Privacy policy
We collect nothing about you directly. Google Analytics collects data only if you allow it, and this page sets out exactly what it collects and how to refuse.
What we collect directly
Nothing. There is no sign-up, no account, and no form on this site. We do not ask for or store names, addresses or phone numbers.
If you email us, we keep what you send for as long as it takes to deal with it. If you ask us to remove a page, we keep a short record that the request was made and acted on, because we need to be able to show we honoured it.
What third parties collect
One service runs on this site, and it only runs if you let it.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics to see how many people read each case and where they arrive from. It sets cookies and records a shortened version of your IP address. This tells us that a page was read. It does not tell us who read it.
It does not load at all unless you choose Allow on the notice that appears when you first visit. Choose Decline and no analytics cookies are set, and the site behaves identically.
Advertising
This site currently carries no advertising network, so no advertising cookies are set and no advertising partners receive anything about your visit. If that changes we will name the network here before it goes live.
Affiliate links
A small number of articles contain Amazon affiliate links, marked as such on the page where they appear. If you follow one, Amazon knows you arrived from here and we may earn a commission on a purchase. We do not receive your name, your order, or anything else about you. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Your consent, and changing it
The notice appears on your first visit and your choice is stored in your browser, not on our server. Nothing else about you is stored alongside it.
To change your mind, clear this site's data in your browser settings and the notice will appear again. Declining restricts nothing: every page remains fully readable.
What we do not do
We do not sell data. We do not build profiles of individual readers. We do not use anything you read here to infer health conditions about you, and we do not pass anything to health insurers, employers or data brokers.
This matters more here than on most sites. People arrive at these pages worried about a symptom, a medicine, or a child. What you read is not treated as information about you.
Your rights
Under UK and EU data protection law you can ask what data is held about you, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, object to processing, and withdraw consent. For data held by Google Analytics, the fastest routes are the browser opt-out add-on Google publishes, and declining on the notice here so that it never loads.
For anything we hold directly, write to us and we will answer.
Children
This site is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. Some cases describe children as patients; that is a matter of what is written about, not who the site is for.
Log data
Our host, Vercel, keeps standard server logs including IP addresses, for security and to keep the site running. These are not used for advertising.
Changes
If this policy changes, the updated version is published on this page.