Consumer health data policy

Why this policy matters on a health site

Even reading a page about testosterone or weight loss medicine can hint at someone's health. Many health sites send that signal to advertising and analytics companies through tracking pixels. We do not. This policy explains what we collect, what we never collect and how a future patient request form will work. Our general privacy policy covers the rest.

What we collect today

• Technical request data. Like any website, our hosting service receives standard request data, such as IP address, browser type and the page requested, so it can deliver pages and block abuse. We do not use it to build profiles or to learn which health topics a person reads.
• Clinic inquiry form. On sponsor a city and our contact page, practices can send their practice name, a contact name, a work email and phone, the city they want, and the services the practice offers. This is business contact information about the practice. It asks nothing about anyone's health. The form sends what you enter by email to our inbox, and the form handler does not log it.
• Emails you send us. If you write to [email protected], we receive what you include. Please do not send health details; we cannot give medical advice.

What we do not collect

• No questions about symptoms, conditions, medicines, test results or health history.
• No third-party analytics, advertising pixels, social media plugins or session recording.
• No advertising cookies, and no tracking of which pages a person reads.
• No precise location data.

Future patient request form

A form that lets a reader ask one local practice to contact them is built but switched off. Before it opens, this policy will be updated. When it does open, it will work this way:

• It will ask no health questions. It will ask only for contact details, a ZIP code and the general kind of care wanted, such as hormone therapy, so the request reaches the right practice. We treat that choice as consumer health data.
• It will have a consent box that is unchecked by default and names the practice that will receive the request.
• Each request will reach our inbox, and we will pass it only to the one practice named in the consent box. It will go to no one else.
• We will not sell request data or use it for advertising.

Sharing and selling

We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it for advertising. We share data only with the service providers that host the site and deliver our email, so they can provide those services, with the one practice a reader chooses once the patient request form opens, or when the law requires it.

Your choices and requests

You can ask us what personal data we hold about you, ask us to delete it, or withdraw consent you gave on a future patient request. Email [email protected] with the subject "Data request" and tell us which email address or form submission it concerns. We will confirm we received it and tell you what we hold and what we did.

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, we update the date at the top of the page. Questions go to our contact page. Who runs the site is on our about page, and the rules for using it are in our terms of use. How the site earns money is on how we make money, and our sourcing rules are on editorial standards.