Privacy
You do not give PlainMeds anything to use it: no account, no sign-up, no form. A medicine name you type in search or the interaction checker only opens the matching pages; it reaches no analytics or ad tool and stays only in the web server's seven-day request log. Below is every tool that runs while you read and what it keeps.
Updated
Who is responsible?
Kiznis Studio, the independent studio in Lithuania that publishes PlainMeds, is responsible for the personal data described here. Write to hello@plainmeds.com with any question about it.
What happens before you choose?
In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the ad network's consent message (IAB TCF v2.2) asks for your choice on the first visit. Until you answer, only what security needs is stored on your device, Google Analytics does not load, and no ad is personalised; if the message fails to load, a browser whose time zone is in Europe does not load Google Analytics at all. Your answer is passed to each tool, and the message's settings link lets you change it later.
Outside those countries, Google Analytics loads once the page has loaded, and ads are never personalised: no ad data is sent to Google for personalisation and Google Analytics sends it no advertising signals. A browser's Global Privacy Control signal is honoured everywhere.
Which tools run, and what do they keep?
- Google AdSense
- Shows the ads and the consent message; Google and its certified ad partners may bid for each ad space. Depending on your choice it uses cookies or similar identifiers and receives your IP address, browser and device details and the pages you open, as Google's privacy policy describes. Ads are not personalised unless you consent. Basis under the GDPR: consent where it is asked for (the EEA, the UK and Switzerland); elsewhere legitimate interest in funding the site with non-personalised ads.
- Google Analytics 4
- Counts visits and how the pages are used. Its cookie (_ga) keeps a pseudonymous device identifier for up to two years; it receives the pages you view and a rough location worked out from your IP address, which Google does not keep. Event data is kept for 14 months, the setting PlainMeds chose; Google signals and advertising features are off. Basis: consent in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland; elsewhere legitimate interest in knowing which pages are used.
- Umami (on the studio's own server)
- Counts page views, referring sites and device types without cookies or any identifier; the IP address serves only to count the visit and is not stored. Basis: legitimate interest in knowing which pages are useful.
- Cloudflare
- Serves the pages and filters attacks; it may set a 30-minute security cookie (__cf_bm) to tell people from bots and keeps request logs under its own privacy policy. Basis: legitimate interest in security.
- The web server
- Logs each request (IP address, time, address, browser) and deletes the log after seven days. Basis: legitimate interest in security and fault-finding.
- Sentry
- Receives a report when a page fails on the server: the address, the browser and the time, kept up to 90 days. Nothing of it runs in your browser. Basis: legitimate interest in a working site.
- Your own browser
- Remembers whether you chose the light or dark theme, in local storage that is never sent anywhere.
Google, its ad partners, Cloudflare and Sentry may handle data in the United States or elsewhere under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.
Your choices
If no message opened, none applies where you are or your browser blocked it. Google's ad tags on PlainMeds show visitors in the United States no personalised ads.
Use that button, or the consent message's settings link, to change your choice at any time. To turn off personalised ads and the sale or sharing of your data for advertising, use Google's ad settings or optout.aboutads.info. A Global Privacy Control signal from your browser is treated as an opt-out of sale and sharing for the Google tags on PlainMeds wherever you are. Your browser can also block or clear cookies.
Your rights
Under the GDPR, the UK GDPR or Swiss law you may ask to see, correct, delete or take a copy of data about you, limit its use, object to use based on legitimate interest, and withdraw consent at any time; U.S. state laws give similar rights, including opting out of sale or sharing. Write to hello@plainmeds.com and you will have an answer within a month. PlainMeds itself keeps only the web server's request log (IP address and browser, deleted after seven days); most requests concern the tools above, and we answer for the log ourselves and forward the rest or say where to send them. You may also complain to your data protection authority.
Does PlainMeds learn about your health?
It does not ask for health information and keeps none beyond the seven-day request log described above. Which medicine pages you open is seen by the analytics and ad tools above as page addresses, like any other page view. Both analytics tools record the address without its query part, and the search and interaction checker pages load no ads, so the names you type there reach neither analytics nor any ad network; they stay in your browser's history and in the web server's request log, which keeps addresses with the IP address for seven days. The medicine data on the pages is about products, companies and aggregate FDA report counts, never about a person.
Children
PlainMeds is a reference for adults and does not knowingly collect data from children.