Website Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 15, 2026

St. Michael’s Eye & Laser Institute (“St. Michael’s,” “we,” “us”) respects your privacy. This Website Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you visit stmichaelseye.com (the “Site”), how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have.

This Policy vs. Our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices

This policy covers your use of our public website only. Health information we create or receive while providing you care, including information you share during appointments, through our patient portal, or on intake forms, is protected health information governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and is handled as described in our Notice of Privacy Practices, which you may request from our office at any time. If this policy and our Notice of Privacy Practices ever conflict regarding protected health information, the Notice of Privacy Practices controls.

Information We Collect

Information you give us. When you request an appointment, complete a contact or referral form, take a vision self-assessment, use our chat feature, or otherwise communicate with us, you may provide your name, phone number, email address, date of birth, insurance information, and details about your eyes or the services you are interested in.

Information collected automatically. When you browse the Site, we and our service providers may automatically collect technical information such as your IP address, browser and device type, operating system, the pages you view, the date and time of your visit, the website that referred you, and general location derived from your IP address.

How We Use Information

To schedule appointments, respond to your requests, and communicate with you
To operate, secure, maintain, and improve the Site
To understand how visitors use the Site and which pages and services are most useful
To measure the effectiveness of our advertising and show relevant information about our services
To detect and prevent spam, fraud, and security incidents
To comply with legal obligations

Cookies, Pixels, and Similar Technologies

The Site uses cookies, pixels, tags, and similar technologies. Some are strictly necessary for the Site to function. Others are provided by third parties for analytics and advertising, including Google (Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and reCAPTCHA), OpenAI (advertising measurement), and our reputation, review, and chat service providers. These technologies may collect the automatically collected information described above and may allow these third parties to recognize your browser across websites.

Limits we place on advertising technologies. We configure our advertising pixels so that they do not load on pages where you enter personal or health information, including our online booking, contact, referral, patient portal, payment, and vision self-assessment pages and their confirmation pages. We do not use advertising technologies to collect, and we do not intentionally disclose to advertising partners, protected health information.

Your choices. You can opt out of marketing and statistics cookies at any time on our Opt-out Preferences page or through the cookie consent banner. Once you opt out, our advertising pixels will not load in that browser. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings; doing so may affect how parts of the Site work.

How We Share Information

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only as follows:

Service providers that host the Site, process forms, provide scheduling, chat, reviews, analytics, and advertising measurement on our behalf, subject to contractual limits on their use of the information. Where a provider handles protected health information for us, we require a HIPAA business associate agreement.
Legal and safety reasons, when required by law, subpoena, or court order, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our patients, staff, or others.
Business transfers, in connection with a merger, sale, or transfer of all or part of our practice, subject to applicable law.

Text Messages (SMS)

If you opt in to receive text messages from St. Michael’s, we use your mobile number to send the messages you agreed to receive, such as updates about your request, appointment scheduling, reminders, and visit follow-up, plus occasional offers if you separately opt in to promotional texts.

No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. The information-sharing categories above exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out at any time or HELP for help. Consent to receive text messages is not a condition of receiving care. See our SMS Terms & Conditions for details.

Third-Party Sites and Services

The Site links to services operated by others, such as our patient portal, online bill payment, financing, and social media pages. Those services are governed by their own privacy policies, and we encourage you to review them.

Please Don’t Send Sensitive Medical Details Through the Site

Website forms and chat are intended for scheduling and general questions. Please do not include detailed medical history, Social Security numbers, or financial account information. For clinical questions, call our office at (727) 202-2020. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911.

Data Security and Retention

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect information collected through the Site. No website or internet transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. We keep information only as long as needed for the purposes described in this policy or as required by law.

Children’s Privacy

Our practice treats patients 18 and older. The Site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The updated version will be posted on this page with a new effective date. Your continued use of the Site after changes are posted means you accept the updated policy.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this policy or wish to exercise your privacy choices, contact us:
St. Michael’s Eye & Laser Institute
Attn: Privacy Officer
1030 W Bay Dr, Suite 200
Largo, FL 33770
Phone: (727) 202-2020

St. Michael’s Eye & Laser Institute uses a cloud-based integration that, when enabled, helps manage incoming comments, messages and reviews on its authorized Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok accounts, and supported review platforms separately connected by the practice. This notice applies only where an account or platform is actually connected to this service; naming a platform does not mean its connection is active. The service may receive content and identifiers supplied by those platforms, including account, comment, conversation and message identifiers, timestamps and delivery information. We use this information to identify our own accounts, prepare limited general replies, prevent duplicates and identify items requiring staff review.

Automated replies are limited to general engagement, verified contact information and basic appointment inquiries. Sensitive interactions and questions the service cannot confidently answer are referred to staff.

This service is not intended for medical advice, diagnosis, emergency care, appointment confirmation or exchanging medical records. Please do not send medical records, dates of birth, insurance identifiers or other sensitive information through social comments or messages. For assistance from our team, call (727) 202-2020.

We use cloud service providers to operate the integration. Credentials are encrypted. Under the initial configuration, private message content is not submitted to a general AI service, and the reply queue does not retain incoming message or comment bodies. Authorized staff may review an interaction in its native social platform. Public comments remain visible according to the platform’s settings.

Interaction records collected by our automated reply service are automatically deleted from its active database after 30 days of collection. Cleanup runs every five minutes. This includes completed and unresolved interaction records and associated identifiers and delivery metadata. Unresolved cases are flagged for staff before the deadline, and sending pauses for staff reconciliation if any remain unresolved when they expire. This cleanup removes records from the service’s active database. It does not remove content from the original social or review platform or the practice’s medical-record systems. Cloud-provider backup copies may persist under the provider’s backup retention practices.

To request earlier deletion of information held by this service, email info@stmichaelseye.com with the relevant platform and account identifier. Do not include medical records, dates of birth, insurance identifiers or other sensitive information. We may verify that the request relates to your account before removing information. Removing records from this service does not remove content separately held by a social or review platform, or medical records held by the practice. Account administrators can also revoke this service’s background authorization through the relevant platform’s account settings.

YouTube Information

This integration uses YouTube API Services where a YouTube connection is authorized. Google’s Privacy Policy is available at https://policies.google.com/privacy and YouTube’s Terms of Service at https://www.youtube.com/t/terms. Account administrators can revoke Google authorization at https://security.google.com/settings/security/permissions. Privacy questions can be emailed to info@stmichaelseye.com.