electronic copy of information that we keep in a designated record.
  • We won't use or disclose your protected health information in any way other than those described in our Notice of Privacy Practices unless we have a signed authorization.

To get more information about your rights under HIPAA, visit our HIPAA compliance page. To get copies of individual rights forms, please visit our Protected Health Information and Privacy Forms page.

Information we collect

We collect information in two ways:

Information you give us. For example, when you provide us personal information (like your name, email address, or telephone number) to set up, log into, or use your BCBSM account. You provide most such information when you search, buy, post, participate in a contest or questionnaire, or communicate with customer service. For example, you provide information when you search for a product, provider, or service; communicate with us by phone, e-mail, or otherwise; complete a questionnaire or a contest entry form; participate in discussion boards, wellness programs or other community features; provide As a result of those actions, you might supply us with such information as your name, address, and phone numbers; credit card information; and financial information, including Social Security numbers.

Information we get from your use of our services. We may collect information about the services that you use and how you use them. This information includes:

  • Device information: We may collect device-specific information (such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information including phone number). We may associate your device identifiers or phone number with your account.
  • Log information: Details of how you used our service, such as your search queries.
  • Telephony log information like your phone number, calling-party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information and types of calls.
  • Internet protocol address.
  • Device event information such as crashes, system activity, hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and referral URL.
  • Cookies that may uniquely identify your browser or your Google Account.
  • Location information
  • Local storage
  • Cookies and anonymous identifiers

When you use our services or view content provided by us, we may automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This may include:

  • We may collect and process information about your actual location, like GPS signals sent by a mobile device. We may also use various technologies to determine location, such as sensor data from your device that may, for example, provide information on nearby Wi-Fi access points and cell towers.
  • We may collect and store information (including personal information) locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web storage (including HTML 5) and application data caches.
  • We use various technologies to collect and store information when you visit our site, and this may include sending one or more cookies or anonymous identifiers to your device. We also use cookies and anonymous identifiers when you interact with services we offer to our partners.

How we use information we collect

We use the information we collect from all of our services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones, and to protect ourselves and our users. We also use this information to offer you tailored content, and to provide better healthcare services. This may include, but is not limited to, providing certain information to our groups, our vendors, and/or third parties.

When you contact us, either electronically, or telephonically, we may keep a record of your communication to help solve any issues you might be facing. We may use your account to inform you about our services, such as letting you know about upcoming changes or improvements.

We use information collected from cookies and other technologies, like pixel tags, to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our services.

We reserve the right to use your information for any other legitimate business purpose, or for the improvement of providing you healthcare services, not described in this policy with or without notice to you.

Your responsibilities

By the nature of mobile access to our services you assume the full risk and responsibility to ensure the methods and locations in which you use the App are secure. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring your mobile device is locked so others cannot access your information (including your log in information), you log out of the App when it is not in use, you access the internet through secure Wi-Fi access points (i.e. not open Wi-Fi networks), and when using the App others are not in close proximity to you and cannot observe the information you input or the content displayed through the App.

Email

We do not offer encrypted email. As a result, when you send email inquiries to us, the return email address may be used to respond to the email inquiry. We do not use the return email address for any other purpose, nor will we share it with any third parties.

For private inquiries including those containing Protected Health Information, contact Customer Service.

Voluntary customer surveys

We periodically conduct two types of surveys on our corporate website or through the App. General surveys are randomly generated for all users. Specific surveys are offered to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan members only within the secure member area.

We encourage you to participate in these surveys because they provide us with important information to improve the services we offer. Your personal information and responses remain strictly confidential. Participation in our surveys is voluntary. All responses to our surveys are aggregated to create summarized results (such as gender, age or other demographic information). We then use the summarized results to improve the quality of our services to you.

About banner ads

All banner ads link you to areas of interest within our website or App only. We do not show banner ads for external websites or applications.

Links from the app

We have links from the App to a number of different health care-related sites. We provide these links as a courtesy to help you find information. We are not responsible for the performance or content of sites linked from the App since they are beyond our control. We recommend you read the privacy statements on the sites you visit to understand their individual privacy practices.

We may link you to sites operated by our vendors that look like our website. It is your responsibility to read, understand, and consent to their privacy policies and terms of use.

While we may inform you when you are leaving the App and going to either a third party website or a website operated by one of our vendors, we are not required to do so. It is your responsibility to be aware of when you are leaving our website and to comply with any other website's privacy policy or terms of use.

Protecting children

In compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we do not knowingly solicit data from children under 18 years of age and we do not knowingly market to children under 18 years of age.

We recognize that protecting children's identities and privacy online is important and that the responsibility to do so rests with both the online industry and with parents.

Where to direct questions about our online privacy practices

If you have any questions about our online privacy practices, call 313-225-9000.

Revisions to online privacy practices

We reserve the right to revise, amend or modify our online privacy practices at any time and in any manner.