Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Vasculearn Network (VLN, “we” or “us”) handles information on vln.org, including our educational guides, search, AI question tools, forms and connected community. Linked experiences and third-party services may provide their own notices. Please also read our Terms of Use.

Our website provides general education, not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please leave private medical details out of searches and AI questions.

Information you provide

• Accounts and community. We use the name, email address, profile information and interests you provide to create and manage your account, personalize your experience and connect you with relevant community spaces. Posts, comments and images you share are visible to the audience of the space where you share them. They are not confidential communications with a clinician.
• Contact and subscriptions. We use your contact information, audience selection and message to respond to you or deliver the updates you request. Patient and caregiver subscriptions receive patient-facing content; healthcare professionals receive professional content. You can unsubscribe using the link in an email.
• Patient stories. We collect the story, contact information and optional details you submit for review. A story may be published according to your submission permissions. Your email address is not published with the story. Do not include another person’s private information without permission.
• Events and resources. Registration and resource-request information is used to provide the requested service. A linked event, donation or learning provider may collect additional information under its own policy.

Search and AI questions

Search uses our content index. When AI assistance is needed, the submitted search or question and relevant source excerpts are sent to Anthropic to select useful resources or educational passages. Simple indexed searches may not require an AI call. Automated answers can be incomplete or wrong; check the linked sources and ask your care team about personal decisions.

We attempt to remove common identifiers such as email addresses and phone numbers before an AI provider request. This does not reliably remove all personal details, so please do not enter them. The tools are not an emergency service or a medical record.

We may keep limited operational records, such as the topic, response outcome and source references, to maintain the question service. Sharing your original submitted wording for internal analysis is a separate optional choice described below. Website hosting and AI providers also process requests to deliver and secure their services under their own applicable terms and retention practices.

Basic traffic statistics

VLN maintains its own basic traffic counts for public pages, referral categories, device/browser categories and approximate country, region and city. These counts are collected independently of optional engagement permission. They are stored as separate daily statistical totals, without visit, browser or account identifiers, IP addresses, full referrers, search wording or individual browsing histories. We do not join these baseline counts to community accounts or engagement journeys. They have no automatic expiry.

Approximate location comes from Vercel’s hosting network, not GPS or a browser location permission. Baseline counts do not connect this reporting to your community identity or create an individual browsing history.

We also use Google Analytics 4 for traffic reporting. Before optional measurement is allowed, Google receives limited traffic signals without analytics cookies. When measurement is allowed, Google can measure public page visits with analytics cookies; persistent browser recognition is limited to 30 days when that additional choice is allowed, otherwise cookies last for the browser session. We disable advertising personalization and Google signals. We do not send submitted search or AI question wording, community identities or form contents to Google. Browser privacy signals stop this Google integration.

Optional engagement measurement and your choices

Deeper engagement measurement stays off until you make an affirmative choice. “Allow all” includes engagement measurement, return-visit recognition and review of exact submitted search and AI question text, including any health details you enter. You can instead open “Preferences” and save a narrower selection. Declining does not prevent you from using the site. You can reopen “Measurement preferences” to change your choice. Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals keep this optional measurement off.

If you allow measurement, we collect controlled observations such as page and section views, clicks, scroll progress, focused active time, media progress, request outcomes and loading failures. We also collect coarse device and browser categories, approved referral-source categories and approximate country or region. These observations help us improve education and identify technical problems; they do not establish what someone learned or their medical condition.

Behavioral records use random visit identifiers and stay separate from account identities. They do not contain your name, email, member ID, community messages, form values, lab values, full IP address, precise location or raw search and AI wording. Broad search topics may be classified on your device. Reporting agents and sponsors receive grouped behavioral results, subject to minimum-group limits, rather than individual browsing histories.

• Optional return-visit recognition. “Allow all” or an affirmative selection in Preferences permits a random first-party browser identifier for up to 30 days. It is not connected to your account and does not recognize you across devices or other companies’ sites.
• Optional submitted wording. “Allow all” or an affirmative selection in Preferences permits VLN’s internal AI reporting service to review the exact wording of submitted searches and AI questions, including any health details, to understand information needs for up to seven days. This text is stored separately from visit and browser identifiers, account data and browsing history. It may still contain personal information you type, so it should not be treated as anonymous. We do not collect abandoned typing or keystrokes through this feature.

Withdrawal stops future optional collection and clears queued observations where possible. It does not automatically delete records already received, which remain subject to retention. Clearing browser storage also removes your saved choice. The site does not use this measurement system for advertising profiles, session replay or cross-site tracking.

Cookies, browser storage and service logs

Essential cookies and browser storage support sign-in, account restoration, preferences and security. Optional measurement choices are remembered for up to 180 days. After permission, a tab-scoped visit record connects page loads until 30 minutes of measured inactivity; optional browser recognition has the separate 30-day limit above. Blocking essential storage may prevent sign-in or other features from working.

Hosting, security and other service providers necessarily receive network information, including IP addresses and request metadata. Keeping account identities out of our behavioral dataset does not make every request or service log anonymous. Embedded videos and other external services may also receive information when their content loads or you interact with it, under their own policies.

How we use and share information

We use information to provide requested services, operate and personalize the community, deliver communications, improve educational content, report on program engagement, prevent abuse and meet legal obligations. We do not sell your personal information.

Service providers include Vercel for website hosting and approximate network location, Google for GA4 traffic reporting, Supabase for database and file storage, Circle for community services, HubSpot for contact management and forms, Resend for email delivery, Anthropic for search and question assistance, and xAI (Grok) when VLN’s independently operated reporting agent processes separately consented submitted wording. Linked media, donation and event services may have separate policies. We may disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, enforce our terms or protect people and systems.

Some programs have sponsor support. Behavioral reports shared with sponsors are grouped and do not provide account identities, private community content or the separate submitted-wording corpus.

Retention

The optional measurement system retains raw behavioral records for up to 30 days, grouped behavioral report snapshots for up to 180 days and separately shared submitted wording for up to seven days. At collection, that wording also contributes to monthly counts in fixed topic and intent categories. These count-only records contain no question text, account, browser or visit identifiers, and have no automatic expiration. We maintain them as deidentified statistical records, do not attempt to reidentify them, and require recipients to maintain that separation. These periods apply to that measurement system, rather than to all operational records or provider backups.

Account information, community contributions, subscriptions, story submissions and service records are retained as needed to provide the relevant service, manage permissions, maintain security and meet legal obligations. Previously collected records and service-provider logs may follow different retention schedules. Contact us with questions about information associated with you.

Your choices and privacy requests

You can decline or withdraw optional measurement, leave the additional choices unchecked, unsubscribe from emails and manage supported community preferences. You can request access, correction or deletion of information associated with you at info@thrombosis.org. We may need to verify a request and may retain information where required or permitted by law. Because behavioral records are not linked to accounts, an account email alone may not identify those records.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional privacy rights. You may contact us to exercise applicable rights, including through an authorized representative where permitted. We do not discriminate against you for exercising them.

Children and security

The services are intended for adults and are not directed to children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information, contact us so we can investigate and address it. We use administrative and technical safeguards, but cannot guarantee absolute security.

Updates and contact

We may update this policy as our services change and will revise the date above. Questions about this policy or your information can be sent to info@thrombosis.org.