Guidelines for Quality Criteria for Health Related Websites

Definitions and Guidance Notes

Definitions of key terms in the draft Guidelines for Quality Criteria for Health Related Websites are listed below.  

Accessibility

every effort should be made to make the content of a website accessible to people with disabilities, including sensory impairments and learning difficulties. Guidelines for making websites and their content accessible to all users have been developed by the “Web Accessibility Initiative”, a working group of the World Wide Web Consortium.

Accountability

a system by which a named person or persons have a duty to respond to the questions and issues raised by users in a reasonable time. In a small organisation this may be one person who simultaneously performs many other tasks. Easy to use tools for providing feedback to a site should be used where ever appropriate.

Commercial Purposes

The term is defined as in Directive 2000/31/EC on Electronic Commerce, Article 2, to include any form of communication designed to promote, directly or indirectly, the goods, services or image of a company, organisation or person pursuing a commercial, industrial or craft activity or exercising a regulated profession.
The Directive states that the following do not in themselves constitute commercial communications:

• information allowing direct access to the activity of the company, organisation or person, in particular a domain name or an electronic-mail address;

• communications relating to the goods, services or image of the company, organisation or person compiled in an independent manner, particularly when this is without financial consideration.

Credentials

where information is provided by a person or organisation on the basis of profession, such as physician, nurse, midwife or other health professional the qualification and where and when obtained should be made clearly visible on the site. Where possible links to the organisation issuing the qualification should be provided.

Funding

any financial, material or in kind support provided by organisations or individuals towards the development or maintenance of the website.

Opting-in

no personal data should be collected unless the site user has given his or her informed consent through actively giving consent to such collection through an opt-in procedure, as opposed to withholding such consent by selecting an opt-out clause.

Personal data

is defined within in the terms of Directive 95/46/EC on Data Protection to mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person; an identifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identification number or to one or more factors specific to his physical, physiological, mental, economic, cultural or social identity.

Privacy, security and confidentiality policies and tools

state of the art tools exist for ensuring that privacy, security and confidentiality should ensure the availability, authenticity, and integrity of data. Security is defined in the terms of Directive 95/46/EC on Data Protection, Article 17:

Security of processing:

1. Member States shall provide that the controller must implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access, in particular where the processing involves the transmission of data over a network, and against all other unlawful forms of processing.

Having regard to the state of the art and the cost of their implementation, such measures shall ensure a level of security appropriate to the risks represented by the processing and the nature of the data to be protected.

Any such tools being used by a website should be clearly described on the website, as required by Recommendation 2/2001 on Certain minimum requirements for collecting personal data on-line in the European Union of the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party.

Provider

any natural or legal person who owns or operates the website. The information to be provided should comply with the requirements of general information on a service provider as set out in Directive 2000/31/EC on Electronic Commerce, Article 5:

General information to be provided:

 

1. In addition to other information requirements established by Community law, Member States shall ensure that the service provider shall render easily, directly and permanently accessible to the recipients of the service and competent authorities, at least the following information:

(a) the name of the service provider;

(b) the geographic address at which the service provider is established;

(c) the details of the service provider, including his electronic mail address, which allow him to be contacted rapidly and communicated with in a direct and effective manner;

(d) where the service provider is registered in a trade or similar public register, the trade register in which the service provider is entered and his registration number, or equivalent means of identification in that register;

(e) where the activity is subject to an authorisation scheme, the particulars of the relevant supervisory authority;

(f) as concerns the regulated professions:

- any professional body or similar institution with which the service provider is registered,

- the professional title and the Member State where it has been granted,

- a reference to the applicable professional rules in the Member State of establishment and the means to access them;

(g) where the service provider undertakes an activity that is subject to VAT, the identification number referred to in Article 22(1) of the sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes - Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment(29).

2. In addition to other information requirements established by Community law, Member States shall at least ensure that, where information society services refer to prices, these are to be indicated clearly and unambiguously and, in particular, must indicate whether they are inclusive of tax and delivery costs.

 

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This page was last updated on 27/01/2010.