Privacy policy
We collect as little as we can get away with. You can read every page on this site, compare every provider and check every price without giving us anything at all. This policy explains what happens when you do choose to send us something - a review, a message, a savings request or an email address.
We are not a healthcare provider, so the information you give us is not protected health information under HIPAA. That cuts both ways: it means you should be careful about what you tell us. Please do not send us diagnoses, medical records or anything about your health that you would not be comfortable seeing handled as ordinary customer data.
Who we are
RatedByPatients operates ratedbypatients.com, an independent comparison and review site for United States telehealth services. For questions about this policy or your data, use the contact form.
What we collect, and why
| When you… | We collect | Why | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Just read the site | Nothing that identifies you. Standard server logs (IP address, browser, page requested) and aggregate analytics. | Security, abuse prevention, and knowing which pages are useful | Logs, a short rolling period; analytics, in aggregate |
| Write a review | Display name, email address, rating, review text, and the provider it concerns | To publish the review and to contact you if it is disputed. Your email is never published | While the review is published |
| Use the contact form | Name, email address, topic and message | To answer you | As long as needed to resolve it, then archived |
| Run a price check | The medication, current provider and price you enter, and an email address if you ask for the report | To calculate and send your result | The inputs are retained in de-identified aggregate for pricing research |
| Subscribe to updates | Email address | To send the newsletter you asked for | Until you unsubscribe |
| Create an account or sign in | Your email address, and a one-time sign-in link | To let you follow prices and manage your reviews | Until you ask us to delete the account |
We do not ask for, and do not want, your date of birth, address, insurance member number, prescription history or any clinical record. If you send us this information anyway we will delete it.
What we never do
- We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
- We do not pass your email address, name or contact details to the telehealth companies listed on this site. Clicking through to a provider does not send them your details - anything they collect after that is covered by their own policy, not ours.
- We do not publish your email address, and we do not display anything from a savings check on a public page.
- We do not use your submissions to build advertising profiles.
Cookies and analytics
We use cookies that are necessary to make the site work - keeping you logged in, remembering that you dismissed a notice, and protecting forms against abuse. We use analytics to understand traffic in aggregate: which pages are read, which comparisons are used, roughly where visitors come from. Analytics are configured to report on patterns rather than to identify individuals, and you can block cookies in your browser without losing access to any content on this site.
Outbound links to providers may carry a referral parameter so a partner can attribute a signup to us - see the affiliate disclosure. That parameter identifies this website, not you.
Who processes data for us
We use a small number of service providers to run the site: web hosting, email delivery, analytics. They may process your information only on our instructions and only to provide their service. We do not take payment from readers at all, so we never receive or store card details.
We may disclose information if we are legally required to, or where it is necessary to investigate fraud, abuse or a threat to someone’s safety.
Your rights
Wherever you live, we will honour these on request:
- Access - ask what we hold about you.
- Correction - have inaccurate information fixed.
- Deletion - have your information deleted, including removing a review you wrote.
- Opt out - unsubscribe from email at any time, from the link in any message we send.
- No retaliation - exercising any of these rights never affects your access to the site.
California residents have these rights under the CCPA as amended by the CPRA, including the right to know, delete, correct, and to opt out of sale or sharing - we do not sell or share personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of. Residents of other states with comparable laws have equivalent rights. To exercise any of them, use the contact form; we will verify the request against the email address on the record and respond within the period the applicable law allows.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS, access to the systems holding submissions is restricted and credentialed, and we keep the amount of personal information we hold deliberately small - the most effective protection there is. No system is perfectly secure, and we will not claim otherwise. If a breach affects your information we will tell you and the relevant authorities as required by law.
Children
This site is intended for adults. It is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has sent us information, contact us and we will delete it.
International visitors
The site is operated in the United States and covers United States telehealth services. If you access it from elsewhere, your information will be processed in the United States, where data protection law may differ from your own.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of the page, and we will say what changed rather than quietly rewriting it. Material changes will be flagged on the site.