Understanding Amazon Clinic’s approach to privacy

Last November, we introduced Amazon Clinic, a virtual health care marketplace that lets customers shop for health care by comparing offers from multiple third-party health care providers. Customers can get care for more than 30 common health concerns like urinary tract infections, pink eye, and erectile dysfunction. We recognize the U.S. health care system is full of friction points and frustration, and Amazon Clinic is one way we hope to improve this experience for customers.

Amazon Clinic helps people find and access care on their terms and schedule. In many ways, Amazon Clinic gets to the heart of our health care mission: to make it dramatically easier for people to access the products and services they need to get and stay healthy.

Since its launch, customers have shared how much they value the convenience and affordability of Amazon Clinic. This early feedback tells us we’re on the right track, but we know our work is far from finished. We're constantly listening to learn how we can better meet the needs and expectations of customers. As we continue to think about how we can improve Amazon Clinic, a primary consideration at every step is how we're protecting customers' privacy. Across Amazon, protecting customer data has always been incredibly important. That’s been true for decades and remains foundational to how we design our services and how we serve customers, especially as we venture into new areas, such as health care.

We want customers to feel confident when they choose Amazon Clinic, knowing we’ve built this service with their safety and security in mind. Amazon Clinic meets stringent data privacy policies, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and all other applicable laws and regulations.

We're focused on building products and services our customers love, and we look forward to bringing Amazon Clinic to even more customers. To all of our current and future customers, here’s what we want you to know about Amazon Clinic’s approach to data privacy:

Amazon may be new to health care, but our commitment to customer privacy is not new. We’re committed to protecting our customers’ privacy like we would our own—not only because it’s required by law, but because it’s the right thing to do. Amazon Clinic sends personal health information to health care providers and pharmacies when they’re treating customers, and we ask for our customers’ permission to save it so customers won't have to fill out the same forms over and over again—even if their health care provider were to leave Amazon Clinic. Learn more about Amazon's Clinic's terms of use and notice of privacy practices.

Amazon doesn’t sell customers’ personal information. Amazon Clinic also doesn’t use a customer’s personal health information to market or advertise other products in the Amazon.com store.

One of the complaints we hear a lot about traditional health care is how many times customers are asked to fill out forms over and over again. To solve this problem, Amazon Clinic asks customers for permission (through the HIPAA authorization) to allow us to save their information and patient records if their health care provider leaves Amazon Clinic. This supports continuity of care and makes it easier for customers to work with different provider groups, because they won’t have to fill out the same form multiple times or lose access to their visit history. Customers have the option to accept or decline the HIPAA authorization before getting treatment—customers who decline can still receive care from Amazon Clinic. With Amazon Clinic, we want to make each visit with third-party providers as seamless as possible for customers, and the HIPAA authorization helps us do that.

To do so, customers can email their request to clinic.privacy@amazon.clinic. Make sure to include your name, date of birth, address, and phone number.

Entrusting any organization with your health care is a deeply personal decision. We know that making health care services available to customers comes with enormous responsibility, one we don’t take lightly. We’re striving to earn customer trust at every turn as we build the health care products and services that we hope will make healthy living a little easier. We'll continue to listen to our customers and raise the bar on making it as easy as possible to access health care products and services that meet the high expectations that we know Amazon customers have come to expect from us.