Reader accounts and membership

A reader account stores the email address and profile information you submit, password data in hashed form, and membership state. Payment-card data is handled by Stripe and is not stored by this site.

Privacy-minimized first-party analytics

The journal keeps coarse daily counts by page, broad device class, audience type, and a small external-referrer category. Its analytics table does not store IP addresses, account identities, full referrer URLs, or search terms. Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals disable this first-party count for that request.

If Google Analytics is enabled, the Google tag may set cookies and process network or device information under Google's terms. The journal omits URL query strings from the page location it sends.

Operational records

The hosting platform and security logs may temporarily process connection data to operate and protect the service. Editorial actions are retained in an audit trail because medical publishing decisions must remain attributable.